ridecamp@endurance.net: [endurance] Cancer is Conquered!

[endurance] Cancer is Conquered!

LSJWeston@aol.com
Tue, 14 May 1996 17:28:04 -0400

I've been meaning to tell my story here for a long time and finally have the
peace of mind to do it. It's a story that involves you folks here on the
internet and how my horse was cured of cancer.

After completing one year of competitive trail riding in California and
finishing my first endurance ride in Oakland, Tuffy, I and my family moved to
Connecticut in December of 1994. Due to the move and the harshnes of the
winters here, I didn't start riding Tuffy until February of 95. There was a
lot to get used to. Instead of Mt. Diablo and 3000' climbs with open grass
hills and scrub oak, we were now winding our way through dense woods with
water everywhere and bogs every so often. But just the snow itself was new
and exciting. We learned about titanium shoes and borium, timothy hays and
12 percent feed. We also learned that there were very few places to ride and
even then I needed my trailer to get me to those!

But things were not right on the trail. Tuffy would urinate at least once if
not twice during what I consider short rides of about 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours.
I made a mental note of it and also his weight loss. He was looking more
gaunt by the week. During our rides, he would be energetic one day and
exhausted the next. At the time we were out maybe three times a week. The
other thing was his soreness in the back. When I would brush him, even with
a soft brush, he'd sink to avoid contact but he was not adverse to the
saddle. The vet had just been out for the spring shots and told me to
increase his grain consumption by 50% over two weeks and see how he
responded.

My next thought was to take him to acupuncturist/chiropractor Dr. Maybank (2
1/2 hour trailer ride), to see if we could help with his erratic way of going
and the soreness. She treated him along the backbone and we noticed how he
groaned when the needles were placed over the left kidney but this didn't
make sense until later. She advised that I see a vet in my immediate area
right away because Tuffy did not respond to the treatment as well as he
should have. I trailered him first thing monday morning to Brewster New
York, where Dr. Bradley examined the entire digestive path starting with the
teeth and ending with a rectal exam. Blood work was done and gastro-intesinal
juices were sampled, but it was the rectal exam that turned up a bump on the
left kidney. An ultrasound confirmed a tumor. The other tests were all within
normal range. Tuffy stayed at the clinic so that his partner Dr. Killgallon
could confirm the prognosis.

I was told that Tuffy had cancer but that we didn't know which of the three
types of cancer it could possibly be. To confirm that a biopsy could be done,
but that she would not attempt a biopsy through the vertabrae, it was too
risky. He would have to be put out, the 17th rib cracked and the biopsy
performed. Once the tumor could be confirmed he would go through the same
process to have the kidney removed, after which I would not have an endurance
horse but an expnsive lawn ornament.

I cried for several days trying to figure out what to do and I even attempted
to find a home for him where he could live out his life peacefully. We had no
way to bring him home to our place and couldn't afford buying and boarding
two horses in the Northeast. I signed the papers to put him down and we all
said goodbye to Tuffy.

I promised to call Dr. Maybank and inform her of Tuffy's problem. When I did
she brought a ray of hope to difficult situation. She told me first of all
that not everything had been tried, that we haven't considered using
nutritional intervention and that maybe we were rushing into a decision that
didn't need to be rushed. She said that life isn't always black and white and
maybe this is one of those gray areas. She then offered to come all the way
to Tuffy's barn and put him down for me if he continued to deteriorate.

I took her up on the offer and suddenly there seemed to be an open door. I
started thinking about who I could talk to about equine nutrition and it
dawned on me that that was the topic of many of our conversations here on the
net. I wrote a note about Tuffy to you all and received a return message
almost instantly: "YOU MUST TALK TO BEVERLY GRAY IN UTAH." I'll never forget
those words and it brings tears to my eyes even now just thinking back.
(Karen, was that you who wrote me?)

Yes, Bev's horse Oman had come through a bout with kidney cancer and I
eagerly devoured everything she said. Tuffy was started on the same Dynamite
products as soon as I had switched him to pure grains - no mixed products. We
detoxed his system with Izmine, added probiotins to his digestive tract with
Dyna-Pro, boosted his immune system with SOD Boluses, and combated the stress
he was under with Super Stress. The products were used at different
intervals and for different lengths of time except for Dynamite Plus which
served as the basic mineral/vitamin supplement.

Within the first few weeks there was a noticeable change. Tufyy's coat
turned glossy and shiny and he regained a brightness in his eyes that hadn't
been there for a long time. He no longer held his head between his legs
either. It was an excellent sign. Between May and September 95 I would drive
over to see him twice a week, always hopeful that more improvement would be
evident. But there wasn't always. Sometimes he looked worse and then better
again. But he was filling out in the flank a bit and didn't look so much like
the concentration camp horse he had become earlier.

At home we started to clear woods to be able to bring Tuffy home. I checked
with the town about ordinances and started to find out about barn building. I
needed a place to store hay, my trailer, and get Tuffy out of the severe
weather that can strike around here. When he came home in Sept, I discovered
that "mix" meant mixed with alfalfa - at least at Agway, one of the east's
major animal feed stores. He had been fed alfalfa this whole time and I
thought I had erradicated it from his diet. Luckily I found a local fella who
never dealt in alfalfa and started buying from him. It's low quality but it
did the trick. By February Tuffy looked 90%. That's when I started adding
corn oil to his feed with the Dynamite Plus and within no time he looked like
he was the same old Tuffy!

About three weeks ago Dr. Killgallon checked him out again and was unable to
locate anything resembling a bump. She declared him tumor free and sound.

I have been reading all the messages on this listserve for over a year,
unable to ride and living vicariously through all of you, keeping my dream of
the trails alive. But you've all helped me keep focused and enjoy the sport
while not directly participating. As soon as my knee is rehabilitated (ski
accident in Feb) I'm planning to hit the trails with Tuffy and hopefully meet
up with some of you people on rides. I thank God for all of you and
especially this forum as a way to share such vital information. It saved
Tuffy's life.

Thanks for listening,
Linda in Weston
Tuffy, 8yr old double Bask Bay Arab