By the time Little Bit was given to me, his owner had stopped bracing his back legs. I braced his front legs for 3 months because his fetlocks were very weak, and he would walk on the very outside edge of his hooves without the braces. But the braces started making a pressure sore on the side of one of his fetlocks, and I knew I had to do something different. I took him up to the large animal veterinary hospital at A & M University, in College Station, TX. There, Dr. Cliff Honnas trimmed Little Bit's hooves; so much so, that they bled, but he said it had to be done. He then used a product called Technovit and made extensions around the bottom of his hooves. He stood him up and that was the first time I had ever seen Little Bit standing without his braces, I just stood there and cried! I took him back two weeks later because he had developed an infection in the bulbs of one hoof from having the soles of his hooves sealed with the Technovit. Dr. Honnas removed the extensions. The right leg had already gotten stronger and he no longer needed the extension. The left leg was still weak, Dr. Honnas sent me home with the Technovit and material to make his extension. I didn't want to cover the bottom of his hoof again, so I just made the extension on the outside of his hoof and it kept his hoof flat on the ground. That worked pretty good, but the extension kept popping off so I decided to design him a little corrective shoe and a friend of mine made it for me out of a thin aluminum, which I glued onto his hoof with a glue especially made for that purpose, called SuperFast made by Vettec. A friend I had met on the Internet had a little dwarf filly born and her front legs were just like my Little Bit's. I also designed little Angel some shoes and they helped her so much, that her Poppa called them, her little *Magic Shoes* so that is now what they are know as. These little shoes have already helped many little horses and not all are dwarfs. I was given a little miniature horse filly that was born with tendon laxity in all 4 legs, with the help of the little *Magic Shoes* she is now walking perfectly.

They kept him in ICU for 5 days and then they let me bring him home. They bent the rules for me and let me spend a lot of time with my baby. As you can see he was in a foal crib. The vets and the students all fell in love with my Little Bit, and they were all SO good to him. One student in particular named Jenny, took him under her wing, and spent a lot of time with him when I couldn't be there.
For 4 weeks Little Bit seemed to be doing quite well and recovering from his surgery, his trach incision healed completely in 3 weeks, the incision in his tummy had 25 staples and he had to wear a tummy band, because they were afraid that the incision might break open from all the weight of his internal organs. But it healed nicely and my local vet removed the staples. However Little Bit kept getting gas colic several times in the evenings. The surgeon suggested changing his feed gradually and I did, but it didn't seem to help. Then 4 weeks to the day after his surgery, he stopped having bowel movements again and his tummy started hurting him very much. The Banamine was not helping him at all. So we rushed him back up to A & M at 2:00 in the morning. He was in SO much pain; it was all that I could do to keep him from thrashing. That was the longest hour and 15 minutes I think I have ever spent! We took him in the back of HIS Rover; that was what he always rode in. A different vet met us at the back door of the ICU and they did the sonogram and x-rays again and could see that he was all impacted again. It took quite awhile for them to get enough pain meds into him to get him comfortable. I knew I just could not put him through another colic surgery! And the vet agreed with me, so they started him on the fluid therapy. I stayed with him as much as they would let me. We had a lot of family and friends in for my son's wedding that was the day before Little Bit got sick. So I would make the 1 1/2 hour drive back home for a little while and then go back to be with my baby. The last time I saw him alive, my son and my Momma went with me and we spent a long time with him that evening, I took his salt/mineral block to him and his favorite pretty (a teething toy), he stood up and played with his pretty for the longest time. I sat beside him and talked to him and brushed his beautiful long mane, he seemed comfortable and very content, and he was tickled to have his pretty to play with. The intern student put a call into his vet to see if he could have his salt/mineral block....It got to be about 10:45 that night and my Mother was tired and so we left Little Bit standing in his crib playing with his pretty. At 4:08 the next morning the phone rang and woke me up, I knew it was the vet calling...She told me that Little Bit had just closed his little eyes and passed away, at 4:00 a.m. The intern student that was with him said that after I left the vet called and said, " yes he could have his salt/mineral block," and that he stood and licked it for a long time. The vet could not tell me exactly why Little Bit died, but she thought that it was probably all just too much for his little heart. I could not leave Little Bit's beautiful body at the hospital for them to do research on; I had to bring him home with me. When we arrived at the back door of the ICU within 2 hours, his sweet little vet, Dr. Knight, had him all snuggled up on a his blanket on a book cart with his pretty and a bouquet of flowers that she had bought him. She helped me lay him in the back of HIS Rover on his little bed. The vet and all the students were crying, one little girl said I know we are not supposed to cry at times like this, but I just can't help it. They hugged me and told me how sorry they were.

Janell Jensen 4/6/2004