| R.I.P. CM Richter Scale 16th November 2007 - 19th February 2008 |
| It is with a very heavy heart that we are building this page... Our beautiful Ricky was laid to rest on the 19th February 2008 after developing Seizures. Craig happened to walk out the back on Saturday 16th Feb. and witnessed Ricky staggering stiff legged, fall forward into the fence rails, and then fall to the ground and have a seizure. We phoned our wonderful vets immediately. As the vets are 300 km away from us we had a phone consult and were to keep an eye on him. |
| Later that afternoon, Craig picked up his lead and asked him to come to him, and he had another seizure. Sunday morning we organised with our vet to go visit them on Tuesday, 19th Feb, and have blood tests done and have him examined. That was the earliest we could get there with him and as he appeared fine and 'normal' after he had his seizures, he was not in any pain that we could tell, so we didnt feel that waiting til the Tuesday was too much of a problem. Sunday mid morning he had another seizure when Craig picked up his rope and patted him on the nose. Monday I happened to walk out the back door and saw him having another one. |
| On the morning of the 19th, we backed the horse float in to the back yard, close to the gate to the foaling yard. Craig picked up his rope and he had another seizure. As soon as he was over that, we gently and quietly loaded him on to the float, giving him the entire float (middle divider out), and had put a barrier so that he could not go under the chest bar should he go down on the 300km trip to Pt Augusta. He did go down and have another seizure on the way.... he took a little skin off himself in the process. When we arrived, he was a little wobbly coming off the float. He was examined by both Roger and David, and we all discussed at length what was happening with him, and it was decided that there was really only ONE course of action - to put him to sleep. It is just NOT safe to have a horse who has seizures. They are a danger to not only themselves, but anyone who happens to be around them. |
| We gave Ricky a cuddle, and I said my goodbyes to him. Craig and Roger led him up into the horse float again and Craig was holding his lead and scratching his withers as he was injected and he passed away. A full autopsy was performed, and while there was nothing really 'obvious' - there was a little abnormality with the Pineal Gland in the brain. The text books say it should be reddish brown, Rickys was BLACK... Roger and David are looking into this and will let us know what they find. We are extremely sad to have had to put our gorgeous little man down, however it was the best thing for him. We are just thankful that this started prior to him being sold, or leaving to go to a new home, or god forbid he was started under saddle down the track and had a seizure with someone on board or working around him on the ground. That would be disasterous and highly dangerous. A HUGE thankyou to our wonderful vets David and Roger at Pt Augusta Veterinary Services. So Rest In Peace our gorgeous boy.... you were only here for a short time, however you touched our hearts and will not be forgotten. 2007 Foals Page Breeding Stock Home |