Monty had - Abscess - Thrush - Cellulitis -
Heat Stroke - Mystery Lameness
John:
Hello and welcome to another exciting Equinety podcast. This is one that I've been looking forward to for quite some time, as we've been running this ad for actually quite awhile on Monty, who is a 19 year old thoroughbred gelding. We're just going to jump right into this one because this was one of those that had my jaw beyond my desk, right on to the floor when I received these videos. Without further ado, let's welcome the owner of Monty, Larissa Norris. Larissa, welcome to the show.
Larissa Norris:
Thank you. Thank you for having me. It's such a pleasure.
John:
Well, we're glad to have you on here. Let's go back and let's get right into this. By the way, below this podcast on our website, this entire thing will be transcribed. We're going to have the videos, before and after, of Monty so people can see what we're talking about. What was going on with Monty prior to you giving me a phone call?
Larissa Norris:
Well, we started off as, we found a nail out in the pasture somehow. Of course, that happens here and there. It ended up turning into an abscess which led to thrush and cellulitis, went all the way up his leg. He wasn't putting his foot on the ground. It started off, he'd just stand on the tiptoe and he eventually never even put it down. He would not touch it on the ground at all. We were quite concerned. We've contacted multiple vets and the farrier was working with him. We had really, really almost given up on him. It was awesome to be able to find something to finally help him.
John:
This was the video that you sent me and this is what we're going to have posted at the teamEquinety.com website, is you can Monty. He cannot put any weight whatsoever on that back left leg. At that time you had called me, because he had also, during all of this, also had a heatstroke.
Larissa Norris:
Yes. He had a heatstroke after ... We had been giving him different antibiotics. He was actually on antibiotics three times a day. It ended up we backed it down to two times a day and he was just having no improvement, really. He maybe put it on the toe again one day, but then the next day he wasn't walking on it again. He disappeared completely. We had him in a little run in and he was in a dry lot, but he never left the lean to. He had fans and everything and he disappeared. We thought, "Where did he go?"
Larissa Norris:
We looked and looked and looked for him and he was back as far as you can get in the back pasture. This is not even where any of the horses go. He was hiding in a brush area, far back. He wouldn't come to us. We couldn't get him to walk out, anything. That's when we called the vet out again and that's when he was diagnosed with the heatstroke. He was very odd. I've never seen a horse have a heatstroke. It was definitely different. We had to totes him back to the barn and treat that also. He still, even with vet care, he wasn't really improving. That's when we had really had to make the decision of what we were going to have to do with him.
John:
It was at that time that you had called me because you had come across one of our ads that we were running on Facebook. You had told me the story about Monty and everybody from the vets, the farriers, I mean you had tried everything that you knew to do. Everybody's scratching their head. If memory serves me correctly, you said that you just purchased some Equinety and this is going to be make or break for Monty. That was going to be it, if this didn't work.
Larissa Norris:
It was.
John:
Yes. You told me that you had ordered the little 15 day sample tub. I'm like, "Oh my gosh. We're literally going to give Monty 15 days maximum here." I'm like, "Okay, this can't be the case." I promised that I would send you another 30 days, just let's give Monty a fighting chance here, beyond ... Let's give him a good chance. Then if we fast forward about six or seven days, you called me again.
John:
I hate to admit this, but you said to me, "John, I want to give you an update on Monty and by the way, that other product that you were going to send never did make it." My heart sunk because I'm like, "Oh my gosh, I forgot to send you the product," because I was on the road and I was at some shows. I felt so bad, I just didn't even know what to say. And then you save me because you were so gracious. You said, "Well, check out this video." You text me the updated video and describe to everybody what this video was.
Larissa Norris:
Well, Monty, we brought him in. We were actually still doing like soaking his foot every day and keeping it wrapped and treating the thrush and the abcess. We brought him in, had him unwrapped. He never goes anywhere, so we just had him standing there. No lead rope, nothing, being a horrible horse owner. We were in an indoor arena. He just decides that he wants to go play in the pasture with the rest of the horses. He takes off running to the other side of the indoor arena and I grabbed my phone as quick as I could to videotape him.
Larissa Norris:
I actually missed the first part where we was bucking and kicking his back feet up in the air. I caught the end of it, where he was running from the left side of the door to the right side of the door. He was kicking his front feet up in the air, putting weight on both of his hind legs completely and just pawing in the air, totally excited. He wanted to go out and run with them so bad. I cried tears of joy as I was videotaping. You can probably hear me sobbing in the video, to be honest with you.
John:
Yes.
Larissa Norris:
Because I was so excited to see how happy he was and how much better he was feeling.
John:
This was not even seven days of on product.
Larissa Norris:
Yeah, it was not even seven days on product and I was just totally blown away at the difference in him. You could just tell, just that seven days made such a difference. He just felt so much better. I still to this day believe that I can give it 100% to the Equinety.
John:
Yeah, we are so blessed. This story, it seemed to be the first story that came in. Then all of a sudden there was like an avalanche of stories that were coming in, people that were dealing with mystery lamenesses and they were literally at a point where they were having to make that final decision. It was just almost a replica of your story. I was keeping track there for awhile, it was around a four, four and a half month period, there were 35 to 40 people that had contacted us either through phone or email, some way shape or form, that literally told us that this Equinety product saved their horse's life.
John:
I tell people all the time it's not a miracle supplement but it sure does some miraculous things. These stories are hard to say, "Well, a miracle just, it just happened," because everybody, in your case, with Monty was scratching their heads. Nobody knew what else to do, rather now ... What is Monty doing these days?
Larissa Norris:
Monty is actually at a thoroughbred barn. They focus on jumping and they give a lot of lessons for 4H children and stuff. He's been there, as his recovery time. We were jumping on Sunday, actually, just a couple of days ago. He was going over little foot and a half, two foot jumps and some ground poles. Just light stuff, just for fun. He gets to come home on the 21st. Just a little under a week away, he gets to come home. My kids are excited to have him back and they're excited to take him to the fair. We're just looking forward to moving on in his life.
John:
Right. So how long as he been on product now, the Equinety product?
Larissa Norris:
Oh man. I don't even know, John. That's a good question.
John:
You know what, I remember where I was ...
Larissa Norris:
I could probably look.
John:
It was in August of last year. We're recording this in May of '19. I remember which horse show I was at up in Michigan.
Larissa Norris:
I think you're right. I think it was August because I remember the vet came out shortly after. Yeah, I think you're right. I think it was right around August. It was in the fall. I remember that.
John:
At the time, your farrier was thinking it was one thing, the vet wasn't necessarily agreeing with him. Then what's -
Larissa Norris:
Well, the vet was saying more that it was all in the foot and the farrier was thinking it might have more of a stifle injury than anything, but he was thinking that was more related to limping and how he was walking on it may have caused the stifle injury. The vet was just out not too long ago, a couple weeks ago actually, he was like, "Is this even the same horse?"
Larissa Norris:
Then the farrier was just there Monday, so two days ago. He was just like, "Wow. I cannot believe that this horse is the same horse." He had a friend with him who had actually trimmed him when he first happened. He said, "I have never seen this horse put his foot down." They were both pretty impressed. They could not believe that this was all happening and that this was even the same horse. We had deemed him unfixable, basically.
John:
We've used these videos for some of our advertising. A lot of comments, people say, "Oh, this isn't the same horse. There's no way." Of course, I brought you into these conversations, whether you liked it or not. It's one of the reasons why I wanted to have you on this podcast because now I can just put the link there and then they can hear directly from the owner that yes indeed this is the same horse.
Larissa Norris:
Yes. That is the same horse. Yeah, I've been giggling about some of the comments about, "Oh wow, that's photoshopped." They're saying all sorts of things, but yeah he's the same horse.
John:
That's so amazing.
Larissa Norris:
I don't think he's the same horse necessarily that he's limping, but he's definitely an improved horse now.
John:
No doubt about it.
Larissa Norris:
I will say.
John:
Wow. I tell you what, if you're listening into this podcast for the first time and you're faced with a similar situation or you're dealing with a mystery lameness, I just highly encourage you to give the Equinety a try. It can't hurt, obviously. In this case with Monty, it saved his life and completely changed him around. No reason why he shouldn't be around for years, when he was literally looking a 15 days of life left. Wow.
Larissa Norris:
Definitely an improvement. Definitely worth that 15 day trial there.
John:
Absolutely. And with my forgetfulness on you, so that's great. Well, Larissa I can't thank you enough for taking the time to share your Equinety story. This is going to be a great one. I know it's going to help a lot of people out there, so thank you very much.
Larissa Norris:
No, thank you. Thank you for having me.
John: You bet. Bye bye.
Larissa Norris: Bye.
https://youtu.be/rRaH2kpU9g4
