A Tumor

The busy morning was spent at the Berean office. To read about our busy morning click HERE. Dr. Hoerr called while I was at the Berean office with the bad news that Ribbon did not have a sinus infection, it is a tumor. He decided to scope her first, which meant he used a scope to look up into that big nostril and did not find a pocket of pus, instead found something pink, hard and round.

This changes everything.  Now we know why the almost $300.00 worth of antibiotics didn't help. If we do the surgery, it is called a face flap. Her bone will be sawed open, the tumor removed then the bone reattached. At least that is what I think he was telling me, when I heard tumor I was thinking death. Dr. Hoerr said, "not necessarily so." He does not believe it is cancer as none of the bone around the tumor seems to be affected. But we also don't know if this is slow growing or not, we have no idea how long this has been in her nostril other than we have been dealing with snot since July. Dr. Hoerr called an associate of his that is a surgeon (this operation will take 2 surgeons) and will get back to us with more information and hopefully an estimate. 

Karin and I talked, we are both too old to train a new vaulting horse. It takes years to train one and neither of us have the energy or time to start all over. Ribbon is 15 years old, has a colt by her side and is probably pregnant again, but it is too soon for an ultrasound. How much are we willing to spend? What to do..what to do? I guess now we wait. 

As soon as I got home from Berean the truck and trailer were taken over to Morton to pick Ribbon and her colt up to bring them home. Ribbon was so happy to get home. Titan got his first bath, he was pretty stinky from being in a stall and of course finding a big pile of poop to lay in. He actually did pretty well with the bath and got a tying lesson at the same time. When they were turned out he took off bucking. We had a nice warm sunny afternoon so it was a perfect time.