Today was the day of the vet visit. Bright and early I got up and fed the four foots their breakfasts. I only gave Seneca and Cowboy half their grain ration because the vet was due an hour or so after they were going to eat and I didn't want anyone deciding to colic because they didn't want the vet to float their teeth.
So here's how it went. Doctor R. showed up pretty much on time, and despite the freezing temps(25 degrees) we were having a good time. We got Cowboy done first, he was as usual a tool about standing still for too long. To even look at his teeth the vet had to sedate him. And then we decided he didn't need a float quite yet.
Back in to the pasture for the Spotted Beast who got to hang out in the back pasture all doped and loopy while Dr. R and I evaluated the High Queen. We trotted out and back a couple of times, then Dr. R got to all the flexion tests. Seneca tested negative on her fetlocks, and mostly negative on her hocks, but then we came to the stifle. She was negative on the left, but positive on the right. Damn.
So out came the xray machine, which thankfully the vet practice had updated to the digital kind since the last time I'd had them done three or four years ago. Except that Mr. xray machine did not want to work in the cold. Growl. We tried and tried, and the High Queen wasn't happy about standing still anyway. So we decided to take a look at Seneca's teeth then have the vet come back later in the day with either a new machine, or a warmer time of day to get the current one working.
Seneca let us put the float apparatus on, but we could not get her to open her mouth far enough to get a good look. The vet literally could not pry her mouth open and stated she had never had a horse with jaws so strong that they couldn't be opened with the apparatus. Since we didn't want to have to drug Seneca twice we decided to do the float after Dr. R came back later in the day.
Thankfully no emergencies cropped up and Dr. R came back around 1:30pm. This time Seneca, bi-polar pony that she is stood like a statue, even letting me ground tie her so I could help with the xrays. Even when we had to nearly stuff the plate in to Seneca's lady parts to get a look at her stifle.
What did the xrays show? While she did still have arthritis in her hock(like it was going anywhere) it had not progressed past what it had been four years ago. Which was both good and bad. It meant that there was still something else causing the on off lameness. Which is when we saw the most likely culprit for the lameness. There was an OCD-like flap on her stifle. Not a cyst, or a lesion, thank God, but though it was just a small deviation on the bone even I could see it.
The vet gave me two options for moving forward. The first is that Dr. R. comes back we do nerve blocks until we positively pin point the issue for certain. Or we go ahead and do a joint injection to see if that will bring Seneca sound.
Both of these options require the use of a stall for at least a day or two for the horse to recover. What does super hubs say when I tell him we need to figure out a way to make the run-in shed in to some kind of a stall that Seneca can't escape(We've tried this a couple of times and she's escaped our amateur attempts to confine her)? Super hubs pulls out paper and pencil and starts telling me how he's going to remodel my run-in shed in to a real barn. *BLINK* Not that I don't want a barn, or haven't been hinting for a couple years that a barn with stalls to confine my horses pre-show day/post bath would be great. But we hadn't discussed doing a barn this year. But he got all gung ho about it, and after enduring the feeding time frenzy this evening, where Cowboy cost me a half a tube of Seneca's Smartbreathe paste, then Seneca tried to turn her nose up at her dinner in favor of stealing Cowboy's I was all for having stalls to seperate them.
And now I'm hopeful for the spring where Seneca will be sound again, and we can put back all the muscle she lost being out of work for four months. Hopeful that we can still manage to do a BN horse trial this year. Yes there is still that job hovering and possible, but I can have a lot of fun between now and June.
Keep it between the flags everyone.
So here's how it went. Doctor R. showed up pretty much on time, and despite the freezing temps(25 degrees) we were having a good time. We got Cowboy done first, he was as usual a tool about standing still for too long. To even look at his teeth the vet had to sedate him. And then we decided he didn't need a float quite yet.
Back in to the pasture for the Spotted Beast who got to hang out in the back pasture all doped and loopy while Dr. R and I evaluated the High Queen. We trotted out and back a couple of times, then Dr. R got to all the flexion tests. Seneca tested negative on her fetlocks, and mostly negative on her hocks, but then we came to the stifle. She was negative on the left, but positive on the right. Damn.
So out came the xray machine, which thankfully the vet practice had updated to the digital kind since the last time I'd had them done three or four years ago. Except that Mr. xray machine did not want to work in the cold. Growl. We tried and tried, and the High Queen wasn't happy about standing still anyway. So we decided to take a look at Seneca's teeth then have the vet come back later in the day with either a new machine, or a warmer time of day to get the current one working.
Seneca let us put the float apparatus on, but we could not get her to open her mouth far enough to get a good look. The vet literally could not pry her mouth open and stated she had never had a horse with jaws so strong that they couldn't be opened with the apparatus. Since we didn't want to have to drug Seneca twice we decided to do the float after Dr. R came back later in the day.
Thankfully no emergencies cropped up and Dr. R came back around 1:30pm. This time Seneca, bi-polar pony that she is stood like a statue, even letting me ground tie her so I could help with the xrays. Even when we had to nearly stuff the plate in to Seneca's lady parts to get a look at her stifle.
What did the xrays show? While she did still have arthritis in her hock(like it was going anywhere) it had not progressed past what it had been four years ago. Which was both good and bad. It meant that there was still something else causing the on off lameness. Which is when we saw the most likely culprit for the lameness. There was an OCD-like flap on her stifle. Not a cyst, or a lesion, thank God, but though it was just a small deviation on the bone even I could see it.
The vet gave me two options for moving forward. The first is that Dr. R. comes back we do nerve blocks until we positively pin point the issue for certain. Or we go ahead and do a joint injection to see if that will bring Seneca sound.
Both of these options require the use of a stall for at least a day or two for the horse to recover. What does super hubs say when I tell him we need to figure out a way to make the run-in shed in to some kind of a stall that Seneca can't escape(We've tried this a couple of times and she's escaped our amateur attempts to confine her)? Super hubs pulls out paper and pencil and starts telling me how he's going to remodel my run-in shed in to a real barn. *BLINK* Not that I don't want a barn, or haven't been hinting for a couple years that a barn with stalls to confine my horses pre-show day/post bath would be great. But we hadn't discussed doing a barn this year. But he got all gung ho about it, and after enduring the feeding time frenzy this evening, where Cowboy cost me a half a tube of Seneca's Smartbreathe paste, then Seneca tried to turn her nose up at her dinner in favor of stealing Cowboy's I was all for having stalls to seperate them.
And now I'm hopeful for the spring where Seneca will be sound again, and we can put back all the muscle she lost being out of work for four months. Hopeful that we can still manage to do a BN horse trial this year. Yes there is still that job hovering and possible, but I can have a lot of fun between now and June.
Keep it between the flags everyone.
It is frustrating when you can't pinpoint a problem! I hope you can get it all sorted out soon :)
ReplyDeleteThx! I'm having the vet come back out in a couple of weeks after I've made a reservation at my friend's barn to keep Seneca there for whichever path I decide to go with her.
ReplyDelete