Peebs Progress Report

 First off, thank you for all your comments on my last post. I'm mostly over my anger and disappointment at being taken by S and am really, really happy with Trainer A so far. I do want to add that if S had come to me at any point in the 4.5 months she had Cinder and said she didn't think Cin was ready to be ridden, or needed more or something different in terms of turnout or whatever, or even if she said that there was a personality conflict between her and Cin I would have been accepted that and worked to rectify the problem. And I would have respected her. Since she never communicated any of that, I've lost all that respect. 

 But this a Peebs post, so onto our main man. When we last left off with him, he had been NQR, mainly on his left hind, his bad leg. I had had an appointment with my vet scheduled before Thanksgiving but he had to cancel because the underwater treadmill was being delivered and installed at his new clinic. Since I would someday like to use the treadmill for my ponies, I said I was ok moving the appointment to a week later. 

Tis the season for candy canes

I hadn't been doing much with him, mainly some easy w/t/c rides not asking for much. We did have some nice rides where I was able to ask for him to work in a frame and bend, but it was hit and miss. At his appointment, we did flexions and he flexed at a 1.5 on his left stifle, which I was expecting, and at about a .5 on his right stifle. Vet also mentioned he has a slight wobble on his hind end, partially due to him not being out of shape, and partially that's just him. Vet felt like the NQRness I had been feeling wasn't necessarily just the stifles, and since it kinda came and went, that it was more of whole body stiffness. It had been off and on very cold so Peebs is probably just feeling the affects of winter on an aging body.

Because of the colics, and that it's only been 10 months since we lasted injected the stifles, vet was a little wary of injecting a bunch of steroids into Peebs. So we put him on a low daily dose of Previcox. If it seemed to upset his GI tract in anyway, we'd stop it. Once you pump them full of steroids via injections, and bad shit happens, there's obviously no way to get it out of them. We're also going to put hind shoes on him at his next farrier visit.  

Happy Hanukkah from my ponies to yours

He's been on the Previcox for two weeks now, and homeboy feels GOOD. Like too good. Like, get off and lunge because he bolted in the canter good. Right now we're just focusing on building up his fitness and slowly asking for more connection and bend, and reminding him what a half halt means. We've started doing some ground poles and he was so excited he nearly face planted trying to jump a set of trot poles. I'm so glad he's feeling better, but I wish he wasn't quite so exuberant about it.

Oy vey

I don't know how else to say it, but fuck 2020. The last month has been one thing after another, if not on top of each other. 

 

So three weeks ago, after getting home from work one night, I noticed my 14yr old cat Eddie was weak and wobbly, losing control of his hind end. He was very painful when you tried to pick him up, or touch his hips/tail.  He was also reluctant to eat, which for Ed was a big red flag. He was always up for some wet food. I took him into the emergency vet and his xrays showed no acute injury. He had some arthritis, but nothing out of the ordinary for an older, active cat. His blood work was normal. I was supposed to leave the next day to help my parents drive up from San Diego, and because Ed was so painful, I decided to keep him at the clinic while I was gone. 

I got good reports while I was gone, and picked him up on a Sunday afternoon. He came home with some strong pain meds and was doing ok till the last dose of meds wore off. Then he was worse than he originally was. He was crouched on his front legs, with his hind legs collapsed under him. He could barley move. I called the clinic for his final appointment. KP, Cinder's breeder, is a vet at this clinic and did the euthanasia for me. We sat and talked for a while about Eddie and Cinder and it was nice having a friendly face there. 

Six days later I got a text from the barn that Peebs was colicky. Again. A month after his first colic of 2020. I left work, called my mom, called the vet, and immediately dosed Peebs with banamine once I got to the barn. By the time the vet got there, Peebs was much more normal and was eating the small amount of hay I gave him. Dr. W checked him out and declared this was a gas colic, as opposed to the impaction he had last month. We pulled blood as precaution, and talked a lot about some feeding changes for Peebs. 

The hay TCF feeds is a local grass mix, mostly orchard and fescue. Vet thought the orchard grass might be irritating Peebs since it's a physically rough hay.  I went out and bought Peebs half a ton of timothy hay. Peebs also started getting Purina Outlast. He's not normally what I would think of as an ulcer prone horse, but it couldn't hurt. Finally, he started Assure Guard Gold on my vet's recommendation. I had to order it, so he started on it yesterday. 

We did have the conversation that Pebs could potentially have a lipoma causing issues, but nothing serious enough yet to warrant surgery.  But it's something we need to think about. I was convinced for about a week that Peebs would be on the operating table by the end of 2020, but that's lessened somewhat. 

She's 16.3 at the withers and is currently butt high and dropped weight

And to top it all off, Peebs has been NQR under saddle. We've had some good work to the right, but tracking left he's very stiff and unwilling to bend. I had my trainer out for a lesson/to get eyes on him and she agreed it's nothing I'm doing, or not doing, but he's very stiff. I had the chiropractic vet out last night and she said he feels great and is in good muscle condition following our rehab from the wildfire smoke. I think his issue is that he needs his stifles injected again, as his left stifle is worse and that's the leg he's unwilling to bring under himself. So I'll have our regular vet out again for a lameness exam/injections. 

And in case I haven't had enough vet bills in the last 6wks, my other cat Luna goes in next week to have two teeth extracted. Cinder is my only animal to not have any vet bills and I told her she needs to keep it that way. Despite continuing to grow when I told her not too, she's the current favorite animal in my household.