Riding the Spiral

 When we last left off Cinder had just gotten a much needed chiro adjustment and we were hopeful that would fix her slightly unevenness. Unfortunately, it didn't. She still felt off, and after a few days of easy work was actually lame. Assistant Trainer M was teaching lessons that day, and videoed us to send to both Trainer M and Doc. Both AT M and I thought it was in the front, possibly left front. And at least Cin picked a good time to be lame, as we had four days of 100+ temps during this lameness spell so I wasn't like I was missing out on much riding time. 

Might have spiraled a bit and briefly thought about pulling Peebs out of retirement. I'm sure you can tell by his ears how enthused he was about this idea

I had been having visions of torn tendons and ligaments during the week between her coming up actually lame and the vet visit, despite no heat or swelling in any limbs. I was making plans of how I could scrounge up money/ a horse to use for medal finals at the end of August, and if I could afford to move Cin home to rehab since a stall at Peebs barn is opening up next month and then part lease something at Trainer M's. As mentioned above, I thought about seeing how sound Peebs was and if he could come back into work. I did hop on him for the first time in over a year and we took two steps from the mounting block before he stopped, put his head up, and let me know that was as much work as he was wiling to do.  

He is down for showers on hot summer days tho

Doc put us on the list for a lameness exam last Wednesday, which is her normal day to come out to the barn. I wasn't going to be able to make the appointment as we had an accreditation inspection at work Wed-Fri last week, but Doc ended up having two different emergencies to go to so Cinder got bumped to Saturday which I was able to be there for. 

As soon as the lameness exam started, Doc clocked the issue as being in the hind not the front, and more in the right hind. We flexed the fronts just to be thorough, but nothing popped up. Cin's hocks were slightly positive to flexion, but the stifles were the real culprits. Cin does have a small bone spur in her left stifle, and we injected both about a year and a half ago, so it wasn't surprising that it's time to inject them again. Doc prefers PRP, so Cinder will be getting injected this week with that in both stifles. Doc is hopeful that we can get her sound and fit enough for medal finals, so fingers crossed the PRP does the job. 

WW: Wound Wednesday

Cinder got her first set of stitches yesterday.  We're not exactly sure how it happened, but she got  a small cut on the inside of her right front, a scrape on her face, and a large gash on her left stifle. Based on part of the wire fence being down and cap off the top of a t-post, we're assuming she either got caught in the wire or she and Peebs had a altercation through the wire and Peebs nailed her. Peebs is fine.

I got the call from A's mom around 10 on Tuesday morning and immediately left work. My supervisor is a horse girl so all I said was "Cinder probably needs stitches" and she told me to go. It's super nice not having to explain horsey related things to my boss.

 My regular vet was out for a few days working on his new clinic (which will be like 2 minutes from the barn, yay!) so I had to call the vet school.  Thankfully they could make it out or else I would have had to haul Cinder in. Once they were out the doc agreed with me that the stifle wound needed stitches and they went to work.

He had two vet students with him and one seemed reluctant to actually touch Cin. She was much more comfortable holding the ipad and inputting all the info.  The other one jumped right in and started clipping and cleaning the wound. Cin was due for her fall vaccines in a few weeks so I had them do those while the sedation kicked in. Why just do a tetanus now and poke her again in a few weeks when I could do it all at once?

Drunk pony is a light weight

While the one student started suturing the Dr. asked the two what else they needed to consider. Both girls gave him a blank stare and he prodded them about aftercare. Still more blank staring. He mentioned a barn being full of dirt and poop and flies, horses being turned out in the elements.  Still nothing from the students.  I couldn't stand it and blurted out "Antibiotics". He said yes and that there was still other parts of aftercare to consider.  After more nothing from the students I said "pain management".  And then after the Dr. said he'd want Cinder on banamine, one of the girls kept trying to give me bute. I know they're still students, and just starting their clinical rotations, but it was killing me that these girls didn't have any answers.

Cinder ended up with 5 stitches. Thankfully it wasn't a deep laceration and there doesn't seem to be any joint involvement.  I will have to have my vet out in 2-3 weeks to remove the sutures. Cin's on twice daily banamine for three days, and twice daily liquid sulfa for five days. Both are syringed into her mouth and she is not a fan. Part of her banamine this morning ended up on me and the floor of her stall but she did take the sulfa fine. I kept her stalled yesterday since we had thunderstorms, and she's in today but if everything looks good when I go out tonight I'll probably turn her back out. Fingers crossed for a quick and easy recovery!

VBIPA

Do you, or someone you love, own or lease horses and pay vet bills? Have you, or someone you love, ever experienced nausea, sweating, dizziness, guilt, and/or anxiety when seeing your vet bill? If so, then you might be suffering from VBIPA or vet bill induced panic attack. Treatment can include drinking copious amounts of alcohol, eating ice cream for dinner, and/or calling your mother to talk you down from the panic attack.

I decided to have the vet out to check Peebs over on Friday.  He was still feeling a bit stiff, but wasn't actually lame. I was wondering if his naughtiness when jumping was more than naughtiness and wanted him checked out before show season started.  We did a lameness exam and Peebs was sore in his lower back, sore in both hocks, and very sore in both stifles. He also had the occasional funny step on his left front.

Dr. W and I talked it over, and decided that since his stifles were worse we'd start with injecting those. Dr. W felt that Peebs' sore back could be from the stifles, but we'll have to wait and see.  And the injections could help with his front end issue, or make them worse. Yay!

The bill ended up being about double what I was expecting. I honestly thought we'd maybe start him on Adequan or pentosan, maybe think about doing his hocks. The stifle injections are $350 more than the hocks, and Peebs need extra sedation. $$$$$$. I guess I'm luck though, I haven't had this big of a vet bill in 9 years, since we were diagnosing Phoenix's ring bone. And it's still nowhere near the vet bill from my first horse's colic surgery when I was 15.  My mom kept that one and gave it to me when I moved into my own place and it's still up on my fridge.

Peebs is on hand walking/turnout till Wednesday, then walk trot work till Saturday.  I tentatively have a lesson scheduled for Sunday but we'll see how things go.  I'm having Dr. W come back next month for spring shots so we might do another lameness exam and see where things stand.