Another washout
Both the winter and the summer farm rides were shut today because of excess water. So that planned bit of excitement was cancelled too. :-(
On the other hand, Tetley has improved :-) He is not sound in trot, but he is now pretty much sound again in walk, and we did some walk exercises indoors today.
Tia also had to work indoors for the third day in a row because of the rain. She was a very good girl. The walk is now definitely developing, the trot transitions were calm and lovely and the trot was well balanced. We stopped after 20 minutes, I don't want to make her fed up with endless schooling.
The saddle fiddling has worked and the pattern on her back when I took it off was superb - a great big flat shiny area where the saddle had been, and no lumps at all.
C.
Tetley sound in walk butnot in trot.
posted by cptrayes @ 6:05 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
the joys of having an indoor ....
Well, it stopped raining here for a few days anyhow. Tucker will be going in a show on Saturday with my trainer riding. His times: 10:52 and 3:37. Thanks so much. I did not rent a stall, so the kid will have to stand on the trailer all day. Yippee. Good thing he learned patience down at Kenny Harlow's.
Around here, they usually don't cancel shows because of weather. All the ring surfaces tend to be sand. Last year we showed in an all day torrential downpour. The judges were in cars with windshield wipers flipping back and forth to scare the horses at the end of the arena.
I do think, though, that events with cross country would cancel if the ground was really bad. Haven't done it in so long, I'm just not sure. Then too, we don't seem to have as many events scheduled as you do over there, so perhaps here it would be a much greater crisis to cancel one.
I'm glad Tetley is doing better. Severe lameness like you described is always scary. And, I always feel so bad for the horse's suffering. Please give him another hug from me.
And give Tia a hug too for being such a star. What a doll!
Caroline,
The difficulty I found was that spavin and PSD symptoms are very very similar, it's the diagnostic techniques used that ends up telling them apart.
Robin was scuffing his toes, positive to flextion tests, did the hip hoik 'thing' (or swung leg slightly to the side to avoid bringing it through) and ended up being sore in walk and unwilling to trot.
First vet only did flexion test (which as we know doesn't just test the joint), xrays and one joint block (into his hock). The joint block made him about 50% better after flexion but not sound. He said it was a combination of bone chips and spavin. I was unhappy with the thoroughness of his exam/diagnosis (it seemed to me he'd decided it was spavin simply based on the age of the horse!). Because he said he had to be operated on to remove the bone chip I insisted he be sent to a specialist and thoroughly investigated before going down the surgery route. Thank goodness I did because although he did end up having surgery to remove the chips (which specialist said he couldn't rule out was the cause of 'some discomfort') he also found a tear in the bundle of tendons within the right hock (which was dealt with in the same operation), but also after extensive blocks and injections to various points identified that he only came truly sound with the joint block to the back of the leg (just below hock) which is the site of his ligament injury. This was then confirmed with scans. Long old process but obviously needed to identify the true nature of his lameness, rather than just putting it down to spavin because he's at that age!
No doubt there is an element of joint degeneration there but that wasn't the primary cause of lameness. He also has heat in a specific bony part of his hock.
Hope this helps in some way - I found it helped to have an idea of ALL the conditions it 'could' be so I could thoroughly question/challenge the vet!!!
Pleased he's a little better now, got fingers crossed for him.
Cassie
(sorry long old reply!!)
Oh nightmare scenario Cassie! Same symptoms with a different injury. How on earth did he come to have it all - chips, spavin and tendon and ligament damage?? Thanks for the info though, it's good to be well informed.
Claire, yes my indoor is tiny as you know, but it's a lifesaver at times like this :-) It used to be a lambing shed.
Yeah ... GREAT times Jean. NOT. I hoe they have a cafe there?
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