Tia has offered something new today – she did a good canter transition, a few better-than-normal strides of canter and then a down transition into a balanced trot. On both reins too.That’s completely new and a very big improvement. The three of them seem to be getting on incredibly well, and she is not bullying him like she did Caddy. In fact the two boys seem to be deferring to her together, because today they wouldn’t leave the yard until she was ready to join them.
Jazz is slightly better than yesterday but still has a nod which you can see when you loose school. Funnily enough, I can feel nothing when I ride him. How strange! Any suggestions? He was desperately stiff to the left (we only did a bit of walking, just to stretch his muscles a bit) and I had to work hard and think hard to get him to stretch the right side at all. I can feel one stiff muscle below the back edge of the right hand side of the saddle. I assume that being lame has made him stiff. Either that, being stiff made him lame :-) Either way, I think the thing now is to get him stretching and see what happens in the next couple of days. We have had slow but steady improvement for five days, so it looks hopeful, though I have to say that the slow linear progression suggests a strain to me and not a bruise in the foot. Blowed if I can find where it might be though.
Who? Oh, you want to know about Zip today :-) ? He’s calming down a bit, though he did manage to scream when his muzzle was just touching my ear. He seemed a bit surprised that I could scream just as loud :-0 ! He is picking up all four feet reasonably well today. He has also cottoned on that when someone opens your door, you step back respectfully. He’s quick, because he never did that at the stables I saw him at and I've only asked him to do it half a dozen times. I am beginning to teach him to lead properly – at the moment he will follow on the end of the rope, but not walk alongside. He’s running up a bit light because he has the squits. Either from the change of diet or from the fact that our water supply has some bugs in, I don’t know. I will watch him carefully and see if he needs any treatment. He’s very bright in himself right now, so I don’t think so. I have some pics but you’ll have to wait until later as SH is out earning money right now.
C
posted by cptrayes @ 12:49 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Could be most anything with Jazz. Still thinking of Tia's stiffness possibly being related to her abscess. So, that would be logical.
You might try stretching Jazz a bit. Lift up and pull out his front legs to see if he reacts to that. If SH wants to help, you could do a flexion test, holding up one leg at a time bent, then send him off at a trot to see if that makes it worse. Any of those actions might eliminate the foot.
I still remember a time when my first horse went lame on a hunter pace. I trailered him to a horse show where one of my favorite vets happened to be working. All I did was back the horse off the trailer, and the vet said, "It's his front right foot. Load him back up and let's make an appointment for X-rays." Sure enough, it was a developing navicular issue. But that guy's eye for soundness was so keen, all he needed to do was see the horse move down the trailer ramp.
So, if you don't pinpoint the problem yourself in a day or so, I'd say Jazz is more than worth the price of a vet exam.
What kind of food was Zip on? Was is so different? Has he been wormed recently? Maybe a bran mash might be good? No fever, I presume. I'd say it's the sudden change, but if you get the vet out for Jazz...might be worth a question or two.
Now, isn't it nice having lovely Tia to ride when all else fails? *G* What a good girl.
At least it's not competition season, and now is the time to resolve all the health issues at your "leisure." (As if anyone acutually has any leisure.)
Zip is due his flu jab this week so I will leave it until Wednesday and then ask the vet to look at Jazz too while he is here. I've done all the leg stretches, including sideways, and I can get no reaction from him at all. The only reaction I have ever had is a pointing of the toe and a reluctance to stand on the affected leg/foot to have the other picked out. Those are both gone now. They are key indicators of foot pain, but I couldn't get any reaction from hoof testers either. Perhaps he'll be all fixed tomorrow?
Tia's abscess can, I think, be pinpointed to a time two weeks before it split, when she suddenly began to be worse on the left canter lead than the right. Up until then it had be markedly the other way around, and now it is about equal.
Her stiffness, I think, is related to the fact that Charlotte was too afraid to ride her, and spent the year that she had her lunging her. She arrived completely muscle bound and it has taken nearly a year of the right work to get those muscles to release. Her shoulders, in particular, are noticeably easier to massage. Now that we have her fundamentally right, she is improving all the time :-)
I have just this minute wormed Zip, just in case. He was on hay and I have him on haylage, and my money is on it being that which has disturbed his gut. He's bright and chirpy tonight. The vet can look at him when he does his flu if he needs to.
C
Has SuperHubby got a infra-red surface thermometer? We got one after seeing Peter Laidely use one on Ru. Basically it's a surface thermometer which is very sensitive, last week the OH was called out to a friends horse who was very footy and by using the thermometer was able to pinpoint a hot spot of 28 degrees in the seat of corn, the rest of the foot and the corresponding foot was about 20 degrees. He cleaned it out a bit to see if anything was obvious and then the owner hot poulticed that spot for a few days and turned out with a boot on. It was probably a bruise as within a week the horse was very comfortable and back in work.
We got ours from Maplin and it was about £50, there are cheaper ones out there though. We are still playing around with it but it is useful for finding hot spots where they shouldn't be, without going digging for them.
We also find them useful for taking coronet band temperatures in horses that we are worried about laminitis in.
When we got Charlie Too it took about a week for him to do a normal pile of droppings, and he's a very chilled out Welsh Section C. He did have a change of feed as well, to an entirely fibre based one, but I'm sure it was just him getting over the move.
why do you need SH to load photos? ....
Claire, because I can't be bothered to learn and his machine is attached to the scanner and has all the software on it and mine isn't/doesn't :-)
Tracey, what a brilliant idea! Inspector Gadget, otherwise known as Superhubby, does indeed have one of those thingies. He tells me to tell you that it's called an "optical pyrometer". There, you REALLY wanted to know that didn't you :-) ?
Post a Comment
<< Home