The Very Best News

Chase went back to the vet on Friday for follow up x-rays. The x-rays were more for peace of mind than anything. He has actually been home from his stall rest vacation for two weeks now, and has been much sounder. Since it wasn't an emergency I waited until my Friday off to haul him in rather than take time off work.

With how good he's been feeling and moving I was sure we were going to be keeping him around, no matter what the pictures showed.

Thankfully, the x-rays showed marked improvement!

One side of the joint is completely fused, and the other is almost there. The vet said there wasn't much point in putting him back in the brace and stall rest as long as he's not a total lunatic in the pasture. Essentially as the fused side lays down more bone growth and gets stronger it will keep the motion minimized and the other side will continue to fuse.

This one shows a really clear difference, and illustrates the ringbone portion

Basically, this is a better outcome than the vet expected. We are supposed to just let him be a pasture pet for another 12 weeks and then we can start riding him if we want. He's still an older, arthritic horse, so in all likelihood his riding will be contained to carting beginners on trail rides, but that's totally ok because he will still be with us. Harassing us for all the cookies, keeping the rest of the herd in line and being his generally annoying puppy-dog self.

Cookies go here...ALL the cookies

Adventures in Ringbone

At this point Chase belongs to my SO more than me. He works out of town and every single day he wants me to send him a picture of Chase. He rarely wants pictures of me or the dogs but he'll harass me if I forget to send one of Chase (he legitimately installed a better light on the front of the barn so I could take pictures after dark).

So it's been pretty rough for him this fall as Chase began to slow down and become more and more lame on that left front. We decided that it was time to take him back to the vet for more x-rays to evaluate where we're at.

Quick recap: Chase has ringbone and significant joint space narrowing in the left front. We've done a series of injections to facilitate the fusion of  P1&P2

With the alcohol injections he showed major improvement. In the week after his first one he cantered for the first time since I brought him home last fall. We did another in June and again in August. He was down to 1/2 a Previcox and was sassy and sound enough to take the Boy for trail rides.

As it got colder I noticed he moved around less and he was looking more and more lame. Cue a serious discussion with the Boy about quality of life. We decided to take him in for a new set of X-rays and a serious discussion with the vet.

The new X-rays show marked degradation and definite bone on bone. Basically it's trying to fuse really hard, but every time Chase moves he breaks apart part of the calcification that his body is trying to lay down. So what we've been attempting to facilitate  is actually happening. Unfortunately it's extremely painful (as anyone who has ever experienced bone-on-bone pain can attest to).

March 2016

November 2016

One treatment path my vet had used successfully in a similar case was bracing the lower limb to minimize movement. Basically a special shoe is built that allows for metal supports to be connected to it. Then the leg is strapped to the whole contraption. (I asked about a cast and he told me why it wouldn't work but I can't remember why for the life of me) Then 3-4 weeks of stall rest, doing the very best to keep them still.

The Boy and I debated our options for the rest of the day, but ultimately it came down to what he wanted to do. It is his horse and I've had some major financial challenges this fall so he is footing the bill. Ultimately we decided to forge forward with this experiment.

Thankfully my farrier is the best! He's actually a welder and teaches welding at a local college as a day job (he got burned out doing feet full-time) and he's super interested in anatomy and movement. I couldn't have asked for the more perfect person to build the apparatus.

Let me tell you though, trying to coordinate my vet and farrier simultaneously was like trying to herd cats on speed!

Chase also got 1 more alcohol injection into the joint (which was not an easy feat considering how little space actually exists in there). Then my farrier built one of the coolest/strangest things I've ever seen attached to a foot (in his words "I didn't miss a single day of farrier school, and they never covered this!").


It's a bit of a production to get him set up, but hey, it could be worse. First I wrap him from hoof to knee with a no-bow. Then the space in the shoe is packed with a tightly rolled polo (originally we were supposed to use a high density foam but after mashing the polo down to the consistency of a brick actually works better). Then another wrap from fetlock to knee. Next I wrap the entire brace to the leg, very, very tightly, paying close attention to the pastern piece. Finally vet wrap the whole thing to make sure it stays in place.

That is all one solid piece built right onto the shoe.

The back brace, it's got bolts welded to the bottom so I just have remove the nuts to take it off.

The final product, basically a giant elephant stump

So for now Chase is currently living the pampered life in a box stall. Before this he'd never spent more than a day in a stall so I was concerned about keeping him chill (the vet even gave me a Rx for sedatives). Turns out it's a complete non issue. He seems super happy about it. He's getting tons of attention from the barn owner and her young kids, plus I'm out there every evening. He also got to avoid the deep freeze of the last 10 days.

Still a total character

He did end up with a small pressure sore almost right away but we've modified the back piece and it's now improving.

Fingers crossed that this works. I'm not quite ready to say goodbye to my favourite cookie monster.

NQR

Dee's hocks were injected in May. After the injections I noticed that the stopping problem we had picked up improved, but that was the only difference. Every other experience I've had with joint injections has resulted in a dramatic difference.

After XC at Buster Creek she was really insistent that I not lift her hind legs too high while removing her corks. I started noticing that after work she's not quite right about her back end. She's also been struggling extra hard with roundness and relaxation and occasionally take some NQR steps in the back (no one else notices, but I sure do).

I booked her another appointment at the vet to coincide with Chase's next set of alcohol injections (which, once he's done the full set will get a post of their own because holy-moly, what an improvement).

Her hocks are solid so the vet moved up. And now her SI joint is presenting as sore, as is her lower back. 

After an extensive discussion we ultimately decided to shockwave her back and SI area. The other option was SI injections but we decided to go the less invasive route.

Dee was a rockstar for the shockwave and then the vet and her tech geeked out and put K-Tape on her, with instructions to leave it on as long as it stuck (or take it off on Sunday before my show, which ever came first).

This was 2 weeks ago and they told me I would see an improvement with 72 hours.

Unfortunately, Dee is still sore in her back and there's been no change really. After a bunch of research and conversations I've decided that SI injections are my line in the sand. I'm not going to take that step at this time.

Instead, I  have decided to try giving her some time off jumping to see if there is any improvement.

So our eventing season is over (I've got one more recap though) and I'm ok with it. I'm hoping to bring her back into full work to go to the Gorsline jumper show where we won so much money last year, but time will see. 

I adore this horse. She's done so much for me in the two years I've had her and she owes me nothing.

If her body can't handle the stress of jumping and eventing at this level then we will move onto Plan B but for now I'm crossing my fingers.

Hock Injections

As I mentioned I made Dee an appointment with the vet after she started stopping at all the jumps. I decided to use Mom's vet again as thy specialize in sport horses and do a lot of maintenance on high-performance horses (think cutting horses worth upwards of $250,000).


Dr. Gayle started out by examining Dee. She hardly believed me that she is 19, and that she's a Saddlebred. She told me that she looks really good, and super fit. It's always nice to have a little professional validation. I also told her that she is on a monthly dose of Adequan (or the generic when we can't get it into Canada) and a monthly dose of Legend for show season. All in a preemptive effort to preserve old-lady legs. She thought that is a sound plan and didn't think it warranted adjustment.

Getting fit and shiny

We flexed her front legs and she trotted out clean and sound.

Then she had a mild positive on her left hock. And was nearly crippled after flexing her right hock. We discussed how she is a 19 year-old performance horse who's never had a joint injected. We discussed that her hocks are a very likely culprit for her stopping as she doesn't want to rock back and push off. We briefly discussed doing X-Rays but opted to do injections straight away and X-Ray at a later date if there is no improvement.

Dr. Gayle always does 3 injections into each hock (many vets do two) because she finds much greater success with the extra shot.

She twitched out a needle and her wet white legs made it look super awful
(concerning the first year vet student)

We also pulled a Coggins, did vaccinations and got Chase's alcohol injection while we were there. Add in some Bute, Previcox and the vaccinations for Chase and LittleAsshole and I closed my eyes and wept a little inside at the total. Who needs money for groceries or gas anyways?

Dee got a day off with some Bute and then two days of slow, straight, easy hacks (just to get the blood moving). By Thursday she was back to full work. The injections should reach full effectiveness within 14 days.

I figured we'd have a nice dressage school in the outdoor before our lesson on Friday. I only had 40 minutes to ride before I had to run home and help The Boy fix the brakes on the truck. As we all know, horses give no shits about your timelines. Dee was a fire-breathing, almost out of control dragon. We had no go, barely any ability to turn. All she wanted to do was GO! After fighting with her for just about 30 minutes, just asking her to walk and trot in a reasonable manner I finally gave up on a circle. We finished the ride with some leg yielding into downward transitions because she can't run off on me that way (without being uber belligerent, which she isn't). I got a couple of good ones and called it quits.

Friday's dressage lesson was a tad more subdued but Irina commented that her fitness is impressive and how she was sure feeling fiery. Suffice it to say I think she's feeling pretty good! Turns out all that conditioning I put in this spring is there, it was just masked by pain, tiring her out faster.

Thankfully Dr. Gayle figures we likely won't have to do her hocks again for 12-18 months, since she is so solid and on maintenance already.

The Old Man is Going to Discover the Joys of Alcohol

So my old man has been getting progressively lamer. Some days he's almost completely sound. But some days he's so lame he's basically crippled.

When he came home this fall I was told that he had an intermittent minor lameness and their vet figured it was arthritis in his shoulder. My vet took two seconds to laugh at that diagnosis. Chase very obviously has ringbone in the front left (his crooked leg). The game plan was Previcox to keep him comfortable and Bute when we wanted to ride him (mostly walking trail rides).

That plan was no longer working so I scheduled an appointment with my mom's vet, who focuses on sports medicine and soundness evaluations. I made sure the Boy stuffed Chase full of cookies and apples before we left because I wasn't sure if I would be bringing a horse home. I am not prepared to dump thousands of dollars into an 18 year old pasture pet if the problem is only going to get worse and he would continue to be uncomfortable.

Dr. Chad went straight into X-Raying the front leg. I'm not super educated about what a normal X-Ray of the lower limb should look like but I could tell right away that it sure didn't look good.

The whole lower limb shows a fair amount of arthritis. He's got narrowing of the joint space between P1 & P2.

Dr. Chad figures this is why some days he's crippled. Basically if he takes a funny step, trips or is too exuberant he can squish the nerve between the two bones and it causes extreme pain.

There is also evidence of degredation of the tendon's where they connect to the bone (I can't remember which ones, the superficial digital flexor for sure though).

The good news is that Dr. Chad thinks the joint is well on it's way to fusing. If we can get it to fuse then Chase should be pasture sound for sure, and very likely riding sound. Since surgery is not an option for me (too expensive and too risky) we are going to give injections a go.

For comparison's sake, this is Ritchie's 4yo X-Rays from his Stallion licensing.
(The vet said they were some of the cleanest X-Ray's she'd ever seen)

We went ahead and did a cortisone injection. We need to see if we can get the pain and inflammation under control before moving onto the next step. In 45-60 days we will do the first of a series of ethyl injections. We will then likely do a series of 3-5 injections, each 45 days apart. At that point we will do more X-Rays to see if it is fusing. Dr. Chad sent me the research that has been done and it appears that ethyl injections (it's basically Everclear) have been quite successful at fusing joints.

Stabby Stabby

It's been almost 2 weeks since the cortisone injection and Chase still has good and bad days but the bad days aren't nearly as bad and there are fewer of them.

I'm really glad I got to bring the old man home and that we have a game plan to make him comfortable. Even if we never ride him again, just seeing his face every day makes me immeasurably happy.

Who wouldn't want to be mugged for cookies by this face?

Herd Health

I took my whole herd somewhere for the first time. Next time, I hope we go somewhere more exciting/less expensive than the vet. I almost always haul in to my vet. Partially because I'm just over an hour away from the clinic and partially because I just find it easier. In cases of emergency I will use a vet who is closer to home but for general maintenance and lameness I will continue to haul to my vet.

I love having well-behaved horses. Everyone loaded great, stood quietly and was really good for the vet. Chase and Dee both needed their teeth done. I had Dee's done last fall when I bought her and had hoped to leave them until spring when I take her in for her Coggins and vaccinations. She's a super sloppy eater and had started to eat treats with her head tilted sideways. Since Chase hadn't had his teeth done in years I figured I'd get them both done. I popped Sullivan in the trailer since he could use the miles and I wanted to get a fecal done on all 3.

I find drunk ponies endlessly amusing.

It turns out that Dee's teeth were fine. After some investigation it was discovered that the reason she is a messy eater is a partially paralyzed facial nerve. It's fairly subtle but one side of her muzzle droops (and she won't stand still enough for me to grab a photo of it) and her front teeth don't close at rest. There is nothing we can do for it and it shouldn't cause her any major issues, just something to keep an eye on in the future.

Despite all 3 horses being on a thorough worming regime (all slightly different since they all came from different places) they all had a high worm count. The vet actually had to look up one variety that Chase had. So all 3 got hit with Eqvalan Gold and then will get done again in 3 weeks with SafeGuard.

Chase also had a brief lameness exam. And by brief I really do mean brief. The vet took one look at him and confirmed my thoughts. He's got ringbone on the front left (his crooked leg). So it's now about making him comfortable. With bute he's sound enough to go for a short, slow trail ride and that works for us.

With that crooked leg it's surprising he stayed sound until he was 17

I also had a long conversation with the vet about maintenance for Dee. Currently she is on a monthly shot of Ichon but at the end of the season I noticed some stiffness that was taking her quite awhile to work out of. As I'm hoping to upgrade to Training, I want to make sure we are doing our very best to support the old lady joints. So now she has a prescription for Legend as well. The plan is to do the loading dose in the spring and then keep her on a monthly shot for the show season and then reassess next fall. It's ok, who needs money anyways?

It was an expensive morning but it was also really nice to have all 3 horses looked at and to have the second vet non-believing how old Dee is. It was also gratifying to have my vet agree that at Dee's current fitness and soundness level there is absolutely no reason not to upgrade her back to Training. He thinks she could have many years of a competitive career left if we are careful and manage her well.

Both her appearance and behaviour are misleadingly young