Cody Pushes the Green Ball

Another sunny but cold day at the barn. It seemed a little chillier today than yesterday actually. Cody was nappping when I drove up so I took some photos of him and grabbed Axel first. B was in the arena playing with Diva and the green ball. Axel ate up his MSM as usual. He seemed very slightly less lame today so I brought him into the arena for a bit to move around. He's still much more lame in the arena footing than he is on the cement or even the ice in the drive way. But, we might be getting closer to the light at the end of the tunnel because I swear he seemed a little less lame.

I put him out side and Cody was up from his nap so I brought him in to ride a bit. I saddled him up this time in case he was feeling frisky with Diva in the arena or in case I wanted to trot or canter a bit. Diva was pushing around the green ball with her legs so Cody and I tried several times before we finally pushed the ball. We made a big fuss telling Cody he was a good boy when he pushed it. He's still not going to run in there and play with the ball by himself but at least he finally trusted me enough to do what I said.

B and I swapped horses for a few minutes and I got to try out Diva. She's got the big big big arab trot, that's for sure. She does have a WP trot but it's still got a lot of action and would be tough to sit for too long. We even cantered a bit but it took me a couple tries to get to it. She's so little, it's like my feet touch each other. B got Cody to trot and canter a bit as well, he was being pretty cooperative. It got cold pretty fast when we stopped working so I untacked Cody and took him back out side. I couldn't stand around too long without freezing so that was the end of hanging out at the barn. Can't wait til it's a bit warmer.

Sunny Saturday

Axel is the same, didn't expect anything more. Groomed him and gave him his MSM and put him back outside. Perhaps tomorrow I'll give him some bute and have him move around a bit. He has been laying down, his right side was dirty again so he doesn't hurt so much that he won't lay down. And if he's going down on that knee that could explain the increased swelling. Poor boy, I hope we can get this under control soon. As he decided to humor me and drop I checked out his boy parts and they are pretty dirty. A lot dirtier than I think he should be after being cleaned by the vet a month ago. A mentioned that Axel wasn't dropped when the vet was cleaned and he was just mopping out the inside of his sheath. So now I'm wondering if there is a bean or something. If it was warmer I could maybe see what I can find.

So I brought Cody into the barn and A brought in Vinnie. We did a little bit of ground work in the arena and he was paying pretty good attention considering Vinnie was also doing some work. He was less than thrilled when Vinnie left and it took us quite some time to stand still at the mounting block. At one point we even did a bit of side passing/leg yielding. When he finally stood still I hopped on bareback. Riding a horse bareback in the winter = heated seats. He had a tough time concentrating but we worked on some circles in the corners of the arena and I worked on more subtler cues. A brought Danny in for a bit and moved him around a little before taking him back outside. When I got off Cody and removed his bridle he jumped around and ran to the gate. He really wanted to go out. I finished cleaning up the arena before I took Cody back outside. Since I'm a wimp and don't trot or canter bareback he was only a bit damp from nerves so I didn't have to cool him out. The sun was really warm and everyone was soaking it up outside and a big hawk was waiting on the fence post.

ETA: Doing a little research on MSM and DMSO, here's a few links with some interesting information -
http://www.vitaflex.com/res_msmdmso2a.php
http://www.dmso.org/articles/information/muir.htm

Axel's Puffy Knee

Poor boy. When I drove up to the barn today I thought for sure Axel was going to be 3 legged lame. It seemed like I could see his swollen knee from the driveway and he looked like he was standing kind of funny. When I haltered him up and walked him toward the gate he didn't seem much different than usual. I think he is a bit more swollen than Tuesday but his knee was also dirty so he must have went down on it at some point maybe to roll or sleep. I gave him his MSM which he greedily ate up. His other swelling seems about the same from what I can tell, no major change there at least.

I put him in the arena to see how he walked in there to determine if I should give him some bute or not. He seems to walk better on the cement than he does in the arena for some reason. Maybe the uneven ground and deeper footing is harder to deal with. He was maybe a tiny bit more lame but not nearly as lame as I expected when I drove up so I decided not to give him bute this time. I'd rather he feel a bit of the pain and not overdo it than to feel nothing and hurt himself worse. I'll probably give him some this weekend so he can move around a bit easier as it's supposed to get warmer.

Ice Skating Horses

So since it melted and rained all weekend and now it's super cold again, the driveway at the barn is an ice rink. Axel and I skated up to the barn and went in through the tack room to avoid more ice. He gobbled up his MSM as usual and I groomed him a bit. His right knee is a bit swollen in the front, you can't really see it in the photos I had taken. It's very mildly puffier than his other knee and he was pretty sore today even. I put him in the arena to see if he wanted to roll or anything. He mostly just stood around until J drove by outside with the skid loader. Then he decided he'd rather be on the other side of the arena as fast as possible. He cantered around sound and then broke to a very lame walk. So I still have my fingers crossed that the MSM will kick in soon but I'm guessing this super cold weather isn't going to help anything.

Cody get his hair dried

So here's a photo of Axel's knees from tonight. Pretty much exactly the same as the previous photos. With a bit of additional winter hair of course.

He was still pretty gimpy today and trying to walk across the ice rink to the barn didn't help of course. He loves his MSM though and I think he's much happier getting his treats now that they don't taste bad. He walked around the arena a bit but he didn't want to roll so we went back outside.

Cody was waiting his turn when I brought Axel out. He was a bit more snowy so I groomed him up pretty good. He had some nice platform snow shoes on his front feet so I bet he was glad to have them picked out. I free lunged him for a while at the trot and canter, not too much so he didn't get sweaty. We worked on some ground work after that. I think I need a refersher course on some of the ground work stuff I feel like we're stuck and not quite getting to where we want to be with moving parts of Cody's body and eventually lateral movements. He still wants to always look at the gate when we're in there.

When we were done playing in the arena I put Cody back in the aisle to see how he'd react to the hair dryer. He was actually still a little wet from the snow so I figured it was a good time to try. He wasn't too sure of the whole deal. He behaved really well but he was pretty concerned with what was going on. I managed to dry a spot on his withers but the hair dryer on low seemed really cool. When I tried it at home the high setting seemed really hot but now low seems too low. Who knows, it did dry him off in that spot pretty well. I'll keep working with him on that so when we really need it he isn't surprised.

Axel just might be arthritic afterall

So here we are thinking Axel's knee is kind of swollen. But it's not soft and it's not hot and it doesn't look a whole lot different to me. J says it's big. So being the OCD type I am I go and look at my Flickr photos and search for "Axel" and "leg" and I find this picture I took in May of 2009. If you'll note his right knee, it's kind of bigger near the bottom than his left. A little more pointy and this is what J is seeing.

Follow that up with a photo from May of 2008 (I guess I take leg photos in May oddly enough) where you can clearly see his knees are generally big. The right a bit bigger than the left. I'll have to take another photo of what he looks like right now but I don't think there's any change.

So I cross check the dates with entries in my blog and I find out that he was sore and stiff in his left knee nearly the whole winter '07-'08. May 2008 we start him on the 4-in-1 HA that has a variety of joint supplements. There's no mention of lameness for the whole winter of '08-'09 while he was on the supplement. I took him off the supplement in Nov. 2009 with the thoughts that joint stuff wasn't going to help ringbone at all. Forgetting that maybe I had him on there for his other joints. And now he's sore in his right knee. So even though he's not working out of his pain in the arena i wondering if this is just arthritis acting up.

I'm going to load him with MSM and keep him on that for the rest of the winter and see what happens. I'll get some X-rays this spring (if it doesn't get worse before then) and we'll see where we're at, if it's indeed arthritis. If so we'll probably keep up with the MSM if it's working and maybe add DMSO or Surpass or something for times when it flares up. I can't believe I didn't remember that he has a sore knee a couple years ago. Especially since it was sore all winter just like now. The MSM is supposedly an anti-inflammatory so maybe it'll also help his sheath swelling.

Axel is Pregnant

Okay not really but he sure looks it. Between the hay belly and the edema he looks like he's ready to have a baby any day now. I brought him into the barn to get him cleaned up and work a bit. He was surprisingly dry so it must not have rained much since I was out yesterday. I put him in the arena for a while and got him moving a bit. He cantered quite a bit and looked pretty good. Some stints of trot were a little off but that was expected. He was moving pretty good so I threw a bridle on and went to get on. Took me 4 tries to jump on him and he kept walking away before I could get all the way up. Of course as soon as I get on and walk a bit he starts limping. I thought maybe he'd work through it but the more we walked the more he limped. So my inexperienced diagnosis of arthritis might not be correct. Now I'm thinking something like bursitis from an injury to his knee. Maybe he wacked it rolling or something. If it was arthritis I think he would have worked through it and not gotten worse.

Riley was in getting lunged and Vinnie was in working on some stuff. Axel had gotten a bit sweaty just from walking, maybe from the pain. He looked like he wanted to roll but there was so much going on he never did go down. So we ended up staying in the arena and watching and walking a bit and chatting with everyone. I ended up giving him some MSM and some bute. I'll be able to get out to the barn a bit more the next few weeks so I'll keep giving him the MSM just incase it's arthritis plus he likes it and eats it well. He did actually finish all his bute too so that was nice. I'll probably keep the bute to a minimum and see how he does. If he doesn't start getting a little better it might be time to have the vet out (again) and do some x-rays. I wanted to get some films of his back legs anyway might as well throw in his fronts. If he is predisposed to arthritis it'd be good to have some films of where he's at.

The swelling still hasn't gone down even with the warmer weather and reports of him moving around a lot more in the pasture. I'm still wondering if it's an allergic reaction to the round bales but they haven't been getting their bales from the same place. Who knows. I think I say that a lot lately. Dallas came in today with a big blister looking thing on his back leg. It wasn't there yesterday when L&S had him in riding. I guess gimpy horse syndrom is going around these days.

Back in the Saddle ... again

Axel is still puffy and his knee is still kind of stiff/tender. But I figured he at least needed to come in out of the rain for a little while. He actually rolled in the arena and that dried him off almost completely. I chased him around a bit to get him moving, he was pretty gimpy but willing to move. More willing to canter than trot but I suppose the canter puts less weight on his front legs than a trot does. Between the hay belly and his swelling he looks pregnant, poor boy. I'm not sure why the swelling isn't really going away but it doesn't seem to be bothering him so ... who knows.

I had put Cody in a stall while I putzed around with Axel for a bit but he was not happy even with all the stuff going on. I figured Axel wasn't going to be happy in stall so I put him back outside by himself. Vinnie, Dallas, and Riley were all in the barn to ride so I tacked up Cody. First time he's had a saddle on since November. He wasn't excited but it fits really well now with his new found weight. It's funny to feel how wide he is now. Everyone tried to get their horses to push around the big green ball but Vinnie was really the only one that wanted to push it. We spent most of the time just sitting in the middle of the arena and chatting but I had Cody canter both leads and he went right into it without speed trotting so that was nice.

When we were done riding we decided to let Cody, Dallas, and Riley loose in the arena. We figured there wouldn't be too many fireworks and maybe they'd roll or play with the ball. Dallas rolled, then Riley rolled, then Cody rolled but they all kept their own space and didn't mingle. I finally shooed Cody away from the gate and he went over to meet the other horses. There was some sniffing and Cody did some squealing but Riley didn't back down and was nibbling on Cody a bit. Cody finally established his leadership and chased both horses away but it was all very civil as far as horse hierarchy goes. I figure if Cody meets all the other horses he'll be a little calmer riding with them in the arena or on the trail. He had been a little worked up at first but he did settle in while we rode, it has been nearly two months so I can't really blame him.

Axel's turn today ...

The Big Green Ball Part I

I finally brought the big green ball out to the barn on the request of the other boarders. I've been so busy I'm never around to hang out with everyone and they really want to play with the ball. It was an interesting sight getting the ball in and out of the mini fully inflated. I'll say this, filling up the ball using the exhaust port on the shop vac worked like a charm.

So Axel is feeling a little better. He's still puffy, no better or worse. His knee is still a little swollen but he's walking better. He only had bute on Friday when he was really lame. J said he was running around all weekend with his tail up in the air so I guess he was feeling pretty good. He took it easy in the arena this time. Maybe another week if taking it easy will help and I'll be able to ride or lunge him next week. He actually knickered at me when I came out tonight, I guess he's expecting his medicine + apple sauce + grain mixture. Too bad for him he doesn't have any antibiotics left. Though I stashed a thing of applesauce in case he needs some bute. He wanted around the arena a bit and tried to bite the big green ball but he wasn't getting too riled up about anything.

Cody wasn't as excited to come in the barn. But I haven't groomed or done anything with him in a while so we needed some quality time. For a few minutes I thought he was swollen on his belly just like Axel but I think that's what you call fat, something Cody hasn't had in a year.

Cody wasn't scared of the green ball at all but he wasn't interested in it either. I free lunged him a bit, he was reluctant to trot. I finally went to get on bareback for a while. I guess nearly two months off has made Cody forget how to stand still at the mounting block. We had to do a lot of circles (these he wasn't so reluctant and even cantered when he knew I meant business) before he would stand stil, even then it wasn't perfect. But! Cody is now a decent weight to ride bareback and not feel like you're sitting on a 2x4. Yay! We mostly just walked around and tried to push the green ball but Cody wasn't too sure about that idea and kept going around it. We ended with some acceptable rein back before he got to go back outside (not sweaty this time).

Whoops

I guess I spoke too soon when I said someone was feeling better. Well perhaps he was feeling better but by Friday he wasn't feeling too great again. He must have over done it on Tuesday because Axel was limping again on Friday. We stopped by the barn on the way out of town to check on the boys and let the puppy run off some steam before the long car ride. Axel was really gimpy so I gave him the last of his antibiotics and 2g of bute. He must have just started hurting because J had just noticed it when I was bringing him back outside. I'm hoping if he takes it easy for a week or two he'll be back to feeling good. I'm not quite sure what's up with his knee but I'm guessing either more arthritis or he just tweaked it on the ice/snow and retweaked it while freaking out in the arena on Tuesday. I'm sure he's getting tired of being an invalid.

I plan to bring the big green ball out tonight to the barn. If Axel is feeling okay I might turn him loose with it in the arena to check it out. I should get Cody out and ride him a bit as well. Sadly this is my only day this week to go out and ride. Normally I'd be okay with that since I'm pretty sure the horses are in no hurry to get back to work but with Axel being so swelled up I really wanted to get him moving and working again. Teaching two nights a week is kind of taking its toll already. Next week I can get out there Mon and Tue and the week after Jeff is gone for work so maybe Sat, Sun, Mon, Tue, Fri, early Sat, and Sun I think. Hopefully the weather holds it's been so nice out lately.

Someone is feeling better - Tuesday at least

After giving Axel his next to last dose of antibiotics last night I put him in the arena with the intention to lunge him. I even put his bell boots on so I could make him move without worrying about him kicking himself. So I put him in the arena and unsnap his lead line so I can grab the lunge line and ... he's off. Running and bucking and snorting and blowing. The kind of thing you expect to see a horse do after standing around in a pasture in the snow for weeks. I would click at him and then run away and he'd hop up on his hind legs almost like a rear and then take off running and bucking. He must have been in a playful mood.

I'm not going to say he's back to 100% but he must have felt better enough to blow off some steam. And it was good to see. He's getting so fat. His sheath is still swollen and he's a little stiff/gimpy. But if he's willing to move like this then maybe we can work off some of the swelling. Unfortunately I won't be around this weekend at all. So hopefully the warm weather will inspire some movement in the pasture. J thought his right knee did look a little bigger than the left. It's hard to tell, he's so lumpy and big anyway. There's one spot where I can kind of see it but it's not hot or tender to the touch. But I have plenty of bute if he ever needs it!

I ended up jumping on him bareback for a while. Which had it been any other horse but Axel (or Cody for that matter) I wouldn't have done. He hasn't been ridden in a month and a half. He had just gotten done tearing around the arena. I didn't have my helmet or a bridle. But it's Axel so I got on and we walked around. He's a little gimpy with a rider but I figured a little bit of a workout was the best thing for him. Not that walking in a circle for 2 minutes is much of a work out. But I should ease him back into it. Luckily his leg stretching in the arena did not get him sweaty so he was able to go back outside right away. J had just ridden Amigo for a while and he was confined to his stall with a cooler on and he was not happy about it.

Since I'm gone this weekend I brought Cody in for a once-over and a romp. He wasn't as willing to kick up his heels but with a lunge while and some clicking he took off and even threw in a few bucks. He's fun to get wound up in the arena like that because as soon as you drop the whip he stops and stands and looks at you, always at a respectful distance, wondering what's next.

The ladies at the barn are getting fed up with me. I keep saying we should play with the big green ball but then I go to the farm on the weekend. We were planning on being in town this weekend but something came up so we're going to the farm instead. And it's supposed to be warm out. They think I should leave them the green ball to play with. Maybe I should leave them the ball if they promise to bring Axel in and let him play for a bit. Good way to give him a chance to move around while I'm gone.

Still Not 100%

Axel is still not 100% but we're working on it. I tried to get him to move around a bit more in the arena last night. I clicked at him and he bounced around pinning his ears at me. I find it entertaining that I can simply click at a 1200lb animal and despite him being sore or sick he still tries to do what I'm asking though he's not happy about it. But he's going to have to get moving around. I'll probably try and lunge him a bit and get him to trot and see where he's at. It's hard to tell if he's sore or just stiff and lazy.

He's a little slow to finish his meds these days. I guess the applesauce isn't that great of a treat any more. It took us a while but he did finally finish just about all of it. I think there is only less than 2 doses left so that'll be nice when it's done. The vet agrees on massage and movement and said acupuncture might help as well. We'll just start with the easy ones first.

But boy is that horse getting chubby. It's kind of hard to tell if he's fat or if it's the swelling but I think it's mostly fat. He's round round round and is going to have to do some serious work when he starts feeling better. The next week or so is supposed to be warm so hopefully he'll get moving around on his own in the pasture.

The Medicine Saga Continues

So Friday I experimented with an old de-worming syringe and applesauce and there was no way I could mix all of Axel's meds and have it be less than a million doses. So it was back to the drawing board. I ended up mixing the 3 scoops of antibiotics with two lunch size packages of applesauce and a bit of brown sugar. I mixed it up really well and then put that over some grain. Eureka! We had a winner! Axel ate every last drop of it. Just for kicks I put some bute in with some grain and apples and he actually ate quite a bit of that as well.

Saturday J said that he ate all of his meds again with the same mixture (just the antibiotics). Though J tried to bring him his meds out to the pasture and Vinnie tried to get his share.

So yesterday I went back out and brought him the applesauce mixture. He ate most of it but he might bet getting a little fed up with all these "special treatment." I put some bute in with some brown sugar and apples in some grain and he ate part of that but not much. I should only have a few more days of the antibiotics left so that'll be nice. I've been doing some massage as well and I've started lunging him at the walk for a few minutes each time I go out there. It'd be great if he was at least ridable at the walk this weekend to play with the big green ball but we'll see. He's kind of stiff now instead of completely gimpy. His belly swelling is almost completely gone but his sheath is still puffy and I don't think that inspires a lot of moving around. He has been laying in the hay so he must feel a bit better.

Seriously part II

I tell ya. If Axel decided he only liked needles he could get through a whole haystack and find that needle and touch nothing else in the process. I tried every last thing I had in my arsenal and I still couldn't get Axel to eat all his medicine. He managed to choke down the bute with some brown sugar and grain. But he did not want to eat much of the antibiotic. I tried the sugar, cinnamon, grain, those cookies I made, water, and apples. He can pick out a chunk of sugar and not touch any of the meds.

So it's no more Mrs Nice Girl. I'm going to mix the meds with apple sauce and put it in a de-worming syringe and force feed him it. I just hope I can get it all in one dose. I doubt I could get him to eat it twice or more. Darn horse.

His swelling hasn't gone down yet but he was perkier. He should feel pretty good tomorrow since he got most of his bute this time. His sheath was cooler to the touch than it has been in the past. So perhaps the swelling is going to start decreasing. Of course I'd feel better about it if he'd actually eat those meds.

Seriously?

I do not appreciate driving up to the barn to find my already sick horse laying in the pasture flat out with another horse hovering over him nudging him like he's dead. I just about broke my neck running out there to check on him. He wasn't dead. He didn't look like he had been struggling at all. But he couldn't get up. I went to get J to help, thinking we'd have to roll him over or something. It seemed like the crusty snow was preventing him from getting up. While J was finding clothes the vet drove up.

Axel was sick of Vinnie pestering him and was trying to chase him off without getting up. He was stretching out his legs and neck and squirming around. The vet drove up to me and said "that's not your horse is it?" Um yes it is, not exactly the sight you want to see when you drive up to a place. We were discussing what we thought was the issue when Axel must have finally had the last straw with Vinnie and got up. J had just gotten back to the house and Axel wasn't down then. So we think he went down to roll and couldn't get back up. He was laying on his right side and his right knee has been sore the past 2 days. He probably didn't want to tuck that leg under himself to get up. When he finally got sick enough of Vinnie he bit the bullet and managed to get up.

He had been laying down long enough to melt the snow and was pretty wet. The vet checked out his knee. There was nothing obvious but he was very tender and didn't want to bend it. He probably just tweeked it out on the ice but if it doesn't improve in a week or so he wants to get it x-rayed. So Axel got his IV of Lasix and I got a pile of other meds and a bill. 3 huge scoops of anti-biotics per day until the container is gone and 2g of bute per day for 5 days. We'll check in with the vet in 5 days and see how he's doing, the horse not the vet.

I put Axel in the barn and threw a wool blanket and his cooler on to try and dry him up a bit. Supposedly it's going to get windy sometime soon so I didn't want him soaking and standing outside. So while he dried I thought I better give him his first dose of meds to make sure he would eat them. So 3 scoops of antibiotics is a whole boat load of powder. That combined with a scoop or two of bute and there's more powder in the bucket than grain. I got another thing of bute from the vet, this time unflavored because I thought Axel didn't like the apple flavor. In the end I think he doesn't like any flavor. He ate quite a bit at first, after blowing his nose in the bucket and spreading quite a bit of the meds all over himself and me. But he couldn't bring himself to finish all of it. I tried to get him to eat for quite some time but he just wasn't into it.

By the time I put him out he wasn't completely dry but he was a bit better and he seemed fairly perky. I don't want to have J&J trying to give him these meds and him not eating them so I brought everything home to try and formulate some sort of plan.

So my first thought was mix his meds up with some good stuff and make some treats. But I was reading my homemade horse treats book and it said not to mix the meds in until you were ready to serve. I'm not sure that it would make a huge difference but since he's supposed to eat all of that antibiotic I don't want to waste any.

So I mixed up a few different things and put them in a muffin tin. My idea is that I would put his meds inside these little "cups" and then squish them closed. However, with the amount of meds he has to eat, I'd probably need to give him six of these treats every day. Maybe that's not a big deal. I'm worried that he'll get one in his mouth, think it's great, start chewing and then BAM! gross med taste and then he will refuse the others. I had some extra treat mixtures so I brought them to WCR to try them out on those horses and see if they would eat them in the first place. They approved of my treats. They were really sticky though and the horses made all sorts of contortions to try and eat them.

So I think tonight I will go out and try a little at a time. I think my first try will be one scoop of powder, some brown sugar, and some sweet feed. If that works we'll try it again. If that doesn't work well then I'll put some in one of my treats. I could also try mixing the powder with Karo syrup and putting that on some feed. I think I have enough ammo to at least get him to eat today's meds. I also have some apples which seem to mask the taste of some meds.

I'll probably give him his meds tomorrow and Sunday as well but if we go to the farm I'll have to have J&J try and give it to him. So I'm hoping the brown sugar trick works, it would be the easiest for me to get ready for them and easiest for them to serve. The bute will only be served til Monday. I'm not sure how long the antibiotics will last, maybe 7-10 days. So I should be able to get out there through Tuesday at least without rearranging my life.

Ahh ponies, I hope he appreciates what I do for him!

Drive-by

Got a call from the vet with the blood test results. No major issues showed up. All organ functions were fine. The only blip was slightly elevated muscle enzymes at 640 but it doesn't sound like that's of too much concern. It certain explains why Axel is pretty achy looking. Plus the minor elevation could just be his lack of work both this whole year and more recently the last month and a half. So the vet is coming out tomorrow at 1 to give me his meds and administer a dose of lasix. I think he's going to try anti biotics for now and see if his issue is just a localized infection.

So I stopped by the store on the way home and picked up a big pill organizer. J&J said to just let them know what they need to give Axel went the vet gets the diagnosis and I was trying to figure out the easiest way for them give him his meds without a whole lot of hassle. My assumption is that it'll be some powders and opening baggies with gloves on is a hassle. Even opening some tupperware things would be tough. That's when I thought of the big pill boxes. So assuming Axel's meds fit in the box I have them all labeled with dates. That way no matter who feeds they can see if he's gotten his meds that day yet or not. Hopefully that will work out and be easy for everyone.

So Cody survived being turned out last night with slightly damp hair. And I did find my old hair dryer so I'll leave that at the barn as well. Axel was actually the only one standing at the round bale when I got there. He looked up at me very bright eyed and not as mopey as he has been. His belly "lump" has changed. It's still there but it's kind of spread out, it's harder to see from afar now. Maybe it is starting to go away? Who knows. His sheath is still swollen. Hopefully the vet will get him fixed up and feeling good in no time.

Back to Work

Brought Axel into the arena to clean out his feet and see if he wanted to move around. No such luck. He's still looking pretty sad. This time when I picked out his front right and put it down he was lame on it. Seemed like it was his knee. I'm wondering if he's just all over achey from the swelling and not moving around and the billion below zero temperatures. Haven't heard from the vet on the bloodwork yet. I hope it comes back soon so we can get started on some sort of treatment. It's sad seeing Axel so down.

Note to self: work horse in arena first, then bring in other horse while first horse is cooling out. Sure would have saved some time.

So I brought Cody in and cleaned out his hooves and let him loose in the arena. He wasn't going to run around on his own so I started to free lunge him a bit. He hopped and skipped and kicked up his heals quite a bit. I put him on the lunge line to get a little more controlled work out of him. His preferred gait of the evening was canter. It was a lot of work to get him down to a trot and a collected trot was not going to happen. It took even more work to get him down to a walk. In all he probably ran around for 10 minutes at the most. And he was sweaty and wet. Not soaked to the bone but wet enough and steaming that I didn't want to turn him out right away. So for about a half hour we walked, wore a wool blanket, groomed, and waited. He finally stopped steaming and was cool to the touch but he was still a bit damp. I rubbed him down the best I could (which he does not appreciate) and brought him back outside. Luckily there wasn't much wind so I think he'll be okay.

So this would be the reason I haven't ridden since the beginning of December. Only a few minutes of work and we have to spend half the night waiting to dry off. Maybe I can find an old hair dryer. Not sure that Cody would enjoy that any more than being rubbed down. Time to throw some more blankets in the car. I wonder if riding with a quarter sheet would help at all, on second thought Cody was sweaty on his neck and chest so a quarter sheet wouldn't really help for that.

Another Vet

So the other vet I contacted came out this morning in the nearly unbearable -11F weather. He did a basic exam on Axel and took some blood for a test. He even listened to his heart and felt for some various pulses (something the other vet didn't do). From the sounds of it this vet does not think it's chronic heart failure (so yay to that). He explained a few things that it could be and said we'd hold off on any treatments til the bloodwork came back. He thought it might just turn out to be an infection in his sheath. Then he'd just put him on some oral antibiotics and some lasix to reduce the edema. So now we wait. I definitely like this vet better. He seems to be a bit of a nerd so he's just my style in that respect. His call charge seemed pretty inexpensive as well, so that's always a good thing. So now we wait.

Axel was a little down in the dumps even but it is super cold. I'd be down in the dumps if I was standing outside as well. But he grabbed for the hay bale by the door and drank water when I turned him out. So he's not off his feed yet or anything. His slightly swollen back leg seems to have un-swelled itself as well. So that seems like it was just a coincidence.

Still Puffy part 2

Another day, another visit. Axel is still swollen. No better, no worse. I went out yesterday before all the New Year's festivities. I walked Axel around the arena again for 15 minutes or so. The bute from the day before must have been working because he didn't seem lame. That back pastern is still swollen though. He was in the same mood as the day before. Pretty normal, a little cranky but willing to follow me around the arena.

I ended up emailing another vet today, one that another boarder uses and recommends. The vet emailed back within the hour (on a holiday) and is coming out tomorrow to check out Axel. He said "Ventral edema of the sort affecting your horse can be due to a number of causes. Among them, congestive heart failure, liver or kidney disease, low blood protein levels (hypoproteinemia) or vasculitis, as well as infection. I agree that a thorough physical exam with bloodwork, including serum biochemical profile and complete blood count would be appropriate." So yay, a vet that emails promptly and is willing to do a few tests. At least so far, I like him better than the previous. Though the barn owner's don't really like him, not sure why. To each their own of course. We'll see what he says about Axel tomorrow.