Cody likes it!

I made a quick stop out to the barn on Friday on my way out of town. I didn't want to go a whole week without checking on the boys. They're usually fine but I like to see with my own eyes and assess things like just how lame is Axel today. He was still "ok" on Friday after 5 days on and 2 days off bute. I pulled off their fly masks and checked for bugs and rub marks. Axel's got a little rub on the left side of his face, it's kind of low so I'm not sure if it's from the mask or what. The one thing I hate about fly masks is how they grind in the mud when they roll.

So I didn't make it out to the barn again until later last night. I had planned to ride but it was almost 8 already. Axel was back to his worse than normal limp so I gave him some bute, MSM, and put some DMSO on his knee. I'm hoping this new biting/chewing issue is due to pain and if we fix the pain the biting will stop. I walk up to him in the pasture and take off his fly mask to put on his halter and he either takes the fly mask or the halter or lead rope and tries to cram the whole thing in his mouth immediately. And he'll grab at the cross ties and bite down on them as hard as he can. I keep waiting for him to start wind sucking but so far he's just biting/chewing. He hasn't been on enough bute on a regular basis to cause ulcers so who knows what his deal is. He's grazing fine and doesn't seem to be chewing on the fence posts at all that I've noticed. He walked out a bit better after his meds and some grooming. I have a vet appointment for next Tuesday to block that knee and see what happens. From the sounds of it, if it's really arthritis and we numb the knee he should be sound and then we'll do an injection right into the joint. If we numb it and he isn't sound, well then I'm not sure what the problem would be. Seems unlikely that if the problem isn't located in his actual knee he'd be as swollen and as knobby as he is. J thought perhaps that right front is so bad because his hind left had been sore for so long and the compensation finally caused an issue. I really should have looked into major medical coverage for him a long time ago (just emailed an agent to find out if he has any literature he can send).

I put him out and grabbed Cody to get him groomed up. Cody has found a new love of rolling in the mud I think. He used to never be dirty but the past year or so he's always caked in mud and dirt I've even caught him laying down which I rarely did before. And despite our arguments over riding he's been getting a little more cooporative bit by bit. Since I can't get him to stand still to put desitin on his sun burnt nose I bought baby wipes with aloe, it probably won't really do much but it was worth a try. He stood really well for that last year and this year. I've even been able to clean out the dirt in his nose and he just stands there and lets me. I can scratch his ears when they are itchy and for the first time when I was scratching his face with the curry I got an honest to goodness lip curl. Of course wearing a fly mask makes for an itchy face but this is the first time he showed a visible reaction to enjoying his face curry time. Go Cody! So on top of him behaving and being really patient last night, the other horses were in their stalls eating dinner and I decided that my laziness would win and I wouldn't force Cody into doing work during dinner time. I hope he appreciates it!

Cody is not a Dressage Pony

So Wednesday was day 5 for Axel on bute. The swelling has gone down to a usual knobby arthritic size but he's still lame. Not *as* lame as he was on Sunday. I'm just happy he actually ate powdered bute from a bucket this time with very little fuss. Apparently bute + MSM tastes better than bute + antibiotics. I'll have to make sure there's always MSM around (which I will taste myself one of these days). I did an extra good grooming job since I'll probably be out at the farm this weekend of course I think it's supposed to rain the whole time so my grooming is probably gone to waste already along with the fly spray. Still June and I think I have to go buy another bottle. I might have to break down and get the big jug.

So I grabbed Cody and got him groomed up quickly and threw on his tack to ride in the arena with A and Danny. We're still having troubles tracking left but not quite as severe as before and I'm sure it makes a difference that this was day two of me riding him. I played a little with contact and trying to get Cody give to it, he did figure out the little exercise A showed me after a few tries. Part of his problem is that he doesn't like contact, it stresses him out or makes him nervous. So if he surges, I accidentally put more contact on the reins and then he freaks out and takes off even more. I don't know if it's worth it to try and get him to accept more direct rein contact or for me to learn to ride with less contact. Maybe a little of both? We actually had one nice round to the right of canter peppered with some bad spazzy moments but we ended up riding for more than an hour I think working on various things. So I still really need to get some long reins and work on ground driving with him as well as work building up his back. And then on top of all that my dressage saddle does not fit it. It's actually too narrow if you can believe that. But unless I some how stumble on an inexpensive saddle that fits we might be out of luck for a while. Anyone have a wide tree cut back 18" dressage saddle laying around?

Happy Birthday Cody!

Soooo I don't think the Chiropractor fixed our issue this time. Monday I got Cody ready to go and we went out on the road. I've had worse rides and I've had better. It was slow going out as usual. A few stops here and there. Speed increase when we turned toward home. And one "OMG I'm going to die if I don't get home instantly" episode when a truck drove by. So either this chiro isn't as good as the last or it was a fluke that the chiro and this issue went away at the same time a couple years ago or I have no idea. Luckily I don't usually have the urge to go riding down the road alone very often, it's just been a personal challenge so far. I'd much rather ride with other people.

Axel's forelock gets all funny under the fly mask so I decided to braid it and now he looks so fancy. I even had a yellow binder for him. Monday I gave him his bute, water, MSM, sweet feed, candy mixture and he ate it right up. No clear improvement. Tuesday I got him from the pasture and he was walking quite a bit better. He ate his mixture and I turned him out in the arena where he contemplated rolling for quite some time before finally easing down to the ground. It's gotta hurt to bend that knee all the way so he makes sure it's really what he wants to do. Since it had rained all day he wanted to roll really bad. Of course after he got up he was back to full on lame which didn't stop him from running and bucking immediately upon getting up. I wish I knew what his deal was, it just seems like if it's arthritis it wouldn't be so swollen so fast and for so long. Bursitis maybe? Capped knee? Blah Axel, get better already will ya!? I put a call in to the vet to get some more Adequan ordered and try some Surpass and see what else he thinks is going on.

So Cody was probably not happy with me making him work on his birthday but that's the way it goes. He gets enough days off as it is. J thought I should have brought out some cake but all I had was some carrots. I figured out why I want to get Axel back to work so bad, I loooooove my dressage saddle. I don't think it fits Cody very well but I love to ride in it. It just seemed like a day when Cody was going to be slow and there was going to be a lot of kicking so I grabbed my whip before I got on just in case. The whip always seems to inspire a little more pep out of the old man just by having it in my hand. I think overall the ride was sub-par but I did get some decent practice in. I'm trying to work on a steadier leg and we had some moments when I could post and work on that. But we had a lot of other moments of Cody speeding up and slowing down and speeding up and slowing down. He's very inconsistent and we need to work on that. Add some nerves on top of that and the tiniest amount of leg equals speed trot or spastic canter. So we'll keep working. I wonder if he thinks the tighter rein means go fast and is getting confused. I tried to work him to the left more which went okay for a while but given the choice of what direction to go he picks right every time. I'll probably ride in the dressage saddle a few more times to make sure it's not making him sore and we'll keep working on some basics. The whip is kind of handy to get some lateral work done but he's pretty good at ignoring me, I need to get a bit stronger with him I think. I'm probably babying him for no reason. In any case my legs hurt today, whew!

Horse Show

I helped out at my first horse show yesterday. Didn't bring any of my own horses but I went along with a fellow boarder and played "groom" for the day. Took some photos and recorded some video and got sun burnt, wind burnt, and sand blasted while I was there.

When we got back I brought Axel in for another dose of bute. This time I mixed it with the MSM, sweet feed, and a few pieces of candy and he actually ate it all. I'll try that again tonight but he's usually pretty good at turning his nose up at something that he thought was fine the day before. Trying to give him bute for 5 days this week and see if his knee starts to feel any better. It's getting quite knobby lately and he's limping around pretty badly (but he's getting really good at limping fast). I put both the boys fly masks on as well so we'll see how long they keep them on this summer.

Rainy Saturday

I tried to wait out the rain but it wasn't letting up or clearing off so I went out to the barn anyway. It's pretty quiet out there on a weekend when it's raining so it's kind of nice.

Axel was pretty sore and puffy still on that knee. I scraped off as much rain as I could and groomed him up a bit. It seems like his knee has better ROM but is more sore lately. I put more DMSO on it and gave him some MSM. I put him in the arena and he took off running and flinging his head. Then he'd gimp around smelling everything he could get his nose on. I decided since I'll be able to get out there several days in a row this week to try and bute him. Not sure how much actually got in his mouth, I mixed it with water and put it in a syringe. I wore quite a bit of it on my arm. I think I better get something a little thicker than water next time. My plan (ever evolving) is to get a new supplement to try for a few months, I found one that has a decent amount of Glucosamine, Chondroitin, and Collagen in it and is pellets and less than a dollar a day. Plus when I get the money together I'll get his next round of Adequan and some Surpass (gotta find someone going to Canada to get me some of the OTC human version sometime). I put together some prototype wraps for Axel's back legs so I fitted those so I can try and put something together. Eventually he might feel well enough to ride, right?

I grabbed Cody out of the rain and started grooming him when B came in with Diva. I was debating on if I was going to ride or not but wanted Cody to dry off more before putting the tacky too pad on him when he started to shake. He was yawning quite a bit and then stretching out both front legs almost like he was going to lay down in the cross ties and then he started shaking. He was still wet so we thought maybe he was cold so I put his blanket on. He was still shaking so I walked him into the arena in case it was actually nerves. He trotted around a bit and then started frantically looking for a place to roll. I still don't know if it was nerves or cold. Would he lay down and roll twice if he was freaked out? Or was he just looking for the quickest way to get warm? Very weird, but after that he was just fine. I lunged him a bit before turning him back out. I probably could have ridden but I was kind of caught off guard at that point. B was getting Diva ready for the show so I just hung out and chatted.

The sun actually came out by the time we were done so I took some photos of the clydesdales and then of Cody who so kindly posed for a nice conformation shot and then hung out by some daisies for me. Tomorrow I'm going to tag along to the horse show and take some photos and play groom for B and Diva. I'm hoping it doesn't rain though, ick.

You Have Got to Be Kidding Me

Friday I walked Axel down the road again, he was a little more feisty than normal, started the head tossing right away. I groomed him for quite a while and tried to clean his sheath a bit and put some MTG on his bald spots and his ankles. I did some massage and put him in the arena and he walked around in there for a while. After all that his sheath actually seemed like the swelling had started going down.

Saturday I met up with S and B and we tacked up and went down the road. Cody was evil. Plain and simple. He danced around, wanted to turn around or face the barn, and snorted and huffed and puffed the whole ride. When S wanted to canter he freaked out and danced around and never got into a real canter, it was mostly crow hopping and snorting. He wouldn't walk and even with a completely loose rein he curled his neck and stuck out his tongue. S kept telling me to give him more rein at the canter but I had all but thrown him away at that point, there was no more rein to give, he was just pissed. 1. we need a chiro visit 2. it's spring 3. we have ridden only a handful of times this winter and 4. this was the first time out in 4 months. Sooooo... I hope it goes better next time (understatement).

So he was a ball of sweat when we got back so I put some blankets on him and walked him around the arena while everyone else was cooling their horses out. He rolled a few times but wasn't really drying off. The arena cleared out so I went and got Axel as well. He and Cody rolled a few more times and wandered around the arena. I finally went to bring Cody out and the instant I left Axel started in on the gate. I'm not sure what happened then either someone in the aisle chased him off or Vinnie chased him off but when I got back from putting Cody away (2 minutes max) he was dead lame. He was hopping around putting no weight at all on his back left. Seriously? I assume he kicked himself and chipped another piece of ringbone off. I had 2g of paste bute left which went in his mouth and then on the floor. 2 more grams of powdered bute in his feed which he picked at for a while and maybe got half in his mouth. J came out and mixed up some bute in a syringe for me and gave him 2 more grams. So between our three attempts he at least got 3-4g in his system. It wasn't kicking in very quick though. Stalling him would have just meant more trouble so we limped back out to the pasture where he stood in the hay.

So I ran out there yesterday armed with some bute mixed with water in a syringe and tried to bute him again. Most of that went on the ground. Guess we try karo next time instead of water. He was putting his sore foot flat on the ground at least. Not putting full weight on it but an improvement from Saturday. Looks like last time this happened he was out of commission for about a month in September-October. Sadly I won't make it out there tonight to check on him so hopefully he's feeling a bit better or J&J give him a bit of bute.

I plan to talk to the vet about some sort of IM injection to help the arthritis. I don't think there's anything out there that will help the ringbone but perhaps if I get some Surpass I can use that whenever I ride or work him. Assuming the Xrays don't show anything unusual my thought is that he can still work even when he's a bit sore and the Surpass would maybe take away the "bit sore" part.

So if you're keeping score on Axel's ailments that's: arthritis in right front knee, ringbone back left pastern, swollen belly, and swollen sheath.

Manicure Time

Last night was farrier night. I was a bit early as usual so I fed Axel his MSM while we waited. He was already in the crossties so he had his feet done first. He's been doing a new thing lately where you ask for his hind left and he picks up his hind right instead. I'm not sure if he's just trying to avoid putting more weight on his front right or what. He was not terribly pleased to have that front right knee bent and the farrier only bent it the bare minimum. He seemed pretty sore when he was done so I tied him in the arena while I tried to thaw out some paste bute. I'm ready to give up on the powder. I think I'll just get a dosing syringe from Fleet Farm and mix the powdered bute with water and dose him that way. He actually doses really easily, at least the last two times I've buted him.

So I got Cody and groomed both of them while we waited for Cody's turn to have his feet done. His front left has a bit of notch/chip in the toe. Not sure how he got a chip walking through 2 feet of snow but he managed. It's not too serious, hopefully it'll grow out. And other than hanging out while everyone else got their feet done that was about it for the trip to the barn. They've got a lot of snow out there and I guess Cody was running around playing in it a bit. But for the most part they all confine themselves to the round bale.

The plans for spring are to move Vinnie into the big pasture and Cody and Axel will go in the paddock until their pasture has a chance to revive itself. Assuming they stop the round bales near that time, it might be a good diet for fat Axel. We're working on getting an appointment in March for shots and coggins and I'll get Axel's knees xrayed and then figure out what the next step is. It might be easier/cheaper to go with something like Adequan instead of the daily supplements (which haven't started working yet as far as I can tell).

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!