The most exciting caseous material ever

Last Saturday Ben and I went for a really very pleasant tack walk. We meandered down the road from the farm and then got a bit swarmed by yellow flies. This led to a bit of trotting down the road to lose the 10+ flies we had acquired. He was FANTASTIC and trotted politely and then walked politely.

Later that day, JT's working student texted me: 

She'd cleaned some of that white goo away before photographing, but said that when she took off his Easyboot there was a disgusting smell

Yay!!! Weird that it ruptured out of the frog, but maybe it was centrally located and so putting pressure both medial and lateral?? No clue. 

BUT! He feels sound and great! We've been adding in a bit of intentional trotting to our tack walking now. He's progressively getting his mind back in the groove too, yesterday our ride only had a middle section of flailing as opposed to Monday where it was mostly flailing. Yesterday he really seemed to respond to reassurance as well; Monday he was a tightly wound spring that couldn't relax. I'm doing 30-40 minutes of walk with 5-10 minutes of trot right now. I was trying to just do 5 yesterday, but once he spooks at something one of the best ways to get him to settle again is to put him to work for a few minutes, so we had a few extra trot circles. We're going to stick to just 30-60 minutes of walk and 5-10 minutes of trot until he gets front shoes with pads. Slow and steady to build him back up again, mentally and physically. 

Until he gets shoes back on he is also restricted to his 5-6 hours of turnout in hoof boots in the morning. It's just too hot to leave him out longer and it is just too wet to go out overnight with boots that trap ALL the moisture on his feet. But the second week of July we'll have shoes back on and can go back to full time regular turnout. A few weeks after that, I'll move him to the GY's. 

I was using the super long line/lunge line so I could stand in the shade while he grazed. He's just the most handsome <3 

Quick Update

Thus far my decision to go back to turning Ben out was absolutely the right one. He's a bit of a stress ball in the way Yoshi and Zing were not. In addition to just being really no fun for me to try to walk in hand or under saddle, it was making me cringe to see how unhappy and stressed he was. He's not a brave horse to begin with, and with all the extra... energy from being stuck in the stall, he was just about exploding in every direction. And while the lip chain kept him from exploding onto me, he clearly was unhappy about it.

Happy ears.. might've let his mane get outta control while he's been off 

Post bath, happy and grazing

Kiddo has been getting 1800mg of trazodone with breakfast then going out in his hoof boots for the next 4-5 hours. And he is soooooo much happier. Like his brain has slowed down again. And he looks happier in his body. He will stand relaxed behind instead of weird and wide (which quickly returned after his adjustment). The first day of turnout he did bounce around a bit, probably for a minute total, but with a bit of leg flinging, which seems to be his favorite move, and prancing. He rolled probably 5-6 times, no surprise, he loooooves a good wallow. He limited the sliding stops, but bounced up and down a bit. I was holding my breath some. But the next day under saddle I trotted a 20m circle both ways and he still felt SOUND. And we could just TROT the 20m circle without exploding or flailing. 

Since the first day, he has restrained himself to just a bit of trotting. Excellent. Considering we were doing some spinning in circles and bolting both in hand and under saddle, I'm telling myself this is an improvement. 

And with time working the way it does, we're now just 2 - 2.5 weeks away from his recheck appointment. Fingers crossed we get a good report then. He's still pointing one toe or the other sometimes. I don't love that. But I may also be over analyzing everything now. 

In non-horsey news, Pico cat decided to give me a heart attack this week. She had gotten progressively lethargic and anorexic over the past two weeks and really went downhill the past 3-4 days. Bloodwork just showed dehydration. Initially fluids, cerenia (anti-nausea), and mirtazapine (appetite stimulant) weren't doing anything. But this morning I woke up and she ran down the hallway to greet me! She hadn't done that in a week! I'm still keeping her abdominal ultrasound and chest x-ray appointments today, but I'm hopeful we're on the right track. 

I just adore her

Cautiously...

Ben had his recheck today. He hoof tested positive lateral and medial again on the right front as well as on his left front... There was some black goo laterally on the right front that was there last time. We thought it was just leftover from his glue on shoe, but maybe it is real? 

He has been alternating pointing his toes, one after the other, and was doing that again this morning. But he looked fine on tight circles at the walk both ways. And then... then... he jogged sound! I'm cautiously optimistic and his vet is as well. She Rxed a full cycle without shoes to give the nail holes time to grow out. This means he is staying in his stall and going out for hand walks in hoof boots. As long as he feels great, he can walk as much as we want. I am super relieved because I was feeling not great about keeping him stalled for so long. The first or second week in July, we'll regroup, shoot some more x-rays, and then if he is still sound trim and put shoes back on. 

We did discuss the possibility of some of this being related to immunocidin - mycobacterium can trigger laminitis, could the fractionated cell wall have triggered a minor laminitic episode? He definitely started very right front off, bounding pulse, dead lame on the one foot, much like a typical abscess. But there were a few days a few weeks into the saga where I questioned if he was off in the left front at the walk as well. Interesting to ponder. Makes me glad we are at the end of that medication (for now). 

Pulling the classic dog move of going on the wrong side of the pole and hoping I'll fix it for him

His vet also adjusted him today. It really, really helped. I had been watching him lately and just feeling like he was uncomfortable all over. He would shift around in the cross ties, pointing one front foot then the other, and refuse to step over onto a hind leg. He was also standing super wide behind. 

He was very out in his lumbar area again - I had noticed that on his butt tucks he was uneven in his hips even when he was square with his feet. He was also quite sore in his withers. Again, this makes sense. In the pillar work we're doing, he will soften his brachiocephalicus, but then the rocking back to lift up in his withers a bit had become REALLY hard for him. The soreness probably came from his feet. He looked much comfier after she adjusted him and was standing more normally behind. 

He had some funny faces during his adjustment. He would look wounded when things were uncomfortable, but then make subtle signs of releasing afterwards. He's learning to be more expressive, I think. He felt GREAT afterwards and was a bit of a menace while I was trying to hand walk him. He is mostly very good about not hopping or prancing ON me, but at one point did start half rearing and striking a bit. I had stupidly come out without the chain shank, thinking that 95 degree weather and stifling humidity would keep him in line, but this heat ain't got nothing on the stalled thoroughbred. Once I fixed that mistake, he was politely bouncy the rest of the time. 

Getting all the help

Ben had his dual farrier/vet appointment this morning. Since he got worse last Monday, he's been mostly on stall rest with small bits of turn out with chemical help. His vet didn't want him romping too much if this was a ligament problem.

The good news? Not a DDFT lesion because he has no sensitivity to hoof testers over his heels. The bad? No obvious gas tracks of an abscess on rads. One suspicious area though. He was positive to hoof testers medially and laterally, worst over the nail holes. Medial has been the main problem, so who knows what's up with the lateral side. We pulled both front shoes and he's in for the next week. Poultice over the foot and over the coronary band, give an abscess every route to blow. 

His vet said she doesn't send horses to MRI that are that positive to hoof testers. Recheck next Thursday.

All we've been doing these days... He finally gained the last bit of weight he needed to though with all this rest