So.... this morning I almost didn't do our groundwork because I didn't want to put any strain/stress/etc on him before our vet visit. But then I thought.... you might as well. You won't have time after and you might as well know. So I put him in the roundpen and we did our pillar work. He was super. Then we went to do our lunging and... the turd grabbed the lead rope (I only had his halter... waiting on the lunging cavesson) and turned away and went to drag me. I had the flag so I whacked him with it and flapped it hard and HE KICKED AT ME!!!! Oh no sir!!!! So then I had to get after him. Which meant he went squirting off and cantering around. And I was mad.. but got him back after a minute of him running like a fool. But then he did it again! And the dragging didn't bother me, but the kicking out at me made me LIVID. Because dude, that could have gotten my head! Not cool sir, not cool! So I chased him and got mad at him and he ran around again. So not helpful for your stifle, but... you cannot be kicking at me!!! Sigh. Argh.
So then we did some proper work and I worked very hard at staying ahead of his teeth. I made him slow his trot and be methodical, well, as much as I could. So it was nowhere near the degree of happiness he had at Rana's. Whether some of that was footing... perhaps. My roundpen is a little too deep and rutted too. Sadness. So anyways... we didn't do much more because of his shenanigans and he was blowing hard. Tubby boys out of shape!! Ack! He's never been this unfit. :( More sadness.
So then he got a bath. He's got some skin funk so we did the therapeutic bath. Then he got bemered. And then I turned him out for a little bit and luckily he was a good boy and did not roll. So then we headed to Aiken for his vet recheck.
When we got there we walked around for a few minutes and then it was his turn. And.. he was lame. Sigh. Keelin looked at me and said "Would you kill me if I told you I saw left hind lameness"? Ugh.... She flexed him up high on the left and he was super unhappy and was clearly lame. The right side wasn't too bad. So then she did a lower limb flexion and he was still pretty lame. I started to panic a little. Then she put him on a circle and before I could even worn Dannie, her tech, he had grabbed the lead rope and turned and trotted off. She tried to hold him, but he's too freakin' strong when it's in his teeth so she had to let go. He trotted into her treeline and stood there. Such a butt! This is quickly becoming a habit with him. Ugh. I had to laugh though. It's not like he gets loose and you can't catch him for an hour... or he runs amuck. It's just like he's proud of what he did and wanted to show us that he could do it if he wanted. Twit!
So then we took him inside and she palpated him. He was VERY unhappy with the churchill and palpation of his suspensory and the hock. We talked about it and he hasn't had his hocks injected in over a year! So... okay, fair enough. Maybe it's just hock soreness coupled with his antics today and the trailer ride. ??? She ultrasounded his right stifle and said there was some fibrin, but honestly that it looked as good as she would expect considering. It's not an acute stifle... just a chronic stifle. And that there wasn't as much fluid in there as she was expecting, but that the feeling she was getting was due to just... chronic irritation of the synovium. So okay.. now I'm feeling a little bit better.
So the plan is to go ahead and walk under saddle, but try to keep it to straight lines and flat ground. TRY to keep him from shenaniganing in the pasture. She said to put him back on trazadone, but honestly, now that the novelty has worn off, they aren't doing much antics. Then in 6ish weeks... early Sept we'll inject his hocks and the right stifle. That will be at the 4 month mark. Then at the 5 month mark we'll inject him with Noltrex or Arithmed and then, in theory, by the 6 month mark, we'll be back to full work. So this month, which is the 4th month, we'll cheat a little and start walking under saddle, but just walk. Then after we inject his hocks, I can hopefully start adding trot work under saddle and then by month 6, we can hopefully canter. Fingers crossed!!! I am struggling a little bit with whether to keep doing the in hand work. Part of me is panicking because it's circles and it's trotting and that just seems like the surgeons would cry! BUT... some recent research (or maybe I'm just reading what I want to read and it's actually not real research) shows that you have to load and stress the rehab sites. And if I'm doing my homework correctly, he's going to improve things by strengthening himself correctly. And that will make him sounder. And we're doing very short stints... and at the "economy trot" to help him stay upright, so that means there isn't the shear forces or torque on his joints. SO.... I'll probably keep doing it. And I'm also going to be bemering his hocks and upper suspensories too. And I can do some acupuncture to help those. And then hopefully the injections will do the trick!
Fingers crossed. Praying hard!
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