Dannniiiiieeellllll

 Ugh..... 

This morning I got up and fed ponies. And noticed that Dan still had all four shoes on. Then I came inside, ate breakfast and changed into breeches and went back out to catch him to ride. We had our vet appointment later but I was hoping to sneak in a ride first. They were still eating hay but... Dan was missing his front right shoe. What?!? Dude.. it was JUST on!! And there it was.. sitting with his hay. Really dude? I really wanted to do our homework from our lesson. Sigh... 

But, then I had to laugh. God has a sense of humor. I have been agonizing over whether I should put him back in steel shoes (or aluminum or whatever) because he just has been having these intermittent soundness issues... and I think it's his feet... but I don't know. I mentioned to Erin that I needed God to be blatantly clear... like leave a steel shoe with a business card for a farrier or a glue on shoe on my front porch the next morning. And... maybe Dan flinging his shoe off right in front of me is a sign. Of course now I'm just hoping I interpreted it correctly and it wasn't meant to stick with the glue ons. 

So... guess we're not riding. sigh. I really was excited about doing our homework again, before I forget it. Oh well. I lunged Funny and messed with the garden and then it was time to leave for our vet appt. Dan was filthy so I hosed him off and we headed to see Dr. Barrow. 

He was so cute when we got there. Some of her workers asked about him. Turns out they had shown Waps Scandalous (or something like that) back in the day and knew Dan had to be a Wap horse. :) Super cool! 

Anyways, I explained to Dr Barrow about his soundness issues and we watched him walk and jog a bit. The poor tech was so good with him despite him trying to chew on her and the lead rope. Dr Barrow thought that it was feet based on what she saw. She hoof tested the one barefoot foot and said he was a little tender but... basically... she thought, as did I, that the soundness issues were related to his feet and thought that perhaps the glue on package just wasn't working for him. So... he's going to go back in steel shoes on Friday. And then I guess we'll go from there and see. I'm hoping that we can get his angles back better and his axis improved. And that he will be as happy in the steel shoes again as he was before and on the days he was happy in the glue ons. 

So then we went back to the original reason for the visit... his cough. She heard him while we were assessing the lameness so that was good. We did a rebreathing bag on him and basically.. just harsh lung sounds. No wheezes though. We sedated him and passed the scope and nothing exciting but just irritated airways. He did have a pocket of fluid that was quite... mucousy and turbulent looking. So we got a sample and will send it out for a culture. But she suspects that it's likely inflammatory and he's got mild COPD/heaves. sigh...  She said treatment would be inhaled steroids and management. Which, for us, given that he's already out 24/7.. would be steaming his hay. Ugh... That's a pain and expensive. But I mentioned that to Erin and she said they made their own steamer for $300, so... might try that! So.. we'll see. I may try the chinese herbs first before I try inhalers and steamers. But we'll see what the culture and pathology say. 

So we headed home and he got a rinse and got to be turned back out to be a horse again. Guess we'll get shoes on Friday but not sure I'll have time to ride before having to head out to Poplar with Lyric. And then I won't get to ride Saturday, so... sigh. Guess he gets a whole week off. Again.