Confirmation

 So.. yep.. it's a broken patella. Sigh... 

We went to see  Dr. C today (since Dr. B is out of town) to get a skyline view of his patella. He let me catch him and walked all the way to the trailer without trying to escape! Good boy. Granted he knew I had more cookies. ;) He still hasn't found the cookies I left on the fence posts for him. hee hee. 

We got to the clinic and Dr. C wanted to show me the plan... apparently it's a bit tricky to take a skyline view. I left Dan in Chelsea's capable hands and we all convened for the xray. To practice, I picked up Dan's leg to hold it in the correct position to see if that made him uncomfortable or not. He was perfect and stood fine, so... we decided to try it without drugs. Chelsea kept holding his head, I did his leg, Dr. C climbed up on a stoll to shoot the xray from above, and Noelle held the plate. Group effort! And Dr. C said it was his first time shooting this image. And... we nailed it!! First shot was perfect! Good boy Dan!

Sadly.. the image shows an avulsion fracture. The medial patellar ligament has pulled a small chip off the patella. It's trying to adhere, but.. it's not a stable fracture. There's a lot of motion there. So.... poo. We went ahead and did an ultrasound because Dr. C wanted to check a few things. We did have to sedate him for that ;) But basically... at this point, the joint looked a lot less "sparkly", which... not sure if that was from difference in machines/settings or the joint had settled down. I suspect it has settled down. Dr. C said the joint itself actually looked pretty quiet and happy, but the area around the patella was effusive and angry. 

So... we'll talk to Dr. B and I'll send the rads (tomorrow) to Travis in Ocala and see what everyone thinks is the best plan. Dr. C mentioned stall rest and I was like "absolutely not". It's just.. not worth it for either of us. I'm honestly not sure either of us would survive at this point. I mean... if it was the difference between him being able to go back to third level dressage or training level eventing, maybe... but I really just don't think that's in the cards. Not given all of his other comorbidities... and even then, I'm not sure it's worth it. Stall rest is awful on all of us!! Plus... currently, he's hanging out mostly in the shade, grazing on the very crunchy grass, or eating hay. Although, admittedly, he did canter across the field this morning. But... for the most part, he's chilling. 

So we'll see. Dr. C did seem more optmistic than me, but he also maybe doesn't have quite the whole story. And Liz did find a paper with three horses with the same injury and two recovered without surgery. Although I'm not sure if they stall rested or what, but they went back to work. So... I don't know. I do know that I"m ready to be off this roller coaster... or at least take a break. And as much as I want to remain optimistic and have hope, I also... don't want to get my heart broken yet again. So... I'm trying to be realistic. Realistically he'll need another 2-4 months off, if not longer... and realistically he'll be sound enough to fart around on... hack, even pop over a log here and there at ashland... probably sound enough for some obstacle classes, maybe even some beginner western dressage, but... I really don't think he'll event or dressage again above beginner novice/training level. And even then.. maybe not that. And I'm okay with that... I think... finally. I just... want to be able to find him a job that he enjoys and I enjoy and be able to keep myself motivated to ride him twice a week at least. And I'm trying to be realistic in the sense that.. it's gonna take a long time... don't rush it. I talked to Liz today and she was right... I do tend to rush things and I need to give him all the time he needs. And maybe not even think about "rehabbing him"... just let him be. Play with him enough to keep him entertained but don't think about "making him better". Except... when she kept at it... I had a migraine brewing and she kept at it long enough that it made me almost want to prove her wrong. I know... now drop it. You keeping at it is just making me want to prove you wrong! Grrrr. Admittedly, I'm cranky, hormonal, and looking for things to be mad at/blame.