Stocking Up

It seems that I have plagued with vet issues lately.  It all started with Semper last fall, then Lily, and now Bob has a little issue going on.   His hind legs started to get "stocked up" in the stall.  At first it was just one and pretty minor. Then it got worse. Then the other hind leg started swelling. With exercise they would go down, not completely but some. A week ago last Monday I had just had enough... and called the vet.  Decided to take Lily and have her rescanned to see how her healing was coming along.  I am all about the "two birds with one stone" thing.

The vet scanned Lily first and she is doing marvelously.  Visually they look much better to the Vet.  I see them everyday so it is hard for me to see a difference.  It made me feel better to have her comment on how good they look.  When she did the scan we couldn't see any open spaces, the tissue is looking very good and got the o.k. to increase her paddock size. The vet even said maybe some light riding in 6-8 weeks. Since Lily doesn't understand the concept of light riding, I think we will just wait it out till the healing is just a little further along.

Then Bob.  He was pretty swollen in both hind legs. No visually apparent reason. No cuts, scraps, etc. The vet presses her thumb into the inside of his leg right about his fetlock joint and holds it for a about 30 seconds. When she moves her thumb out, there is a depression that stays for minutes - this is called pitting edema.  She explains that this means that each individual cell is retaining fluid. Not that the leg has fluid building under the skin.The body is not being efficient enough to get all the lymph moved out of his limbs. It can be caused by over work or lack of movement and excessive heat exacerbates the problem.  She watched him move and he isn't lame, but he isn't comfortable either.  She flexes him and when I trot him off, he is lame for the first few steps. She decides that we should bute him and turn him out for 7 days to see if we can get it to go down all together. I take him home for turn out and give him a loading dose of 2 grams of bute.  The next morning -  no swelling. Both hind legs are back to normal. I give him another gram of bute and go off to work.  When I get home - his legs look perfect -  but I followed Drs. order and give him another gram of bute with is dinner. The next morning when his legs still look great I decide to see what happens if I take him off the bute.  And guess what? Nothing, nada, none, zip, zero, no swelling.  He looked fine with just the turn out.

Bob was rechecked last night and the vet gave him a clean bill of health. We talked about what causes the "stocking up",  how to avoid it and what to do when I happens.

Solutions that we talked about are: cold hosing his legs after he is worked and turn out.  Pretty simple. 

I haven't ever had a horse that did this so any insight from those of you that have been there would be more than welcome.

Another feather in Bob's cap... he has never been a horse that likes having his hind legs messed with, but he has been a perfect gentleman during all this. Absolutely perfect. 

Semper and the Vet

So Friday I spent trailering my main man to the vet. I chose this particular vet because he has a wonderful reputation as a diagnostician and has the skill to back it up. His main practice is in Nevada but he comes to California a couple times a week. The ranch he operates out of in California is magnificent to say the least. I would stay in a stall there. I am not sure I have ever seen an indoor as large as this one... my guess is 220 x 400 clear span. Wonderful footing. I swear I was drooling.

Anyway... back to the big man. We went through all the basic stuff, walk and trot in a circle in the arena and then out on the hard ground. Flexation tests and more walking and trotting. The thing is that Semper has not been lame at all. But something isn't right. Semper was so sweet and he was extremely willing to do what ever he was asked. I felt like he might have been a little off in the right hind because he swishes his tail to the right alot and he tends to want to cock that hind foot. The vet decides to do x-rays and scans of his left first. What the heck? I thought it was the right! Turns out - so did he. He got a base line x-ray of the leg he thought was good so he could compare the two. He was really pleased with the quality of his left leg. His hock joint on the left were in fabulous shape. Armed with the good side he moved over to the right. Low and behold...a small tear in the suspensatory where it connects to the hock. Very small and very fixable. But for Semper, when he had to flex that joint it probably felt like a hot poker sticking him in the leg. Poor guy. It all came together. The swishing, the resting, the good stops after a week or two off and the bad stops when I would ask him for them days in a row. The penning his ears in the turnarounds. The not liking deep footing. Semper told me as much as he could without standing up, screaming at me and pointing to it. The good news is that he did tell me, we caught it early, it is completely fixable and he is going to be good to go with a month or two of time off / light riding. The vet said for a 12 year old his joints are in extremely good shape and that if I take care of him he is going to be going strong into his late teens and beyond. AND we don't have to go back unless Mr. Semper tells me he is hurting. It is such a relief to get it figured out and have a plan.