Edited Title: Horse NQR and Finally GOT Vet Involved: Update & Possible New Plan

[RhythmNCruise]

@Marla_100 it’s so funny you say that because the thought has crossed my mind already a few times and today it did again. I rode bareback today, just walking, and he was obviously feeling much better. He never stumbled once and I didn’t even think about asking him to do anything but stroll around seeing the sights. We even did something he’s been wanting to do…went past the gate along the neighborhood driveway for all of a minute before coming right back in, and boy, he thought he’d been places. He loves to go look around at new stuff and I’m totally game to just hack and trail ride at the walk for the rest of our days together. I have no ambitions whatsoever except to enjoy my boy. He enjoys being ridden and so we’ll do what we can.

Thanks for your encouragement! It means a lot!

[RhythmNCruise]

@endlessclimb

One more thing - I apologize if it’s already mentioned - is your guy on Equioxx? I’d give that a try, too.

No, he’s not and that’s something else that crossed my mind yesterday too.

As for the injections, I’m giving this loading dose of Adequan a whirl with the hopes that it’ll help him. If it doesn’t, I will look at doing joint injections for sure. I want him comfortable more than anything. If, as the other poster said, he’s got a future of walking hacks in store for him, that’s totally fine with me. I mean, he has respiratory issues and sweating issues too on top of everything, maybe I should take a hint? LOL.

He’s just such a fun horse and good boy. Even with all of his issues he is never naughty, always tries to please and tolerates more than most horses would. He deserves to be taken care of and to have a good and comfortable life.

Thanks for your input and encouragement!

[Dutchmare433]

I have been following along and have read I think all of the posts.

Can you commit to doing a month or 6 weeks of turnout and tack walking? Keep him walking, the motion is good for him, especially if this is an arthritis situation.

But give him time to let the Adequan work, let the feet grow out and maybe start to increase the sole depth.

I think maybe you are getting so excited (understandably!) when he feels a little better, that you ask him for more than he’s really ready to do, and he over does it and then feels crummier the next few days.

If after the 4-6 weeks he’s much better, then start adding in trot and canter slowly. If he’s not much better or only marginally so, look into the joint injections.

[RhythmNCruise]

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head.
He can absolutely have whatever time he needs and whatever level of exercise he needs to feel better. I’m definitely not going to ask him for anything but walking for now. He’s out 24/7 unless the weather is bad enough (no shelters in turnout). I know he’s likely to be in tomorrow night as we have bad storms forecasted. But other than that, he’s out.

I try to either hop on him bareback (or with tack, but it takes less time to get ready bareback after work in the evenings) or hand walk him every day that I possibly can. My BO is also going to start riding him just at the walk for a few minutes on days when she can. This is for her more than him…she’s had accidents in the past and needs a steady horse to help her get her confidence back as well as physical ability as she’s got some issues that stem from bad falls years ago.

So, yeah. There is no pressure for him to do anything more than that (or at all, frankly…he doesn’t have to be ridden at all if I decide it’s not in his best interest).

Thanks for the advice and support!

[RhythmNCruise]

Just a little update. Not much to tell yet, but that’s actually a good thing.
I gave him his fourth shot of Adequan on Monday. I do think he’s getting slightly better. We’re still just walking, but yesterday and today I threw in just a few short jogs here and there. He still isn’t exactly pushing from behind, but at the very least he feels like he has two beats again and isn’t just shuffling along in some god-awful crippled way. He doesn’t feel sore, just maybe a little guarded/stiff. I don’t ask for much because I really don’t want to mess him up.

Friday he gets his feet done, different glue-on shoes that don’t involve packing his soles, and his fifth Adequan shot. I’m hoping it’s all going to have him feeling even better.

I have been reading up on hock fusing and wondering if that could be what’s happening to him. If he doesn’t show significant improvement from the full loading dose of Adequan, the next step is hock x-rays to see what’s going on in there and then decide where to go from there (injections? Equioxx?)

Anyway, I’ve been enjoying our rides around the farm. We went exploring on Halloween and had a nice long ride around the property. He definitely likes being a walk-only trail horse. Fine by me, though I do miss his canter. He has the most comfortable canter.

[S1969]

@RhythmNCruise

Friday he gets his feet done, different glue-on shoes that don’t involve packing his soles, and his fifth Adequan shot. I’m hoping it’s all going to have him feeling even better.

I will be interested to hear how it goes. I suspect that even if the shoes are better for him, the change in pressure on his sole will make him a little sore for a couple of days. Back to my Dansko clog example - even though I only walked around the store with them for a few minutes, I could still feel my arches throbbing for a while when I drove home.

I don’t think that removing sole pressure will ever be bad, even if sole protection is good for them. So long as you’re not turning out on frozen, rutted mud or ice. So I think it will be good to see how he goes in just shoes after a couple of days.

[RhythmNCruise]

I’m anxious about the farrier work tomorrow. I hate for him to have sore front feet and sore hocks all at once. Poor baby. He was pathetic after he got the easyboot glue-ons last time. He’s finally walking around like a normal horse over any kind of terrain, turning both ways, backing, whatever.

This afternoon I went out briefly to visit. It’s cold and rainy. Thankfully, my BO did leave the boys out with their rain sheets on. I think it’s better for Milton to be able to move around. Anyway, when I walked out in the pasture to pat them on the head and give them treats (his buddy isn’t mine, but he’s a sweet fella so he gets treats too, which his mama is fine with), Milton’s buddy came cantering up to me. Milton wanted to, and started to try kind of awkwardly, but gave up after about a stride and a half.

It’s getting me down to see him like this. Sure, he’s had some minor lameness here and there over his 13 years of life, but I’ve never seen anything like this.

Once the Adequan dose is complete, unless there is a drastic 180 and I have a happily sound horse again, I’m going to get the vet back out for x-rays of hocks. I’m just not 100% sure it’s arthritis. Maybe it is. I don’t know. It just seems like he went from fine to damn near crippled in a matter of days. Wouldn’t arthritis be more of a gradual thing?

Maybe this is soft-tissue? Something pulled or strained? There is no heat or swelling anywhere that I can see, but if it’s high up, maybe it’s just not noticeable.

I feel like I dropped the ball with the vet and didn’t push for a more thorough examination. She basically watched him move, flexed him, x-rayed his front feet, and recommended Adequan as a starting place.

It’s just so weird. This horse could go YEARS without being ridden at all, and then I’d pull him out and ride him w/t/c and he never got lame from it. I would have thought the fact that I was riding him semi-regularly over the past two years would have made him more fit and therefore less likely to have issues like this. It’s not like he does anything strenuous…just w/t/c in a field or groomed arena.

Maybe it was the freaking Equibands/Equicore. He never seemed to mind it or hurt afterward.

Blah. Anyway. Just vomiting out my thoughts. I’m holding out hope for tomorrow. I don’t mind if he can never be ridden above a walk again (or even ridden again for that matter, though I’d miss it…and he seems to like it too). But I want him to be comfortable enough to have a romp in the pasture if he wants. Bless his heart.

[Heinz_57]

I scrolled back through and you mentioned PSSM initially… you can send hair off to UC Davis to at least rule out PSSM1, on your own. It’s a cheap test, $45 I think.

[RhythmNCruise]

I could do that. I’m not sure what else I could do for him if he’s PSSM1. Right now he eats: ProElite Grass Advantage ration balancer, KIS Trace (recommended by farrier), 10g of magnesium, Omega Horseshine (1 cup/day), 10g of MSM, Flex+Max (150mg HA + glucosamine, chondroitin, and 5g more of MSM), salt, and timothy/orchard mixed hay (average to “meh” quality). He’s on pasture, but it’s dwindling rapidly now. If he starts losing any condition with the pastures dying, BO will add ProElite Omega Advantage and I’ll probably add timothy or timothy/alfalfa pellets as winter progresses (and more of his normal hay, of course).

Fingers crossed that the new/different shoes are helpful today.

Do you guys think putting shoes all around might help? I’m only planning on doing the fronts, but maybe he needs support on his hind feet too?

[S1969]

@RhythmNCruise

Do you guys think putting shoes all around might help? I’m only planning on doing the fronts, but maybe he needs support on his hind feet too?

I would change only one thing at a time so you can see the results (if any). If he hasn’t had hind shoes up until now, I wouldn’t add them at the same time as changing the shoeing up front.

[RhythmNCruise]

Good point!

I’ll report back after he gets his new kicks today.

[S1969]

I mean, if the farrier thinks they should be added, I wouldn’t necessarily refuse. But if it could wait one shoeing cycle, that’s what I would do.

[phantomhorse]

@RhythmNCruise

I’m not sure what else I could do for him if he’s PSSM1.

While you may not have many husbandry thing you could change, having a diagnosis would at least be a reason he is doing what he is doing. And you would know that on a bad day, it’s “just” a bad day (hopefully making you less worried).

[SuzieQNutter]

At one point in time I thought Stars was also a horse who could not be ridden out of walk.
He was perfectly sound on the lunge and under saddle. He did not want to go in the arena. He would go on grass. Going out on a trail ride we would end up going away from the dip than down it, and this is a dressage horse who I have control over every step forward or sideways normally. If we had a good day the next day was worst.

As in, no I don’t think it is a good idea to gallop.

Oh yes it is.

Really. I think it would be better to walk.

Nooooo it is a beautiful day, look at the sandy track, stretching under the leafy trees along the creek. Lets go.

But…

WHHEEEEEEE THIS IS FUN!

The next day he won’t even walk to go the same way. Away from it.

In desperation we took him to the chiropractor I completely 100% trust. I said to my husband that if he found nothing. Then I would turn him out and get another horse as I was at my wits end.

My chiropractor took one look at him and said he has pulled the muscle deep in his chest. It hurts him to lift his front legs and to go downhill. He must have gone down from a canter.

Oh and another time he pulled a muscle in his hamstrings, with that one it hurts to back.

3 months off each time with rubbing on Alogard. and he was perfectly sound afterwards in the arena, going downhill and backing.

[RhythmNCruise]

HAPPY UPDATE!!!

Short version: Milton loves the new shoes and his hocks seem to be feeling better and he got his fifth shot of Adequan today. Hacked around the farm and he was very good, even some very short spurts of trot on straightaways with good footing and he felt pretty good.

Long version:

Farrier asked me to walk and trot him for her in-hand before removing old shoes/boots just to see how he was going. We both agreed that he was much better than he had been, pretty rhythmic and didn’t look or seem sore. Compared to other times I’ve trotted him in-hand when I could tell he was really off, I was thrilled.

Pulled boots and she noted that his feet looked good underneath and he’d even grown a good amount of sole already (yay!). We did discover that as we somewhat suspected, because he moved during the application of his right boot, the glue had run down under his foot and so he was basically standing on that hard stuff instead of Magic Cushion for the past 5 weeks. My vet is also an osteopath and she had picked up on him being slightly sorer on his right front than left when she was testing his meridian points. Makes sense now.

The whole time my farrier was doing his feet he seemed to just get more and more happy and relaxed. New shoes went on and he seemed just fine with those. Absolutely no tenderness or soreness this time.

We took him out to walk and trot in hand again for her to watch. I could tell he was going to be fine. He was.

Farrier had another horse to trim, so she asked me to saddle up and ride a little so she could see him go with me on. I did. She was already working on the other horse, so I walked him around to warm him up and then I did a little (tiny) bit of trotting. Farrier happened to catch it and said he looked good. Then she got me to trot in a straight line away from her and she said he looked very good.

I truly feel like the Adequan is making a difference, as is the decrease in work and just going on long walking rides to keep him moving but not stress anything too much right now.

The plan is to keep taking it easy. I’ll trot little bits at a time and try to increase that trotting more and more as I feel he’s able. We’ll wait and see about canter.

Anyway, I’m so happy!

[Heinz_57]

@RhythmNCruise

I could do that. I’m not sure what else I could do for him if he’s PSSM1.

Generally speaking, the basic recommendation is to switch to a high fat, low NSC diet, supplement vitamin E and magnesium (there’s more to it than that, like regular exercise, but those are the diet starting points anyway). You’ve got the mag already, and he probably gets a certain amount of E from the grass but if he’s pssm1 he could need more along with additional fat. He may also need his grass intake limited. There are management options that could make him a lot more comfortable in his body IF pssm1 is at play.

[RhythmNCruise]

Suzie, that’s so interesting. I kept feeling like something in Milton’s shoulder area could have been off during all of this, but it was so hard to tell given everything else going on.

When she was working on his front feet, each of his shoulders gave a good pop/crack when she put the corresponding front foot up on the stand. She said that when she was doing a vet’s horse (vet happened to also be a chiro) once and that happened, the vet/chiro said it was a good thing!

I wouldn’t doubt that his shoulders were out of whack if his feet hurt and his hocks were sore. Poor guy.

[SuzieQNutter]

I have no idea, but I will say that the chiropractor I use who I 100% trust and I have seen miracles over the years, does not pull or do anything with their legs. He says it doesn’t do any good. That is only his opinion of course.

[RhythmNCruise]

Hopefully, thanks to developments today, PSSM isn’t something I need to worry about. But I’ll keep it in the back of my mind if things start going south again. Magnesium definitely does him good, I do know that. And according to FeedXL, he’s getting 4,972 IU of vitamin E in his diet, which is 252% of the required amount (1973 IU).

The grass is dwindling now, so he should be okay with the pasture until spring. He’s never been sensitive to grass before, but I did buy him a grazing muzzle just in case it becomes an issue.

[RhythmNCruise]

Just curious about something.

I’m so happy with the results of Adequan so far that it has me thinking. We finish the loading dose next Saturday, and then it’ll be May before he gets the next loading dose. He is on a joint supplement with high levels of glucosamine, chondroitin, and HA. But would it be at all useful to give him a shot of Adequan on a monthly basis for the next six months until it’s loading dose time again? Or is that a waste of money?

I just hate to think that by or before May he’s going to be hurting again.

Just wondering.