Having a little pity party

[Gardenhorse]

On May 2, I had a great confidence-building XC schooling session and was actually feeling excited about entering my first horse trial in over a year. On May 7, my horse lacerated her hind leg by (we assume) rolling too close to the fence in the pasture and getting it caught on the wire. Luckily no tendon or joint damage, and I’m also very lucky that the barn staff were still doing turnout so probably saw it 10 minutes after it happened rather than the next morning. But I’m so tired of vet bills and stall rest and bandage changes. And she is very very tired of her twice a day antibiotics.

She just got cleared for an hour a day of small paddock turnout, so at least things are looking up, but it just feels like it is healing so slowly. I realize it’s only been a month, but mentally it feels much longer.

The ground is so hard here right now that in her one hour of turnout the past couple of days, she has managed to scrape up both hocks and one hip from rolling so enthusiastically (no she obviously didn’t learn anything from her experience). And I went out to hand graze her last night and she had also cut her eyelid somehow. Sigh.

Fellow pity partiers welcome.

[RedHorses]

Eight months ago my horse injured his stifle. He was doing very well, then a month ago it rained 50mm in two days and turned his paddock to sucking mud. He went lame on the stifle injury leg. I hoped it was an abscess.

At our recheck ultrasound visit three weeks ago my horse absolutely refused to trot away from the first flexion. Like not even a hop step, The vet thought it was the same injury again, injected the stifle and told me to come back in three weeks for an ultrasound to see what we’re dealing with.

That visit is tomorrow.

Last week he went lame… on the other diagonal. He’s still lame from the stifle too. And I have the added bonus of twice daily visits to manage his heaves under the smoke plumes coming from the next province over.

I feel your frustration @Gardenhorse!

[Weezer]

That is really frustrating - I’m sorry to hear about this run of bad luck. My gelding went through a phase of getting a leg caught up in every wire fence he was close to. I eventually decided to never keep him in wire fencing. But, I’ve also learned that no matter how well we horse-proof an environment, they will find a way to get injured! I hope your horse is back in action soon!

[ClassyJumper]

I feel you! And need to join. My mare majorly gashed her front leg in March. Just as we were starting to recover from that she got a corneal ulcer on May 1 that we are still dealing with. & this morning I go out to feed and she has elephant man level hives all over. To say I am fried would be a major understatement.

[Rnichols]

Ugh I feel your pain! Horses can be so silly sometimes.

About a year ago I picked up my mare from the track with a bowed tendon. Rehabbed it and started work at the end of March. Would just get things going then she’d pull a shoe (3 times ). Then, about a month ago, I pulled her in from turnout and she had mangled her front right (god knows how). It looked superficial but after a couple days the wound got really nasty, so started on oral antibiotics. Then, I go to feed one morning and her LH hock is swollen, she is non weight bearing, hasn’t eaten and has a 103F. Immediately took her to the clinic to treat for a septic hock. That involved a 10 day vet stay……

Things are looking up for her now, but man, if I could actually re-start her sometime before next century, that’d be great.

[Gardenhorse]

Oh, man. I’m glad to have folks to commiserate with, yet very sorry to hear your stories!

[Gardenhorse]

@Weezer

That is really frustrating - I’m sorry to hear about this run of bad luck. My gelding went through a phase of getting a leg caught up in every wire fence he was close to. I eventually decided to never keep him in wire fencing. But, I’ve also learned that no matter how well we horse-proof an environment, they will find a way to get injured! I hope your horse is back in action soon!

Yeah, wire fencing is not my favorite. She’s been in this same pasture for 6 years. You’d think that would be long enough to figure out where the fence is. I’m already worried about a recurrence when she ever does get to go back out in that field. I need to talk with my BO if there’s anyway to make the area along the fence line less appealing for rolling, but not sure what she can or would be willing to do.

[Rnichols]

Omg, what a string of bad luck. when it’s one thing after another it’s literally like “can you just not, horse”. Makes morning feed an anxiety inducing experience……like, what am I going to find now .

Just this morning mare with the wound got her wrap off overnight and stuck around her leg which resulted in a swollen fetlock this morning. I’m fairly certain it’s swollen just due to the tourniquet the wrap created, but for the love of god, it’s never ending….

[Gardenhorse]

Oh dear. Hope the swelling goes down quickly and she stays out of trouble for at least a few days!

[sara78]

Well, i m dealing with problems since 2016 with différent horses, i had such a nervous breakdown i could not sleep anymore for several months…

[IPEsq]

I’ll join. Last week, my horse came up lame in the right hind. We are a year and a half into attempt to come back from a paddock accident that resulted in a fractured scapula plus various other suspected but unspecified body damage. We made it up to walk, trot, canter inside, ground poles, and the occasional baby cavaletti.

We had started riding outside! He was getting supervised turnout in a paddock about 1/3 the size of normal. We were trying to increase canter fitness. Started hand walking a little bit on the hills as tolerated. He has a long way to go with fitness and weight loss. But except for a few days where the Canadian fires created bad air here, he’s having the best spring ever for his asthma, and was making great progress.

Took a little funny step in trot while looking at something outside the arena. Definitely funky but not quite lame after that, so we kept the work easy and called it a day. Quite lame the next day. Been resting and light walking for a week, no turnout due to the lameness and mud. Just got the vet out, and it’s the stifle. A joint that continues to have very clean X-rays. Mild effusion, no apparent injury. Quite positive to flexion. Treating it like a sprain. Starting IRAP now.

[EmilyM]

That is so sucky. And that is so horse ownership. Mostly heartache with moments of brilliance amazing enough to keep you hooked.

See if your vet can laser it. It will speed healing.

[IPEsq]

I got really good at using no chew vetrap and Elastikon to keep a bandage on a bandage eater. There’s also Vaseline and cayenne if they persist.

[KayGee]

This was me last year! We had just come home from a clinic the day before, and literally 10 minutes into turnout, he ripped the inside of his hock open (no joint damage). I really, really get it. I felt like my insides died.

My hope for you and your mare is that in a short time the end will be in sight, but I know it’s hard to feel that way right now. Hugs!

[Calvincrowe]

I’ll join in: spent last year rehabbing a front ligament strain/injury. Took it slowly and methodically. Got mare sound and back into work, but then left hind started showing lameness. More vet visits, injections, more slow rehab. Got mare back into work, jumping 2’, really using herself well. But…now we are seeing left hind lameness intermittently…vet says to work her as she needs to be more consistently lame. ARGH. Sigh… so frustrating. At best, she’s ‘serviceably sound’ which I’m mostly ok with but not really. Hang in there, all of us. It’s always a bumpy ride!

[RedHorses]

@RedHorses

That visit is tomorrow.

Vet update - more pity party fuel, unfortunately.

The other diagonal lameness is compensation strain. After I told the vet about the lameness on the other diagonal I asked him to not tell me it’s the other stifle due to compensating for the injured one. Unless that’s what it was. His whole hind end is sore and tight. Both hocks, the good stifle, and his SI. So, not what I was hoping for, but not entirely unexpected.

The vet admitted that the stifle injection he did last time was a hopeful attempt at jump starting healing, that didn’t work. So we are back to time for healing. He did express confidence that it would heal after I said I didn’t want to drag out my horse’s last year in pain and then have to euthanize because it’s not healing.

It took seven months last time. One down. Six to go.

[Fiesta01]

@Calvincrowe

But…now we are seeing left hind lameness intermittently…vet says to work her as she needs to be more consistently lame.

I would find a good lameness specialist. I wouldn’t continue to ride to make the lameness worse and make a diagnosis easier for the vet. I learned this lesson the hard way.

One of my mares didn’t seem quite herself under saddle. It wasn’t a lameness, just not feeling like she normally did. Vet came out three times in 4 weeks and couldn’t find or see anything wrong with her. I didn’t feel comfortable continuing to work her when I knew something wasn’t right. I took her down to NBC. Within an hour, I had a diagnosis and a solution.

She was an OTTB who had very thin, flat soles and didn’t grow much hoof. (Bold Ruler feet). Because her hoof didn’t provide any “cushion”, her coffin bones were starting to be ouchy. Again, no lameness that was visible, just me knowing she didn’t feel like herself.

Dr. Moyer prescribed what I called her Frankenstein shoes. They were wide-webbed eggbars that my farrier had to bevel out the top half of the shoe (looking at the shoe horizontally to the ground) so that none of the shoe was touching her sole. The bottom half of the wide web remained, providing protection and creating the concavity that her natural hoof lacked. She loved those shoes. Even though they looked like Frankenstein shoes to me, and they were definitely heavier than normal shoes, she floated in them like she was weightless.

Not trying to bad-mouth your vet, but someone who specializes in lameness has seen it all and will have a better chance of finding something subtle like you describe. One of the biggest compliments I had as a horse owner was when Dr. Moyer said that, in all the times I brought a horse down to him, I never brought a lame horse. A something-isn’t-quite-right horse. But never a lame horse.

Good luck and jingles for your girl.

[Gardenhorse]

Vet visit yesterday and the wound is healing well but now she has a pressure sore and some swelling on back of her leg from the bandaging. Vet thinks we could try leaving lower part of the wound (where pressure sore is) uncovered. Standing there discussing how to best bandage the top part, what to put on the bottom part for small paddock turnout, how it will need to be cleaned when she comes back in, etc. Horsie decides that wound is super itchy and starts scratching it with her other back foot before we can stop her. Sigh. So, no unbandaged turnout for her. We decided to bandage the top part, standing wrap over it all, and back to hand walking only for a few days.

[Gardenhorse]

On the trying to make myself feel better side, the air quality and ground conditions are both so horrible here right now that I’m not sure I would have wanted to compete this weekend anyway.

[Gardenhorse]

Oh no! How frustrating! And after such a long recovery for the shoulder. Hope it is just a mild strain and you’re back to riding soon.