I will definitely be posting updates. Please pray for the pony angels to be with him Tuesday!
Just checking in to say surgery went well Tuesday - vet was pleased. Said was able to clean out the fibrin deposits, and the surrounding structures (DDFT, back of navicular bone) looked good. She placed the TPA in his foot, and will do another placement Monday I think (that’s the stuff to prevent adhesions or reformation of the fibrin deposits).
He should be able to start his 4x daily hand walking routine. I will be at TAMU this weekend for the holiday and look forward to seeing him 3 days in a row. I’m so relieved we made it through 2 anesthesias, the surgery, new farrier lined up to correct his feet, and his 24hr turnout paddock set up and ready for him when he returns home. 
What a fantastic update. I am so happy for you. Please continue to post updates!!!
Just posting an update on my horse who had surgery to remove fibrin deposits in his navicular bursa (right front foot) June 27th. I visited him at TAMU Large Animal Hospital over the weekend (Saturday and Sunday) for the first time since his procedure. He had another TPA injection after the surgery (to help dissolve any extra fibrin), and will have one more before he comes home.
He’s wearing a bandage that encases his foot and goes up to his knee to protect the incision and injection sites. He is perky and looks good, although he has dropped some weight, probably from having food withheld pre anesthesia for both the MRI and the surgery. They have him on Platinum Products probiotics and ranitidine 3x daily in addition to his usual hay and pellets.
The vet students took him out for a hand walking session while I was there. I was pleased to see him striding out confidently and briskly - nice long strides. I saw no signs of soreness or hesitation at the walk, but I won’t be able to see what he looks like at a trot for some time.
He will need to be walked 4x daily, with a daily bandage change, for two weeks while on stall rest. I work full-time and keep him 45 minutes away. I’ve decided to keep him at TAMU to get the hand walking stage accomplished successfully. I keep thinking I’m crazy to leave him there so long, but after checking into the resources I have available----well, I’m not confident that I can arrange to get the hand walking done 4 times a day each day for 2 weeks at home.
Has anyone kept their horse at a clinic or hospital for 2/3 weeks for a recovery? How did your horse do (mentally)? I wonder if he is confused or thinks he’s been abandoned. I’m thinking this must be the right decision. They check him every 2 hours while here, so in addition to the hand walking and bandage changes, he’s being very carefully monitored for anything that might go wrong (has a stall chart - they count poops, monitor food intake, temperature, digital pulses, etc). Anyway, I’m counting down the hours 'til I can see him again next weekend!
I think that is a wise choice to leave him there where he’ll be closely watched and well cared for. It’s easier on you, and if anything goes wrong, he is in the right place.
I wouldn’t worry about him feeling abandoned. He probably has made some new friends already.
I think leaving him there is the best decision. I don’t think he’ll feel abandoned or be confused as they are taking good care of him. You also have to remember that horses don’t think the same as we do.
I think it’s a great idea; I’ve had friends who have left their horses in expert care for recovery, and it’s turned out much better than if they were at home/boarded. Removes a lot of stress from you as well. Hope all turns out GREAT!
Larkspur, Macimage, starsandsun - thank you. I know logically it must be the right choice and he’s going to be ok, but it helps to have some backup!
I had to leave my horse at UF in a similar situation. I work full time and couldn’t logistically do the treatments he needed as often as he needed them and I keep him in my back yard! I felt MORE comfortable knowing he was in great hands at UF being watched all the time as opposed to worrying about having him home and not getting what he needed. I didn’t want to bring him home until I was able to manage his treatments. He did totally fine! Once I got him home, he was still on stall rest for some time with daily hand walks and he did fine with that as well although he did start to get a little anxious toward the end of his stall rest. It sounds like you are definitely making the rich choices for your guy!
Another update - horse is still on track to come home next weekend If you just want the short post version: I saw this weekend and he continues to do well. I got him a body work session and he’s obviously more body sore everywhere than I realized, he’s still coming home next weekend, and I’m researching Pentosan as a supportive therapy.
So - I visited him Saturday and brought a friend who is a terrific body worker. I cleared this with the the vet first, and the staff allowed me extra visiting time to get the body work done.
I noticed on my last visit that he seemed touchy and sore on his right side and crabby when his chest was brushed. I feared ulcers, although the vet prescribed probiotics and 3x a day ranitidine (via syringe to make sure it all gets ingested!) pre surgery and for his entire stay (plus lots of hay) to prevent this issue. However, after watching the body work session, I think it was just general body soreness I was seeing.
My kind friend worked on him well over an hour, with breaks for her and him. She showed me he was also very sore in his neck, back, and hamstrings. Basically he was tight as a drum and pretty sensitive to any palpation. She uses a very slow, gentle, non-invasive method but gets great results. By the end of the session, he went from grumpy / snappy face when touched, to totally sleepy-eyed, blissed out, and soft and loose. It was cool to see how she could gentle jiggle and wobble his hind end muscles at the end of the session, they were so relaxed. No more crabby patty when touched in the formerly sore areas.
So, he’s doing well. I will have her do another session when he’s home, and have her show me some things I can do for him myself. He still shows a good, swinging walk with a nice heel first landing. His bandage is still on, but sutures come out this week and the bandage should be off before he comes home. I would LOVE to trot him out to see how he looks but I don’t dare.
I have been researching fibrin deposition in horses and was surprised to have Pentosan come up in my searches. Apparently, among other things, it promotes the breakup of fibrin deposits in synovial tissue. Well, synovial tissue is exactly where his fibrin deposit occurred (navicular bursa sac). I will discuss this with the vet this week to see if she thinks this might be a good supportive therapy for him.
Meanwhile I met more vet students and staff and it is just more of the same - professional, competent, kind. If I sound like an ad for them it is just because I am so, so grateful for the level of care my horse is getting.
Glad to hear he is doing well!
[QUOTE=Palm Beach;8741909]
Glad to hear he is doing well![/QUOTE]
Thanks for reading and thanks for the support, Palm Beach!
I am happy to read your updates with the good news and am glad he’ll be home with you soon!
[QUOTE=Macimage;8743371]
I am happy to read your updates with the good news and am glad he’ll be home with you soon![/QUOTE]
Thank you! You know I am counting down the hours and minutes! I’m just hoping he will not “celebrate” too much upon finding himself back home.
Vet is putting him on an Zylkene anti-anxiety supplement and will send home Ace for his first turnout to keep thing turned down a notch. I’d never heard of Zylkene - it is based on mare’s milk and supposedly has some sort of calming factor. I hope it works
Feeling a little shaky and teary tonight. Horse not coming home tomorrow - will be a few more days. We’ve had a little set back. Sure was looking forward to bringing him home.
I had spoken to vet throughout the week. Reports were than he continued to look great on his walks, doing well, but starting to get restless and hard to handle. Then yesterday, she called to say he came out of this stall lame for his 3pm walk. This, after having no pain or lameness in that foot since the surgery June 27th.
He was fine at 8am and 11am. Somehow, between 11am walk and 3pm, he became slightly lame.
Vet said coffin joint was swollen, with lots of fluid under pressure. The surgical site looked fine. She tapped the joint to test for infection. Came back with less than 2% neutrophils (?) which she said indicated no signs of infection. He wasn’t sensitive to hoof testers - he was otherwise fine. She was concerned about infection, but since the coffin joint fluid tested fine, thought it would be safe to wait 'til the morning to see how he did before pulling fluid from the navicular bursa.
Yuk. What a night. She explained lots of possible scenarios in depth, explained that she was baffled at to what this could be, and warned that an infection of the bursa would be life threatening. She said he would be monitored overnight, and she would call in the morning to let me know if he was better or worse, and would proceed with diagnostics based on that. I stayed at work late that night to distract myself. Driving home on the freeway, in the dark, I prayed out loud to all the gods, goddesses, deities and mythological creatures I could think of. I’m not a religious person; I was trying not to panic.
Thankfully, the report this morning was that he was better, but there was still soreness and swelling in the coffin joint. She ultrasounded the area, tried hoof testers, and drew fluid from the navicular bursa to test. Again, not sensitive to hoof testers, no infection, ultrasound looked fine. She blocked the coffin joint and he was back to normal - no lameness, nice swinging walk with a good heel strike.
So, she’s going to inject the coffin joint to bring down inflammation (she wants to give him a day or two since he’s had had two needle piercings in his foot these last couple of days to check for infection). As long as he’s better, he can go home Wednesday or Thursday.
She has no clue as to what caused this; her best guess is that he twisted the joint acting up in his stall or while being walked. It would fit with the report that he is becoming increasingly restless this week.
Crossing fingers that he can hold it together long enough to get home in one piece. I’ll visit him this weekend - miss that crazy horse so much.
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Fingers crossed he stays quiet and continues to recover! Can they give him anything to take the edge off?
Thanks, Tiffani Too bad I can’t give him a couple of beers and put him in front of a good movie. Always seems to have a guaranteed sedative effect on the men in my life.
The vet is reluctant to medicate him now because she doesn’t want it to interfere with their ability to observer changes in how he’s doing and walking, etc, I think she said is concerned about monitoring infection because of the recent needle sticks (bursa, coffin joint) but I could be imagining that (I’ve got info overload right now). I’ll be using ace at home definitely.
How is your horse doing? Any updates?
Thanks for asking, Comegaitby. He is home and doing well. We are about to transit into the next stage of rehab, which is going from stall rest/hand walking multiple times a day, to 24 hr turnout in a small area with hand walking once a day (next milestone is walking under saddle starting the end of September).
He has been great about stall rest and his manners have really improved (since I’m not riding him, I’ve really been focusing on this with the extra time I have with him). I am very proud of him for this. He has learned to pay attention and “hold it together” on his hand walks. As it will be another month and a half before I can start walking him under saddle, I’ve ordered some Richard Shrake showmanship/halter materials and we’re going to work on that just to give our time together some focus.
I have not trotted him to see how he looks. I’m actually afraid to, I guess - afraid to be disappointed and lose hope. It’s hard enough to keep my balance emotionally and not worry about the future or panic about minor things - I’ve already seen a couple of times that my judgment is heavily obscured by my emotions and worries (to the point where I’m practically seeing imaginary lumps and bumps, etc). So, I will wait 'til the next vet checkup for that, since trotting of any kind isn’t prescribed yet. For now, I’m just focusing on the present, and doing the very best rehab job I can for him in the current stage he’s in.
Please cross your fingers for him, that he will do well in the transition to turnout. He will be heavily chaperoned for this first 2/3 days of it, have lots of hay, and some ace if needed.
Oh yeah, the new farrier did his feet recently. I’ll try to post comparison pics this weekend.
[QUOTE=Ganesha;8749987]
Thanks, Tiffani Too bad I can’t give him a couple of beers and put him in front of a good movie. Always seems to have a guaranteed sedative effect on the men in my life.
I’ll be using ace at home definitely.[/QUOTE]
Don’t laugh too hard at that one. My horse had to be in a stall for 6 months…not even allowed out to groom. I put a little TV beside her stall and had the olympic DVD for show jumping play over and over…and she watched it!!
