My horse is now dubbed “The Queen of Mysterious Swellings.” Back on July 18th, she was at The Oaks at a show, and in the morning when my trainer took her out to hack, she had a lot of swelling by her elbow. She jogged her, and she was very slightly off, so my trainer gave her the day off and gave her bute. She was better the next day, Thursday, but still very very slightly off. So more bute that evening, and she got the day off. Friday she was 100% sound with some slight residual swelling, so we figured she just whacked herself laying down and was okay. She’s big with long legs (just ask DMJ!) and likes to lie down a lot at night, and what with the small show stalls and all, it didn’t seem unusual for her to have smacked herself. She was fine for 3 days showing on the grass…never took a single off step.
I rode her the next week at home, and the swelling was still there. Now, this is not unusual for her…she somehow smacked her butt (or got kicked through the tent stall) at Indio and had a weird pocket of jiggly swelling that took weeks to go away. But by Saturday, she was really witchy about being touched on her elbow area…really really witchy, like almost biting me! The elbow area looked more swollen, but she was still 100% sound. So the next Tuesday, the vet came out and said to give her a week off and see how she was. The swelling was still there a week later, so he gave her 4 days worth of Naquazone, and said if she didn’t improve, I needed to rule out a bone chip.
On the 11th, she seemed okay, not witchy, etc. and the swelling was down. That was the last day of medication. I thought she was all better. NOPE! By that next Tuesday, the swelling returned. So I called the clinic and made an appointment for xrays for tomorrow (the 25th) since I was out of town last weekend, and I wanted our vet to see her once again before I took her (he couldn’t come out until today). So Wednesday I went to the barn for my lesson, expecting to ride the school horse. Well, who was in the crossties, but Miss Cypress!!! I was so excited! The swelling was down significantly from last week, and she let my trainer poke her and stretch her without biting her! The entire drive to the barn on Wednesday I had myself convinced that she was going to have to have surgery and the whole bit. I was so depressed, but boy was I excited to see her telltale big ears in the barn aisle as I was driving up (it’s hard to see which horse is standing in the aisle when you drive up because of the shade, but you can see shapes, and those ears stick out!).
The next day the swelling was down even more, most likely as the result of being ridden. She has been turned out all night all along, as she normally is, but the riding seemed to make a difference. Today the vet came out, and gave her the total green light and told me to cancel the xray appointment. Woo hoo!!! I just got off the phone from canceling the appointment, and I was so excited I had to post!!!
