Had my “new” guy almost a year. Well, I’ve owned him for a year but it took forever for him to get from Germany to me. He arrived skinny and unsettled, but with slow consistent work and nutrition, we were making good progress. Some hiccups along the way as he adapted to our climate and footing. Did SI injections late spring because he’d had a couple weird slips/spooks during the lockdown and I couldn’t get the chiro out at that time and he got sore/imbalanced. And one colic in July that landed him in the hospital for almost 4 days, but no surgery. Was schooling 3’ courses easily by late summer. A little jumping at 3’6". Dabbling in 2nd level dressage with some 3rd level stuff thrown in (canter half pass, working on having less of a “hunter change”), and even trying a couple steps of canter pirouette for strengthening his long body. Did a schooling show pre-shutdown and a local show in late August at baby green level, trying to learn the hunter thing. Horse is 8yo gelding with experience to 1.25m in Germany. I did a very thorough PPE including full radiology report from CSU.
This summer, he wasn’t sweating the greatest, and had some exercise intolerance. Couldn’t seem to get him very fit. Would huff and puff a lot. Did short and to the point rides in early morning, and that seemed to help. Tried OneAC with no effect. Got him to be better at drinking water with powdered Gatorade (blue is his favorite).
At the August show, in schooling, I screwed up and was riding to no distance and just did nothing. He left long, cleared the jump fine (was a baby jump) but had a hard rub and on landing got tangled up in the old felt footing at that venue, scrambled for a few strides then went down. Seemed to have hit back of left front leg with left hind. Got a nose full of sand, nearly squished me, but we both came out of it ok. I checked him over closely and we continued on with the show (3 classes and a flat) and he seemed fine aside from being nervous. He’s a good boy and doesn’t hold grudges. The tiny cut on the left front got infected a few days later, but cleared up fine with antibiotics. Vet checked him at this time and he was sound. Since we were both banged up, I took it easy for a little while with light hacks and walks and eased back into it.
2.5-3 weeks later, things start going poorly. Beginning with grinding his teeth in the canter, especially right lead and later on in the work. Collecting the canter on either lead made him tense and crunch on the bit. Was having a touch of trouble with lead changes. Hind feet looking a little bullnosed. Sore behind. A week or so later, he is starting to be unwilling to canter, especially right. Wants to be very long and low and pretty much off contact. Anxious and teeth grinding. Does this in different tack/saddles. Starts getting swollen glands around throatlatch and guttural pouches. Worse in the morning. Reduces some with exercise. Equal both sides, and comes and goes as far as size. No temp, no nasal discharge. We are getting a lot of smoke from wildfires, but August also hadn’t been that great as far as air goes either.
Lameness evaluation unremarkable, but LH looks a little iffy although flexes fine. Hocks do not have OA but there’s some sclerosis around the lower joints which can be associated with pain. No signs of PSD. SI area sore. Take hind foot films and plantar angle a little flat. Inject hocks and plan to tweak feet at upcoming trim. Ridden exam vet thinks he is off in front, but to me he was just pulling and rooting down so much that he was dumping on the forehand unevenly. Seemed weird for him to be loading his front feet more if he was off there. No front limb lameness without a rider. They ask me to canter in a way to replicate the teeth grinding. Is so on the forehand and leaning on the bit that when I pull him up from canter to poop, he trips and goes to one knee.
Also due for dental and has thorough exam that shows nothing out of the ordinary.
Farrier makes changes all around. Tripping greatly improved. Posture improved. Chiro recheck shows much less body soreness. Now he’s just forging like mad, so farrier coming back out to look.
Has another colic, this one mild, possibly impaction but no Dx clear, even with bloodwork and ultrasound. Started on Gastrogard. Teeth grinding stops.
Starts coughing under saddle and doing the extreme leaning/stretching out in the warmup. Also clearing his nose a lot. Canter still terrible. Static upper airway scope is unremarkable, including a look in the guttural pouches. BAL shows signs of mild RAO as well as EIPH. Vets have not prescribed anything for this. Just say it’s mild and maybe it will resolve on its own.
In the meantime, it’s getting colder here and horse is overweight and wild but can’t actually work enough to make him fitter or feel better. I’m trying to keep him moving some to at least keep the guts working, but it’s frustrating because he doesn’t seem to warm out of the need to extend his neck and blow his nose or act like he needs to clear his throat. He is frustrated. I’m frustrated. He is trying to be a good boy. He can’t be ridden on contact, doesn’t want to round. If I can get a halfway decent canter I can’t maintain it. Trot isn’t awful all the time but he is not himself at all. He has a couple kind of close spines in his lumbar. So I think that’s it. Then I think it’s neck because contact/head position seems to matter. Then I think it’s allergies because of his swollen throat. Or maybe it’s airway because they breathe differently in canter than trot.
I have a huge team of vets and no one is giving me a plan for what to do next. Only thing that I am confident is ruled out is teeth–my dentist is excellent and took a very close look. Do I get a nebulizer? Do I do antihistamines? Try a Robaxin trial? Ultrasound his lumbar or base of the neck (we couldn’t really see much past C6 on Xray due to his conformation but radiologist thinks that it’s unlikely for him to have a major problem at C7-T1 given how pristine the rest of his neck is). Does he have a soft tissue something in his body from that fall? But why is his throat swollen? Only thing I am doing for sure is continuing the Gastrogard treatment–we are in week 3 now. And with farrier plan for the feet part.
Next week I have a phone consult with an internal medicine specialist from California who is familiar with airway diseases as well as the effects of wildfire smoke.
