Sorry things are so rough. You DON’T deserve it.
Ugh it’s been awful. Wildfire. Stupid barn drama from the BO. And my cat went from just having some difficulty with her asthma to suddenly dying of an unrelated lung tumor (that was probably initially bone cancer that I also had no idea about).
When my sports vet suggested that my horse was just trying to get out of work and he was actually fine, I just about lost it. Especially from this vet. This horse is as much the opposite as you can get from my last horse in that regard (although last horse had plenty of physical reasons to want to get out of work too, which vet knows very well, and she always took me seriously when I said he wasn’t right). She might bring her riding clothes for the next recheck.
Well I’m glad the bodywork was a little helpful. How odd and frustrating. Reading about NQR horses is almost triggering to me since I’ve lived it and know just how frustrating it gets.
Sounds like a good plan. The soreness all over sounds Lyme like, although I know that’s not common here in CO. The problem with NQR is it can be SO many things. I hope you get him figured out soon.
Just wanted to say I’m sorry about your cat and everything else OP. The evacuation was stressful enough without all this other crap going on. Barn drama really is the worst, it just takes so much out of you. I’m hoping you get answers… keep us posted.
Hugs to you.
I’ve had two epic, multi-year, NQR’s that were super frustrating, super expensive, emotionally draining, and left me feeling like I was losing my marbles and my that sanity was up for debate.
The worst part was insisting to vets whom I respected very much to pretty please, with sugar on top, FIND SOMETHING WE CAN ADDRESS DANGIT – when all they wanted to do was give up and say he’s spoiled, he’s got my number, he wants to get out of work, bute him and ride him, etc. But the very fiber of my being knew otherwise.
Rads, injections, bloodwork, blocking, blistering,OTC pain blockers, ulcer meds, testing feeds, testing hays, diet changes, saddles, girths, new tack all around, trimming, shoeing, booting, barefoot balancing, tooth balancing, chiro work, acupuncture, acupressure, myofascial release, masterson method, ttouch, Dr. Green, comfy stalls, paddock paradise, thinline, back on track, icevibes, the list goes on and on and on an on and on. If I ever get out of horses I’ll have one helluva garage sale.
In the end, both NQRs were indeed NQR, one stifle, one broken withers, but it was an epic saga to reach the conclusions for both, and have turned me into a hypochondriac.
And left me utterly exhausted and either completely unwilling to ever go down anything remotely resembling a rabbit hole again – or open up a rehab center because I have 90% of the crap I’d need to fix just about any 4-legged case. Every vet in the county stumped? I’VE GOT THIS. :lol:
So big hugs to you. It sucks. And I never had to deal with wildfires in the middle of it all.
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Hugs to you.
I’ve had two epic, multi-year, NQR’s that were super frustrating, super expensive, emotionally draining, and left me feeling like I was losing my marbles and my that sanity was up for debate.
The worst part was insisting to vets whom I respected very much to pretty please, with sugar on top, FIND SOMETHING WE CAN ADDRESS DANGIT – when all they wanted to do was give up and say he’s spoiled, he’s got my number, he wants to get out of work, bute him and ride him, etc. But the very fiber of my being knew otherwise.
Rads, injections, bloodwork, blocking, blistering,OTC pain blockers, ulcer meds, testing feeds, testing hays, diet changes, saddles, girths, new tack all around, trimming, shoeing, booting, barefoot balancing, tooth balancing, chiro work, acupuncture, acupressure, myofascial release, masterson method, ttouch, Dr. Green, comfy stalls, paddock paradise, thinline, back on track, icevibes, the list goes on and on and on an on and on. If I ever get out of horses I’ll have one helluva garage sale.
In the end, both NQRs were indeed NQR, one stifle, one broken withers, but it was an epic saga to reach the conclusions for both, and have turned me into a hypochondriac.
And left me utterly exhausted and either completely unwilling to ever go down a rabbit hole again – or open up a rehab center because I have 90% of the crap I’d need to fix just about any 4-legged case. Every vet in the county stumped? I’VE GOT THIS. :lol:[IMG2=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“full”,“src”:“https://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/core/image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAPABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw==”}[/IMG2]”‹
So big hugs to you. It sucks.
And I never had to deal with wildfires in the middle of it all.
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And… as you’re on a fishing expedition for anything that could possibly shed light…
Years ago, when Dobbin’s back issues were still a mystery, I was doing some late night research and came across an interesting story of a horse that had on-going tripping, balance, cold-backed issues and resisted collection, and nobody could figure out why. A clever vet xrayed the tail bone, discovered a cyst in between two tail vertebra. I forget how exactly they treated it, the story was from the late 80s or early 90s, but they addressed the cyst and everyone lived happily ever after. Just throwing it out there.
I am so sorry 
That is fascinating! And @buck22 I’m ready to open that rehab center with you 
I did another short ride today. This time breaking the Equicore system back out to remind him he has 2 hind legs, and aside from a few coughs and prolonged snorting sessions, he felt like my horse again. He was much more confident today. We even threw in a few steps of canter half pass. I’m really hoping the lingering stuff is manageable allergies.
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I am sorry. You are a great horse mum. I definitely would not have appreciated the vet saying: She said it just looked like he was trying to get out of harder work.
You know your horse better than anyone. I had a vet tell me, when my five year old would plant his feet after I got on him, that he was older and needed steroids to give him more energy. It ended up being his SI. And not that that is your horse’s problem. Keep trusting yourself and your horse.
Oh, and another time my horse stopped drinking. And yes, unfortunately it coincided with a cold spell. The vet told me it was the cold weather. I said no, this is not him. He ended up having ulcers discovered when I insisted it be investigated.
Wishing you both answers.
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So glad he seems to be doing better. Hope the chiropractic was the answer and you get the allergies sorted out.
And so sorry about your cat (and the fires and the barn drama). You’ve really had a tough time.
I have one remaining cat who is being extra obnoxious during my work from home time since he lost his big “sis” (who never really liked him much anyway), so I may go look at kittens at the humane society this weekend.
Although my usual chiro vet has looked at him several times (and I think she’s great), it would be really super if this was the majority of the fix. It would make sense. 6ish years ago I took a header into a jump (being recruited to school an overfaced horse during a clinic that had already pitched its rider), and while I was ok (thanks, helmet), I really jammed up my neck. It took about a month for my muscles to stop spasming enough for me to even think about bodywork. And then I went to my chiro and reluctantly agreed to an adjustment (I hate having my neck cracked), and while that freaked out my nerves and muscles all over again for a little bit, I did feel better after that. Not exactly whiplash as it was more compression impact, but that’s got to be more similar to my horse getting a mouthful of arena sand while falling down. Interestingly, I had been having some trouble with bit placement and bridle fit recently, and since the adjustment, his bridle and bit are back to fitting on their normal settings. Weird, huh?
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Since you’re still searching for an answer, the thing that came to mind when reading was stress. Bodies (horse and human) do weird things when stressed, especially in our modern lifestyles that often don’t foster full let down from stress reactions.
Like your neck story, I got bucked off in May during peak pandemic time and my neck is still not 100% back to normal. I blame pandemic stress for such a prolonged healing process. I’ve also been diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder during the pandemic that I’m so sure is stress induced as well. While my disorder was skin related, reminds me of his airway issues,
So, I guess my point is that even if medicine has an answer, it still might not be a reason why (if that makes sense). And my gut is saying stress induced (maybe from the airplane ride, maybe from the fall, maybe related to behavioural issues before you got him). Either way I might be inclined to do some ground work to make sure he’s able to process his emotions (like meditation for horses).
Best of luck, 2020 has been such a wild year
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Thanks, @Haliburton . I have been working with him from that angle as well.
For your neck and issues, search “somatic tracking”… I had lingering neck and shoulder pain, nerve pain type stuff that would be triggered if I did something little like slip a little in the mud or my horse went to nip me or something. I’d be unable to sleep it was so bad. I was having a very overreactive sympathetic nervous system response. This was when I was dealing with some of the worst of it with my last horse. My PT told me about it because while he didn’t doubt I had real pain, he couldn’t really find any physical dysfunction. Anyway, it reminded me of some of the groundwork stuff I was already doing for my horse’s stress. I have done some of that work with this guy on the ground as well. He’s pretty quick to reset himself, generally, but it has been something I worked on early on and then have revisited during this time he hasn’t been very rideable.
I am so sorry to read about the issues with your horse, and then to lose your cat on top of it!
My thoughts were Lyme and EPM, so I am glad to see you are testing to at least rule those out (they are endemic here and all of our horses but the 4 year old have had one or the other or both).
Many jingles for continued improvement!
Came back to update that he’s getting back to his old self. Including changing shape again and hating my saddles again.
The chiropractic work really made a huge difference. So it appears that he likely did do something to his back/neck in that tumble. The tripping is gone. He’s much more rideable and normal feeling. His personality is back.
EPM came back negative. And we did the dynamic airway scope that was normal. Only thing outstanding is that we took some more xrays of his head for the internist to review, but the sports med vet didn’t see anything there.
We repeated the BAL which did show some inflammatory airway disease. The smoke has been gone now for a bit, and he’s breathing a lot better. The guttural pouch swelling stuff has also been gone at this new barn. (Barn drama meant we had to move). The thing to watch will be how he does next summer. If we have issues again without any fires, then we should repeat the BAL. As of now, the results were mild so no treatment has been prescribed. Just easing back into harder work.
I am relieved that he is feeling better. Except that the saddle saga continues. Ugh. I think next we will try Amerigo or other wool flocked brands.
And, I did adopt a new kitten. Which is great but it’s also been a while since I had a kitten since remaining older cat is 8 now, and that’s been a new adventure.
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