I've been so busy. We actually had a few days of sunshine last week so I was trying to spend some time with my own horses. I even got my first ride on Brandy since last September.....yeah! It had been 8 months since our last ride! If it wasn't for the terrible weather around these parts, I would have started riding again a couple months ago. Anyways, I got home from work early on Friday and it was beautiful out so I rushed out to get Brandy. I lunged her first, but had to take it easy. Even though the sand footing in my arena was dry on top, it was still pretty wet underneath and it was quite slippery. So I just jumped on and walked, jogged and worked on some bending exercises. It was all I could really do with the footing still being wet. I then rode her back to the house. We had a great ride and Brandy was so good considering she hadn't been ridden since September! I am pretty lucky that I have a horse that can sit for that amount of time and I can just jump back on her and go for a ride. She is pretty special. (This wasn't always the case with her, she has come a LONG way in the 7 years I have owned her!)
Then Saturday came around....and just when you think things are starting to look up, they all start to go downhill.....again! When I got home from work on Saturday, I went out to feed the horses. I noticed immediately that when Brandy trotted up to eat her hay, she was lame. I mean really lame on her front left. So I went back to the house to get her halter and went to catch her so I could get a better look. She had heat down in her pastern area, no swelling and I could not find a pulse for the life of me. She seemed a little tender when I touched her coronary band and heel bulb area too. I then cold hosed her leg and gave her a gram of Bute. The next morning I brought her out again and had my OH trot her up the driveway for me. Still lame (not like I was expecting any miracle overnight, but one can always hope, right?) so again I felt for heat and her pastern area was a little warm still. So I cold hosed again and gave her more Bute. I am thinking maybe she has an abscess, but she isn't really showing signs of an abscess (just the lameness at the trot, but not the toe pointing, dead lame at a stand still and walk). So today I finally found a pulse on her and it seemed to be throbbing a little more then usual, and the heat in the pastern area felt better. So I decided to soak her foot in Epsom Salt, just in case there is an abscess. I keep going through my head of other things that it could be. Brandy has always been so sound. She has never been lame, she has never had an abscess and I think the only thing that has happened to Brandy is when she got really sick when I sent her off for training.
When my OH gets home, we are going to make a stall for her and I will put her on stall rest until we figure out if it's an abscess or not. If she is still lame by the end of the week, then it's most likely not an abscess, and I will have the vet out. I will continue soaking it for the next few days. She did just get trimmed 5 days ago and this crazy weather we have been having sure doesn't help.
I am so frustrated. This has been a really bad horse year for me. I have been really lucky in that my horses have always been so healthy and sound. Fritzy has had an abcess and gets really stiff and sore when not worked consistently, plus the usual cold every year. But Brandy has always been the healthy one. I was just getting really excited about putting her back to work and now my plans are on hold. I am hoping it is just an abscess and that she didn't do anything more serious.
In other news......due to EHV, the horse show was canceled last week as well as the one this weekend. We are playing it safe and keeping our horses home, as well as not allowing any other horses on the farm property. My own horses were not going anywhere anyways, so hopefully in a few weeks we can hit the trails! I'm looking forward to the first trail ride of the year!
We had a wedding to go to yesterday. Our neighbors son got married. I've known him since he was 11 yrs old. It's amazing how time flies! After the wedding we went to the neighbors to help them drink the 2 kegs of beer that hardly got touched at the wedding! I think they are going to have beer to drink for a few days!
Chance is doing fine since her jumping career started. I am very paranoid though and find myself looking out the window every 15 minutes or so to make sure she is still where she is supposed to be. I really hope she learned her lesson and doesn't try anything like that again!
20 comments:
Sorry to hear this. It's been pretty much that way for me as well. Hope it turns out to be nothing!
Oh Brandy!! Paint Girl, if it makes you feel any better, my brumby gets abcesses all the time! And they are all unpredictable. Just when we think it has taken to long to blow out as an abscess, and conclude it is some freaky sprain, an abscess blows out. So many times I have wanted so badly for my brumby to speak english so she can tell me where it hurts and what it feels like, when it started, you know--everything! I know your frustration. Add in the rain and fretting about Chance, and you have a gob of stress on your hand.I hope everything turns out to be a whole lot of nothing. Until you get to that point, I'll be sending you good hoof thoughts, soothing dreams of epsom salts and restorative stall rest for your speckly brumby.
With horses it does seems that something is always going on. Hope it's something that is an easy fix. I would be soaking it like you are doing.
Connie
Sorry to hear that - sometimes high abscesses (the type that come out through the coronet band) take weeks to resolve - hope everything comes right more quickly than that.
Call your farrier! If it is an abcess a good farrier will be able to find it, especially if the horse is lame. If it's not and its a leg problem a good farrier should be able to see that too at a fraction of the price of a vet.
Hope whatever is wrong with your girl will resolve soon... gorgeous pic by the way
Hope you have both better luck and better weather soon
Bummer about Brandy's lameness. I hope she heals quickly.
But hooray for sunshine and a great ride on a good horse.
You deserve some good stuff happening.
~Lisa
Sorry about Brandy's lameness. I know all about "it's always something" with my Delicate Grey Flower. Keeps us on our toes, I guess.
Understandable they have canceled the show. At least it will give you more time at home with your own ponies.
Oh poor Brandy! I hope she's feeling better soon. You really have had a rough go lately, it seems like things come in waves, don't they?
What a bummer! I was thinking my horses are probably safer on the trails than at home when it comes to the virus, since my neighbors have been putting their horses where they could touch noses with mine. When I'm on the trails, I see horses off in the distance, but rarely do we cross paths.
That's the way it always happens--everything falls apart at once. It happened to me that way, that's for sure! I had a year of the worst horse luck EVER!! But it was about four years ago. I don't understand it, but sure hope the sun starts to shine more and that lameness issue heals up by itself.
Such fun, aren't they? Hope Brandy gets better soon! Is that three things now? Well...three horses anyways...bad things come in three's I hear, so hopefully you're done now! ;)
Hope Brandy has a speedy recovery! You'll be missed at the next cousin's gathering...maybe we'll give you a call so stay near your phone!!
Keep us posted on the Brandy news. Maybe it is an abscess and it's just going to take longer to work itself out. Without swelling, it is so hard to tell what else it could be. Seems coincidental to me though, that you just rode her and she just had her farrier appointment. Seems like it could be related to one of those events. Hopefully just a tender trim and a bruise. I forgot to ask does she have front shoes?? Maybe a hot nail? Riley had that once, his worst abscess ever.
Hang in there!
Pony Girl~ I haven't had shoes put on Brandy yet. That's not until July. I really hope it's just an abscess or bruise, but my gut is telling me different right now!
That's how I felt last year. If it wasn't one thing, it was another. It's hard not to fret over an unusual lameness.
I hope it's just an abcess but you never can tell how long it will take for those things to blow out. I, too, have had the experience of thinking an abcess would have blown so looked for something else only to have the abcess blow out much later. You just never know.
I didn't know you guys had plans to go to the Spokane show. That's such a long drive, I haven't been there in years. I sure hope the incubation period with this thing passes without any new cases so our lives can get back to normal.
Glad you hear that Chance hasn't done a replay on her jumping. I remember feeling the same way about Dare for a while after she jumped out of her field.
Bummer, I hope that it all works out ok.
Did you dig around and check for thrush? It can cause lameness, but the heat in the fetlock is weird. I hope it's just an abscess and clears up quickly. Please keep us updated.
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