Vet visit

The vet came out on Saturday for vaccinations, spring check ups and to look at the TWH who is now been lame for 2 weeks.  We started with the TWH and while he looks much better, he is still lame.  The vet had us do a trot/pace out, hoof tested him and then flexed him a whole bunch of ways.  The vet diagnosed a left front medial splint that is very high and close to the knee.  He also suspects suspensory involvement in the left front, not a tear but maybe a small sprain or inflammation.  The TWH is on very controlled movement for 2 weeks, is having a sweat applied once a day and has his leg wrapped.  The vet will come out in 3-4 weeks to recheck him and if he is not better we will haul over to a clinic where he will have a few specialists look at him and we will have more diagnostic tools available to us.  He also said the TWH's hocks were full but he didn't want to mess with them as he would prefer the TWH be ouchy so that he will stay sedentary while his front heals.  We will then reassess the situation at the recheck.

The App's visit was rather uneventful, I did have the vet draw blood for a full CBC to see if there was anything amiss due to his age (19 this year!) and his declining attitude.  The vet did say my App is starting to loose his sight and that he doesn't seem to have good peripheral vision as the "shelf" in his eye is starting to completely cover his iris.  Ugh, just what I need.  A blind cross country horse who thinks he is alpha and can have an attitude problem.  He can still see, however, seemingly quite well in fact, so I am to very closely monitor him when I start jumping.  If he starts acting abnormally over jumps I am to stop jumping immediately because it will mean the App can't see the jumps well enough anymore.  Poor App will be heartbroken though as he loves jumping.

The Donkey had come up lame on Friday morning and was non weight-bearing on her left hind.  I suspected the problem was around her pastern as that was the only place she was ouchy/kicky and she didn't react to bending or palpating anywhere else.  The vet checked her over and agreed, he said he suspects she tweaked it.  He said it would be like us rolling/twisting our ankle and spraining/almost spraining it.  The Donkey is now on a half gram of bute 2x a day and also having the sweat applied.  She is now weight bearing, but is extremely lame on it still and is laying down a lot.  I am to give her a week and let the vet know if she isn't better so we will see.

Turnout now become a challenge as I have 2 animals that have to be on controlled exercise and 2 that are fine, if not rowdy.  If I turn everyone out together they will be quiet most of the time but I can't guarantee they will stay quiet and I would prefer no one stay on stall rest for 2-4 weeks.  In the end I talked to my boarder and she was okay with the App and the pony staying outside in the winter turnout/sacrifice area.  It is a decent sized area, has water and I will put hay nets out however there isn't any real shelter.  She was fine with it, thankfully, so the TWH and the Donkey will stay in the indoor.  The TWH and Donkey won't run around with each other for the fun of it and the App and the pony can enjoy bugging the poo out of each other but one group won't be able to chase the other.  Everyone will share a gate so they can still hang out with each other but antics shouldn't be raised.  It worked out pretty well yesterday so I am keeping an eye on them today.  We will see how it goes.  X-rays will be in the next post!