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Expensive pony day....
GB has managed to cost me quite a bit today, I suspect. (Only suspect, as I haven't had the vet bill yet....)
Last Wednesday, he was Not Right in my lesson, and kept stumbling on one leg to the point that I gave up and took him home. Got the vet out, on the grounds that there's no call-out charge on Wednesday (the vet comes to Bexley twice a week, so everyone saves up problems for those days!), vet couldn't see anything.
Rode him again on Thursday, he was stiff on that leg but only a few stumbles. Gave him Friday off. On Saturday, the teenager rode him at Pony Club. Pony Club did a gymkhana. I suspect if I'd known that then I would have told her not to use him.... But, she said there were no problems, so ok.
Stiff again on Sunday, so I told the teenager that she couldn't ride him on Monday. On Tuesday, I was expecting the back lady to come and check him out anyway, so I decided not to ride until she'd had a look and seen if she could find anything wrong. But she got her days wrong, so I was out of time, so he had another day off.
On Wednesday, I went off to my lesson again, and he seemed less stiff (although I did at one point ask him to do something Quite Hard on his sore side. He half did it, then stopped and thought for a moment before performing it perfectly in the other direction, as if to say "this is much easier, you know...."), but then when we got back and the back lady started to look at him, she said "his leg's hot...."
(Hot legs are a generally Bad Thing for horses. It's often the first sign of any trouble.)
(On the plus side, this was the first time he'd actually had a checkable problem, which was a Good Thing in my book!)
She recommended light work, hose the leg down afterwards to get rid of the lump-and-heat if the exercise made it reappear; vet next local-day if it was no better. So I did that on Thursday, and planned to do it again today. Only when I brought him in from the field the lump-and-heat were already there. Phoned the vet. Not an emergency, so I had to hang around for a few hours to wait for someone to come. Spent the time watching all the other people on the yard fall over at the idea that someone might get a vet in on a non-local day, when you have to pay money, for a horse that wasn'tabout to keel over already keeled over.
After some poking and watching him run up and down, the vet's given him 'bute (horse ibuprofen, pretty much exactly) and prescribed a fortnight of no work but he's still to go in the field. I would imagine that he's delighted by this. If he shows any sign of lameness then he has to stay in, but I very much hope that that won't happen.
The problem's in his tendon sheath: he's had windgalls (puffy fluid build-ups) on his back legs for a few years, now, but on one leg it's almost like all the fluid's collected in one, denser spot, rather than being spread out. He's probably just torn the sheath slightly (possibly in the first of last Wednesday's stumbles, possibly not). If it doesn't right itself in the next couple of weeks, we can have ultrasound done (at the yard, ain't technology great?) but "at his age, we'll probably see all sorts of old pathologies", which sounds like a recipe for causing worry!
So, call out fee and a fortnight's worth of 'bute.
And then I said "Oh, by the way... he's and an itchy bum for a couple of months. Someone said yesterday as I was washing it that they thought it was pinworm...?" Yep, classic case thereof, not even going to bother to do a test for eggs. It's just a shame that it's largely resistant in Kent, these days.... Headed off to the local tack'n'feed place and got a couple of doses of wormer, but no idea if it will work (especially as you're also supposed to treat the place where they've been scratching. So, that would be "the field", then?). I'll keep on with the medicated shampoo, as well. And, apparently, spread vaseline around his bum so that, when the females poke themselves out from his gut to lay their eggs, they won't be able to stick them down. That was probably more information than anyone wanted, wasn't it? I shan't describe what the process (which I now realise I've seen without realising) looks like, ok...?
I might see if anyone at the yard has a horse that they need exercising for a couple of weeks....
Last Wednesday, he was Not Right in my lesson, and kept stumbling on one leg to the point that I gave up and took him home. Got the vet out, on the grounds that there's no call-out charge on Wednesday (the vet comes to Bexley twice a week, so everyone saves up problems for those days!), vet couldn't see anything.
Rode him again on Thursday, he was stiff on that leg but only a few stumbles. Gave him Friday off. On Saturday, the teenager rode him at Pony Club. Pony Club did a gymkhana. I suspect if I'd known that then I would have told her not to use him.... But, she said there were no problems, so ok.
Stiff again on Sunday, so I told the teenager that she couldn't ride him on Monday. On Tuesday, I was expecting the back lady to come and check him out anyway, so I decided not to ride until she'd had a look and seen if she could find anything wrong. But she got her days wrong, so I was out of time, so he had another day off.
On Wednesday, I went off to my lesson again, and he seemed less stiff (although I did at one point ask him to do something Quite Hard on his sore side. He half did it, then stopped and thought for a moment before performing it perfectly in the other direction, as if to say "this is much easier, you know...."), but then when we got back and the back lady started to look at him, she said "his leg's hot...."
(Hot legs are a generally Bad Thing for horses. It's often the first sign of any trouble.)
(On the plus side, this was the first time he'd actually had a checkable problem, which was a Good Thing in my book!)
She recommended light work, hose the leg down afterwards to get rid of the lump-and-heat if the exercise made it reappear; vet next local-day if it was no better. So I did that on Thursday, and planned to do it again today. Only when I brought him in from the field the lump-and-heat were already there. Phoned the vet. Not an emergency, so I had to hang around for a few hours to wait for someone to come. Spent the time watching all the other people on the yard fall over at the idea that someone might get a vet in on a non-local day, when you have to pay money, for a horse that wasn't
After some poking and watching him run up and down, the vet's given him 'bute (horse ibuprofen, pretty much exactly) and prescribed a fortnight of no work but he's still to go in the field. I would imagine that he's delighted by this. If he shows any sign of lameness then he has to stay in, but I very much hope that that won't happen.
The problem's in his tendon sheath: he's had windgalls (puffy fluid build-ups) on his back legs for a few years, now, but on one leg it's almost like all the fluid's collected in one, denser spot, rather than being spread out. He's probably just torn the sheath slightly (possibly in the first of last Wednesday's stumbles, possibly not). If it doesn't right itself in the next couple of weeks, we can have ultrasound done (at the yard, ain't technology great?) but "at his age, we'll probably see all sorts of old pathologies", which sounds like a recipe for causing worry!
So, call out fee and a fortnight's worth of 'bute.
And then I said "Oh, by the way... he's and an itchy bum for a couple of months. Someone said yesterday as I was washing it that they thought it was pinworm...?" Yep, classic case thereof, not even going to bother to do a test for eggs. It's just a shame that it's largely resistant in Kent, these days.... Headed off to the local tack'n'feed place and got a couple of doses of wormer, but no idea if it will work (especially as you're also supposed to treat the place where they've been scratching. So, that would be "the field", then?). I'll keep on with the medicated shampoo, as well. And, apparently, spread vaseline around his bum so that, when the females poke themselves out from his gut to lay their eggs, they won't be able to stick them down. That was probably more information than anyone wanted, wasn't it? I shan't describe what the process (which I now realise I've seen without realising) looks like, ok...?
I might see if anyone at the yard has a horse that they need exercising for a couple of weeks....
no subject
(Actually, pretty much, now I think of it. That's slightly ominous.)