Today was an epic trek to Birmingham to a vet clinic for second opinion on Megan. The verdict is shoe her, ride her and we'll see what happens. No neuro symptoms currently visible, but we're not completely out of the woods.
This vet feels it was unlikely that she had EPM. If she has Wobblers he feels it's a mild case and may resurrect after 6 to 8 weeks of being back in work. Or she could be just fine! Time will tell, but the good news is we'll be DOING something. She looked fantastic today, slow legged with tons of suspension in her gait -- really lovely. She was also a star about a 10 hour day of travel and examination.
She gets shoes on Wednesday and then we'll saddle up and see how it goes.
Monday, December 18, 2006
Friday, December 15, 2006
What a Week.
Megan was supposed to go to the clinic in Birmingham for a second opinion on Monday, but over the weekend she went from lame to crippled. We canceled the appointment and spent the day agressively treating a severely bruised foot. By Tuesday night the poultices and soaking had done their job and she was back to garden variety lame instead of cut-my-leg-off-now lame.
Next Monday we'll try again to make the trek to Birmingham and hopefully a stop to the vicious cycle she's in. The lameness in one leg/foot causes her to over use the opposing leg and then she bruises or injures herself on that one. I still think the initial problem is the left front and our detour down neurological lane was a sidebar to what we were initially dealing with as the primary issue.
Oh well, she's happy. Even at her most crippled, her ears up and she's searching for cookies, so we muddle through each problem in turn and hope that soon enough we'll be out the other side and finally riding. If we aren't riding by March though, my plan is to breed her and let her spend a year/18 months on the mommy track while I focus on Lily. I busily picking out her baby daddy.
Next Monday we'll try again to make the trek to Birmingham and hopefully a stop to the vicious cycle she's in. The lameness in one leg/foot causes her to over use the opposing leg and then she bruises or injures herself on that one. I still think the initial problem is the left front and our detour down neurological lane was a sidebar to what we were initially dealing with as the primary issue.
Oh well, she's happy. Even at her most crippled, her ears up and she's searching for cookies, so we muddle through each problem in turn and hope that soon enough we'll be out the other side and finally riding. If we aren't riding by March though, my plan is to breed her and let her spend a year/18 months on the mommy track while I focus on Lily. I busily picking out her baby daddy.
Monday, December 04, 2006
The Power of Positive Thinking
Didn't help. Megan is still extremely lame and I'm frustrated to no end. We still did our work at the walk as she seems comfortable enough and moves out with a free stride. Up and down the hills we went. We also went out on the trail and walked for a total of 40 minutes. Most of the time I had the side reins attached and she marched along with her back up and stepping up from behind working the areas we KNOW are weak. That leaves what we don't know... Next week, a trip to sporthorse clinic in Birmingham is on the agenda. Time for a second opinion and more diagnostics. Keep your fingers crossed for a resolution that's fixable.
Lily is my hero. She has big hooves to fill in keeping me from being devastated by the situation with Megan. As depressed as I was after seeing how lame Megan was, I left the barn on a happy note after working with Lily. Lily's intensive training regime is that I take her out of the field once a week and ask her to do something new. This is not the recommended course, but darned if she doesn't eat it up. This week was cavaletti (a series of 4 poles on the ground spaced evenly apart). I had zero expectations that Lily would do this or do it well. I walked her through the poles once or twice and then asked her to trot. Now, most horses in my experience have to be set up just right to get them to trot the poles. If they can cut inside or outside of them and avoid them, they will. Not Miss Lily. I was far from organized in my approach to this, but damned if she didn't hunt those poles up and trot through like she had been doing it all of her life. We did it several times and each time she perked her ears and ate them up. Whatever happens with Megan, Lily is a star in the making and she makes me very happy.
Lily is my hero. She has big hooves to fill in keeping me from being devastated by the situation with Megan. As depressed as I was after seeing how lame Megan was, I left the barn on a happy note after working with Lily. Lily's intensive training regime is that I take her out of the field once a week and ask her to do something new. This is not the recommended course, but darned if she doesn't eat it up. This week was cavaletti (a series of 4 poles on the ground spaced evenly apart). I had zero expectations that Lily would do this or do it well. I walked her through the poles once or twice and then asked her to trot. Now, most horses in my experience have to be set up just right to get them to trot the poles. If they can cut inside or outside of them and avoid them, they will. Not Miss Lily. I was far from organized in my approach to this, but damned if she didn't hunt those poles up and trot through like she had been doing it all of her life. We did it several times and each time she perked her ears and ate them up. Whatever happens with Megan, Lily is a star in the making and she makes me very happy.
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