the day started with dionne reporting that lahanie's back end was staggering and weaving again. when i went out to see him..i spied ziggy playing with a garden hose. i laughed and called something (i don't remember what) to him and he trotted right over dragging the hose with him..until he ran out of hose. then he had to leave it behind to come the rest of the way to say hello. that little busy donkey is totally adorable.
anyway..lahanie was pretty badly messed up again so i called the vets...geez those poor guys must have been here almost 10 times in the past couple of weeks! steve and brent have been talking about him..his cushings test came back marginally positive..not enough to explain his weakness. lahanie is a really old horse..if we read his tattoo right, he is at least 33...that is a staggering age for a TB gelding.
so what they think is going on based on both of their exams and lahanie's response to his neck being stretched and moved is that he has significant arthritis in his neck and shoulders and this is causing him not only pain but is probablly affecting his vertabrae and spine causing neurological deficits in his hind end. the real issue here besides his discomfort is that huge horse is seriously wobbly and if he falls, he is going to hurt himself and anyone standing near him.
they have tripled his bute dose for over the weekend...and this worries me because he started bleeding before after a short course of quatrisol which has way less bleeding tendencies than bute. (they don't make quatrisol anymore..it was grossly expensive and most horse folks wouldn't use it long term...$15 a day, every day adds up to A LOT of money...but it kept spritely and ellie feeling pretty good for years...i wish we could still get it, it was a very good drug.)
anyway..they will re-evaluate him on monday or tuesday and see if the high dose of bute helps.
and for minnie who also had her vet check today. the vet thought her heart sounded good. but when i described her two episodes of falling down and gasping following jumping a couple of dogs...he wondered if her mammary tumors had spread to her lungs. so i left her there and went back a couple of hours later so she could have xrays. and what did they find? her heart and lungs look good...but her spine is totally and completely fused with severe arthritis. when we were leaving the clinic..she jumped the first dog she saw...boom she hits the ground gasping and peeing herself.
geez minnie that freaking hurts, quit trying to jump strange dogs. now that we know what is wrong with her, she will start the saints magic pain medication-combo regime...and this kind of worries me cuz once she feels better, jumping dogs is going to be much easier for her...oh freaking yay.
not much wrong with dixie.....she is still very underweight and of course she has never been ridden before...oh and she is sound for pleasure riding but not jumping (she had a spiral fracture on the track..it has healed well but jumping her would not be a good idea.) in all fairness...give your friend a heads up, we are intending to be really strict about this...we will be looking for a rest of her life home for her..that could be thirty more years. there will be a strict contract that she cannot ever be sold, traded, leased or given away..or bred for any reason, she will have to come back to us at no cost if her home is unable to keep her..finding that kind of home in the current horse world will not be easy.