She's not eating?!

Miss Promise was looking better last weekend, but I told the barn owner I'd like her to have one more week of stall rest. It kills me to keep her in her stall this long, but I can't take the chance that she'll repull it by getting turned out too soon. Plus, her pasture buddy left on the 1st to go to a new barn, so turnout groups will be rearranged. I am hoping she will introduce one horse at a time when Promise starts going out again.


Friday, she didn't seem as stiff coming out of her stall as she had the week before. We walked for about 30 minutes around the driveway and she looked really good by the time I put her to bed and threw her some hay. One of the girls that feeds a few nights a week offered to walk her on Tuesday nights if I wanted her to. 


I said, sure, that'd be great, but please don't feel obligated. She also noticed that Promise still had 1/2 of her breakfast sitting in her bucket. Weird. I rarely look because in the years I've owned her, I have never seen her leave feed behind...not even a pellet of grain. Well, I thought...could be her teeth, could be the bute, or could be depression. Seemed the first two were most likely. 


Anyway, we walked around the driveway for 30 minutes or so.


Saturday morning, I saw that she'd only eaten half her breakfast. I talked to the barn owner about it. She said she'd clean out the bucket, it was probably because of the bute. She also said she'd call the dentist and make an appointment ASAP. Promise was pretty stiff and moving slowly. We went down to the arena, and walked the perimeter, then looped up a slight incline back toward the gate, and back into the arena. We did this large, loopy circle about 5 times. It gave her some different terrain to cross, and I think made her more aware of her feet, and made her use her leg a little bit more than the driveway. 


She looked really great Saturday morning, almost sound, in fact. And, she was keeping up with me for about 95% of our walk, which is a HUGE improvement over last weekend when I felt like I was dragging her behind me like a little lost puppy. I let her graze for a few minutes before putting her back in her stall and introducing her to the treat toy I bought her (basically a likit, with peppermint). She wasn't scared of it, but didn't seem overly impressed either.


Sunday, all of her feed was gone. Must have been the bute. But she does still need her teeth done soon. Yay for vet AND dentist bills near the holidays! :(


She was pretty stiff again, which is probably from walking on it two days in a row. We went to the tree for some grooming, and she almost knocked herself over when she tried to pick up her right hind so I could pick it out. I had to laugh. I totally appreciated the effort, but reminded her that she's always allowed to rebalance herself before she picks any foot up. The second time I asked, she rebalanced and then picked it up. I kept it low for her and gave her a handful of sour gummy worms as a reward. 


She walked out of the stiffness pretty nicely about halfway through, and again, kept up with me for the majority of the walk. 


She still didn't seem too thrilled with the treat thing, I ended up pulling some of the peppermint off the edges and feeding it to her, hoping she'd love it enough to get it on her own. Again, not really impressed. I hope she changed her mind during the week!


I definitely think she's making progress still, so I don't feel like another vet visit is in order for now. Hopefully she'll surprise me tomorrow afternoon and will look great...because, while I said 1 more week of stall rest, I was actually thinking more like 2.