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| Photo taken 03/06/11 |
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| Photo taken 03/12/11 -- What a difference in that left front! |
Well, there's good news and bad news, as seems to be the norm lately. The good news is, the left front is nearly normal. Although there is still some swelling, it is MUCH less visible. And the heat is barely there. Also good news is the right hind now looks like this:
The right fetlock was still a little bit swollen, as you can see above, when I brought her out and started cleaning it up. The left fetlock is also pretty swollen -- some of it is stockiness, and the rest is those pesky wind-puff things. But after cleaning it, and bringing her down to lunge her, and a bath...it looked like this:
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| Drying in the sun. She's so much shinier with a layer of winter-yak hair and dirt gone. :) |
The rest of the good news is, she's moving a LOT better at the walk. Her fetlock seems to have full range of motion again, and she looked to have her full stride back. I let her play a little bit off the lunge line and she is feeling well enough to canter slowly of her own will, AND hop around and half-assed buck a little bit, too!! Oh, and the vet gave us 5 days worth of antibiotics, which she will start tonight.
The bad news is, she's still pretty lame at the trot, and I still am not able to tell how much is the hind and how much is the front. While I think I'm pretty good usually at discerning the general area of lameness, this has presented quite a puzzle for me...and I'm certainly no lameness expert, lol. It is definitely LESS, but she seems to be doing this weird rocking horse thing every few strides at the trot. See below:
I'm hoping, between the antibiotics, and the new joint supplement starting shortly after she finishes those...that we'll have a small miracle in the form of a sound(er) pony. A girl can hope right?
On a bright note...here are some blackmail-worthy-hamming it up shots. :)
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| She was jealous that her legs were getting all the camera time, AGAIN. So, using my super cool Samsung camera with front LCD...I took some photos of us together. This one is the best! |
Looks like mostly hinds to me - RH looks short-strided at walk but LH looks funkier at the trot. Have you done ultrasounds to rule out tendon/ligament damage? How much trotting should she be doing at this point with that degree of lameness?
ReplyDeleteAt least some of the injuries seem to be healing up well - nice that the proud flesh has been kept at bay.
Keeping fingers crossed for continued good progress.
OH!!! I went back to all the details of Promise's mishap with the gate. Made me cry..so terrible for her to get into that situation!
ReplyDeletePoor dear!
I am so sorry this happend, she just can't get a break-you too!
It is looking so much better. she mand my mare really swell up hard!
Last year, when my mare tore her hams and injured her stifle I used a Joint supp from "Spingtime Inc."She took 3 months to heal all the way, but I am sure it could have taken longer.
am going to(if I need it) start with "Sringtime's" NEW joint formula. It has a really awesome ingredient called "Boswellia" along with the MSM, Glucosamine and Chondroitin. The frankincense(Boswellia) is a natural anti- inflamitory/herbal pain relief/ improoves the blood supply to joints + more.
The Co. has a great record and research.
You mentioned a joint therapy-what ou going to try?
Kate - I have not done ultrasounds. I think she trotted and "played" for maybe 5 minutes total. I let her off the lunge line because I was concerned about how much being on a relatively small circle was affecting her gait...I can only walk so much to give her a larger area!
ReplyDeleteAnd although I encouraged her to move out for my own observation purposes, she has certainly never been shy. If she really didn't want to, or couldn't, I would have let it go, and brought her back in sooner. :)
KK - Yes, the soft tissue damage seems to hit her hardest, cuts and abrasions have always been relatively minor in terms of causing discomfort. For some things, she has high tolerance, and others not so much. This thing on her fetlock seems to have really done her in, which is the other reason we were thinking it might have been an abscess. It is entirely possible she had a splinter from the fencing that no one ever found.
Years ago, she cut herself on the inside of that right hind with her left hind winter shoe -- caused a 3 corner tear that should have had stitches, but she never set a foot wrong, and so the barn staff didn't notice it. (They weren't very observant, clearly.) When I got there later that day, it was too late for stitches...it healed decently, left an ugly scar, but again, she never took a lame step on it. Incidentally, that was my very first experience with proud flesh, lol.
My barn owner suggested a couple of joint supplements for her, but I found one at SmartPak I thought was better -- in terms of ingredients, price, etc. So, I decided to go with it: http://www.SmartPakEquine.com/ProductClass.aspx?productclassid=1817&cm_vc=Search
Her new shipment arrived on Monday, there are usually 5-7 days overlap on the previous shipment, so she should start on it on Saturday or Sunday.