Plan B(rego)

You might have noticed a lack of updates about Paddykins' thrush-based lameness. That's because I had a "yay, all better!" post all ready to go, after we'd had a great dressage ride on Thursday and a fantastic trail ride with hubby on Saturday.

Then Sunday, he was lame. This time on the left front - and it's an altogether different kind of lame that the thrush problem.  He's mostly fine on straightaways, but struggles badly on turns, and positively refuses to trot. I suspect soft tissue injury in the foot, because it's very similar to how his other S/T foot injury (on his RF) presented 18 months ago. There's no heat or swelling anywhere, but something is most definitely not right. The vet was due out yesterday, but had to reschedule for tomorrow.  In the meantime, Paddy's been on stall rest and limited turnout. Fun times.

So there I was Sunday morning, watching my plans to move up to First any time soon dissolve before my eyes. And then I realized... hey, we do actually have another really talented dressage horse, just standing around eating ('cause hubby has been gone so much this fall). Before poor Brego quite realized what had happened, I'd groomed him, tacked him, and we were on our way for a little spin.

It's the first time I've ridden Brego since we tried him out in August 2014. To say he's a bit different than Paddy would be the understatement of the year. Paddy's like riding shotgun (and therefore hanging on for dear life) in an Audi Quattro rally car, where the driver is a kid who is doing donuts at 100 mph in the parking lot but really questions why you have to practice this boring stuff. Brego's more like piloting a Sherman Tank, where you're the cocky (yet apparently clueless) gung-ho new guy and the rest of the crew has 10+ years of experience and 187 medals among them, and would really rather be sitting around eating Cheetos and telling stories.

Me: Hey, big guy, how about we trot?
Brego: *stuffs Cheeto in mouth and starts licking cheese dust off fingers* Huh?
Me: Trot?
Brego: *sighs* I remember back in Massachusetts, we were off on a hunt and trotted for TWO WHOLE MINUTES.
Me: TROT!
Brego: OK, OK, just a sec... jeez, don't get your panties in a wad about it. I swear. *shakes head and rolls eyes*

Not the ears I'm used to. Also, it's a long way down.

Of course, once you get Brego going, he's a total dreamboat to ride. Those years of experience and 187 medals come is really handy... it's just that getting him to dust all that knowledge off and motivating him to use it is a little... exhausting.

(Hey Megan, you know those walk/trot transitions for a lazy horse that you talked about? Yep, we're on it.)

Oh and also, I'm having to re-learn how to ride. Because Brego's movement is so big compared to Paddy's, he's throwing me around. I feel like a total noob. However, it's really amazing to ride an actual balanced canter.

So, since hubby stole my horse for two jousts this summer, I'm stealing his horse for the foreseeable future. Poor Brego, he's got no idea.

Poor unloved, unfed dog. Really.

Nobody here ever feeds me. Look at my empty bowl. Le Sigh.

And if they do, it's just (organic, grain-free, limited ingredient, $$$$$) dog food. It was gross, I had to dump it on the floor.

I tried to beg for some of these delicious homemade kolaches instead.

I mean, look how good I am. I'm even sitting!

But Dad just ate them in front of me and told me how delicious they were. How cruel.

Mom told me I wasn't getting anything else, so I had to eat my spilled food off the floor. Poor me.

Mom apparently didn't understand my message that this food is gross, so I had to dump it again this morning. But I'm not eating it off the floor, because that's icky.

I am reduced to begging for crumbs off Mom's plate. Poor me.

Brego's broken tooth

Before we got him, Brego had a cracked tooth that turned into an abscess that ended up as a sinus infection that he had to have flap surgery to clear out. The story is here, if you want to read it. We kept up with his every-six-months visits to a specialist equine dentist, so we were surprised to see him quidding hay early this fall. We had the dentist out immediately, since we were quite concerned that Brego might lose a pound or two if he didn't have his full chomping capabilities.

As it turned out, the tooth next to the one he had removed had cracked and was causing him some discomfort. We found a second surprise when we took x-rays to try to see how extensive the crack was: Brego had a mass in his skull, at the site of the old abscess.

Side view

Top view

The radiographs were sent off for a secondary consultation, and the results were mixed. The consensus was that the mass was not an immediate threat, and had likely developed after the flap surgery. However, if we tried to remove the tooth, there was a good possibility that the process would disturb the mass, which could cause significant problems and a potentially even a follow-up surgery to remove it. Our dentist recommended taking Brego for a standing MRI before we attempted to remove the tooth so that he would be able to plan the surgery around the mass, or plan to remove the mass as part of the surgery if necessary.

There was, however, a second option. Apparently, up to about Brego's age, horses are able to lay down enamel over broken or chipped teeth. We could give it a month or two and wait to see if he might be able to repair the damage enough to keep the tooth. We agreed that this would be the preferred option, so our vet showed us how to do daily "tap tests" and "breath tests" to make sure there was no sign of infection (horse heads should sound hollow when tapped, and their breath shouldn't smell like something died). We opted for this option, since it seemed like the best and safest for everyone. Brego didn't quite understand the tap tests, although he did appreciate the daily cookie he got after Hubby thumped his skull every morning.

Last week when we had the vet out to look at Paddy, we also checked up on Brego. BEST NEWS EVER - he managed to lay down enough enamel to keep the tooth! You can see that it's broken off just below the gumline, but there's no redness or swelling, and there's also no sign of pain.

The inside 1/3 of the tooth is broken off just below the gumline - but it's looking great! 

We'll continue to keep an eye on it, but hopefully Brego will stop eating rocks or whatever he's snacking on between meals, and we won't have any more dental fun.

Caring for deep thrush - in pictures

First, there's nothing gross to see here, I promise.

I mentioned last week that per the vet, Paddy's weird stiffness/lameness was diagnosed to be a thrush infection deep in the RF heel. The good news is that we've been treating it 2x/day since then, and while he's not quite 100%, he's darn close. I think a few more days and we'll be good to go.

If you've never dealt with a deep infection, it's a bit of a pain. Here's what I'm doing to treat him:

1. Collect all your equipment.

You can get anti fungal cream at your local grocery store. The tip of this one fits perfectly into a 3 ml syringe, so I can load up the syringe and use it as an applicator. The syringe tip lets me get the goo deep down in the crack.

Loaded and ready to go.

Next up, thimerosal. Don't touch this stuff, lick it, get it in your eyes, breathe it, etc. It's an organomercury anti fungal agent (also found as a preservative in vaccines) - great stuff for white line disease and deep thrush, but you don't want to get it on your skin or your horse's. Wear gloves or handle with extreme caution and wash hands immediately after.

Betadine rinse with syringe applicator. I squirt syringe fulls of this up in the crack to rinse out any debris that's gotten up in there.

Also needed but not shown: hoof pick and gauze squares.

2. Collect your Haffie. Distract him with food.

This was the easy part.

3. Treat the foot. This is kind of like treating an abscess - once you get the area clean, you don't want to let him put his foot down until you get it repacked, so be sure to have all the equipment handy.

Pre-cleanout. You can see the gauze crammed in his heel from the last time we did this.

Clean foot VERY well before pulling out gauze (this lessens the chance you'll get any dirt in the crack). Here's what it looks like after I've pulled out the gauze.

Use syringe to rinse out cavity with betadine. Hopefully you can see the giant hole in his heel. Yikes! The hole itself is a lighter color because of the thimerosal.

Put about 5 drops of thimerosal right in the worst part, being careful not to get it anywhere that it could run up into his skin. Cram anti-fungal cream in on top of it.

Using a hoof pick, pack a gauze square in the crack. This keeps dirt out, the dressing in, and allows a little air to get in the deep part (and thrush hates air).

Crush the scorpion that was wandering across the backroom floor.

After 5 days, we're down to using thrush buster (which has formaldehyde in it, did you know?) and anti-fungal cream, but we're still packing it with gauze to keep the dirt out. It's looking SO much better and he's clearly moving better. Now, just gotta stay on top of things so that this doesn't happen ever again!

What's wrong with Paddy: The actual vet's assessment

Hindsight is 20/20, but it's also interesting how certain things can affect certain horses. Now that we have a clearer idea of what's going on, all the little clues that I posted about earlier this week fall into place.

Here's the bottom line:

Despite the fact that this would have been the third year he's been on it, Paddy's winter feed affected him metabolically in some way. We switched him back to his regular feed (Triple Crown Lite), and within 36 hours his personality was totally back to normal. The vet even joked about how sneaky he was being (he was trying to flip over a table of equipment and was mooching the vet tech for treats). So, no more Triple Crown Senior for The Padster. I need to find an alternative way of getting more calories into a hard-working Haffie - right now I'm looking at ground flax and maybe some soaked and rinsed beet pulp, or possibly a touch of alfalfa. I just have to keep it super low NSCs, because our guess is that was the trigger. Given the fact that he was his normal self, the vet said that Lyme or PSSM was highly unlikely, so we did not draw blood to test for either of those. However, if symptoms should continue, we'll definitely do that.

Nope, I'm not trying to escape. I mean, you left the gate open - what did you EXPECT me to do???

That crack I mentioned in the RF heel? It's MUCH deeper than we originally thought. I started digging around Tuesday night and basically sank 3/4 of an inch of hoof pick into a thrush-filled cavity. EEEK! I used a syringe (with no needle) to flush out the cavity with Betadine solution, jammed some anti-fungal goo in there, and packed an entire piece of gauze up in his frog (this both keeps the goo in and the dirt out, plus it helps get some air up in there - and thrush doesn't like oxygen). Let me tell you, it's disturbing to be able to pack a whole square of gauze in your horse's frog. When the vet came out, Paddy was positive to hoof testers on the RF heel, and was slightly short on that foot as well. There was no heat or swelling anywhere else in the limb, and he had no back pain, but his shoulder and neck were very stiff - as one might expect with a sore heel. So, we're now on a 2x/day flushing and packing routine, and even after just a day, it's looking so much better and he's moving more freely. The plan is to continue this for a week and hope it clears up and he goes back to being 100%, and if not, we'll reassess then.

Thanks to everyone who commented with their experiences! The combined knowledge of bloggers is pretty cool. I have to say, I'm glad it's not PSSM or Lyme, even though the sudden personality change certainly made those two options seem likely. I've had plenty of experience with metabolic issues with Saga, but never seen a personality change quite like that. Oh well, each horse is an individual - live and learn!

Your chance to be an armchair vet: What's wrong with Paddy?

Let me preface this all by saying that the vet has already been called and will be out Wednesday, so please don't worry that I'm using the Internet to diagnose my beloved Paddykins (also, Aimee would murder me in my sleep). So we'll get to the bottom of this with actual technology an' stuff. But in the meantime, it's fun to play armchair vet in this week's edition of "What's wrong with my horse?"

Here's the timeline:

• Sept 15 - Paddy moves to Trainer's barn to prep for Championships. He goes from 24/7 turnout with his beloved Brego to 12 hour turnout by himself.
• Oct 1 - Legend + Pentosan
• Oct 7-11, Region 9 Championships. Paddy felt awesome even if he was a brat in the arena.
• Oct 13 - Changed to Paddy's "winter" feed, Triple Crown Senior. Normally he gets TC Lite.
• Oct 14-15 ish - I notice Paddy feels kind of stiff all over, but he works out of it.
• Oct 16th or so - Trainer ride, she mentions that he feels a little stiff on his right shoulder.
• Oct 17-24 - I don't ride as much but when I do, Paddy feels stiffer and I have to push him. Normally he goes mach one-Haffie. He also seems a little less interactive than normal.
• Oct 25 - Paddy comes home for some R&R and to get his feet done.
• Oct 27 - Trimmer notices that Paddy seems stiff and doesn't want to hold up any of his feet. He's also not constantly messing with the trimmer (usually he licks his hair and other helpful things). Trimmer says he doesn't seem himself.
• Oct 28 - Great ride out on the trails - big trot, good canter work. Everything seems mostly normal except that after 20 minutes, he's exhausted.
• Oct 29-Nov 1 - Stuck riding or hand-walking on the road due to weather. Such fun. Many yays. He seems to not be landing toe first on the RF, and short-striding a little at the walk, but looks and feels fine at the trot. 
• Nov 2 - Bodyworker comes out and mentions that his topline is not great, something I had also been noticing. He's extremely tight in his neck, especially on the right. He also usually spends the entire session messing with anything he can wrap his little lips around, including the Bodyworker's hair, belt, the grooming box, etc. This time he just sort of stands listlessly, although near the end he starts throwing brushes and he looks much perkier after she's done . We discuss what might be wrong with him, and I call the vet.

 

Hard-working Haffies require massages.



Here's a few things that keep coming to mind:

• He seems to be stiff and unwilling to go forward - normally he's a very strong, forward ride.
• He doesn't seem to be himself - normally he's into everything, and now he's just not.
• I thought he might be sort of depressed because he didn't have his Brego while at Trainer's, but his attitude hasn't really changed since he's been home.
• I also thought he might be tired of working in an arena day in and day out at Trainer's. However, trail rides and road work are equally as unexciting.
• I've had two people who don't see him every day (trimmer and bodyworker) comment that he didn't seem like himself.

And also:

• I'm doing a Panecur Powerpac, just in case he picked up something at Regionals or Trainer's barn
• The trimmer could find no abscesses, heat, or anything to indicate something wrong with his foot. We are, however, treating a deep crack in his RF heel (no thrush apparent, but still treating), which might be the cause of the toe-first landing. I will have the vet look at this limb in particular.
• Bodyworker found no soreness in his back.
• Some horses are sensitive to changes in sugars, and his winter feed is about 5% higher in NSCs than his summer feed. However, he's had that feed before and did not show any signs of it affecting him.

Soo, what does the Internet Armchair Vet Symposium think? Have you ever had anything like this in a horse of yours?

2 year anniversary of the craziest horse thing I've ever done

Two years ago today, I met Paddy for the first time. I rode him for literally 20 minutes before I signed the paperwork, wrote a check, and stuffed his fuzzy butt in the trailer for the 1400 mile drive home.

Buying Paddy is by far the craziest thing I've ever done in my adult life. I wasn't even looking for a horse - I had just lost Echo, and earlier that year we'd lost Saga and Oberon. I was questioning why we even HAD horses, since I seemed to be doing a great job killing them off. And then Lauren asked me - hypothetically - if I were to get a horse, what would I want. I told her  gelding, NOT bay (Echo, Oberon, and Saga were all bays). Kind. Lots of miles. Fun to ride.

She told me I should get a Haflinger.

I immediately scoffed at the idea. I'm 5'8, and at the time I wanted to event. Haffies are short fat ponies, without an athletic bone in their bodies, right? (Let's ignore, for the moment, their impressive ability to escape.) But, because I'm a moron, I looked at Dreamhorse that day while I was eating lunch. Here are the pics from Paddy's ad:

Oooooh.

OOOOOOOH.

OhEmGee.

How could I even think about resisting? He was athletic, adorable, and had good conformation. I called the owner and the trainer, and the more I talked to them, the better he sounded.  He vetted fine. And none of my (more or less) responsible adult friends dissuaded me from trying him out. Including my husband.

There was one slight problem though. Paddy lived in Michigan. I live in Texas. I pointed this out to Lauren, who said two words in response: ROAD TRIP.

This is where the crazy comes in. I cashed in some frequent flyer miles and got a one-way ticket to Detroit for after work that Friday. BFF FuzzyPony, because she loves me (I have no idea why), agreed to DRIVE THE RIG SOLO from Austin to Detroit. Then she picked me up at the airport Friday night when my flight got in at midnight. We drove to the hotel, got a couple of hours of sleep, and were at the barn at 6:30 the next morning to try Paddy out.

By 7:20 a.m. we were on our way back to Austin, one adorable Haflinger in tow.

I have never once regretted my crazy choice, and have to thank all my enabling friends and husband for somehow making all of this happen. The last two years have been so special, and Paddy has been such an amazing partner. His face makes me smile every single time, even if I do give in and feed him another cookie just because he's so damn cute.

How can you even resist? You can't. Obviously.

And I will luff him and hug him and squeeze him and call him Paddy! 

PS. Thanks MC for reminding me of the Haffie-versary!