Stall Rest

Friday, March 20, 2015

There is a saying: Once a horse is born, it spends the rest of its life trying to kill itself.

Thankfully Faygo seems to not fit that mold- she rarely injures herself accidentally. Some horses seem very accident prone – if there is a nail they will step on it, if there’s a splinter in the fence it will end up imbedded and infected somewhere… then there are the rest who seem to fit into the middle of the road with occasional accidents.

Khalessi has grown up mostly out in the herd and seems to be pretty good at avoiding injury day to day, but something happened to hurt her this week which has her temporarily out of rotation.

I believe that Sunday when I rode Faygo and left Khaleesi in the barn with partial access to the boys (the top door was open), they keep her company while we’re gone, some horseplay went on. Her halter was on (probably will think twice about that now) and it ended up on the ground outside- which leads me to think maybe someone got hold of it and pulled it off her- and in doing so pulled her shoulder into the bottom half of the door- which bruised it.

Monday when I came in to feed Khaleesi was slightly off and I assumed a hoof abscess- after all we just had a farrier visit on Friday, then I rode her. That would be the second time she had a hoof issue after a trim. [note to self] I figured it would eventually release and we’ll soak and manage it.

Tuesday when I came to ride Faygo, she was worse. I rode Faygo leaving Khaleesi in the field (where now I believe she ran around stressed out at being left behind seriously inflaming her injury). I called my farrier for advice on the hoof.

Wednesday my farrier happened to be in the area and stopped in to see her, she could barely walk. He watched her and thought it would be a simple abscess release and good to go. Yet he couldn’t find anything in the hoof. No sensitivity, no heat, nothing… the leg seemed ok too. We sadly realized it was more likely a shoulder injury. A little bute (horse aspirin) and locked her in the stall while I called vets.

Thursday I hadn’t gotten very far with the vets, but did get a name of someone closer than my favorite vet who might be a good contact. My vet via phone said she still thought there was a decent chance it was an abscess, but in an area that would be hard to detect. So hard to tell when they won’t talk to you about WHERE exactly does it hurt!? Upon checking in, Khaleesi had improved with stall rest and bute. I thought it could mostly be the pain killer, so I moved her to an outside stall and brought Faygo over to be closer so they’d be happier for a longer confinement period. I couldnt tell if there was a difference in digital pulse (would help us know if it was in the hoof or the shoulder) and she seemed to be just as bad on grass and pavement – so maybe it’s not the hoof? No more bute, I wanted to see if she was improving or not on her own.

Friday someone had sprung her from her cell! I came to find her in the pasture with Faygo – small field, so not a huge deal, but I got video of her walking back up to her stall, and she is definitely improved since Wednesday. She is on the mend at the moment, so I’m going to keep her confined, possibly give her a little more bute as anti-inflammatory agent, and then see how she’s doing in a couple days. Have a call into the new vet to ask advice about the bute- I don’t want to mask the symptoms or make her feel like she can put more weight on it if that will harm recovery, but I’ve also heard that some anti-inflammatory can help in healing.

I have an annual vet visit scheduled mid-April, so at the moment I hope she continues to improve and I can have my vet look at her then to see if she needs any help getting everything back in place and healing well. I’ll have my eye on her to decide what to do next week.

Thankfully she’s not my only horse, and she’s still very far away from being ready for any kind of event- I still have some work to do with Faygo for our ride next month, so we’ll give Khaleesi a break to heal up. Though I can’t wait to get more saddle time with her when she’s ready!