Left Front Pics...

We seem to be in a bit of a holding pattern with Miss P and her left front.  Yesterday I popped out to the barn to evaluate, and see if anything had changed.  P's legs looked exactly the same - little to no swelling, standing squarely, walking/jogging out pretty normal... etc.

I did throw her on the lunge to see what happened on a circle and the result wasn't much different.  The BO did mention that she was a little off when turned on a tight circle to the right (less so to the left). But I wanted to investigate at the trot and on a bigger circle.  SO, on the lunge we went, and P walked off normal. In fact, she even trotted mostly normal.  I say "mostly" because the mare always starts a little sticky (especially to the right) and has choppy, short strides for the first 5 minutes of every lunge session.  This made it a little rough to see any irregularities since she had short tight little steps (like normal) and was a little stiffer/weird looking to the right (also tragically normal). 

I didn't push it, since P was slowly getting more excited and attempting some little buck-hop-wiggle things that I'm pretty sure aren't a great idea if there is anything strained or weird going on.

Anyway, before I iced and re-wrapped, I took a few quick pics of Miss Pia's legs. 

Here's my helpful summary:

That lump in the middle of her leg is what's freaking me out.  It's not squishy, it's not even warm.  It could have been there forever as far as I know, but now that I'm in freak out mode, I'm freaking out. (well, kinda. I mean, I'm not panicked, but I'm constantly staring at it like if I turn my back on it,  the leg lump might try to bite me).

She's still standing on it evenly, still walking great, still being mostly normal, but that lump is staring at me like it's just threatening to cripple her at any moment. 

Long story short, I sent an exceptionally long email off to my vet this am detailing P's every activity since last Thursday when the mystery heat showed up... I also included pics just in case he isn't busy with anything else..

Right now my plan is to keep her on stall rest (with some hand walking) for the rest of the week and assuming nothing changes, I'll get her in to the vet either Friday or Monday for some ultrasounds.  If the vet calls back with panic in his voice, we'll go this week... if not, we'll give her the weekend to mend a bit. 

Here's a profile of her left front.. you can see the swelling in her fetlock is totally gone, but that bump is slightly visible... (boo hiss).

and a clean version of the first picture...

Fingers crossed.  At least the lady is behaving herself and MUCH more happy to be on stall rest at a barn where she still has a small run and can see all the other ponies around her..

 Man, I hope this is a small setback.  Our blog posts got really boring really quick last time we were laid up... there's just only so many ways to take cute pictures of P in the crossties - Pictures under saddle are much (much, much, much) more fun...