In the Interim...

Winds has been living the life the last couple of weeks.  Lots of turnout, some down time, and a bit of a dialed back routine while we take advantage of a few weeks at home.

Totally deserved after two weeks of this

The vet did come out when we got home from the June shows, and I made sure to be there so I could provide intricate details about what was feeling a tad off.

well, he's cross-leading a bit on landings.. but only from a tighter distance or weaker pace...

I see.

And he's feeling a bit sulky in the corners, though that might be ulcers because it wasn't really a thing the first week and I do think his tummy might hurt and that's the sort of thing that would really flare up week two of showing and no he's not on any gastrogard or anything right now so yeah.

Ok.

And what else, well, the cross lead never happens with me, but I only show him 2'9"  It happens in the pro classes at 3'3", but more in warm up where the ring has a shorter approach and only twice in competition

not hard - not trying

once was in the morning and I had fed him two carrots, so the next day I fed him THREE carrots and it didn't happen so maybe it has to do with carrots and not anything else but I don't really know because it's really subtle and he still won the derby so obviously he's still "going" well it just feels subtly different and I don't know if we'll be able to pinpoint it.

You get it - the all too familiar vet-ramble where we verbally diarrhea all the crazy-ass conspiracy theories we've brainstormed at 2am to explain the mystery lameness/illness/moodiness/whatever in our horses.

I asked if the vet wanted to see him under saddle since whatever the issue was, it was weird and subtle and hard to replicate.

But instead we started on the lunge, where my 18 minute preamble became immediately irrelevant as the horse was clearly stepping short on the left front.

(not weird, not subtle, not actually hard to replicate)

It was mostly gone when tracking to the right, and not any worse on the hard ground outside.... and Windsor flexed negative everywhere.... so aside from the slightly short step, there wasn't really anything obvious to pursue diagnostically.

So without going on a crazy lameness witch-hunt we decided to give him a few days of anti-inflams and the rest of the week off before pulling him out on Monday to see how he looked.

He looked sound.

Which meant we moved forward with a light week of flatwork and some cavaletti whereby he felt awesome and worked well.

Oh - I forgot to mention that the extended week off included a gastroscopy and diagnosis for some ulcers which were consistent for a horse in his level of work who's been traveling and showing and flying around the world and whatnot (as you do).

That all means he's on some tummy meds to address that particular issue and we'll see where we end up in a month.

Aside from that - all is well.  Winds is happy and sound and relishing his big grassy field. 

As for me, I am finally in town for an uninterrupted stint and trying to get back in some semblance of riding shape before our next outing up to Canada again on the 20th.

The Other Vet Visit

A few days before our Ultrasound, Prair's general vet came out and we officially opened a case on her chronic diarrhea.  This issue for Prair has come and gone (but mostly been around) since we moved to our current barn.  It started almost exactly after our move, and while sometimes it dies down, it doesn't really ever go away unless we are off property for an extended time (like three weeks at Thermal). 

Every vet I have spoken to has been very guarded about any optimism about finding a source for Prair's symptoms.  Apparently chronic diarrhea in horses is like saying we have a "rash." 

There are about 400 different rashes with thousands of potential causes or irritants that could cause one.  Apparently so goes watery horse poop.

Here's what we know:

There are no obvious correlations with her diet.  her hay, grain and supplements have all been adjusted at some point without a large impact on her symptoms. 

Symptoms started 2 weeks after our arrival to our farm, and have varied in severity, but have always been pretty consistent.  Most of the time her manure itself is well formed there's just extra... liquid. 

Until the last couple of weeks she has never appeared uncomfortable.  No signs of colic, no worried eyeballs, nothing.  Recently she has seem upset over passing manure, which I think is due to her skin being a bit scalded...

Her fecal showed nothing weird, egg counts are right where they should be in her worming schedule, so it's unlikely a traditional parasite.

Blood was also mostly normal.  I say mostly because protein counts were a tad off, and oddly, a few other horses on the farm who had blood drawn showed the same protein irregularities - but no tummy symptoms.

Sand was also well within a acceptable range.  I know sand checks are fairly subjective, but he didn't hear much of it in her belly, and there wasn'y much in her manure.  She's not grazing on sandy soil, and I've never seen her eating sand in her paddock, so I'm not that concerned about sand...

Our vet is Mr. Thorough.  He spent 45 minutes on the phone discussing significantly more detail on the lab results and possible causes than I could ever hope to remember or understand.  Which - is saying something since I'm usually a vet-detail-hoarder.

Right now the plan is to collect another blood and fecal sample to overnight to Davis for a different lab screening that will focus more on screening for weird viruses.  (I think).

Prair's getting some of her supplements pulled just to simplify her diet a tad, and depending on the results from Davis, we may try pulling her off traditional hay for a couple weeks and give her hay-mush only in order to let her tummy settle and not have to process stems for a while.

All in all, there's no clear path to explore.  Initially Mr. Thorough was thinking the protein levels in the bloodwork was going to be our primary avenue, but with other horses showing the same levels and no symptoms, he's less confident that is what's driving Prair's symptoms. 

The increased confinement of Prair's "stall rest" (with turnout) could also be contributing to her tummy troubles, but sadly, that's not about to change anytime soon either.

Mostly it's a big bag of question marks for the moment, but hopefully the second round of lab work will at least rule out a few causes and I can keep the mare's tushy a tad cleaner.

All the watery poop has really done a number on her tail as well... While she never had a thick, luscious tail to begin with, it's even sadder after so much breakage and snarls with manure dreadlocks.

A sad, but less serious side effect I suppose.

Always an adventure!