Moooooooo!

Oops, it's been a month (almost).  Sorry for that.  Though rest assured, not much has happened in the last few weeks. 

Or at least, not much has happened with the mare.  My life on the other hand has been full of First World Problems that have literally thrown all planning and organization out the window.

They can be easily summed up by all of the following happening in a week:
Dealing with a crappy all inclusive resort, bringing home whatever god damn stomach bug everyone gets in mexico, firing the nanny and sending The Boy on the road for several consecutive weeks for work. 

I'm fully aware that all of these things fall squarely in the problems-that-aren't0really-problems category as they pretty much all have to do with being on vacation, or the jobs that allow us to go on vacation... but still - Life. Is. Chaos.  And also, if I'm going to (uncomfortably) lose 10lbs, I'd prefer it to happen BEFORE the beach and bikini trip, not after.  K thx.

When last I wrote, we were just headed off for the Summer Wedding Tour 2015.  It started off dandy- a lovely mountain wedding in Idaho with good friends and good dancing.  Then we headed south to Mexico, where we were again surrounded by great friends (and good dancing), but the resort itself was comedically tragic. 

In theory it was really nice.

In fairness it was really pretty...

but the reality of the place meant that literally everything that could go wrong did go wrong and that made for some stressful moments (especially for our lovely bride). 

I spent most of the time ignoring my phone, sending my parents terse "don't text. expensive. we're fine" messages, while simultaneously exchanging countless texts with my vet (oops) including one 25 minute phone call. 

Sorry mom!

Prair got a "quick" 3 month (face palm) check up which resulted in one (still) bad flexion and confirmation that while the DDFT is healing nicely, the suspensory branch is still inflamed and pissy. 

So, Prair's precious turnout got pulled and she's back on the previcox and aggressive icing protocol to try and get that under control.  I'm confident Prair is a good girl in turnout, but maybe the increased confinement will be the game changer.  Who knows. Fingers crossed.  She gets (another) check up next week where we will ultrasound if the flexion looks significantly better. 
On a slightly more entertaining level - I took the kiddo to the barn, which I realized I haven't actually done in a while.  I've been hoarding my barn time for myself and now that kiddo wants to run and play and put everything in her mouth (including manure bits she finds on the ground), taking her with me significantly dampens my ability to do anything other than stuff Prair full of treats. 

The baby hasn't actually seen the horses since she's started walking (or talking) and she was very entertaining.  Since we have mastered all our animal noises, she identifies everything by the noise it makes.  If she sees a cat, she meows and points, quacks at ducks, etc....

So obviously, when she saw all the horses, she... woofed.

Repeatedly. 

Pointed and woofed. 

And then cried if any of them snorted or sneezed or nickered or did anything with their noses. 

Because that's terrifying I guess.  Who knows,  the crying seemed rude to me, but she's a toddler, what are you going to do.  After I ran out of carrots, I took Cayla for a walk around the farm with the idea of introducing her to the pony barn and letting her pick one out.  I thought maybe smaller "woofs" would be less intimidating. 

She loved it.  marched around pointing woofing at everything despite all of my proclamations of  "no, not woofs, PONIES" sigh. 


intrigued

Finally we got to a pasture with ponies and she went "OOOOOOOOooooOOOO!" which I considered to be a more encouraging response. 
As the ponies walked up she still pointed and woofed, until she got to the little mini, who is a paint - so she Moo'ed. 

Cowgirl.

In fairness, I guess she's spotted like a cow, and at that point I was ready to accept anything that wasn't a woof.

So, Moo.

Vet Updates (because we're doing these in groups now..)

Not an extremely exciting post - but Prair has little to report on these days.  The good news is that her poop situation has stabilized.  It no longer seems like she is uncomfortable, instead we are back to our low grade leg/tail nuisance.  so that is a small victory to celebrate.

On a more empirical level, all of her lab work has come back clean.  No scary infectious diseases, no scary blood imbalances (though we thought that was an issue before we figured out the lab equipment was broken and had given (the same) weird results on every sample....). 

So that's good.  Current next step is a antibiotic that our vet has had some luck with on unexplained diarrhea.  It's sort of a shot in the dark, but whatever, might as well attempt it?  the only drawback is clearing out all the good bacteria in her gut, so her 5 day treatment won't start until we have a really good pre/pro-biotic on hand to issue at the same time. 

In terms of non-poop related updates, the mare looks good.  Her legs are staying much tighter with less wrapping and I'm hoping that means there might be less edema surrounding the suspensory.  (fingers crossed).  Prair's tummy edema is also gone, and she's a happy lazy mare in her turnout.

I crossed paths with our sports medicine vet today, and since she'll be on the farm again next week, she's going to do a minimal exam on the mare then, since it will have been 4 weeks since the last ultrasound.  she'll palpate and flex, which presumably will still show tenderness.  If that's the case that's all that will happen.  If by some major miracle all tenderness is gone, we'll ultrasound again and see what's going on. 

All in all Prair is good.  Whatever weird stress she was responding to a couple weeks ago, seems to be gone.  It's nice to see her back to herself and enjoying all her curry comb groom sessions. :)

Reining in the Panic (aka a loose plan)

If my last two posts seemed a bit, well... pessimistic, I guess it's because they were.  I have been enjoying my pity party over here and didn't really have an interest in leaving it anytime soon. 

Thankfully, I am surrounded by smart, non-hormonal humans who are exceptionally talented at grounding me, reminding me that all-is-not-lost and I should stop acting like I'm already digging a big hole in the ground for Prair. 

Fine.  Point taken.

 

Point taken well, in fact.  The last couple days have been filled with (good) conversations about what the future (realistically) holds for the mare.  The Boy has been good at reminding me its only been two months and also does a good job of reminding me that playing with him and the baby are fun alternatives to showing on the weekends. 

(That strategy works okay I guess, but a better one would be pony shopping for the kiddo... )

I also had some good clarifying conversations with both my trainer and my vet and am feeling much less fatalistic about it all.

For one thing, I feel a sense of liberation in committing to not jump Prair ever again.  It takes the pressure off this rehab process and let's me (more clearly) think about what I want to do and focus on going forward. 

Right now, that seems to be Hunter Land. 

It is expensive, and sometimes maddeningly subjective - but the culture of it is also really sustainable for having a kid in tow.  If I can't get to the barn for a week, I have high confidence that the care and rides are excellent...  At shows it's reasonable to not be there at 4am and not stay until 10pm.  It's a really realistic way to be competitive, and as involved as possible given everything else I also want to prioritize. 

When I reframed my expectations to the vet to "sound for flatwork" and not necessarily a return to the Hunter Ring, she was much less guarded about a solid recovery and though that it was "extremely likely" that Prair would be more than serviceably sound for a good dressage career. 

So all is Not Lost.

After a good consult with my trainer, I think I have a good operating plan going forward.  I'm highly aware that "plans" and "horses" rarely make a good partnership, but I do better when I at least have something to adjust if necessary.

Prair will stay where she is for the next chunk of stall rest for two months.  She's happy, I trust the care, and she's calm enough to still have modified turnout privileges.  If I moved her to a new facility now, (to save on board) I think she'd be too excited about being someplace new to (quietly) enjoy some paddock time... and that's something I don't want to sacrifice for her right now.

At her recheck at the end of August, one of two things with (most likely) happen. 

1) if she looks ready to get back to work (slowly) I'll move her into a Dressage program for rehab and realistically, eventual sale. 

2) if she's still not ready for work, I'll move her to a non-training location where she can chill and spend a few more months hanging out.  We'll reevaluate in the spring and see if she can loop back to option 1, or if I look for a good broodmare home for her.  Of course if the right home plopped in my lap for her - one where I didn't think they would have unrealistic expectations of her soundness, or would use her unfairly - I'd consider letting her go sooner. 

I know that Black Beauty placed a hefty amount of paranoia in us all as to what happens when we send our beloved horses down the road.  If I have any doubts about where she's going or what she'll have to do, I'll put her out in a big green field myself.  She deserves it.  But she's also only ten.  And that means if she's able - she also deserves to still have a career and have fun with someone...

So that is the plan, patience (for a while) with the knowledge that I can't ask Prair to do what I want to do, and open eyes as to what that means for options.

 

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!