Lamness update

Sof has been on her holiday for the prescribed 3 months. She has had a lovely time, relaxing in the field, getting dinner (with bute), new shiny shoes and having nice in hand strolls round the block with Tonto. I suspect Sof would be perfectly happy to go on convalescence indefinitely, which is probably just as well. Despite my best efforts she is just as lame as she was in December. Not an inch of improvement :(

Admittedly I never had high hopes for recovery – the vet told me as much. Equally Sof has not been as quite as ideal. The shoes have made her feet crumble, and she now has to have a serious diet because she has put on weight now out of work. I think the ‘treatment’ has actually left us slightly worse off.

So I am rebelling. The vet has conceded that traditional treatments won’t work and referred us to Rockely Farm. Hurray. I have contacted our insurance company, who have refused to pay. I am not taking no as an answer, so replied by sending them an article about a similar case where the financial ombudsman was in favour of the client and the insurance company had to pay. I am waiting to see where my mild threat gets me. But for Sof, its worth the battle.

In the mean time I am not working on trying to set up a track at home, I have another livery interested in joining me on this venture. I don’t have the experience or expertise of Rockely – but it would at least keep better control of her weight and better prepare her for re-hab. If I can keep her on a track over the summer months we can say goodbye to Mr muzzle and I would not need to trim her feet as regularly. Still, I need to convince the yard owners to let me build one in the first instance.

Oh yes – and those shiny shoes are coming off. They are doing her no good and damaging her feet. There is such little foot left I think they will fall of any day in any case, and I am not damaging her hoof wall any further by attempting to put a new set on.

I might also start riding her gently, just walk. This hopefully will strengthen up her ligaments and condition her feet. It does not appear that riding makes her any worse in any case.

Greenguard muzzle hack

fatty boom boom Sof

Sof has found a way around her green guard muzzle. She can push it aside and eat through the big gap at the back. This has resulted in her ballooning in size. Once again she as returned to sofa status. Bugger.






Green guard muzzle with back section tapped up

 

 

I have managed to thwart her attempts to eat, much to her horror by closing up the gap. I have used my old friend duct tape – like ‘The Force’ it has a light and a dark side and holds the world together – duct tape is basically the answer to everything. Miraculously it has worked and in the last week Sof has been preventing from scoffing as much and has lost weight accordingly.

I am a bit worried about her teeth, and that she doesn’t get enough through – so have been giving her hay and a small feed for vitamins each day. I don’t think the muzzle can be a full time option, but very glade it is in my armoury against fatty mc fat kins.

An already slimmer Sof tucking into hay

A scary week for me and Mr T

breaking and entry evidence

It all started on Saturday morning when Mr T and Sofie’s field suffered from a pitch invasion. The girls in the ‘retirees’ filed next door barged down the fence and I found them merrily munching with T and Sof in the morning.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. I’ve been wanting to mix Tonto in with the retirees for a while as I will need to split T and Sof at some point due to their different needs. The retirees have a feed once a day and hay which is perfect for Tonto, less so for fatty-mc-fat-fat sof. An added bonus is that the retirees are an all-girl group atm, so if he plays his cards right Tonts could have his own harem.

I have been putting off the mix though because I was worried about Tonto’s health and have been trying to keep Sofie calm. Mixing into a bigger group normally requires a bit of argy-bardgy. I didn’t want to force this on my ponies.

But as always, they took matters into their own hands. The groups have been next to each other for a while – so when it came to it the argy-bardgy was fairly minimal. Scarlet the dominant mare had a quick display to show she is top dog – Tonto very chivalrously put himself between Scarlet and Sof but I don’t think there was any venom in Scarlets kicks. They were for display only, no contact was made. I decided to leave them as a group.

Making new friends

I came down Sunday to find a very sore Tonto. He was shifting his weight from foot to foot on his back legs. I was utterly devastated. I really thought  his legs were gone. I felt so guilty for mixing them in with the girls next door. Even worse I could not make it down on Monday due to work commitments. I gave the yard instructions for painkillers and turned them back out in isolation, and then cried – solidly – for the rest of the day.

Monday I called the vet, and they were concerned that it could be laminitis. Mr T and sof were pulled back in to spend a night off the grass. I spent the night beside myself with worry.

When I finally was able to get down on Tuesday I found two very cross ponies. Sofie was in a mega grump – even took to kicking Tonto. She was firmly sent to the naughty corner (perhaps too firmly as she was rather scared of me for the rest of the afternoon). Tonto was not only grumpy from being in, and clearly in discomfort. This time however, the cleaver bugger spelt it out to me. He kept coming up to me, and then cocking his leg and pointing at his gentleman parts.

The vet arrived shortly afterwards. Mr T was having nothing to do with her after the blood test fiasco a few weeks ago. She did check for pulses (when Tonto begrudgingly let her check his pulse – but only after taking a few swipes at her to show his displeasure) and watched him trot. But it was very clear the problem was his parts not his legs.

She quickly conceded that Tonto was not going to let her treat him. So I volunteered to ‘go explore’ but I kept the vet near-by just in case I failed to find anything. After a quick rummage I found fly lavee. No wonder he has been wincing. The vet was dismissed and I was left with the un-envious task of cleaning.

I have never been so happy to be elbow deep in rotten maggot filled horse parts playing a bizarre game of tough of war (Mr T won fyi). The relief that this was not the end for Tonto and I can easily remedy the problem far outweighed the horror of sheath cleaning. Mr T was also clearly very relieved to no longer have maggots squiggling in his genitals. He was very patient throughout, and if could not have been all that comfortable for him.

For now on I vow to take better care of T’s intimate areas. Horse ownership is in no-way glamorous.

Ill affects of shoeing

Back last year I wrote a post explaining why I chose to take Sofie barefoot - one of the many reasons is because nailing shoes into Sof's feet just seems to make them crumble.

Now we are back in shoes and have done a couple of rounds of remedial farriery the crumbly wall syndrome has reared its ugly head again. I took some pics to document it. (Just wanted to point out this is not a criticism of the farrier - they are great, it is just her feet are not strong enough for shoeing)

Just waiting for this to snap

Broken wall from a few weeks ago

eek

not liking the cracks

I'll be honest, I can't wait to get the shoes back off her again. I want feet like we had last September

Busy day for ponies - teeth, camora, action

Last weekend Sof and Tonto had a jam packed day.

9am dentist - I had only planned to get Tonto's teeth done, but on inspection Sof had some sharp bits so both ponies got a treatment from magic Mike O-Brian

10am visit from Clara - Clara used to loan Tonto back in his hayday so came to visit the old chap and borrow Sof's saddles for her new pony (another cracking coblet - I hope inspired by T). Was lovely to catch up with her and Tonto clearly recognised her and was happy to receive love and cuddles.

11am photo shoot - Ponies very well behaved. I rather recklessly decided to ride both without a hat. This was perhaps foolhardy given both have been out of work for a while, but luckily for me they were on their bestest behaviour. I am very lucky with my ponies.

12pm pony agility - I took both round, leading Sofie with Mr T following loose. Sofie was a star and was unfazed by all the obstacles. She did do a little rear on the practice round - but I think she was just confused by me calling Tonto over to join us. Mr T got us some bonus points by choosing to take part on some of the obstacles - before getting bored and grazing. He is funny, on his own he was shacking like a leaf at the thought of the flapping flags, but with fearless sof leading he happily trots through them of his own accord.

Unfortunately the photo's reveal how very fat Sofie has got, despite her muzzle! A serious diet is in order!

 

Thermal imaging

With Mr T seeming poorly and Sof's ongoing lameness issues I've been looking at some diagnostic options. Thermal imaging is something I came across a couple of years ago. I have considered using it for Tonto (mainly because he finds vets and being touched so traumatic) but have never really gotten round to trying it out.

Anywho's another livery at the yard wanted to try it on her horse so I thought- hell why not, could be interesting.

Sophie's results

The camera picked up traces of heat on her front feet where her collateral ligaments are - but there were not very warm suggesting that this sight was not particularly active. The vet has said the injury is old - perhaps we have more of a problem with scar tissue than an active injury.

Interestingly the camera did pick up on a lot of heat on her left hind leg, extending upwards from her hock and across her pelvis, corresponding to a sore over-worked right shoulder. When I first called the vet, it was because I thought the hocks were an issue (as she constantly through me to the left). Perhaps she does have an issue here - but it has gone unnoticed whilst we are looking at the front end. I kinda hope I'm wrong. The last thing sof needs is another dodgy leg! There is also a little bit of heat in her right back foot but I am getting our trimmer out today to sort this the absess burst whole from October has finally reached the floor.

Tonto's results

I was fearing the worst with Tonto's results as he is a bit stiff of late. Surprisingly he does not look that bad in the known problem areas. Yes there is a bit of heat in his pasterns and his hocks, but nothing too troubling. From the thermal activity it seems that his issue might have moved to his left stifle and his back just behind the withers. It is possible he has agrovated these areas trying to protect his already sore joints, it is equally possible that he has developed arthritis in these areas as well. Again the images do not suggest anything terrible, and given he is out of work and on pain management I don't think I can really do anything to address the muscle strain. I could give him physio but it is only likely to move the pain elsewhere in his body. Poor old bugger. His feet are giving out quite a lot of heat. I will get the trimmer to check them again. He has been battling thrush of late so it could be that.

So in conclusion thermal imaging was interesting but inconclusive really. Still glade to have ticked it off my 'tried it' list.
 

Mr T the pin cusion

Yesterday I had the vet out. Both horses looked very nervous as she walked over with needles in hand. I could almost hear Sofies sigh of relief as the vet walked past her to Tonto.

Poor old Mr T. He is just not keeping his weight and sometimes he looks withdrawn in the field - standing with his head lowered. The old joints are clearly not great - he turns like the titanic, the back legs have to do an awful shuffle to get round. I am feeding him a huge amount of feed, but he just keeps getting thinner. Last year he tested borderline positive for cushions disease - a hormone regulation problem common in older horses. He is now displaying more signs of the illness. I wanted to get him checked for cushions and help medicate his stiff joints yesterday - hence the vet.

skinny Mr T

Alas, the vet was in no way successful. First port of call was to take his blood for a health check. Tonto was an absolute saint about it - but the vet could not get any blood out of him. After 6 attempts I told the vet to stop - it wasn't fair on tonto. By this point Tont's was pretty fed up. He - like most boys - is pretty needle phobic so this is quite traumatic for him. The vet decided to give him the catrophen shot in the bum instead of the neck. It was the final straw for Mr T and he lost his temper. Luckily his legs are too stiff to give a vicious cow kick and eventually she did manage to give him the shot.

The vet was then so flustered by her lack of success we couldn't' really have a meaningful conversation about his pain management. She basically said call me back in Autumn for a cushions test. Not helpful when I think he needs help now. Still, we will see what the catrophen does, and if he does not pick up on that I might try and get his hocks injected. In the mean time I will feed him as if he was a cushions horse.

When I gave him his dinner he didn't eat it all. After 20 mins of munching he gave up and left it. Now I am really worried. I wonder how often he does not finish his feed? the bucket is always empty but I suspect Sof will hoover up any leftovers in the field. This would explain why I have one increasingly fat horse and one getting thinner. I have asked for the yard to reduce Tontos feed but to move the ponies to a field with more grass. Really I should split them so that Sof has a restricted diet and Tonto gets more food, but Tonto is taking so much solace from Sofie, and is a nice quite companion for her I am reluctant to separate them just now.

It is tough caring for an elderly animal. I would give my right arm to make Tonto better. Alas there is no cure for old age, and the inevitable terrible decline in latter years. All I can do is make him as comfortable as possible, and love him to the very end.

The trust technique

I came across something called the trust technique on Surrey horse and rider the other day and it caught my attention.

The trust technique is a way of working with animals, particularly helping those with behavioural issues. It is a bit hippyish, but you basically meditate with your horse and the horse chills out. Sounds weird but there were lots of videos of this working with clients horses - and I have noticed that when I am chilled Tonto is super chilled.

Curious, I decided to sign up for their one day video course pass.

I was expected to learn a bit about how to calm nervous animals - but in the end got a several hour tutorial on meditation and an investigation into my many deep routed emotional issues. I found myself unexpectedly crying at my computer on more than one occasion!

The first few videos' were all about how to be peaceful - which means removing all conscious thoughts about the past and the future from your mind and disengaging with your emotional thoughts. The theory is, if you can be truly peaceful, your animal picks up on this and it encourages them to be peaceful. It is really just an extension of the normal stuff we already know - if I am stressed and angry, Sof will pick up on this and become stressed and angry herself ect. The video's gave tutorials on how to disengage with your negative emotions and re-condition emotional responses to remembered events. Very much like CBT (for the psychologists amongst you).

But the videos went on to look at the causes of problem behaviour. They highlighted that it could be for several reasons:
a) the animal has had a bad experience and now has an emotional response which make you upset
b) you have had a bad experience and now has an emotional response which make your animal upset and causes the behaviour
c) both you and your animal have had similar bad experiences and now have an emotional response.

They had an activity called 'thought surfing' which identified which category you were in. Sof and I are in category C. I have a habit of rescuing emotionally damaged animals - I don't set out to, they just seem to find me. It would make sense that I am identifying with them, which causes me to sympathise and try to help them - but it is not something I had realised until this exercise.

At this point I had been watching the course for several hours and was truly exhausted. I went to sleep exhilarated and excited for what the next day would enfold.

Unfortunately the next day brought crushing disappointment. The latter stages of the course moved onto Reki healing. It is something I just can't stretch to. The video's suggested that you can physically 'heal' an animal via your thoughts alone. It also suggested that you could pick up on an animals thought processes, even when you are simply holding a photograph. For me this is too far. Yes I think on an emotional level you can influence your animal by being calm, they will follow suit - but reading their minds and fixing physical aliments? Nope our neural network is not that powerful. Soo disappointing because I had gotten so much from the previous day. I now almost feel silly for believing in the first few modules.

Still just because someone is wrong about something does not mean they are wrong about everything. I think I am going to try and give this meditation thing a go and see if it helps calm Mr T, Sof and my more than mental cat. I'll keep you posted.



me trusting Sof on our 'no reigns' hack last summer