Vet Evaluation

It’s been almost a week since I last wrote anything.  Mort had a very positive flex test Wednesday morning.  I’ll make this post about his soundness and the advice of my vets (and other horse friends).  Originally the vet at MU (lameness specialist and who did Mort’s ultrasound) said that injections could help Mort someday and that we should have our regular vet check his soundness level every 6 months to a year.  She also said a lot of other things that just make decisions more complicated.  Why can’t horses just talk to us? 

I spoke with our regular vet and MU vet and both said that if Mort isn’t showing unsoundness in our regular work injections may not make a big difference in our day-to-day (which makes sense but obviously I’m a bit paranoid about his fetlocks).  They both still also recommended that my regular vet take a look at him and do a lameness exam so that she can monitor him over time for changes.  The regular vet was coming out Monday to inject two other horses at the barn, so it was perfect timing. 

The results were what I was expecting—nothing showing at w/t without flexion.  After flexion he showed positive on both sides slightly, but more so on the left.  Our vet did mention that next time we do it we should flex to a point where Mort just starts getting tense and keep it there instead of flexing him the way you would a ‘normal’ horse.  When she did this he had much less of a dramatic result then when BM and I did it last Wednesday.

Her opinion was unchanged—injections probably won’t help him much yet as he’s still going sound in our regular work.  She further encouraged me to push him more physically as he will show obvious signs when he starts having pain.  So the plan for now is simply to continue along our path with more of a focus on forward (just because that’s where we are in our training).