Weekend Update

Tuesday when I went out to see Mort his heat was just a whisper.  (Quite frankly it’s something I may not have noticed if I hadn’t been looking for it.)  I decided to put him on the lunge to see how he moved and to see if it got more heat or wasn’t affected.  I started him off tracking right so that it would be less pressure on the left hind.  At the walk and trot that direction I didn’t notice any unsoundness.  I asked for canter and he went into it willingly but kept swapping his hind legs—not wanting to load the left hind all of the time.  I stopped him and switched directions and noticed that his left hind just didn’t want to track up.  So no more lunging.  I hopped on him bareback and took a wander. 

After that exercise there was a little bit more heat so it was clearly not healed completely.  Wednesdays are his day off anyway, so I figured I'd re-assess on Thursday.  Except that Wednesday  Mort decided running around like a turd in turn-out was a good idea.  The minor heat stuck around.  Thursday I just brushed him. 

Friday I went out and his heat was the same in both legs and his hooves felt a bit warmer than I liked.  He was dehydrated and didn’t want to drink.  He had been dewormed the day before, so I think he had a tummy ache.  After he drank some water (two hours later) I went home.  I ran back out to check on him around 10:00 pm and he had drank even more water and all of his hooves were back to a happy temperature.  Tummy ache plus a sharp rise in temps added up to some minor issues, but he seemed back to normal.  (We checked vitals a few times and everything was normal.  His behavior was normal as well.)

BM and I discussed turning him out in the “carport”, which is a really small paddock, to limit some of his movement until all of the heat is gone.  He went out in that Saturday and BM said that she didn’t think he had heat.  Two other gals from the barn were showing in a fun show, so I went to that to be barn support and help out as needed.  Mort got the day off. 

Sunday marked two days with no heat so I decided to try and lunge him to see how he went.  We did a very light lunge w/t/c both directions and I didn’t notice anything amiss.  No heat after that either.  I brushed him, clipped the fuzzies off of his fetlocks, and hand grazed him for a while.  Today’s plan is to lightly ride him.  If he still has no heat, I think he’ll be cleared to go back to full work and his regular turnout paddock.  Here’s to hoping there’s no heat!