Updates

     Hello again all. It's been a minute. I am no longer working at my previous job and I don't start my new one until after Thanksgiving (I gave a vacation to myself) so I've not been on the computer lately. Mort is still struggling with being his normal self. We've done a couple of light lunge and bareback hack sessions. I don't want to really work him until we get whatever is bothering him figured out. Our next route is ulcers since his little head bob went away.

     Ulcers makes sense since studies have shown that about 80% of competition horses have them. Mort is on an ulcer supplement, but obviously most of those don't really have scientific studies behind them. We started noticing his changes soon after our show in the beginning of October, which could have been the trigger. Who knows?

     I've got a couple of tubes of Gastrogard on order. We'll give him a quarter of a tube/day. If his behavior goes back to normal with that masking the symptoms we'll have a good idea that ulcers are bothering him. Then I'll dish out a million dollars for a full treatment and research management for helping prevent future troubles.

     Other than that Mort is living the life of a spoiled pony. He gets cookies and love more than anything else. I've been super enjoying my time off with lots of pup and pony and TV time.

The Search Continues

     So I had our vet out to take a look at Mort. She gave him the once-over looking at his legs, vitals, listening to his lungs--all the good things. She didn't see (or hear) anything too troubling so we pulled some blood. Blood work came back looking great. All wonderful and great and my horse is still acting weird. She did suggest that he could have ulcers causing some performance issues which is a totally viable possibility. He is on an oral supplement but most of those don't really have a lot of scientific studies behind them.

     We also discussed the possibility of the cold weather causing some flare-ups in his wonky legs. It would explain the not laying down and performance issues if he hurts just a little bit. I've definitely felt him being not his normal self under saddle, but I haven't felt any specific lameness. He's definitely not been head bobbing. After feeling his legs, and finding no heat or swelling, and saying that I haven't noticed any lameness we decided to just do the blood work and not a lameness exam (for now). Fam, don't do that--if the vet is there you should just do all of the things.

     Out of my own curiosity I threw him on the lunge after the vet left. We started tracking left and while he started out short/stiff on the front end he did work out of it after some trot and a little canter. That's totally not unusual for him. I switched directions and we picked up the trot. He was moving better than when we started but there was a bobble. It only presented itself when he was going downhill on the very slight slope outside. It only presented itself while tracking right. It was a small and inconsistent enough bobble that I even had another boarder come out to watch and make sure I wasn't imagining things; I wasn't. Shit.

     So yesterday he had the slightest of bobbles while tracking right. He did run around like a madman in turnout this weekend because there was some shifting of turnout pairs. It's entirely possible that this happened then and he'll work out of it in a day or two. It's also entirely possible that it was minor enough that I was compensating for it in our riding and only felt it as "meh" effort rather than an actual lameness. I 100% never saw or felt a head bob while riding, but I do think that it's so minor that I could have covered it up accidentally.

     I told the vet and she suggested doing a Bute test--giving him Bute to see if it goes away while on pain meds. It's a pretty simple and inexpensive way to find out if pain is the issue. I'm going to see what he looks like on the lunge today. Wednesday are his days off. We'll take another look on Thursday. Could be a tweak from being a dummy. Could be that it's time for some joint injections. Could be that those suspensories are angry.

     If Mort isn't feeling better by Thursday, I'll definitely put in another call to the vet. We may also end up going to the vet school for further diagnostics/injections. Eventually we'll get my boy figured out.

When to Call a Vet

     Horse friends are the best friends. I had people reach out to me about my blog post yesterday. I also reached out to horse friends (and my mom because you're never too old to ask you mom for advice). It's good to have friends tell you to trust your gut and you're not just a crazy overprotective horse-mom. I really appreciate all of the advice and encouragement to my second-guessing. It can be really hard to know when it's time to look further into things that are "not quite right".

     In the end, I do know my horse. The BM knows my horse. We both agree that he's not his normal self. So it's time to have the vet out. We'll start with simple things like blood work, a chem test to check some organs, and a fecal. Best case scenario everything will come back normal and he'll get back to normal on his own soon. Worst case scenario we'll find something serious, but I'd rather find something serious before it's showing serious symptoms.

     Trust your friends. Trust your gut. Trust your horse. Then hope they're all wrong and everything is OK.

The Struggle of "Not Quite Right"

     So Mort has a strange lump where his foreleg meets his chest. It popped up about 3 weeks ago. It's not the first time this has happened and he has a lot of scar tissue in the area so I usually chock it up to that being an issue. About a week after it popped up he started to be reactive about it and acted like it was painful Since that was a new thing I went ahead and had the vet look at him. She wasn't too worried about it, but one of her theories was that since he has so much scar tissue there that his lymph nodes in that area may swell more than normal when he's fighting a bug.

     I'm leaning more and more toward the idea that Mort has some sort of bug. His eyes have been watery and a little angry in spite of it being winter and we haven't been having any fly issues for a bit. The BM has heard him take some deep breaths when he's been sleeping/dozing that are unusual. He also usually stinks up his stable clothing in the winter from lying in his pee at night and none of his clothes stink--pointing to him not laying down (or he learned how to avoid his pee but that's less likely). Our rides have also just been so-so lately. He's not been terrible by any means but we've been struggling with things that haven't really been issues for a while.

     I could totally be making things up in my mind. His lump has gone down a tiny bit (I think, it's hard when you inspect it every day). We gave him a 1/2 tab of Bute a couple days ago and I've been putting ointment in his eyes. They're still runny, but less angry. He's got a great appetite and is drinking fine.

     I'm going to try and give him a few more days and see how things go. I'm going to back even further off on our riding and not really ask him for anything. I want to check his temp, but I imagine it'll be normal. He's most likely totally fine and is maybe just adjusting to winter hitting us quickly. Or the painful lump is just scar tissue that he's uncomfortable with enough to affect riding and laying down but not enough to be unsound. Or he's fighting a little bug. If I still have suspicions next week (or he develops actual symptoms) I'll give the vet another call. It would sure be nice if they could talk to us.