Time on the ground

Time on the ground, healing the mare by cold hosing, poulticing and "Mare Walking," has meant seeing my home and kitties, husband and friends and family a bit more.

While the first 2 weeks were tense, with not knowing if the mare had a bone chip in her hock ( vet's first thought), after X rays showed something odd. The images were sent to the Experts at Oregon State University Veterinary Hospital.

The vet did the battery of tests as well as the X rays, 8 days after I found the mare lame.
Flexation ( which really hurt the mare) trotting....

Wa was thrilled to move! She tried to race her handler back to us.

So the waiting begun...me being sick to my stomach at the vet saying, "Maybe surgery" was in order to remove a bone fragment. I didn't hear any of the other stuff he said...
I got the write up in the mail, days later, that described what was to happen for my mare's " layup package" of treatments.
OH! 
4-6 weeks MINIMUM- of stall rest and hand walking, cold treatments and bute if heat was present. All I heard was stall rest till we could take Xrays again in 14-21 days.
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Since treatments had already begun, right away after finding the mare in the field, unable to bear weight on her left leg. I now continued all of what I had started....
 "SORE NO MORE'S" Arnica soothing clay poultice her hock. This has has positive results, each time I have done it! I slather the soft cool clay all over firstly...

Then I add a thin layer of gause, slathering it too.

First week She had Poultice and standing wraps too, as she would not bear weight....

Now, the vet's advise is Not to use standing wraps anymore, as she is bearing weight well on her injured side. It has been It has been 2 weeks. The vet wants the swelling to be allowed to move down the leg and out. So I cold hose, then hand walk, then every third day use the "Soothing Clay Poultice" overnight on her hock. It STICKS so nicely, I only put the Soothing Poultice on now.

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Finally, my vet called and asked me to call him back, the Oregon State experts had the results on the radiography. I am so glad that it only took a few days!!! I drove straight away to the Vet's office...needed to look him in the eye to hear the news. I figured that since he wanted me to "call", it couldn't be all that bad of news. Sure enough, he brought the x rays up on screen and explained that the image showed what they called, " an Artifact". It is something wrong in the X ray, that is not wrong in the animal. Whew...so no surgery for now.
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Week 3-
I had my Equine Therapist and Vet "Certified" Thermography expert out, to check out the hock and give her opinion too. She mentioned something that I will certainly bring up with my vet soon, before they want me to do another inconclusive set of X ray's. The fact that soft tissue damage will never show up on X rays, only ultra sound, is what I will talk about.
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Week 3 of stall resting mare with the addition of 2 mi walks on the flat roads.
After The  Thrmography apt. I was so much relieved! She has done several POST Kick images on horses. Several that had wittnesses to the kicks, from 20 minutes after to several weeks. She knows my mare did not get kicked from the heat patterns all around the soft tissues of her hock. Kicks apparently are slice/straight line looking effects, with a jaggy edge.

 We the imaging on the mare's hock dry, and unwalked firstly. Then I cold hosed her for 10 minutes and we again took images of * WHERE the heat originated firstly. Definitely it came from the inside/ Medial of her left hock. But also showed up on the top of the hock in back and below the bone on the outside next. This is what I originally imagined...something she tangled with that effected her leg all around. The ONLY floating hard surface with an opening large enough for her to tangle with is- her "Porta Grazer"- slow feeder. I love it, but have always wanted it to be fixed to a wall, so it does not become a hazard like this! Pantz has one and we have fixed it to the wall by simple eye bolt .
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Week 7 already! December 3rd, 2012
I took the mare back to my Vet's office. This time, I asked for my actual vet...so it took 2 weeks longer to see him personally. He has 2 other vets in his facility so asking for him was a matter of schedule matching. While I knew in my heart that it was not a matter of bone; that mean't ligaments and tendons and maybe bone bruising. My Vet wanted to do one more X ray, and it did render the same results. All bones are fine, but the swelling is not decreased!
So we are now attacking that with DRUGS. A Cortisone injection +  descending amounts of it, for the next 2 weeks. Bute every day till results are visual. I am to call in 5 days. He wants results that fast!

So, My quiet times continue with the mare. Cold hosing, hand walking, poulticing. 
Here are some views of what my times here and there have looked like.

November 2012 road walking, during a small stint of sunshine~

Finding some color in our world while walking about~

November shoes, instead of riding boots~

 HayTherapy, while icing the hock

City walk with my man, Late November. Our home can be seen from this vantage point~

 Games with cones, while icing with "Ice Horse Hock Wrap"~

 The mare and me while out~

My front door wreath....reminding me of my mare~

December bright walk in the woods....Therapy continues....time on the ground with my Washashe mare~


 But- that doesn't mean.... I am NOT RIDING! 
To be Cont..............................................................