Third Ultrasound

Let's pause the recap of the weekend (that still lasts all week, ugh life is so boring) to talk about the ultrasound because I can't hold all of this in.

I also can't hold his face without him smashing me

On Tuesday TC had his third ultrasound with my vet (and fourth overall for this injury). Once again, the rehab place makes this super convenient for me by hauling him over to the vet so all I have to do is show up. I love that!

I don't need to say that I didn't get much done before leaving at 9:45ish to head over to the vet clinic. I got there on time, but TC still beat me there! He was hanging out in his stall "digging to china" when I got there, as one of the vet assistant's said. Yep, sounds like him.

I hung out with him in the stall for a bit while my vet was getting a few things wrapped up before our appointment. I had stopped at the grocery store for carrots the night before, thinking that I had grabbed plenty for him. I was wrong. He devoured them and then looked at me like I had shorted him his produce quota for the day. I'm a terrible carrot dispenser. He must have enjoyed them though, because he outright refused to eat the cookie he was offered by the vet assistant later that day.

I mean really, let me on that trot. I love that he uses his abs so well,
like no dressage for 5 months but the tie in to his loins looks perfect

In the stall he was pretty good, he wasn't throwing himself against the wall or pawing too much. He did get scared of someone pulling velcro wraps off a horse nearby and made a bid to run me over. We had a discussion about that and by the end of our ground work, he was following me around like a puppy. He also let me throw the empty bag that housed the carrots at him without too much trouble.

The vet visit started with trotting him out to look at his soundness and my vet was really pleased with how he looked. If you remember at the second ultrasound in February, he wasn't dropping his fetlock on the injured leg as much as on the good leg. This time his legs were totally even and my vet said that even he would have struggled to know which leg was the bad leg! He played a little on the longe line and looked amazing, reminding me how nice of a horse he is and why I'm putting myself through this shit with him.

So exciting!

I love this so much, even though I sort of don't want to ride it

Yay going faster than the eurociser!

The ultrasound looked pretty good too! Last time we saw that the suspensory itself was healed but he had two issues that we needed to work on. One was the bone density at the origin site where he had yanked the suspensory out on the medial side- he took some bone with him. The other was that dreaded adherence to the splint bone on the medial side.

 The great news is that the adherence is noticeably less organized and is basically starting to disintegrate a bit. My vet says that it will probably always be there a little bit, but the fact that it is getting less noticeable is great news! The next step with it is to watch it as we add trotting and see if it gets worse. But my vet feels fairly confident that we are not going to need to do surgery!! Fingers crossed that remains the case.

The okay news is that his bone is still not quite healed yet. The Osphos (IM injection he got last time) is still working for another two months, so we didn't do a second injection. I am ordering more Osteon from Platinum Performance though, as I had only ordered 2 months worth, so he gets another 2 months of that (*cringe* that shit is expensive). My vet isn't really worried though. If it isn't better by the next ultrasound, we have more injections to give him, and the Osphos is only half way through it's lifespan in the body.

He is the worst to take selfies with

The bad news that I've already hinted at- TC may be trotting this coming month but I won't be sitting on him any time soon. The next ultrasound (boo) will be at the end of June and if the trotting isn't making his leg any worse, or better yet, if he is continuing to improve despite the trotting (fingers crossed), he will be allowed to go home pretty much immediately. Like from the vet clinic if I wanted. But because I have to give my barn manager a heads up and need to prepare his stall with plywood or no-climb wire, he will likely be coming home the week or two after the vet appointment, which puts us in early July. But honestly, two months of trotting is quite a bit, so it's not like we're losing ground in rehab, I just don't get to see his cute face every day.

After we put TC back to hang out in the stall and wake up from his drugs, we talked a bit more about the future. My main concerns were what the likelihood was that he'd come back 100%, what the concerns were for reinjury, and when I could stop worrying about him so much.

Luckily my mom was there and could help out

My vet thinks that after a year, we should be completely out of the worry-zone and he will come back 100%, so that's great to hear! That's when he can start working with no restrictions and I don't have to worry about him. I can gallop him out on the trails, jump him, go cross country, turn him out to gallop and play, etc. I mean, I'm not super into all that stuff, I'm mostly a dressage rider, which bodes well for rehab since that's the best thing for him to do. But I do love to trail ride and I love doing liberty work with him, so being able to do those things again on him sounds so nice.

We also aren't as restricted as Rico and I were. Rico's injuries were due to his workload, and he had long toes, low heels, and long pasterns. TC's injury was due to his stupid stupid brain, he does have low heels, but his pasterns are upright and his toes stay fairly short. So my vet doesn't think that pounding around on his legs in tight circles (like round pen work) is going to cause any issues as long as he is on soft footing (the kinds that round pens have). The main thing that we're afraid of is that he might smack his leg and develop a splint right near that suspensory. If that happens, it may reinflame the injury and the adherence will be made worse.

So TC needs hardcore cross country boots! I'll be looking at you eventers to help me out here! I need something that is hard on the outside but quite soft on the inside to absorb shock, since he can develop the splint through the boot if the boot is hard and doesn't absorb shock from his legs. Money is no limitation, since if he needs surgery, I'll really regret trying to save money on the damn boots.

Luckily for me, TC has never been one to interfere, so with boots, I'm not terribly worried. It's just about keeping him out of situations where he might smack his leg (like in turnout) and giving him a boot just in case on the off chance he manages to.

He was sort of sassy, but look at that lift!

I also dropped the magnesium off with the owner of the rehab facility. I had him start TC on two scoops and then we'll try to bump him down to one scoop. If he really needs two scoops, Quiessence is cheaper and I will put him on that instead. They know him so well that I'm sure they will be able to see whether he has changed at all.

Overall, I'm really happy! But I can't help but to be really bummed that I don't get him back in June. June feels so early in the summer, like we still have the whole summer ahead before fall comes in and ruins the ability to ride outside in the daylight. July feels so late in the summer (it's not).

But I'm trying to stay positive (even though work isn't doing a good job of helping me out, I'll have more to say about my job next week). He's doing really well and I will have him back in a little more than two months. That's just nine more visits. Eight until the next ultrasound. Come on TC!