Maybe He's Just Salty

On Friday of last week, my vet was back out for Rico and Riot to do some bloodwork and I had her pull more blood for TC. Why? Because the day before, she had given me the news that TC's metabolic panel came back totally normal. 

I was kind of shocked by that! I had done a ton of research on IR because I was so confident he was about to be diagnosed with EMS. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense - he had the muscle wasting, the difficulty keeping weight off, and he was just downing salt and water so much that he pees ALL THE TIME. 

My vet was also surprised and so I asked her if there was any other explanation for him being such a salt fiend. She offered to do a full chemistry panel to test his electrolytes and make sure that his kidneys were functioning normally. Like maybe he just loves salt. 

He's a salty boy

Outside of that though, things are going well! I found an interval app that I like, so I set his rehab schedule up. I think every 3-4 sessions, we'll add some time, since he's not lame, he's just out of shape. All of this is on the longe line just in his rope halter. 

Right now we are doing this schedule:

- Figure 8 bars (to loosen up his shoulders and pelvis)

- 15 minutes of walk

- 8x 30 seconds of trot with 30 second walk breaks in between

- 15 minutes of walk

- Either hill work or reining back up the driveway (which is a slight hill)

We had our second and third days doing this schedule this weekend and he was getting in the groove pretty well. He seems happy to be working again and I've noticed some really great improvement since the last time I had him in any sort of work. 

How is he not EMS, like he's lost a little weight
recently but he still has zero topline

He's moving much better now than he did earlier this year, which again does tend to happen starting in the fall, so it might not be related to the changes I've made at all. But I'm glad to see that he seems comfortable in his feet, on my footing, and in a bit of work! 

His back also looks better, he had gotten kind of tight moving in the back, less swingy than before. So seeing his back move and him actually lift the tiniest bit through his withers is pretty promising too. He's so unfit that I'm hoping this just gets better and better. 

As far as exercise goes, my main goal is to a) get him fit and strong so that I can get back on him and b) get him committed to being forward at all three gaits. Luckily he never had too many problems balking on the longe line, so he's been really good! And I think the more I can see him being forward and the more he gets praised for staying forward on the line, the better. I'm in no rush to get back on, I want to be afraid he's going to launch me by the time I get back on so that we can start fresh with him being forward and my fascia not shutting him down. 

I get to weight tape him every week
because he's a chonky boy

Hopefully we get an (easy) answer with his bloodwork coming up. Outside of that, I got my hay sampling stick, so I'm going to grab samples from the bales we have at the barn as well as the bales at the feed shop (they don't test their hay but said that we could!) and send it off for testing. Once the testing comes back, I'll schedule an appointment with the nutritionist. I'm also going to have her help me with Rico's diet since he's lost a little weight recently. Although when my vet was out on Friday, she pulled blood on him and gave us permission to give him as much hay as he'll eat and then to give him as much Senior as it takes to get him gaining weight. 

And because he doesn't have IR, he can get his joint injections!! I think I want to schedule those for sometime in October. He sees my shoer again on October 7th so I want to give him maybe a week or two with his new shoes before I get him in for injections just to understand his baseline without the injections. But we'll see what the vet's schedule is. 

Then hopefully it's smooth sailing in rehab all winter and I have my horse back next year! I went to the California Dressage Society championship show to watch the Grand Prix Freestyles a couple of weeks ago and it was super fun and inspiring. I really hope that all of this works for TC. I think he'd love to be going to a show next year.