The Actual Last Ultrasound (Though Probably Not)

Surprise! On Friday, TC got a recheck ultrasound. I dunno why I didn't share this, I just felt like I was jinxing it for some reason (I swear I'm a researcher/data analyst and do not believe in stuff like that, but let's be honest, horses cause all rational thought and good judgement to escape from my brain).

At his last ultrasound (side note, he looks SO SKINNY in those pictures, it's only been three months and he's positively exploded with muscle), my vet had not thought that this ultrasound would be necessary. If you remember, he said that if TC was sound in full work after three months of undersaddle rehab (so October 7th), TC was then cleared to be turned out and trail ridden. He said we would only do another ultrasound if I wanted to jump him, which I do not.

But I'm the sort of person who would rather pay for an ultrasound now than pay for surgery on his leg if I turn him out before he's ready (um aren't we all that sort of person?), I emailed my vet and asked him a bunch of questions (when can I turn him out? when can he live in a larger paddock? when can I let him walk up and down hills?), and he also agreed that another ultrasound would give us the answers.

Look at this happy horse! He's uh still working on his six pack

Luckily my vet was able to come down to my barn on Friday morning. I couldn't be there since I can't take too many days off (I already have to take one for my brother's wedding and one for my thesis defense, which is in just over a WEEK and I'm freaking out, prepare for some hastily written posts), but I sent along a million questions and got a report back.

The vet had TC trot in a straight line on hard ground, circles both directions on hard ground, and then he had him longed in the round pen. TC was perfectly sound in all places! That alone was a relief. Sometimes TC feels lame on that leg for a multitude of reasons. First and foremost, he feels lame because I AM CRAZY and make it up in my head. He also doesn't like to use his left hind as much as his right so it throws him into the right rein, which he then nods on and off of when he isn't through.

After that, they set up for the ultrasound. And it went GREAT! Like way way way better than expected.

Most of turnout is going to be him scrounging for food

Let's revisit the two issues we had been facing since I know there are some new people catching up and also I forgot:

1) TC's initial injury was that he fell in his paddock because he was climbing. He yanked the suspensory ligament out of the origin site on the medial side. He took some bone with it and by the fourth ultrasound (last time), it was pretty much as healed as my vet thought it would be. It still looked a bit rough but it was hard and doing well.

2) TC's suspensory was threatening to adhere itself to the splint bone. By the last ultrasound, it was staying about the same. It was there, it was organized, but the suspensory didn't show any issue with having it tug on it (our biggest fear- that the adherence would yank at the suspensory, causing the suspensory to swell, and there is almost no room for it to swell, so bad things).

Rolling is the best!

I'm happy to report that TC's bone is fully healed! Like better than we expected! It looks normal and the insertion point is totally strong and perfect again. I'm STOKED for this.

I'm HAPPIER to report that not only does it look like TC's suspensory isn't being bothered by the adherence, the adherence is becoming less organized! I got excited thinking that it was disintegrating, but I think he means that it's just not tight. We need it to remain looser than the suspensory so that they don't tug on each other. But my vet says that if this is full work for TC (it is), then we should be good to go with that adherence.

The happiest horse

What does this mean? TURNOUT. TC has been cleared for turnout in the 24x24 paddocks! I'm going to go get some no climb after this storm and have the guys put it up, meaning that TC will get an assigned turnout that only he goes in. I'm very nervous that they will put him in the wrong turnout, so I'm thinking about how to make that guaranteed.

TC has also been cleared to jump. Uh. Okay. I don't know if I'll feel comfortable jumping him until at least next year. But it's good to know that the vet thinks that his leg will hold up to jumping. I mean it should given how much he's been bucking lately.

I'm also allowed to trot and canter on hard ground and go on trail rides without too many hills. He can climb small hills, but we have some pretty steep trails around here so he can't go on those. I don't think we'll be trail riding until at least next year just because of the weather. And the stronger he is, the better, so the longer I hold out from trail rides and jumping, the better.

In spring, TC can have a large paddock to live in. I'm really excited for this. My vet said that if it was coming into summer now, he'd be good to go in one of those, but that he's worried about it being muddy/slick and TC slipping. This way I'll have the next year to get him really strong so that when/if he does play in his paddock, he's strong enough to do so. Now that it's storming, I'm getting a good look at how the paddocks hold up so I'll have a good idea which one I want!

He's such a weird looking horse

So that's that! Fingers crossed things continue to go well with this injury, but I'm really glad to have another look at the suspensory now that he's in what I consider full work. I might do another one in spring before I put him in the large paddock or maybe in the summer before we start passage training, but we'll see. For now, I'm just glad my horse is sound!

Or was, on Friday. Since yesterday I came out to find all four legs super puffy. He was sound and it went down with riding, so I think it was just from standing inside while it rained. He was totally dry and it had been raining all night and all day. His water is outside so I hung him a bucket inside and now I'm hoping he's not colicking.

Horses are fun!

The Last Ultrasound

Yesterday was TC's fourth and last ultrasound, at least for now, in this terrible series of events. Yes, LAST ULTRASOUND for at least 90 days depending on his soundness blah blah blah. But LAST ULTRASOUND was all I heard.

Hi mom, I would talk to you but you forgot
carrots and there's a fan moving slowly

If you remember from our third (and second) ultrasound, the main issues we were facing were twofold.

First, the horse had yanked the suspensory out of the origin site enough where he took some bone with him. To fix this, after the second ultrasound, TC was put on a supplement by Platinum Performance called Osteon, as well as given an Osphos injection. Both are used to increase bone density and we hoped that it would help this site. At the third ultrasound, not much had changed. It wasn't getting worse but it wasn't getting better necessarily.

Second, the suspensory had tried to adhere itself to the splint bone. This was our biggest fear initially, since when this happens, IF the adherence is tighter than the suspensory itself, then as the suspensory stretches, it will become irritated. This puts us in chronic suspensory land and effectively ends TC's riding career unless I wanted to do surgery. I felt wishy washy about the surgery, but at the second and third ultrasounds, my vet felt like this wasn't going to be as much of an issue. But we weren't sure how it would react to trotting. This ultrasound is to look at how both of those issues responded to more work.

Still kind of derpy, but much fitter

Now TC is trotting 15 minutes and has been sound as far as the people at the rehab center could tell. He is only trotted on soft ground in the eurociser so it's not like minor lamenesses are obvious. The goal at this last ultrasound was for it to be the last ultrasound, for him to be given the okay to start undersaddle work, and more importantly, to come home. A lot was riding on this ultrasound.

Because of the heat, I got up early and rode a horse, then taught a lesson before the ultrasound. I shouldn't do this. Much like the last three ultrasounds where I worked from home and then went to see him, I basically was worthless at doing my job. Luckily teaching and riding come more naturally, so both horse and rider didn't get shafted. I just couldn't tell you what they worked on. My brain was just like "pleaselethimbeokay INSIDE LEG PUSH HIM OVER pleaselethimbesound OUTSIDE REIN MORE CONNECTION pleaselethimcomehome THAT CIRCLE HAS CANCER FIX IT NOW pleaselethimbeokay."

Around 10:15 I was finally on the road to the vet office. I had put my lesson earlier than necessary since every time I'm on time, they're early. And last time I got to hang out with TC in the stall beforehand, which made me happy.

He was a little sassy on the longe line

Interested in everything but staying quiet

This time I beat them there. It ended up not being too bad because I got to see TC come off the trailer. I expected him to be kind of explosive coming off- he was not. He arrived with another horse. I expected him to be attached to that horse and scream for the horse when it left- he was fine. A horse had been put down so was covered with a tarp right near the stalls. I expected him to be spooky and nervous about that horse- he was not.

He was so quiet and relaxed. I led him to the stall and he just sort of hung out. No screaming, no pacing, no throwing himself around. Just so chill about everything. I was much less chill. I'm normally the chill one!

When they went to longe him, he just quietly trotted around. Sometimes he would shake his head, but nothing like the explosions from last time. Nope, just quiet baby horse with a couple moments of head shaking. What? Craziness.

He was completely sound- both fetlocks dropping really well. I did get a nice lecture from the vet, and I now have a farrier. Rico's farrier. Because TC needs shoes with plastic pads (pads in the summer only). He basically isn't growing any heel and his coffin bones are RIGHT next to the ground. I'd rather lose the one and a half lessons a month in farrier fees than not be able to sell the horse in the future because he has no feet. Yay for expensive shoes, ugh.

Dude 

The ultrasound was really good too! Even though TC has been in a LOT more work than he was, his leg is still improving!

The bone issues are completely resolved. No more Osteon (phew, so expensive) and no additional Osphos injection needed (phew, SO expensive).  The ultrasound did show what my vet called a "hidden splint," which means that his cannon bone has a bump on it under the suspensory. It's smooth and doesn't get in the way, but it just means that there is less room in there for the suspensory to swell if it gets irritated. I don't mind that, because if it does get irritated, I want to know!

The adherence is still there, though it's very small (one square centimeter or so) and doesn't seem to be bothering him at all. My vet says that if the adherence is loose enough where it never yanks at the suspensory, it won't cause problems. If it does yank at the suspensory, we need to catch it soon and do surgery to remove the splint bone and clean the adherence up.  Of the horses who had this same problem, only the jumpers have needed surgery because they land on their feet a lot harder off of the big jumps than the prancy dressage horses. Dressage horses really don't get as much wear and tear on the front legs, although both of my dumb horses having ST injuries in front hardly proves that.

Can I ride it yet?

Starting to get sleepy

So we aren't out of the woods on that adherence yet. We have 90 days to have TC in full work undersaddle and then if he's sound and okay by then, my vet says that it'd be very unlikely that we would need surgery after that. So on October 6th, we're officially back.

The best news out of all of this was that TC does get to come home!!! One week from today I'll have the baby horse back in my life full time, and I am so excited about that! But still very nervous about the 90 days. I'm trying to take an it-is-what-it-is approach and just enjoy him and whatever happens happens.

Obviously hearing that he could come home made me ask lots of questions, here is a bullet point list about what information I got:

• TC can canter! My vet wants him in a very collected canter to keep him off his forehand,. Upon hearing this, I laughed at him. The horse has no collected canter, he has no working canter, we have a frantic run sort of thing? So I am going to push his cantering out a few weeks so I can work on the collected trot first.  
• TC is okay to go into his paddock, my vet said to keep an eye on him and put him in a box stall if he gets silly. I think he'll be quieter to ride if he's out so hopefully he stays quiet in the stall and paddock. 
• No turnout until after the 90 day waiting period.
• No trail riding at all until after the 90 day waiting period.
• No real trail riding (hills) until next year, and always be careful about walking downhill.
• No jumping until next year, but small cavallettis to get him picking up his feet are fine after the 90 days. 
• Keep him fit so he doesn't get tired and drop his fetlock. 
• Put him in Sports Medicine Boots and tack on a piece of plastic over his suspensory. This means I can return the boots I got from Dover (glad I didn't put him in them). I'm not sure how to make a strike guard, but I will figure it out. 

I also asked about the future. My concern is that he will not be okay to do the extended trot or the passage, since both of those are hard on the tendons. It was something that made me so nervous with Rico. But my vet said that by the time he's ready training-wise to do those things, his leg should be totally fine. Like, it's literally just these 90 days and then I can consider him completely healed and okay to do anything. He said maybe not jumping 4' or galloping on the hills, but I knew he wasn't going to be an event horse at the vet check because of his feet anyway.

So yay! Grand Prix is still tentatively in his future, though obviously unlikely for other reasons. At least (hopefully) his physical health won't be what keeps us from that level. It's likely going to be his natural talent, his rider's lack of natural talent, and logistics that keep us from the level :) which I'm totally fine with.

I don't care if he bucks me off if I can feel this trot first

I'm cautiously excited. I won't feel capable of relaxing until the beginning of October, if at all, and I'm already diverting money into an account for his surgery and am prepared to send him back to rehab this winter (the fact that I'm doing this should tell you how fucking quiet the horse is being because there was a time where he was nutty enough for me to have not chosen to do the surgery). BUT I'm trying to just focus on being excited about riding him while preparing myself financially for the worst. It can't hurt because I mean if he doesn't need surgery, I can buy a saddle I will have a bigger emergency fund. I'm also going to insure him, but the insurance very likely won't cover the surgery.

One more week to wait and then I get to have that baby horse home and attack the hell out of his mane and pathetic feathers. Oh, and RIDE him. And now, making a shopping list for my tack locker, I called my dad and he has an amazing idea to get it working for me! So excited to have my pony back!!

Wishing and Hoping

Today is what we hope will be TC's LAST ULTRASOUND in this awful suspensory saga. I'll be selling tickets to the musical soon to help pay off all his medical expenses.

By the time this post goes out, I'll already be getting off my first horse of the day and probably on the way to teach before the vet appointment starts at 11. It's been in the 100s so I just couldn't stand doing the vet check and then going to teach/ride. After this all I have to do is go get some delicious tea and find some air conditioning to enjoy.

A collection of my favorite pictures from rehab and ultrasounds

Resting a foot!!!

Yesterday I stopped in at my new barn to talk to BRH trainer at the request of the barn owner. I had emailed her to touch base and she said all was good, but that she wasn't sure why he needed 8 flakes of hay. Apparently the website is not up to date and they feed 4 flakes already, so double feed would be completely excessive. That's awesome! That's almost a lesson a month I'm saving.

BRH trainer was in charge of finding a stall and dealing with my crazy now that he's going to officially be my trainer. I have a trainer and will be *in training* with someone. Cool! I'm excited. I love that the pressure will be off me to deal with issues and make decisions. I know that I'm fully capable of getting through this by myself, but man it's sometimes just really nice to follow a program and turn my trainer brain off and fully enjoy my horse. Definitely less stressful.

I got there and he was working with one of my previous trainers' young horses (a lot of people send their super fancy horses to him, TC will not be the nicest horse he works with by far lol). She's two years old and just amazing. He said that she has these amazing gaits, especially when she's being bad. I only saw her walking but man she's built for dressage.

So cute!

GIMME SNAX

He showed me the stalls (12x36 paddock with 12x12 of it covered/matted) available and there was one available in the row I wanted! We talked about getting a load of blue rock in to even out the paddock a bit so there isn't such a big drop off of the stall into the paddock. That's prime for reinjury so I was glad that he brought it up so I didn't have to be a crazy person. And I went by the hardware store nearby to get no climb wire to prevent the dumb baby horse from injuring himself again. He said that if I provided it, he would have the guys put it up! That's really helpful.

I also have a tack locker! The plan is to put my trunk outside his stall so that it can hold blankets and his grain (I'm going to bag up grain each week so that the guys can feed him) and probably a few brushes/fly spray and things I might want near the stall. The tack locker is next to a set of cross ties near the covered arena, which is going to be super convenient in the winter. It's small, and actually there is a slightly bigger one next to it that might be open and I might request that one. But either way it will be fine, I have a place at the ranch to store stuff that I don't need and I can always get another trunk or something for in front of his stall.

The only downside in my mind is that I'm going to have to be creative about hanging things on the wall- I'd love a set of shelves, a bridle rack, and a saddle rack all on the walls to leave room on the ground for a few things, but the entire locker is plastic so nailing into it probably won't be an option. I'll be searching online for how to make it work for me. At the very least I want to be able to hang his bridle and longeing stuff so that will be the first thing I look into.

IS THIS SMILING?

The best at selfies

We also chatted about what to do with TC. I said I wanted him in full training for July (so basically 3 weeks) and then we'd reevaluate. Honestly we'll probably back off to half training or even just working together once or twice a week to address the minor issues he's had. It's all going to depend on how TC is. I can see it going a lot of different directions- he might find the riding work so much more interesting than swimming/endlessly circling that he calms down and focuses better. Or he might think FINALLY I AM FREE and be crazy. It's likely to be a little of both.

Our main goal is to get TC comfortable being ridden all over the ranch and in all the arenas. I'm not actually worried about riding him around the ranch. At our previous barn I would regularly hop on him bareback in the rope halter and ride him up to turnout, even after a day or two off, and then he'd explode only when he was let loose. The horse is good in the open at the walk. It's when you open the door for trotting/cantering, he thinks he can get sassy.

Then I talked to him briefly about him helping me with trail riding- me on Rico and him on TC for the first ride- but that it probably wouldn't happen until next year.

Our first lesson is scheduled for next Thursday (THAT IS SO SOON), as he's leaving on vacation and returning the same day that TC comes in, so I'll be handling TC on the first day. If he's quiet we'll walk around but if he's nutty, we'll just hang out in the paddock.

Love his little hippo face

Loves getting his lips brushed

Overall I was just SO happy to be at my barn. The familiar drive, meeting new people and seeing old friends, and just imagining going through the trail course and riding in the covered arena with mirrors and playing in the dressage court. I just love the place! It is definitely going to make a HUGE difference to be able to have the facility I need, the trainers I need with both BRH trainer and Tracey coming into the place, and the location I need. Even if I had to force the situation a little bit with my job. Worth it.

I'm also SO happy that the ultrasound is TODAY, I feel like I can't wait any longer. I have a lot of hopes and expectations for this visit. And I am a bit worried, obviously. But the worst case scenarios aren't so bad anymore.

The absolute worst case scenario (other than suddenly needing surgery, which seems unlikely but is still entirely possible) is that he needs another month or two of rehab and another ultrasound. That puts us into the fall for him coming back and that makes me nervous. The second worst case scenario is that he comes home and needs another ultrasound before he canters. I really really want this to be the last ultrasound. But another ultrasound is only money, money I will have to scrimp and save up, but it's only money.

Luckily he has been pretty sound and the leg has stayed tight. An obsessively detail oriented person who stares at horse legs all day could see that there's a difference between the two legs, but just glancing at it, you can't tell that there's anything wrong. Like I've said in the past, I don't give two shits whether his legs look terrible, I just want him sound and able to work.

Traumatized

I want that hock flexion undersaddle omg

The best case scenario is that his leg looks great and that he could come home and be ready to canter or increase trotting to 20-30 minutes right away. That's unlikely to happen. I'm guessing that we're going to be trotting undersaddle a bit less than he was doing on the walker just because there's more weight on him with a rider. Then we'll work back up to 15 minutes and then to 20 and eventually 30 maybe. I considered Rico in full work when we were doing 30 minutes of trot and 20 minutes of canter, though that seems excessive for the baby horse. Like, I don't want him capable of cantering that long.

As much as I'd love to get the okay to canter right away, I'm not banking on it. In all honesty, he will need a lot of work in trot training-wise to get him ready to canter even without taking into account the injury. With no dressage under his belt in eight months, we're going to be hanging out in walk and trot a lot to reestablish the connection/throughness and get him moving off my leg well. I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't canter until this fall just from a training standpoint. Although with his tendency to bolt, it'd be nice to start cantering in September at the latest just because of the winter.

His face kills me

Omg eight days before I get to sit on that amazing trot

So please cross everything you can and even some of the bits you really shouldn't. Today I'm really hoping to hear that my pony can come home next week.

I'm also just excited to see him, it's been a couple of weeks now!

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!

Two Month Recheck

Tuesday morning I was planning on going into work, but my boss had me switch my WFH days so that I didn't have to sit in traffic for so long and then turn around and sit in traffic again to go to the ultrasound. So I let myself sleep in a bit and then worked until 9:45am when I hopped in the car and headed out across the bay.

A wonderful thing about the rehab center is that, not only are they taking amazing care of my not-so-amazing horse, they hand deliver him to the vet clinic! They have a standing Tuesday hauling day where they haul out, so they just stuck TC on the trailer and I met them there. This meant that poor TC was on the trailer from 6am to 6pm (since the rehab place is far away and they had two other horses to pick up before they left) except when he was at the vet. Oh well, good life experiences for him. Rico was imported from Germany (before I got him) so had to spend more than that many hours on a plane.

My mom, for no reason other than to solidify her place as best mom ever, also showed up, having driven the hour and a bit from the ranch. I appreciate having someone else there at the vet checks. Sometimes I get crazy so having someone who remains calm is good. I also love her perspective, she asks a lot of really great questions because she was a vet tech when she was younger.

Look how gray this baby horse is! He's got gray hairs all over his
body now instead of just in a few places

I couldn't concentrate in the morning so I left early, and it's a good thing I did. I got a call about fifteen or twenty minutes into my hour drive saying everyone was there and asking whether I was coming. Um, yes but I will be there ON TIME. I told them to drug him if he wasn't handling his shit very well, nothing like a reinjury during a recheck of the original injury.

I fought through the horrible bay area traffic (after rush hour wtf) and got there to find the owner of the rehab facility and my vet chatting about my horse. I heard something weird though... it was nothing. No screaming, no slamming against the wall. He must be drugged, I thought. Stupid horse.

I went to see him and he was contently staring out of the stall with a hind leg resting. The owner of the rehab place said that he had a little bit of tranq for the ride over, since they had never trailered him and didn't want to fight him if he didn't step right on, but that he was totally sober since obviously it had worn off.

Apparently he came off the rig, whinnied twice, was put in the stall, and other than some pawing (which he does in all situations), he was completely content to hang out for the 45 minutes it took me to get there.

WOW. This horse has grown up so much in the last two months. I'm so proud of him. That alone made my day.

Hard to see soundness because he's looking around the corner,
but this is after a flexion- no head bobbing (that isn't related to
staring at stuff)

As did watching him trot. They did give him a little bit of dorm to keep him settled while they trotted him out since I said that we'd had some airs above the ground the last time he was longed. My vet mostly wanted to make sure that he was sound and to observe how far his fetlock was dropping.

The good news is that TC was totally sound, which is to be expected at this stage, and that he is dropping his fetlock much more now. It's not completely even, and the suspensory still is filled in (I saw that last time I saw him) a tiny bit, but my vet was really happy.

TC's trot is so floaty, guys. He trotted on the longe line super round and fancy, like he was showing off for us a bit. He was probably so happy to be trotting in general. He's also so much fitter now- my vet was impressed with that. He's an expert swimmer, doing three laps every day in the pool.

Such a dork, but this is the right front fetlock drop

And this is the left front fetlock drop- you can see this one goes
down a tiny bit more

After some more dorm and xylazine, he was sleepy and we actually clipped his bridle path after he got his leg clipped.

The ultrasound showed two bad things and one good thing.

The good news is that his suspensory is completely healed!! The ligament itself looks completely normal- no sponginess. For a suspensory that we thought had two tears in it, I'm extremely happy with that.

One of the bits of bad news is that the suspensory IS adhering to the splint bone, which is exactly what we do NOT want it to. The nice thing about this is that a) it is only adhering for 3-4cm right at the origin site and only on the medial side, where we expected it to be, b) there is no tearing due to the adherence between where it's adhering and the rest of the suspensory, and c) TC is not showing any signs of pain due to the adherence- no lameness and no palpation sensitivity. What this means is that, while adhering isn't something that we like, it's not your typical oh-my-god-do-surgery-asap adherence. Good because I have no insurance on him at the moment.

To fix this, we're going to have TC walk on the eurociser more. The nice thing about swimming is that he gets to get stronger without any pressure on his legs. But the downside is that he doesn't get ANY pressure on his legs and what we need is that suspensory to break up and stretch out the spot that's adhering. If we can get the spot that's adhering to be looser than the suspensory itself, then it will never bother him.

Gotta love this view, ugh

The other bit of bad news is even more fixable. It's that the bone under the point where he ripped the suspensory out of the origin is weakened. Basically my vet described it like this- glue two pieces of plywood together, then rip them apart. It's not going to be an even split- one of the pieces will splinter and the other piece will have bits of it stuck. So when he yanked the ligament out of its origin site, it grabbed some periosteum (outside covering of bone) at the same time. It shows up as muddled dark gray on the ultrasound when it should be bright white.

We gave him an injection of... something that will strengthen the bone, I'm sure it will show up on my bill and be something that makes me cry because it's expensive- not as expensive as stem cell though.

I've also ordered a two month supply of Osteon, which is a supplement by Platinum Performance for bone strength, which he will stay on until the next ultrasound. And he'll continue to be on alfalfa for the calcium. The VERY good news is that my vet expects this to heal not only as strong as it was before the injury, but possibly STRONGER than before. He's not worried about this at all. I can remember back to the hock x-rays at the vet check when my vet found a roughened bit of bone at the origin site of one of TC's hind suspensories and said that he had probably slipped and it had healed itself.

His tail is so big! And the yellow part is slowly
growing out, hoping to keep it more silver.

So while I was bummed that we can't just say "omg TC is all healed, ready to come home!" my vet reminded me that it had been only two and a half months since he was injured in the first place. Soft tissue injuries take a LONG time to heal (6-9 months), especially when your horse rips an important ligament half way out of the origin site.

The other thing that made me feel better was reminding myself that Rico came back completely from several injuries and hasn't had a lame step or a swollen leg in over a year. BUT if I were to take Rico to my vet and have him ultrasounded, I bet he'd have a bunch of shit in all of his injury sites. As long as TC can stay sound for work, it doesn't matter what his leg looks like inside.

The big news will come at the end of April when TC gets his third ultrasound (ughh $$$). At this point we expect to either a) start him trotting and prep him for coming back into training with BRH trainer or b) see that the adherence is worse (we don't care if the bone thing is worse since there are more easy, non-invasive treatment options) and make a decision on surgery (which is very likely a no unless I decide to get him insured and the insurance covers everything- still debating on that) or to sit and wait longer with him still at rehab.

Honestly, I was so happy that he was so calm during the vet check, so quiet about standing in the stall, that I didn't really register that there was any bad news for a while. I got a bit sad on my drive back home. It's just hard to have a horse who is so young be injured like this. And I miss him, him being so good at the vet made me even more eager to get him back, so the thought of "yah he's injured but at least I don't have to deal with his bullshit for a bit" is disintegrating.

Drugs are good, guess who has a bridle path now?

But the good news is that my vet and I did get to talk about the future a bit and I'm feeling fairly positive about it. Obviously this all depends on the next ultrasound, but my vet was fairly certain that he'd be able to come back fully, which is really great news.

My vet knows BRH trainer and fully approved of sending him there for a while ever. I told him my concerns of keeping TC calm so we have some ideas:

1) TC will stay at the rehab center until he is strong enough to launch me and gallop around the property without me worrying about him (obviously NOT getting launched is the main idea), or play in his stall or whatever.

2) TC will be allowed turnout when he is okay to be worked at the canter, which should be fairly soon after he comes back. I'm also probably going to have BRH trainer try him on the hot walker to give him more things to do. If I can swing it financially, he'll get turnout every morning and either a ride or the hot walker every afternoon, two fun things every day.

3) It's okay if I have to ride him in the round pen (he even said I could longe him first! YES), but I need to do the majority of the work tracking left so that it takes weight off the RF suspensory. That's fine, left was the hard way for a long time anyway.

4) TC will be given the long term tranq again and be put on magnesium about two weeks before he comes back to keep him calm during the first couple of months so that he can have the best chance of staying quiet for rehab. We also talked about something like Perfect Prep for his first rides, and I'm fully on board with that. Don't argue with me (not that anyone would but you know), I can ride my horse without drugging him, but I need his mind calm so that he'll let me fucking rehab him the way he needs to be rehabbed.

Coming back fully means also that he'll be able to trail ride and jump! The vet said to hold off on those for a while, and I said that I could wait until next spring for both. The facility he's going to has a little trail we can do every day and a lot of room around the ranch to wander- it's completely flat. There is also the 2 mile loop at Harvey Bear that is flat so he can go on a real trail ride later this summer/fall. Maybe I can drag BRH trainer along for his first trail ride there- I can pick up Rico and then go grab TC and then I can ride Rico and BRH trainer can survive on TC. Do that a few times and I'll feel confident, I've always felt more confident in the open on TC than in the ring.

And we never really jumped before the injury, so not being able to jump him for a year doesn't bother me. Honestly, I might only ever jump him over tiny fences anyway, he's not the world's most talented jumping horse and I always wanted to be careful about not pounding on his dumb feet and create sidebone. So it sounds like I'll be able to do all the things I want to do on him.

My vet's new puppy, THIS IS THE BEST DOG EVER, I wanted
to trade him my dumb horse for his adorable dog

Honestly, after seeing how quiet TC was at the vet, and after deciding that the commute was worth being with BRH trainer, I'm not that nervous about him coming back anymore. The idea that he'll be almost ready to canter when he comes back AND I'll be allowed to start the rehab in the round pen, where I feel the most safe, I feel really ready for this!

Unfortunately none of this is happening any time soon though, my timeline from my last post was not at all accurate. I have eight more visits to TC before the next ultrasound. Then it will be at least a month before I can bring him home. So we're looking at June 1st or July 1st. I'm really hoping by mid-June since that's when my parents go away for their month-long vacation and it'd be really convenient to spend every weekend at the ranch helping my brother and SIL (who are not horse people) house-sit at the ranch and actually have my awesome pony to ride every day.

So interested in things, but NOT crazy :D

Between now and then though, I know I need to work on my own fitness and strength, including my own injury that I've sort of been ignoring for the last few months. The good news is that I have an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon on March 8th and will be putting together my own rehab schedule soon enough. I'm also FINALLY feeling normal enough to work out again (after two and a half weeks of being sick), so I'll be training for my 5k. I sat a lot of trot last night and am going on my first trail run in 2.5 weeks today.

And honestly, as much as I want my horse back, I know that commute will kill me if I have to do it for too long. My lease is up in October and I'll be able to move closer to the barn. So even if he comes back in July, all that means is that I only have three months to drive so far vs the six I would have to drive if he came back in April. I can do three months of that drive. Not a problem.

A Second Opinion

On Monday afternoon, I hauled TC back up to the vet clinic, where just four short months ago, I got the amazing news that he passed his vet check and that I'd be buying him. Ah how times have changed.

Let me reiterate what I had said then, I love my vet. My vet is actually a wizard. He works primarily with big fancy sport horses and has specialized in lamenesses in those big fancy sport horses for years and years. He saw that Rico was lame and needed surgery because his injured fetlock dropped slightly lower than his non-injured one. No headbobbing, no stepping short, just that one fetlock was below the other. Sure enough, the DDFT had a hole in it. A HOLE. Luckily TC is a bit more obvious with his injuries.

So no one was going to touch my horse from the second I found out this was soft tissue except for wizard vet. And he was pretty happy to see us too, he was probably thinking oh good, I thought I had gotten all the Ferraris and European vacations out of this client, good to see that she breaks her new horse too. I swear he probably called his wife after seeing me on the schedule and said honey, good news! Megan made a vet appointment, call the contractor, let's get that dream kitchen we always wanted! 

Drugs, we love them

I hauled TC up for our 2:30 appointment in the pouring rain, I was lucky that my dad volunteered to come with me because hauling in the dark and rain and rush hour traffic (on the way home) is terrifying.

We got there and TC was immediately pissed, his life is the worst right now and he wants everyone around him to suffer as much as he does. I put him in a stall there and he started slamming himself against the walls to get out. My vet rushed over and TC immediately got tranquilized. He then stood contently while I updated my vet. Drugs are the best.

I walked my then very quiet and polite baby horse over to the examination area, where he led perfectly and stood quietly while we talked and he got his legs shaved again. He then got more drugs and off we were on yet another ultrasound adventure.

Let me tell you this- even though I doubled my vet bills by doing a second opinion, it was SO worth it. I love wizard vet. I'm glad I got the first ultrasound since that made it obvious that we were dealing with ST (and I would have kicked myself for arranging all this hauling to find out that my horse had an abscess), but the second opinion made me take a big deep breath and firmly believe that this is going to be okay.

It's the funniest thing to see them together. Rico is actually
a solid two inches taller than TC. But TC has so much more
presence (and that neck set) which makes him seem bigger.

The injury isn't as bad as it seemed. He did rip it up a bit by the origin site, but it's only on the medial side and although it's a bit swollen, it's not as big as you'd expect it to be if it were really bad. Slightly further down (not where the swelling was- apparently that was literally nothing, no second tear) it also gets a bit inflamed as it tries to adhere itself to the medial splint bone. My vet thinks that it was a big accident where he fell off his fence and also hit it pretty hard, since a lot of the time the suspensory will do this when the interosseus ligament (the ligament that runs around the cannon + splint bones and when irritated, creates a splint) is inflamed, and that happens when the horse has a blow to his stupid dumb leg.

So we're pretty much confirmed that TC was climbing his fence and fell. Phew. Vet says it isn't chronic, not from regular wear and tear, so if he comes back 100%, he will be 100% (unlike Rico whose DDFT was from wear and tear and poor conformation, meaning that there was always a risk that his regular work load would cause problems again).

The thing with the suspensory trying to adhere itself to the splint bone is that if it manages to do it, we're facing surgery or a chronic suspensory injury. LUCKILY right now the suspensory injury is considered acute and is considered a contusion, so will go down in his records as such. IF it adheres, it will be considered a separate injury. So if I want to get insurance now, the insurance will cover him if he needs surgery (but won't cover anything right now). Definitely thinking about doing that.

This view again, ugh

Regardless, obviously we want to prevent this because I don't want yet another horse who needs fucking surgery to make him sound enough to prance around in a sandbox. I'm not trying to event him, I'm not trying to jump him 5' (well, maybe I should), I'm not looking to do endurance on hard ground up and down hills for many miles. I literally just want to trot around in perfect footing for 45 minutes 5x per week. What the fuck indeed.

To prevent this we have to... wait. Ugh. I was like INJECT IT WITH ALL THE THINGS, I swear I was sitting there shoving my checkbook in his face. But since there is no hole in it (woohoo), there is no place for injections to go and injecting anything into the origin site (which is between the splint bones- very small area) will merely piss off the whole thing and make it adhere MORE. So what we need to do is look at it in two months and see what is happening.

Apparently, Rico's suspensory (omg suspensory twins ftw! I hate horses) was at risk of doing this too and it never did. I totally forgot about that part of that injury.

The main thing, my vet said, is to keep TC from doing more damage while in rehab. So we're planning two things.

1) TC got a long term tranquilizer that will kick in about 5-6 days from now. He'll get another in 30 days.
2) TC is going to a rehab facility.

I will go over the reasons for rehab in tomorrow's post, but it's the best thing for everyone involved.

So ready to be done with this

Generally, my vet was pretty happy with what we saw and seems positive that everything is going to be okay. I'm glad that (at least for now) I didn't have the option for PRP or stem cells, since I am always worried that they will tell me how much it will be and I will have to say no. My vet had a better schedule than the other vet, TC can start the eurociser (or aquapacer) in a week and I can start riding in 3-4 months.

Although I am planning on being a bit more conservative than my vet thinks. I told him that TC will likely not cooperate with "trot 30 seconds, walk 1 minute" and that rehab will be more like "gallop 30 seconds, be held back by terrified rider 1 minute" so I want to make sure he is strong enough where if he launches me and turns himself out, that I won't feel the need to rush him to the vet.

So I'm feeling more positive but a little more nervous. When it's a big unknown it's easy to just assume it's a typical suspensory injury, but knowing there's a chance of adherence is frustrating. But my vet feels pretty sure that we're in the clear and I really hope this is the case. Either way, TC needs to quiet the fuck down and be a good boy for his rehab so that he doesn't spend a life in pasture being used as an up down lesson horse and a light trail horse (I've begun making decisions on what to do with him if he can't stay sound). Come on baby horse.