A peek at spring

Oh boy was yesterday a gorgeous day! (I'm choosing to not focus on the weather icon for Saturday.)

When I arrived at the barn, the horses were sunbathing, standing in their fields and looking a bit dozey. Bestie whinnied when she saw me, but made no move to come over to the gate, so I walked through the field to put her halter on.

It was way too nice to brush her in her stall, so she grazed around the barn - mainly toward the front so that she wasn't too far from Percy and Jazz in the front field - while I curried and brushed her.

She was gleaming when I left.

A few hours later I received a text from Laurie about my brown horse. Seems Bestie wasn't into gleaming. Sometime after I left to drive home, she rolled and coated herself in mud. Not the first time and won't be the last, I'm sure. :)

Looked at a new barn this week; thoughts on that soon. While poking around the internet doing some research while trying to decide if I should transition Bestie's feed prior to or after arrival at the new place, I found these two sites - https://equinenutritionnerd.com/ and https://horsehippie.com/, by the same author. Fun and interesting reading on everything from winter feeding to horse/human chakra connection.

Hellooo 2017

Bestie and I had a little good bye to 2016 and hello to 2017 moment on New Year's Eve afternoon last weekend (that I am just getting around to posting). Things have been going well at the barn. She's happy there and hanging companionably with the other mares. I haven't ridden since early December due to a variety of reasons - weather, business, a cold, lack of initiative, forgetfulness about alerting the ring owner prior to a ride ... whatever. I usually walk her down the road on my visits, unless it's absolutely too blustery.

The inflamed follicle business has definitely slacked off, thank goodness, but she did have a big one on her face that I discovered last week. We'd had a nice laid back hour of grooming and hand grazing, and right as I was about to walk her back to the barn to pick out her feet, I spotted a bleeding spot on her jawline. Yikes, nothing like blood to get your heart pounding. A couple of days later, Laurie pointed out another small one on Bestie's jawline.

The photo below shows the two spots on her jaw; hard to actually see them clearly because her coat is so amazingly thick and long this year (much more so than during all those years in Vermont). The lower one was positively ugly. She had apparently rubbed it raw and it was about an inch long and a half inch in diameter. Conferring with Laurie and Amanda at the barn, I decided to keep it clean and treated with ointment for a few days to see if it would clear up. Laurie helped with cleaning and treatment on days I couldn't be there. The smaller spot was pretty typical, just oozing a little waxy oil, so I cleaned it and dabbed it with TriCare ointment. 

When I came back to the barn after two days, and two days of treat the spots, I was relieved to see that the big spot had crusted over. It is still kind of rough and raised, like a scab would be, so hopefully it heals over smoothly soon. And hopefully these will be the last spots. The poor thing. When I groomed her a couple days ago I took off my gloves and really ran my hands over every inch of her, looking for more spots. She probably feels like I'm always picking and rubbing at her, but she stands quietly and tolerates it. Such a good girl.

So beautiful

I just love the rolling hills around the barn. The neighborhood where our barn is located is an equestrian community; I believe that all the homes except one have horses, so barns large and small dot the area. Across the way the ring where I ride (or attempt to) is visible, and beyond that, there's a large home and barn way off in the distance. What an absolutely beautiful day to take puppy Drummer and Bestie -separately- for a stroll down the road. That's been my go-to activity with her when I'm short on time, and this week, with a couple trips to the new house required, I was definitely short on time.

Mare moments

As soon as I bring Bestie in, she goes to the rear window in her stall to gaze back at her pasture. Just in case she might have missed something in the few moments it takes us to walk to the barn.

Before I start whining about Bestie, I have to admit that my barn visits have been pretty sporadic over the last couple weeks. House stuff has picked up speed, so I've had a few days of driving the hour and a half to the new house in Culpeper, and depending on the timing of the meet up with a contractor, I often just can't make it to the barn. Throw four days away for Thanksgiving in there, too. And a couple of days of heavy rain. 

Since I had been away, I went to the barn on both Saturday and Sunday last weekend. Bestie whinnied when she spotted me, which is always heart warming. I planned to ride on Sunday since I had more time and it was a really beautiful day. Just can't get over the warm weather in November - nothing like Vermont!

After I saddled her up, we walked over to the ring, meeting ring owner Cindy and her gelding en route. Upon starting to walk with them, Bestie was positively beside herself - I don't know if it was the novelty of seeing a gelding after a few months with mares, or what. I couldn't get her settled down. I ended up walking her in the ring for about a half hour. She seemed to calm down after about 15 minutes, but when I brought her over to the mounting block she got all kooky again. Nothing, absolutely nothing, was different from the previous week, except the weather was better. No scariness. NOTHING. Very frustrating.

The next three days I was tied up with house stuff and there was heavy rain, so today was my first day out. Again, I squared away the ring plan and looked forward to a ride.

As I walked out to get Bestie from the field, she and Mia came trotting up from the lower part, then turned and stared back at the woods. There was a regular hooting noise and the crashing sound of brush from the woods. I went ahead and brought Bestie in, and Mia hung out by the gate, looking back toward the woods, but not worked up.

Once we got in to the barn Bestie was really agitated. She kept circling and looking out the back window. I finally put her lead rope back on and walked her in the stall for about 10 minutes. At some point the hooting and crashing stopped and she calmed down, but then got worked up by Percy and Jazz goofing around in the front field. Between the agitation and the time it took me to groom her, I shelved the plan to ride. I ended up walking her down the road for a short stretch, then turning her back out with Mia.

And now I'm off to New York for three days. Inconsistency with her is not a good thing, but I don't see my schedule settling down at all with the house projects kicking off and the holidays looming. Foreseeing more mare moments in my future. Yay.

Still picking at Bestie's legs

The weird follicle things I described in the last post are still popping up on Bestie's lower legs. It's making me kind of crazy.

Every other day when I visit the barn, I've taken to dousing the back of her legs just below her fetlock with Fungasol and really scrubbing the area. So far she's had the big spot that fell off when the farrier flicked it, and four or five other smaller spots; I think there's been at least one on each leg.

Then today I found a spot up higher on her right front leg. Grrr. I scrubbed it, just a small one, with Fungasol and it broke apart, which is typically what happens with the yucky things. I never see blood, just a greasy waxiness mixed with a little hair. After the scrubbing, I dab either Corona or 3-way antibiotic cream on the spot. There was one today that didn't break apart, and she let me know when to stop picking at it by continually lifting her leg out of reach from my crouched position next to her.

When I picked one off last weekend, it left a little bare spot. I couldn't find the spot today, so I guess the hair does come back in.

I keep searching online to see if I can read up on this condition, but I haven't found anything so far.

Other than picking at her legs, I handwalked her down the road and did the tail pulling for her stifles. She was great on the road - she did her usual whinny to announce her presence as we got to the road, then strolled along. Coming back up the hill to the barn, she broke into a little jog, and she looked fine. I think I'll try a short ride when I go out this weekend.

Vet check for the cellulitis

After Bestie was diagnosed with cellulitis on October 22, it took a while for the swelling in her leg to go down. Laurie poulticed her with the Sore No More poultice each evening, and I would wash it off the next day. I have to admit that the first day after poultice #1, I had the irrational hope that her leg would be back to its svelte shape. No such luck. We poulticed her leg and soaked her hoof in a povidone iodine/epsom salts/warm water bath through Thursday, when she let me know that she was done with soaking by kicking the bucket over. She had stood quite complacently Monday through Wednesday for soaking. Laurie texted me that evening, "Apparently she feels the same way about the poultice" - Bestie had given her a run for her money during application time, moving around her stall. So we decided she was feeling better. 

The leg swelling had gone down quite a bit by Thursday; in fact, her hock looked great and most of the swelling seemed to be confined to just above her fetlock. I had my fingers crossed, because we had family coming into town and running out to the barn would put quite a dent in the family time. On Friday I decided the swelling was down enough that I could take Saturday and Sunday off, but to be safe, I tacked Bestie on to the vet visit scheduled for Monday - fall shots time and teeth floating for the other horses. No texts from the barn over the weekend, which meant no change for the worse. Whew.

On Monday,  veterinarian Jana Froehling of Full Circle Equine visited and said that she thought the cellulitis had been taken care of, but that Bestie seemed uncomfortable in the stifle in that leg. The cellulitis might have been secondary to some sort of injury. At the walk, she judged her to be  2/5 on discomfort. She thought that perhaps the change in workload (going from 4 rides to 2 shorter rides a week)  might have been the culprit due to muscle atrophy. Or it could be a mysterious injury. She prescribed getting her back to work at the walk and doing small hills and poles to strengthen the muscles around the stifle. It's good that Bestie is out moving in the pasture all day. She also suggested continuing the bute for a week or so.

I asked her to look at a crusty spot just over Bestie's back exterior heel bulb. It wasn't flat like a scab. And I had also found little bumps in that same area; when I picked at them they had kind of waxy feeling. I had been spraying the area with the Fungasol just to feel proactive, ha.

Dr. Froehling said both things were a by product of Virginia's clay - that it holds water and affects the hoof with some funky things, like these follicle inflammations. She said if I could pull them off when small, fine, but not to pull the big one because it was pretty deep. She suggested coating it with something like icthammol and wrapping the area to hold warmth in, which would cause the crusty bump to break down. Because it's just a big ol' hardened mess of follicle oil. Yuck. The funny thing is, two days later the farrier came and I asked him about it. He was like, "what, this thing?" and flicked it with his finger and it came off. Bestie never even blinked. It left a rough patch, which I coated with the 3 way antibiotic cream. I'm pretty sure she's sick of me messing with her heel.

For the possible stifle injury, I walked her a bit on Wednesday and today. I've also started doing lateral tail pulls to engage and strengthen the muscles in the area. I found this article on therapy for stifle problems very helpful.

Taking it day by day. Dr. Froehling said to give rehab a couple weeks and then we could see where we're at and talk about next steps. Nice that she has existing clients down where our new house is, although I'm not yet sure where Bestie will head to once we move. Have been looking at barns online but haven't found anything yet that offers full board, has an indoor, and is convenient to the house.

Cellulitis delivers a setback

Bestie and Mia

On Saturday I got a message from the barn that Bestie seemed a little sore in one leg. When I listened to the message I could hear Bestie whinnying in outrage that she had been kept in the barn while her friends went out. 

I thought it would be better for her to go out and graze rather than stew in the barn until I could get there, so Kristy went ahead and turned Bestie out. I got to the barn around 3:30 in the afternoon, and peeked out at her while I picked out her stall, and she was grazing happily. Not so bad, I thought.

Ha. When I walked up to her in the field I could see that her left hind leg was quite swollen, right up the leg and a few inches over her hock. She was really favoring it when walking. I couldn't think of anything that had happened recently that might have caused the injury. She'd had a little scab on her coronary band that had flicked off a week ago, and I'd never actually seen any blood. Or could be an abscess, maybe. But my first worry was cellulitis, so I called the vet on weekend duty, who came promptly and confirmed my fear, with the possibility of an abscess as the cause.

Bestie got injections of anti-inflammatory dexamethasone, bactericidal antibiotic enrofloxacin, anti-edema Lasix, and antibiotic Excede. Wow. The plan going forward included a packet of enrofloxacin for 10 days, accompanied by 2 grams of bute for the first three nights ... both in her evening grain. 

The vet said that she could continue to be turned out as long as she seemed comfortable walking. On Sunday she went out. her leg was still swollen, but she was walking pretty well. I walked her around the barn, hosed and doused her leg with Sore No More, and turned her back out. Because of my hour long drive to the barn, I am typically there mid afternoon; any later runs me into horrible traffic, no matter the day. (It's been an adjustment, not being able to pop over to the barn easily, but that's another story.) I left wraps and asked Laurie if she could wrap Bestie when she came in for the evening. 

This morning. Laurie texted me that Bestie had looked good when she came in Sunday evening, but the leg had swollen back up overnight. When I got there today, the swelling actually looked better to me. I guess walking around the field during the day helps work off the swelling, and perhaps the beginning of her bute/enrofloxacin protocol the evening before was contributing. I soaked her hoof in epsom salts and betadine, and cold hosed her leg and rubbed it down with Sore No More. I had purchased a bucket of Sore No More poultice, and asked Laurie to put that on this evening. (Buying the SNM poultice was my first intro to Tri County Feeds, a pretty fun store that I'll need to pay a return visit to soon.)

So that's where we're at. Poor Bestie. At least she is perky and continuing to eat and drink well. If the leg still looks pretty swollen tomorrow I'll check in with the vet again as that would be worrisome. Bestie has never had cellulitis before. Dude had it once or twice, and I don't remember it hanging on too long with him. Fingers crossed Bestie's able to shake it quickly. Her leg was so swollen Saturday evening I'm sure it felt terrible to her.

I've been reading up on cellulitis, but it's one of those conditions that seems to come on with no clear origin. Injury and poor housekeeping were cited as two of the potential causes, and those factors certainly aren't the case here. As with most horse ailments, it seems that things can go south pretty quickly. It's been a relief to see her continue to be happy and alert since Saturday.

I thought this article in Equus magazine was about the most straightforward presentation on cellulitis of the reading I did.