Cash does NOT have ulcers... what's next?

Well, certainly not the result I was expecting from the vet check this morning!

My vet and I got to the farm bright and early to grab Cash.  He was less than thrilled at getting on the trailer instead of eating breakfast, but we got him on within 10 minutes without a ton of drama.  Once there he was actually pretty chill, he unloaded, looked around and walked right into the building and into the stocks without fuss.

THREE shots of sedative later (yeah, I know)... we had a scope down him and the vet, Dr. Jergens, spent several minutes thoroughly looking around.  The result?  NO ulcers.  At all.  Just lots and lots of saliva!  Which is why he's ulcer free.  The vet actually really liked how his stomach looked.  Well, ok then.  That rules that out.

Mmmm... drugs!

So we started talking about how he's been acting.  My vet described to Dr. Jergens the various colic episodes he's had, and we talked about his behavior and his recent disgruntled response to leg pressure under saddle.  Dr. Jergens poked and prodded around and picked up on a few things.

He's got a weird little swelling on his belly, a very small amount of puffiness on the inside of his left stifle, and a thickened medial suspensory branch on his front right (he's had residual swelling there since I got him from what I've presumed was an old injury, and that was confirmed today).  Also, he is slightly asymmetrical in his SI joint.  It's oh so slightly higher on the left side (which is the side he reacts more to in response to leg pressure).  When palpated a normal horse should dip their lower back down.  He however, would not do that, instead he was very tense and resisting.

The verdict?

We are going to give him a PowerPac dewormer to rule out any possibility of encrusted strongyles causing intestinal discomfort (which is what could be causing that belly swelling).  Then I'll plan a time with my vet to do a full lameness/soundness workup on him and likely we'll just treat the SI by injecting the joint instead of doing a block.  Also, chiropractic body work might be in the works as well.

The long and short of it is that I'm REALLY glad I took him in, it was well worth the money and we got some good routes to pursue and was able to rule out the ulcers without wasting money trying to treat them.

So, back to work he goes, just lots of good stretchy exercises to keep his whole body limber and we'll go on from here!

Cheers,
Emily

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Cash has an appointment

This past week Cash has been a bit "off". Not in a lameness sense, but in a not-himself-at-all sense.

When I rode him a week ago, every time I put my leg on he would slam on the brakes, throw his head up with his ears pinned and give a little kick with his hind leg. Not like him at all. I still managed to get him to trot through use of the seat and voice because I was not about to let him get away with not obeying... You let this horse get away with anything and it's a training nightmare to try and fix.

Additionally he's been off his feed a bit lately. He's lost some weight but I think it's just his "beer belly". He's leaner for sure, but he has put on a little muscle which is good.

So, he is currently scheduled to have his stomach scoped this coming Thursday to be checked for ulcers. I will be very surprised if he doesn't.

Until then I'm just giving him a short vacation, no point in making him work if he's that uncomfortable.

Gives me time to get back into doing harness work with the ponies!

That said, this has been a test of the mobile blogging application. I hope it works alright.

Cheers!
Emily

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Cash may have ulcers

Saturday morning I got a call from the barn owner, Rosemary, saying that Cash was not feeling well... that he wouldn't touch his grain and was acting lethargic.  Great.  She said she had turned him out into the dry lot with the two Arabians that spend the night out there to see if he'd eat out there instead of in his stall.  Instead he just poked around and "herded" the one mare around.  Then he was laying down, and getting back up, and laying down, and back up... but not rolling.  Weird.

So I asked Rosemary to give him 2g of Bute, saying that I'd get out there as soon as I could.  This was about 8:30am.  By the time I got myself up, the baby fed, me fed, the other kids fed, the cat fed... humanity fed!  Eerr... it was about 10:30 that I got there.

He wasn't rolling, wasn't laying down, but just wasn't right.  He looked a little mopey, but not as lethargic as he'd been before when he 1) had that cellulitis and 2) when he was colicy.  I got him out, checked his vitals, checked his gut sounds, checked him all over for injuries... all good.  He wasn't dehyrated, he had completely downed his hay from the night before and drank his bucket.  Poop in the stall looked normal, fresh poop in the dry lot was nice n' wet and normal.  But he would, not, eat.  At all!  I even walked him over to a patch of green grass and he nosed around like he was interested but wouldn't even attempt to nibble.  So weird.

So, in texting back and forth with my vet I brought up the topic of "what if it's ulcers?" and she just responds "yep."

Gee, thanks!

Anyway, I hung around, rode Candy (which I rode her in my jumping saddle to see if she'd canter better, and she did, good girl!  She is starting to get the idea that what I say is the law, silly mare), and watched him wander over and take several drinks and otherwise look OK.  The bute was surely kicking in by this point.  So I took a handful of grain out to him and he took a nibble but as soon as he got it into his mouth he stopped munching and turned away.  I poked around in his mouth best I could without him biting my fingers off just to make sure he didn't have a stick or something stuck up in there.

After that I called my vet and we chatted for a bit, long story short: she is working with another vet clinic out by Greeley, CO where the vet is wanting to start a study that will be looking to see exactly how many horses actually do have ulcers.  They are also working on developing a new ulcer medicine that is a combination of the active ingredient in UlcerGuard and rantidine.  Cool!

So I told her to sign me up.  We both agreed that based on his little colicy fits over the past year that ulcers are a strong probability.  Especially considering his past as a racehorse.  So pretty much as soon as they get the go-ahead for the study to start Cash will be in on it.  He'll get scoped for ulcers and get a fancy new medicine and it'll cost me waaaaaayy less than what it would normally.  My vet will keep me in the loop and in the mean time I'll cross my fingers that Cash won't have any more silly little episodes like this to freak me out.

Oh, and, happy ending to this story:  I went back to the barn around 5:30pm that evening and the snot greedily snarfed down several handfuls of grain that I gave him then walked off in a huff when I didn't have more.  Yep, thank you Cash.

Cheers,
Emily

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