Long Road To Recovery for Cody

So, I’ve been really lazy about blogging lately.  Though for the most part, I really just haven’t had much time.  Cody’s knee surgery was three months ago, and……it’s been a long road, getting from there to here (hah, song lyrics, but they fit).  And we have a long road ahead of us.

Outside with Lady day before she went lame.

A couple days after coming home from surgery in November, Cody went three legged lame, refusing to put any weight at all on the leg she had knee surgery on.  And a couple days after that, we found the reason why when one of her incisions started draining nasty bloody yellow stuff like crazy.  Infection had set into one of her incisions.

How or why it got infected, we have no idea.  Infections after this type of surgery are rare, almost unheard of, especially showing up a week after the surgery was actually done.  Not to mention the fact that she was on preventative IV antibiotics both before and after surgery the entire time she was at the MSU vet clinic to prevent any infection from getting in there.  And the day she went three legged lame because the infection was apparently really brewing in there, she still had on the bandage that they sent her home in, per the clinics instructions, so it wasn’t due to leaving a bandage on too long, or being rebandaged in less sterile conditions at home in the barn.  It was just one of those bizarre things.  But then, welcome to my life, if it can happen, it will likely happen to one of my horses.

Resting Cody girl.

But on top of that, joint infections are very bad news to begin with, and the three legged lame part was even worse.  Horses just can’t stand on three legs for very long, before that other leg breaks down, or bows tendons, or laminitis sets in.  Heck, even Barbaro couldn’t beat laminitis, and he had the best vet care available.

But by some miracle, Cody has managed to pull through so far!  They say Thoroughbreds have a lot of heart, and while Cody might be only half Thoroughbred, I’ve seen that “heart” and I’m glad for that Thoroughbred side of her right now.  (And I still say she's part cat, though she’s probably used up another life or two.)  Even my vet keeps saying “she’s amazing, any other horse would have given up long ago”.  I’ve called Cody a pansy in the past, because she’s so thin skinned and sensitive, but I can’t call her that anymore, she is one tough girl!

And thankfully I’ve had an awesome surgeon and regular vet to work with, and they have both been amazing working together on this.  And thankfully Cody has been smart, and taking good care of herself.

View from my bucket while stretching her leg.

So we’ve been through four different antibiotics fighting this.  The first week was three injections a day with two different antibiotics.  I’m getting good with the muscle injections, poor Cody was a pin cushion.  Then we switched over to SMZ tablets twice a day, and a long acting antibiotic injection once a week for five weeks.  She’s still on the SMZ tablets and probably will be for a few more months.  Infection that gets down into the joint and/or bone can apparently take up to six months of antibiotics to get it truly gone.  We’re not taking any chances!

By some miracle, the two joints in her knee above the infected one that she had surgery on managed to stay infection free!!  But the infection did a lot of damage to the joint she had surgery on.  Demineralizing and destroying some of the bone, and destabilizing the joint some.  The x-rays we’ve taken of that joint to track it’s progress are just scary crazy looking!  I’ll try to post them in another blog when I get a chance.  The only good thing to this is, if there was any cartilage left in that joint, the infection has completely destroyed it, basically doing what the surgery did, so if she can pull through this without that other front leg giving out on her, we should get a solid fusion in that joint this time around.

Are you done with my stall yet mom?

I feel just awful that things have gone so wrong, making her recovery all the harder and longer.  But Cody has been such a trooper!!  Not once has she given me any indications that it was too much for her to handle or that she was ready to give up.  And believe me, I’ve been watching closely.  But she’s always been bright eyed and perky.  Friendly and looking for attention or cookies from anyone who stops by her stall.  And thankfully we have a fairly busy barn where I board, so there’s always people and horses to see coming and going or stopping at her stall to visit.  Not once has she really gone off her feed, eating all the grain and hay cubes I can put in front of her.  Pacing herself with her hay so she has hay in front of her to snack on 24/7.  She’s remained in great weight and condition, and even gained some weight, and her coat is just glowing with shine.  She did have some problems with all the bute, when she started getting picky about her grain (though still chowing the haycubes) and started pawing pretty aggressively and having that mildly colicky look.  So we suspect an ulcer having started.  But 8 days of Gastroguard and putting her on Succeed seemed to clear that problem right up in no time.  And since she didn’t seem any more uncomfortable without the bute than she did with the bute, she’s been bute free ever since!

Sweet new no bows!

And so far not a trace of laminitis or tendon strain in that other front leg.  That is truly amazing, unheard of!  I’m so thankful!  And Cody has been very good about taking care of herself, laying down a lot to get off her feet and give her three good legs plenty of rest.  I know it’s usually not good when a horse is laying down a lot, but the vet and surgeon both keep saying “very smart horse!”  And thankfully I have a great farrier to work with too.  We didn’t even try trimming her feet when the infection first set in, she just couldn’t put any weight at all on that leg and there was no getting her other feet up to trim.  By the next trim her feet were getting scary long, but we managed to get three feet trimmed while standing, then waited till she lay down for a rest, and thankfully she let my farrier lean and crawl all over her while she was down to get her good front foot trimmed too.  Hopefully by the next trim, we’ll be able to trim all four feet standing.

Thankfully over the last two months, she has been trying to put some weight on that leg.  Experimentally testing it, stretching it, resting it on the floor flat footed while she eats instead of just resting it on the toe, resting it flat and teetering little bits of weight on it here and there.  We originally wanted to put her knee in a cast or splint, but until she’ll straighten it out and bear some weight on it, we haven’t been able to do either one. 

OMG, is that snow?!?!

But over the last two weeks I’ve seen some definite improvements.  Before if she walked forward she would hunch her back feet as far forward as she could get them, then hurry up and step forward with her good front foot as fast as she could, putting weight on her injured leg for the shortest amount of time possible and slamming her good front foot down hard in her race to step it forward and get off her injured leg.  Not a good idea!  So when I did have to move her in and out of her stall, we did it in reverse.  And eventually started backing up and down the barn aisle a time or two to encourage her to use that injured leg some, without slamming her good front leg around.  By backing up she could move her back feet back, then either brace herself on her hind end and slide both front feet back at the same time (which helped file her feet a bit on the cement floor), or eventually shuffle her front feet back in baby steps that still made her but some weight on her injured leg, but not for too long, and saved wear and tear on her good leg in the process.  So we got pretty good at going places in reverse.

First walk outside in 3 months!

But two weeks ago, I noticed a change.  She’s still not truly standing on it yet. And while she still likes to “put the parking brake on” a lot while she’s standing around, bending her knee and resting the toe, I have noticed her putting the injured leg down flat footed more often both in and out of her stall and putting some weight on it while she’s eating and standing around.  And from the looks of her stall, she seems to be lying down a little less lately.  But she can also walk forward!  She doesn’t have to scrunch her back end up way under herself before she takes a step, and she can put weight on the injured leg a bit longer now in order to step forward with her good foot much more gently and no longer really slamming it around!  It’s a small victory, but after three months of what seemed like little to no improvement, I’ll take it!  So our short trips up and down the barn aisle lately have been in drive instead of reverse!  And we’ve even made it outside on to the driveway a couple of times to go for a short walk out there, or go to a patch of grass to graze, or just to get out of the barn!  Chain over her nose though just to be safe!  Three months in a stall makes her a little bouncy outside, and we don’t need her doing anything stupid!!

So we still have a long road ahead of us, and probably another couple months of stall rest yet.  With the weird weather and the deep mud/frozen rut pastures, I don’t dare put her out any time soon, and not until she’s a whole lot more sure footed anyway!  Here’s keeping my fingers crossed that things continue in the right direction!

Fat and happy Lady!

So how’s Lady?  She’s doing well.  Fat, and happy, and very out of shape!  She’s pretty much been on “vacation” all winter.  Ride?  I’d love to, but there just aren’t enough hours in the day.  With working full time, and heading down to the barn twice a day, morning and night, to feed the girls, and medicate Cody, and clean Cody’s stall, and try to walk Cody a little bit, and redo three standing wraps and a knee bandage every other day or so, riding just isn’t in the picture right now.  But that’s ok.  Lady isn’t really a fan of arena work anyway, and the hard indoor arena surface limits what she can do because of her arthritis.  So Lady can enjoy being lazy for a while yet, then hopefully by the time the weather is nice, Cody will be walking better, and Lady can go back to work helping me pony Cody for her walks.

Cody's Turn

While Lady's had kind of a crazy summer with sunburn and sweet itch, Cody's hasn't been much better either. Things have been pretty up and down with her knee. I'm not entirely sure how successful I would call her knee surgery. She's definitely not rideable sound, and at this point, I have my doubts that she ever will be. But I'm at least hoping for pasture sound, which she seems to be lately, though I'm worried how things will be once cold weather begins to set in, will she be too uncomfortable to make it through winter? I don't know.

At MSU after surgery in December

But this summer she's had her ups and downs. Thankfully more ups as far as lameness than downs. She was hand walking 30 or 40 minutes 3 or 4 days a week ponying out on the trails with Lady and I without much trouble. Once she got warmed up, she seemed to move along pretty well. But Mother Nature kind of spoiled that with a long stretch of 90+ degrees with 100+ heat index. I didn't want to move much in that, let alone make my horses go for a walk in the hot sun. So cool hose downs and maybe a short walk were pretty much the name of the game. Lately, the skeeters will carry you away if you stray too far from the barn.  But even without all the walking, Cody seemed to do ok on her knee. She had a weird week at one point where she was really sore, then seemed to bounce back from it.

A couple weeks ago she came galloping and bucking full speed all the way across the pasture trying to escape one of those B-52 Bomber flies. The last time she pulled a galloping stunt like that this spring, she was three legged lame for days, it took her a week to get back to where she had been as far as lameness. She was so worried about the fly attacking her and trying to get away from it, I wasn't sure if she remembered the gate was coming up fast, let alone be able to stop in time, I'm just picturing the wreck about to happen. This is Cody after all, and "disaster" seems to be her middle name. And sure enough, her head pops up, her ears fly forward, and that look of "Oh sh*t!" crosses her face as she realizes with the fence on one side and Lady galloping along on the other side, there's no where to go but straight into the gate. Somehow she managed to execute a sliding stop that would have been the envy of any reining horse and brought new meaning to the term "draggin' ass", and only bumped her nose on the gate. And sure enough, she was three legged lame from her antics (but she did get away from that fly and managed not to crash). Oh Cody. But thankfully she seemed to walk it off after a few steps, and an hour later, was pretty much back to her "normal" level of lameness. So that there is progress. Small victories.

She is due for x-rays again. The last ones were back in April I believe. But instead of having my regular vet do the x-rays again, I decided to take her back to MSU to see the surgeon this time. Since Cody seems to be the first successful failure of this surgery, I really wanted Dr. Caron to see her again and get his thoughts, what went wrong, has the joint healed like it should have, see if maybe there's something more than just the knee adding to her lameness, what more can I do for her to try to keep her as comfortable as possible to be a retired pasture pet, especially with cold weather a few months away. Thankfully I do have options still to try, such as daily bute or a different devil's claw and yucca supplement, joint injections to the other two joints in that knee, Adequan or Legend injections, maybe one of the magnetic/ceramic knee wraps, she'd probably benefit from seeing a chiropractor.

So she was supposed to go in to MSU on Tuesday this week, I couldn't wait to see new x-rays and see what Dr. Caron thought. Especially since last week, she started getting really lame again. Good thing she's going to MSU on Tuesday. It kept getting worse, by Saturday she was three legged lame, it took her forever to walk across the pasture to come in for dinner. I cleaned out her foot, and that seemed fine, no rocks or anything stuck in there. I couldn't find any heat or swelling in her knee, but she wanted no part of walking on it. I was just sick and heart broken, her knee was giving out, just like Wayne's did. I went home in tears. Sunday she was marginally better, at least walking on it, but still horribly lame.

But when I went to pick up her foot to clean it out, I discovered a tiny weeping sore at the front of her foot on the coronet band! She blew out an abscess! No wonder she'd been so lame lately! I feel awful, and feel like an idiot, I never even thought to check for an abscess (yes, I clean and handle her feet daily, but I always have gloves on about 90% of the time that I'm handling my horses since a few years ago my body decided it was allergic to horse dander, so I totally missed the heat in her foot)! I just assumed it was her knee getting worse. But I have never been so happy in my life to have a horse with an abscess. An abscess is far more treatable than a knee giving out. And after a good cleaning and soaking, sure enough, there was the tiny pinhead sized black hole in her whiteline on the bottom of her foot where everything started. Poor girl!

This is the first abscess I've had to deal with on one of my own horses. So I called my farrier, because I know he's really good with abscesses, there are some vets that call him to come and dig out abscesses for them. Since it had already blown out the coronet band, he probably didn't need to come dig this one out, at this point it should drain itself pretty well, so soak it twice a day to help draw everything out and call him in 2 days with a progress report, or sooner if it starts building heat again or she goes dead lame again and he'll come right down. And blow out an abscess she did. What started out as a tiny hole in her coronet band about as big around as the end of my little finger turned into about an inch and a half weeping sore by Monday night. Ouch!

But so far so good soaking twice a day. At least it's not oozing any more, still pretty angry looking, but not draining. And she's walking better, but still a little ouchy, but I'm not sure if it's because of the foot, or the knee, or both, with the knee problem added in the mix, it's hard to tell. And thankfully in a better mood the last few days, Monday night while crouching down to work on that foot, I felt the careful warning scrape of teeth across the top of my ballcap letting me know how she felt about the situation, along with several dirty looks. Yesterday the heat was finally gone in her hoof wall, but still some heat right at the coronet band, so my farrier said soak her a couple more days till the heat was gone there too to make sure we get rid of any infection. I also took pictures of it and emailed them to him. He said it looked like your typical abscess and looked to be starting to heal fine, just keep an eye on it and keep him posted.  Tonight the heat in the coronet band was finally gone.

So it's been a long week. Every morning has pretty much gone something like this (and repeated every evening):

• 5:30 am - crawl out of bed
• 5:45 am - stumble to truck, hot water and breakfast in hand
• 5:47 am - eat breakfast on way to barn
• 5:52 am - arrive at barn
• 5:53 am - sweet barn kitty demands to be fed
• 5:54 am - furkids demand to be fed, Cody's pawing, Lady's weaving
• 5:55 am - both nickering at me "Feed the starving ponies!"
• 5:56 am - breakfast shortly, hold your horses!
• 6:00 am - one foot soaking

Needless to say, I am thoroughly exhausted after this week, and about to go fall in bed for the night!
 
As for the MSU knee checkup, well, we rescheduled. There's no point in taking her in for a knee checkup if she's lame on that foot from an abscess. So we'll get her foot healed up, and then hopefully we can get a better idea of where she's at with her knee, or if there's something else in the foot that's adding to the problem. 

So the MSU trip will be in two weeks. And the furkids and I will keep trudging our way through this crazy summer.

Happy barn kitty!

Lady, Where Is Your Brain Today?

Lady definitely had a not so typical Lady kind of day yesterday. Yes, even the most quiet steady eddie has one of those days from time to time. Thankfully for Lady, they are usually few and far between, maybe one or two a year, but yesterday was definitely one of them. Not really sure why, but I think she checked her brain at the arena door and picked it up on the way out.

Saddled her up yesterday and headed to the indoor arena with both of my girls. I usually take Cody with us and tie her up along the wall while I work Lady. Good tying and patience practice for Cody, she used to be a bad puller and a very impatient horse when tied, usually standing there digging to China the whole time. She's gotten MUCH better over the years, but still, might as well kill two birds with one stone and train both girls at the same time. It usually draws some odd questions or comments from newer boarders that aren't used to me doing this. I mean, why on earth would you tie your lame unridable just had knee surgery horse up in the arena while you ride the sound one? I usually just shrug and say "Moral support for Lady."


Fall 2010

But anywho, we made it to the indoor arena and tied Cody in her usual spot, then walked over to close the monster heavy overhead door that usually requires my entire 125 pounds hanging off it to eventually get it pulled down. Lady's bug eyed stare and steps backward as I wrestled with the overhead door should have been my first indication that she'd checked her brain at the door. Score a point for my mecate reins, Lady was able to take a couple steps back to a "safe distance" and I still had plenty of lead line draped over my arm in case she did decide to take off so I could continue wrestling with the door, which was particularly stubborn yesterday.

Door finally closed, I discovered someone had left a jump set up kind of close to the wall. No biggie, but I decided to move it so I could work on the rail without having to squeeze between jump and wall and risk getting my knees banged into something every time I went by. So lead line draped over my arm, I set the rails down on the ground. Lady took a step back. I picked up one of the jump standards to carry it out of the way, and Lady freaked. Big snort, eyes wide, flying backwards several steps. Another point for the mecate reins, Lady retreated to a safe distance and I still had ahold of her and the jump standard. And it's obvious now that Lady is definitely having one of those really rare off days, because I can't count the number of times I have picked up and/or dragged those jump standards around to move them out of the way with her lead line just draped over my arm or shoulder because they require two hands to move, and Lady following along behind me like a half asleep puppy dog. And while she did follow along behind me, it was at a very bug eyed distance, making full use of that 12 foot of mecate lead line, no half asleep puppy dog yesterday!

One standard moved, and we go get the second one, and same reaction when I picked it up. Ok, I should probably desensitize her to it at this point, but those standards are way too blasted heavy to stand there picking them up over and over to desensitize my horse, and I realize Lady is just having one of those rare off days, she'll most likely be over it and be back to her old self next time I have to do this, like she normally does when she has a bad day, but if she's not, I'll worry about it then rather than throwing my back out lifting these heavy things when it probably won't even phase her on any other day. Pick your battles.


Winter 2006

So standards moved, and we headed back to move the rails, which I decided to leave down as ground poles along the wall for her to walk and trot over. I picked one pole up to move it where I want it, and Lady spooks. I picked the other pole up and moved it, and Lady spooks. This could be an interesting ride. I walked Lady up to one of the poles and she's watching it wearily, and as soon as her front feet get about a foot away from it, her eyes go wide, and she's rocked back on her haunches and shifting lightly on her front feet, standing there like a cutting horse waiting for a cow to move. Ok Lady, now this is getting a bit silly. Eventually she reaches down to sniff it, snorting at it loudly, and when her snorting blew dirt on it, she went flying backwards again. OMG, it made a noise!!! Well, good thing I didn't get out the tarp to work with like I had considered doing, that would have really blown her mind!

Ok, time to pull out the Clinton Anderson groundwork and get her using the thinking side of her brain! And score another point for the mecate reins, I don't need to go get a lunge line out of the barn, because I already have a 12 foot one in my hand! So we work on lunging for respect and the sending exercise over the ground poles. At first she was stopping wide eyed in front of the pole every time, then jumping over it, then she'd finally keep going, but would still jump over it, eventually she was finally tip toeing over them, making sure to lift her feet extra high.

Eventually she pretty well clamed down about the ground poles, thinking rather than reacting, but I noticed she looked a little foot sore on her front feet. Lady's feet grow like wild fire between trimmings, even in the winter, so my farrier always has to trim her a little on the short side when he does her feet to prevent her from getting just way too long and out of balance between trimmings, and when she doesn't have shoes on in the winter, she can be a little tender footed for a couple days if I don't use her easy boots. She did just get her feet trimmed on Thursday, and I thought she would be ok without her boots, but apparently I was wrong, and her easy boots were down in the barn. Score yet another point for the mecate reins, because there is a certain way you can loop and tie them so that they become a neck rope that won't pull on the bit if the horse pulls back, and enables you to safely tie your horse with a bridle on. So mecate rigged up for tying, I tied Lady to the wall next to Cody and headed off to the barn to get her easy boots, grumbling the whole way because, in my opinion, easy boots are anything but easy to put on, but I haven't found any other boots that work on her feet without rubbing her raw.

As I returned to the arena with "easy" boots in hand and the tools required to up them on with (hoof pick and nylon strap), I started talking to let the girls know I'm coming, because Cody tends to spook if the people door suddenly flies open unexpectedly. Well, this time it was Lady who did the spook in place and bug eyed stare when the door opened, while Cody merely shifted her head to look then went back to her nap, one back foot still cocked. Maybe Cody's holding Lady's brain for her today?

Ten minutes and a few curse words later, and Lady was finally sporting her easy boot epics on her front feet and looking more comfortable as she moved. But in the time it had taken to retrieve her boots and put them on, and get on her back, the ground poles had apparently grown teeth again. Seriously, Lady?!? Score still another point for the mecate reins as back down to the ground I go, unlooping the lead line from the saddle horn, and back to the groundwork we went.

Summer 2004

Eventually I got back on her, and had a decent short little ride, though she was still a little extra attentive of those ground poles every time we went over them, but she kept her theatrics in check. Even still, I didn't do too much with her in the saddle. Mainly some flexing, some collecting at the walk and trot, some backing (as long as we weren't backing too close in the direction of those evil ground poles, then her feet got a little glued to the ground), and trotted some of the clover leaf pattern. But her brain obviously wasn't there yesterday, so wasn't much point in doing too much with her, she'd already worked quite a bit on the ground, and I do have to be careful of the arthritis in her hocks, she's not a spring chicken anymore.

So again standing at a bug eyed distance as I rolled my eyes at her and wrestled and grunted to open the overhead door, we collected Cody and headed for the barn. And I guess she found her brain again upon exiting the arena, because she was back to her old self in the barn, standing there half asleep, back leg cocked as I unsaddled, took off her polos and put her blanket back on. So I guess it was just one of those odd days for Lady. I hope so anyway, since she has a riding lesson to give tonight!

Oh Lady, you're such a silly girl sometimes!

Cold Outside?

Is it cold outside? 

According to Lady, that would be a Yes!!  At a whole whopping 9 degrees out Thursday morning, Lady had a rather frosty muzzle!  And she wasn't the only one around the farm with a little frost on the whiskers.  Burr!!! 

Of course Cody was frost free in her stall in the barn.  And of course it's 9 degrees out the morning my farrier was coming.  But thankfully the main barn is insulated, so it does stay a little warmer in there than it does outside, and after having four horses in there all night to warm it up with their body heat, the barn was close to 30 inside, so the farrier appointment wasn't so bad. 

I'm so glad they got trimmed though.  Cody's feet weren't too bad, but Lady's feet grow like weeds, even in the dead of winter, and with her hoof walls a little on the long side, she was getting some serious snowballs in her feet!!!

Riders Rasp

So I saw the Riders Rasp Trail at TSC today while getting hay cubes for Wayne, and made in impulse buy!

Cody's front feet have been driving me nuts.  I pulled her shoes last trimming since I can't ride her anymore, and her feet are of course cracking as the nail holes grow out. 

But I can't work a regular rasp to save my life.  I'm just not strong enough and way too uncoordinated to work one of those.  I leave that to my farrier!  But my next farrier appointment is still three weeks away, and I'd really rather not let her feet chip and crack all to pieces as they continue to grow.

So I decided to try the Riders Rasp (been debating on ordering one for a long time now), and glad I did!  Definitely a very handy tool!  Got the hang of it pretty quick right handed, still clumsy as heck with it left handed, but I managed.  Definitely a workout, and makes me appreciate my farrier all the more, and made me realize Cody needs a slight manners refresher before my next appointment.  Naughty girl. 

But a little hard work and lots of sweat later, and all four feet are nicely filed and much less likely to crack all to pieces before my farrier comes out again!  Definitely glad I bought it!  Will have to see what I can do with the flares trying to start on Lady's back feet, and check out Wayne's feet, but another time.  One horse is enough for one day in 90 degree weather! 

Only disappointment with the Riders Rasp Trail is the blades don't appear to be replaceable on this version, but this will work for now, and whenever it finally goes dull, I'll invest in the original with the changeable blades.  But otherwise, I think it will be a handy hoof tool to have around the barn!  Right up there with my hoof knife and soaking boots!