Thursday, March 8, 2018

Aimless Updates

Hey guys,

I'm being a terrible blogger again. There's not much to say, at this point, because I haven't ridden in a week (this needs to change) and honestly... once again the fire has gone out. I don't have any competitions on my radar and we got more snow earlier this week so I haven't been hugely motivated to ride. Here are some updates, though, to prove that I'm still alive:

ARYA:

Arya started the Nexium "experiment" last Friday and while she's not in work currently, I have noticed some positive changes. The most noticeable change has been her stall; she's much tidier of late because she seems to be stall walking less. She is, weirdly enough, leaving more hay behind in her net, but I have also moved to feeding higher quality hay outside (and moving to sell some of my lower quality "outside" hay) so she may just be eating more outside. She is finishing her dinner better and has been walking up to me outside a lot more when she was previously giving me the cold shoulder. I haven't gone out to catch her this week due to an outrageous work schedule, but I plan to start bringing her out and get back to work soon. I did get blankets off everyone and groomed them, and while she wasn't perfectly well behaved, she seemed less anxious about me messing with her. Some of her "negative" behavior is OTTB baby - she's just not used to being groomed loose in her stall, and she's still got some ground manners to learn - but I feel like the Nexium has helped take an anxious edge off of her and I'm looking forward to starting to work with her again.



BB:

Bailey has been slowly coming back to work. Her last ride was *super* exciting because some idiot kid came skijoring past my house behind a car going about 40 miles an hour, SCREAMING at the driver to stop. She worked herself up into a good sweat being excited and spooky, but did good hard work for her rather flabby out of shape self, and went back to work well after losing her mind a bit over the exciting interruption.



BIZZY:

A while ago now, I popped up a post and then quickly took it down, intending to put videos in it that actually worked. However, because my life is a dumpster fire, I never got it put back up.

The big, annoying, anxiety causing gist of the post was that Bizzy seemed to be refusing to sleep. I have many videos of her snoozing, appearing to fall in to a deeper sleep and her head and body slumping, and then her front legs buckle and she nearly goes down. This can happen several times in the span of a nap, too.

I've been solutioning the issue, trying to not change too many things at once. I deeply bedded her stall, and tried a week of bute. I did get her to lay down that week, but was worried about extended time on bute and her front left fetlock picked up it's trademark "owie" which she seems to acquire tripping or doing her nearly falling routine. It's hard to know how she gets it when she spends a large portion of her day out of my sight, either in the areas of the paddock I can't see, or I'm not home at all and am unable to keep an eye on her. The next thing I tried was upping her MSM from 10,000 mg to 30,000 mg. There's a thehorse.com study that talks about MSM at that level, and so far, the higher dose of MSM plus putting a Back On Track sheet seems to really be helping.

It doesn't look like she lays down every night, but warmer weather and the BoT sheet seem to really encourage her to lay down. She happily lays down and rolls outside, so I'm not sure why she hesitates to lay down and sleep. It's definitely getting better so fingers crossed I'm on the right track! I can tell her body has taken a beating at some point - she had a pretty lengthy career as a race horse, made some babies, and has been juggled around a fair amount. I am pretty sure she hasn't had decent nutrition - her hooves are a mess, and she's got a very dandruffy coat - and I am pretty sure she wasn't handled nicely at some point, because she's very spooky about having her head petted (though she doesn't flee). She does seem to really benefit from the Back on Track sheet so I am going to try to keep using it as much as I can to help her.

DONKEY:

Kahlua is also not benefiting from my lack of motivation - she is broke to lead (minus donkey moments of refusing to move) and only tried to kick the farrier a little bit - but my plans ot get her loading haven't yet come to fruition. I'd like to utilize a low cost vaccinations clinic coming up in about a month and a half, so loading lessons need to start back up again for all of the beasts, including her.


6 comments:

  1. Second winter is dulling everyone's motivation :( gross. Glad you're noticing some positive changes in both Ayra and Bizzy!

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    1. This weather is so, so gross. I am not thrilled with being up to my knees in snow... again. It needs to melt!

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  2. Regarding Bizzy and the sleep deprivation issues, I have similar with my horse Stampede. He has arthritis in his spine as well as a kissing spines diagnosis and he struggles in the winter. He retired about a year ago now and was on previcox 24/7 for the last year plus of riding and being boarded. He's off it at home now but goes back on for farrier appointments in the winter because he struggles to lift his hind legs. He's completely sound without a rider on no meds.
    I originally thought the sleep deprivation was stall related because it stopped when he came home last May and had the double stall but it returned once the cold weather came. I don't want to give him meds all the time but I may need to next winter. I keep him in the fetlock shields when it's not horribly muddy out to keep away sores (the traditional bed sore boots gave him rubs on his tendons). He has permanent scars but they still break open and bleed if they aren't protected.
    He too can get down and roll just fine and will even flip over. On sunny warm days he naps out in the pasture but in cold dreary weather he does the sleep deprivation thing. He does seem to feel better with more blanket on but it's a double edged sword because the weight of the blanket can make him sore too over longer periods. I do the best I can for him but I can't change the climate of where we live.
    A lot of what I have been able to observe of him at home is because I have a camera in the barn and he usually will do the falling down in my aisle. If you have the ability to put a camera up and randomly check it maybe you can learn more about her behavior.
    Good luck! It's a struggle because he seems happy otherwise (I won't call him healthy because he's always got something going on) and I don't want him to suffer.

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    1. Thank you for responding! I tried to search through your blog when Biz started this, and it helped me decide what to do! I suspect that she, too, has arthritis somewhere. She seems sound and pretty fiery lately (deep snow but not as cold as it's been) and I feel like her extra MSM has really helped, which is a relief because previcox is expensive. I think hers is definitely worse when it's cold, too, which is why I'm so strongly associating the Back On Track sheet with her being more comfortable - it really does seem to help, which holds with my previous uses of it. I used SMBs to let her sore (s - its mostly just one, on her white front leg of course) heal up - what kind of shields do you use? I might invest in some for next year so I can head the owies off, along with blanketing her with her issues in mind and using the Back On Track as much as I can. Winter sucks! I am trying to convince my hubby on cameras, but hes' reluctant so far :( but so far, things seem much brighter. She's just here to be a buddy for the most part so her being happy and sassy is exactly what I need.

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    2. I have these ones http://www.ridingwarehouse.com/Click_Horse_Fetlock_Shield_Protectors_Pair/descpage-CHFS0.html I bet if you look in some of my posted photos you will see them on him. They stay in place nicely and wash up well too.
      I've been tempted to try something like buteless pellets but Stampede is such a picky eater I'm not sure it's worth attempting. The previcox he no longer notices hidden in a nickerdoodle thankfully. I thought about a BOT sheet but knowing most of his issue is bone/arthritis I'm not thinking it would do much for him. I use the BOT socks to keep my feet warm in winter (with another pair of regular socks on top) so maybe just the heat production would be worthwhile though. Not sure. I try to find the line between dumping all my money in him and doing what makes sense, lol. I also spend $100 per tiny tub for "magic goo" from the vet to keep his hind leg crust controlled (it never goes away) so he's expensive enough regularly. He can't help it he's special. :) Glad the MSM seems to be helping some at least for you.
      I've been meaning to do a camera post for a while, the one I have is not that expensive. My husband wants to get a second one so we can see in both stalls all the time, lol.

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  3. I heard a lot of really great things about Absorbine Bute-Less supplement to help manage pain and arthritis. Might be worth a look, and I hope Bizzy feels better soon.

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