Saving Crownie

I've been busy.  Not riding.  Trying to save my horse.  My husband's horse.  Crownie.

She hasn't looked "right" for about a year now.  But with my own recovery from illness, I haven't had enough energy to do much more than standard care.  This year, in about April I got more serious though.

First, I ensured her diet was sufficient, and full of the right minerals.  But she did not improve.  Her worming program and teeth were up to date.

Then when she got what looked like an abcess in her eye, I called the vet out.  We looked at everything.  We reviewed her diet.  The vet checked her teeth.  We took bloods.  We took poo samples.  The vet left me with an oinment for her eyes.

Everything came back clear.  The bloods were excellent, except for low protein content.  The poo came back clear - that's right, no worms at all!

The eye ointment helped a bit, but the swelling around the eye remained.

I started reading.  Was it a Gutteral Puch infection?  Could it be Crohn's disease?  Or were her tear ducts simply blocked?

Then I started injecting her with vitamins.  25ml of vitamin C, 10ml of B complex, 10ml of vitamin B12 and 10ml of VAM.  I wanted to inject her with 10ml of B15 (DADA) as well, but this was very hard to get hold of.  That's a lot of needle pricks per day.  And on a poorly muscled horse you soon start running out of neck room.

I also washed out her eyes daily.  The whole routine took me about 1 hour.  I couldn't do it every day, but I did it about 4 to 5 days per week.

At night I paddocked her in the only paddock that has a stable.  And during the daytime I allowed her to graze the fresh, clean grass along the driveway.

After four weeks I called the vet out again.  He looked at her eyes, then started feeling further down her body.  Under her jaw, at her chest, in her groin.  In her groin?!  Panic!  He was checking her lymphatic system.  Finally, he called me over, and asked me to have a feel of a lump on her chest.  A lymph node.  It was enlarged.  Very enlarged.  "I think it's Cancer", he said.

I can't say that I panicked, or felt like crying, or felt gutted.  I had suspected as much.  And so, as much as I have tried, I may not be able to save Crownie.  There is only one way out of life for all of us, and Crownie isn't "young" any more.  She will be 20 in November.  Of course, many horses last longer than that, but she always seemed more fragile.  Even her coat was always softer than that of other horses, much to the delight of people who patted her.

For the time being I'll keep my routine of paddocking and feeding, although I will probably reduce the injections to once per week.  As my horses come back into work, I just won't have the time to do daily injections, and Crownie's a bit sick of them too.

When she is grazing the driveway she has direct access to the shed where I make up the horses' feed.  It is beautiful to be in the shed measuring out oaten and lucerne chaff, and to hear the click click of Crownie's shoes on the gravel as she comes to investigate.  It's priceless to hear her sniff the air as she approaches the shed door, and then to see the soft black nostrils poke gently through the doorway.

Intermittent Lameness

From the very first time I ever rode Lil I had this feeling that if I pushed her really hard (the way I push Dingo), then she would buck me off.  Or at least put in a really solid pigroot.

Now many trainers think I am just chicken.  But I'm not.  I know I am not.  And when I have a gut feeling there is a reason for it.  Finding the reason is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

So I rode Lil with some suspicion and care until one day I went for a trail ride and she pulled up lame.  I couldn't see anything wrong with her leg, but gave her a break.  After four weeks she was sill "stiff" but not lame, and I started riding her again.  But she felt "stiff".  I had trouble doing a 20m circle on her.

Then, after more intensive riding, the lameness returned.  Six weeks break and the lameness was dimished but not totally gone.  You could see the head nodding in trot on the right rein.

Finally I called out the chiropractor.  He adjusted her spine in one spot, and then touched her rib cage just where the girth goes.

"And here is the source of your lameness" he said, as Lil almost ripped his head off.

"There?!!", I gasped thinking he was crazy.  I had expected the spine, the shoulder, the joints, but not the rib cage.  Mind you, if this really is the problem, then it would explain why Lil hates the saddle, and the girth, so much.

"Yep.  There is a muscle here, and if it gets injured it never heals.  You need to treat it with a Faradic machine. Three treatments of 15 minutes each, on three consicutive days should do it.  I've had a 100% success rate so far, and it never re-occurs."

Apparently, the said injury causes different issues in different horses - such as rushing forward, bucking, pigrooting and head tossing.  And a lot of vets fail to find it.

So we made the dates to fix the problem.  I shifted all my other plans so that Lilly's treatment could go ahead, and continued to wonder how many other horses are out there with the same problem, sending their owners mad and possibly broke in the process.  And, how many instructors are there telling their pupils to just "push" the horse through it?

The Chiropractor

Jamie arrives to see Crownie. I haven't seen him for about 8 years. He doesn't seem to smoke any more, but otherwise he hasn't changed much.

He has a good poke around the horse. He presses just behind the wither and the horse tries to walk off. "She's out just behind her wither. That's causing pinching pain down her shoulder." Then he presses a spot on the hind quarters. Crownie's backside dips. "Because of the pinching in her shoulder, she is compensating with her hindquarters, and she's put herself out in the lower back too."

Jamie does some adjustments then rechecks. Crownie stands quietly still as he pokes her in the very same spots that a minute ago caused discomfort.

"Put your hand on the wither", he says. I do. "What do you feel?"

"Heat. But just in here, in this very spot."

"Good. The adjustment causes inflamation. That's what you can feel. That will go away in an hour or two. Then you can ride her."

Jamie also checks her over for arthritis, and gives her a pretty clean bill of health.

Finally, we talk feeding and he suggests adding comfrey to her food, using fresh garlic instead of the sulphur, and adding a nettle and rosehip tea.

Gally's update

The phone rings a smigin past 9am. It's Mark.

"Well, Jamie checked Gally out yesterday afternoon. He was out in his lower back quite badly. Almost kicked and bit a chunk out of Jamie, just as I was coming out to tell him to beware", Mark giggles over the phone. "Turns out he's got a torn muscle too. Will need two to three treatments with the machine, and then we can resume training."

I give Mark the go ahead.

It's a pity that my poor horse was feeling so crook. I had just bought the horse, and was still getting to know him. So it was hard for me to determine what was normal behaviour, and what wasn't.

The good news is, sounds like he is fixable.