Seek and You Shall Find

We have arrived.

So, I couldn't take it anymore. My horse was still hurting and I had no idea why. I wanted to say she bruised her feets, but I really didn't think that was all of it. We had come through a lot with those feets, but something just didn't feel right. So I called our equine hospital to set up an appointment for Friday. And it was the right choice.

Flexing.

Lindsey was kind enough to lend her rig, and Aimee was kind enough to drive it to me and take us to the hospital. I tried to remain calm and tried to thin positive if I was going to thin anything at all. Of course, it was raining quite a bit when we got there and performed the initial lameness exam. We trotted her on the pavement in both directions, away and back, and lunged her in the covered sand arena. She was significantly better in the sand, which confirmed the theory in the vet's mind about it being joint related. We put in a block in the foot, and trotted her on the pavement again. I cringed as I watched Bacon have noooo respect for the tech holding her. But, she was quite a bit better with the block, about 80%. We brought her back inside, her muscles quivering with nervousness, blocked a little higher and tried again. Success.

Putting in the block. Way to make your neck look unattractive there, mare. And the hinds legs.

I dislike you, woman.

At some point, the tech got switched out, and Bacon appreciated the second one more. The nice vet asked if we could pull her shoe to take radiographs, and of course, I obliged. Bacon also get herself some drugs at this point. We pulled the shoe and shot several radiographs of the right front. Another vet was passing through, and my vet (Dr. W) called him over. They discussed what they saw, said maybe a curse word, and then called me over. The other vet grabbed a hoof diagram and explained what they were seeing.

Repacking the foot for better radiographs. I am holding the precious.

"Your horse has kind of an odd and rare condition called Bipartite Navicular." Well, alright then. He showed me on the radiograph how her navicular bone is separated into two different halves instead of one nice, smooth bone. She probably jostled them a bit and created herself a nice area of inflammation and making herself rather uncomfortable. He also found some effusion in the coffin joint. He was curious about the other front foot, so I allowed them to pull that show too and radiograph that foot. It had a normal navicular bone, but did have some effusion in that coffin joint as well. Don't worry, I will share the xrays when I receive them!

We have the same look on our face.

He was not concerned about her hind limbs at all, nor her ugly knee. I had shared the images of her feet earlier, and he was quite happy with the way they look now. Nice healthy soles and frogs. Her wall was a little uneven in the insides of her feet, so he suggests the farrier take them down about 1/4" when she gets reset. But continue shoeing as we have been. He stated he didn't really like pads (neither do I) but he was amazed at how well she had done with them. Next, it was treatment for our little area of concern.

Drugs.

He asked if he could inject her navicular bursa (sac around her navicular bones) with HA and a steroid to help heal the inflammation surrounding that area and her coffin joint (since it is all related). He poked her and showed me all of the fluid draining from extra inflammation in the coffin joint and her body's way to responding to it. Also, at some point during all of this, the horse receiving surgery next door was finished and wheeled into our giant room. There were two padded recovery rooms in with us. Aimee and I were amazed (we have never seen this happen in person before), and I am not quite sure what Bacon thought. The horse was lifted by the legs from a contraption on the ceiling (very loud) and slowly moved into the room. So, Bacon stared, confused, at the floating upside down horse. I am glad she had drugs.

Ummm, what am I looking at? Should we run?

After inserting the needle, they took one more radiograph to make sure it was in the right spot, and inserted the goods. They had to go through a tendon and into the foot. Poor Bacy. The vet wasn't too concerned with her left foot, but suggested we inject her to help her coffin joint out if I thought she might need it. I am glad Aimee was there to ask all sorts of important questions, because I was kind of dazed. He said he had a lot of hope that we would just return to doing what we have been doing and be well on our way. We may need to poke her there with drugs every once in a while, or we may not. He did not think this would affect her career at all and that I shouldn't be worried. If there were issues, we had a lot more tools in the toolbox to use.

Mother, HALP.

I was ordered to give her four days rest with bute, and then ride her as normal. The drugs should take effect within 3-4 days, and fully working by day 10. I was happy that I brought her in. There is no way I would have known that was what was going on. And it makes sense if I look back in history too. Since it is congenital, she was born with it. But, I still struggle with thinking that this was mostly caused by me. With her sudden lameness back in 2012, after I had had her for several months, she probably did something stupid in the pasture to really anger it. After it healed, she was good to go all through 2014. Year 2015 was the battle with thrush, and the lack of frogs made her go toe first for soo long (all my fault there), which probably started the coffin joint issues and aggravated the BN. And perhaps the coffin joints are still angry this year, and of course, I angered the BN again.

Should be purple.

I am still trying to wrap my head around all of this. I am doing my best to not google any of it, because I am sure I would just focus on all of the bad information out there. I will ride the pony and see what I have. One step at a time. Aspen and the Karen O'Conner clinic are certainly up in the air, but Bacon is more important than any of that. If she isn't comfortable, then we will scratch and pick a different event for the future. Though it stinks, it is better than all of the other alternative bad things I had in my mind. Hopefully it all works out for the best!

Home at last.