Unconfirmed

Spring's vet appointment at the University was scheduled for this past Monday.  The Monday before, I was involved in a pasture accident while working a feed shift at the barn - a storm came up out of nowhere and the horse I was trying to bring in lost his mind and landed on the middle of my foot.  I've been in an air cast ever since, though I got clearance from my doctor to start weaning off of it.

at least I got to use my ice boots for something useful?

Bright and early this past Monday morning I met my friend E at the therapeutic riding center to pick up a trailer.  Because Spring had been so adamant about not getting on E's trailer the last time we tried to load her, we thought that KG's more open, stock-style trailer might be more inviting for the mare and less of a headache for us.  We headed to CEC and began the process of attempting to get my horse to load. At this point I noticed that she had thrown a front shoe sometime between Saturday and Monday.  Because of course she had.

circus horse in training

Unfortunately, Spring was just as unhappy about the open trailer as she had been about E's, which ruled out the theory that she was objecting to the narrow entry created by E's rear tack room.  Spring has even been on this trailer before - KG hauled her to CEC for me when I bought her.  I am definitely going to plan some loading sessions in the future (it's just hard when I don't actually have my own trailer).  It took us 30 minutes to get her on, and involved a lunge whip, many circles, many treats, and eventually me opening the escape door and sticking my head in while E and another friend called E worked on the horse.  For whatever reason, seeing me at the end of the trailer encouraged Spring to hop right on like she hadn't a care in the world.  Horses.

not pictured: screaming for all the friends she was leaving behind

Spring hauled reasonably well and unloaded very well.  E let her turn around to get off the trailer because at that point neither of us wanted to deal with another meltdown.  Once she was on the ground she screamed a few times and got in some power walking while we waited for the vet students to come for us.

accurate depiction of Spring's ~feelings~ about how her day was going

She was fine walking into the vet hospital and stood nicely for her weigh-in.  She's up to 1016 lbs which is great, and her temperature was normal.  Our assigned vet student asked me a ton of questions - what she eats, what issues we'd been having, etc., and then they headed to an exam room to get her set up for the lameness locator.

her forelock is too massive to be contained by the tiny hat

butt sensor

She was relatively quiet while the students applied the sensors to her pelvic area and front right leg (which just happened to be the one missing a shoe), and was surprisingly nonchalant about the addition of the hat.  She also did not particularly want to stand still and screamed a few times while they waited for her main vet, Dr. Keegan, to come in.  Dr. Keegan is the same vet that did Leo's lameness assessment last year.  Once he arrived they took her to the little indoor/concrete hallway area where the lameness exams take place, and set up the computers that run the Lameness Locator program. 

standing still is hard

Spring was walked up and down the concrete aisle several times to establish a baseline, then trotted several times.  She was placed on the lunge line and trotted in both directions for ~5 minutes each way and then asked to canter each way.  The locator showed a mild lameness in the RF from the missing shoe (which was expected) and a very slight lameness in the RH; Dr. Keegan said that he was unable to see it at the walk or trot, and that her canter reminded him of a horse that was tied up.  He had to go teach a lecture but ordered x-rays of her RH to rule out hind end issues and bloodwork to look for issues with her muscle enzymes and to check her blood counts.  I left at this point because I was exhausted and needed to refuel.  I came back about an hour later just as they were hooking her back up to the lameness locator.  Dr. Keegan wanted to block the RF to see if the hind end readings changed at all, although her hock was clean on the x-ray.  

drunk bb

She was lightly sedated at this point from the x-rays and was acting much more like her old sleepy puppy self.  The locator showed that the lameness switched from RF to LF with the block, so Dr. Keegan decided to block the LF as well.  With both front feet blocked, her canter showed some improvement.  Next came a very thorough physical examination of Spring from top to bottom.  Her legs, back, SI area, and neck were all thoroughly manipulated and palpated, and the only signs of pain offered were when he got close to her rear abdominal area (which is normal for her).  At this point ovarian tumors were put back on the table, and he decided to do a rectal examination.  He felt that Dr. B from the other vet clinic may have missed something, and while performing the exam felt that her left ovary was enlarged and misshapen.  An ultrasound was ordered along with x-rays of her RF.

I think this was right before they sedated her a second time - she was getting annoyed

Dr. Keegan strongly felt that she had a granulosa cell tumor developing on her ovaries.  While we waited for the repro specialist to join us, the x-rays of her RF were assessed and I was brought back to the computer room to go over them.  Since they hadn't asked me to look at the hock x-rays they'd taken earlier, I assumed this meant that they had found something in her feet.  And they had - mild navicular changes, early stage.  Easily addressed with corrective shoeing and a course of firocoxib/previcox/equiox.  Dr. Keegan did not think that the feet were enough of an issue to cause Spring's behavioral changes, or the rearing.  He sent the rads to my phone so that I could pass them along to my farrier, and my farrier and I made a plan to put wedges on Spring on Thursday.

at least she's shiny?

The ultrasound showed that Spring was currently in estrus and had recently ovulated, which completely ruled out any ovarian tumors.  Her kidneys were checked for stones, and they were fine as well.  The repro vet commented that she had the perfect set of lady parts for breeding, which I guess is good to know.  We discussed her behavioral changes with the repro vet to see if regu-mate could help; she didn't think that the problem was repro related, but recommended trying a month of progesterone shots if the navicular shoeing/meds didn't help.  

I just really like this picture.

So.  Dr. Keegan doesn't think that the navicular is actually the problem, and Repro Vet doesn't think the problem is repro related.  (Trainer K and I talked and we both feel that they are correct).  However, those two things are relatively easy to address and are pretty inexpensive, so our current plan is to rule them out by treating them.  If 30 days of fancy shoes and firocoxib doesn't make a huge difference, she'll go on 30 days of weekly progesterone shots.  If that doesn't help, she'll go back to the University.  This time they'll be looking for Lyme (which is, fortunately, extremely rare in MO), EPM, self mutilation syndrome, and cranial nerve neuritis. In the meantime I'm supposed to try and work her at least once a day, possibly twice.  And I'm supposed to ride her again as soon as my foot is back to normal (I rode tonight for the first time but it was pretty painful).  

when your mare's face mirrors your own feelings exactly

I read the vet report tonight and was pretty disheartened to see in writing that they really, really don't think navicular is the answer.  Kissing Spine, SI problems, muscle disorders, repro disorders (aside from general mare-in-heat bitchiness), opthamalogic problems (she does have moon blindness in one eye (which I already knew) but it isn't the issue), hock problems, and stifle problems were all ruled out.  Saddle fit was never brought to the table because she hasn't been ridden in so long, but I'm planning to have a fitter out sometime soon because she has changed shape so much since I got her.  I guess at least we know for sure what it isn't now (and at least I didn't randomly inject her perfectly healthy hocks), but it sucks to not have a definitive solution. 

For anyone that's super interested in more 'official' details of Spring's vet visit, I have a PDF of her (3 page) discharge summary and x-rays and am more than happy to share them via e-mail - just let me know if you want to take a peek.