Not Quite Yet

My Vet Sees Chance

Dr. Klayman came today to see Chance after his shoeing.

Good news, bad news, again.

The good news is that the shoes definitely helped. Chance was not limping during lunging. But the bad news is that he also is not striding out as he should. As he worked a bit, he did get better, but just is a bit on the "short" side with his gait.

So we are not yet 100% happy.

We did draw blood for a Lymes test, and the results could be back by the end of the week.  Meantime, things are on hold.

If the test comes back positive, of course, then we will treat him for that. If not, I will try a course of bute and some work. The idea is to get his muscles working properly again.

This does make some sense to me now, especially after my own layup for my broken hip bone.  Muscles in my body that have not worked properly for just a couple months need to be reconditioned to work at full capacity.

Chance has been off and on lame since late fall. As I noted, all winter, due to the frozen ground and miserable snow and ice, he really hasn't used his body properly for quite a while. Then, once the ground improved he developed the more obvious lameness issues we've been dealing with.

Like me, I would suspect he really does need a course of physical therapy to regain his former "way of going."  I guess as a plan of action it's about as good as any at this point.

Once again, it's a waiting game.

I'm pretty sure I am just about ready to ride again anyhow. Over the last few days the bulk of the pain is going from my hip. I'm not sure why, although I have been doing some serious barn work over the last couple days. I finally cleaned out the run in shed on Chance's side of the barn. All the manure had stacked up in there over the winter months and frozen solid. When it thawed, it was laid up with my hip, so it was neglected. Sunday and Monday, the weather was gorgeous here so I started cleaning. Eventually, I used the tractor to make shorter work of the job, but it still required a lot of hand forking to get the nooks and crannies clean.

At this rate, I'll be fit all over.  Who needs physical therapy when you have a barn and horses?