No Stiches, No Shoes, No Stall Rest

Long time, no post!

Kwik had his sutures removed at the end of August and that meant NO MORE STALL REST!!! I honestly thought two weeks of stall rest would drive him absolutely bananas, but he handled it pretty well. The first couple of days he seemed on edge during the hand walks, but he figured out the new routine quickly and settled in just fine. I decided to put him on Ulcerguard to protect his tummy throughout his bute regimen, and (knock on wood) he didn't have any problems. He was also due for new shoes and my vet and farrier decided the best thing to do would be to pull his shoes and allow him to go barefoot during his layup. He's doing quite well without shoes, and the extra week of stall rest gave him some time to adjust before turnout. After two weeks of turnout in our small medical paddock, he will go back out in his pasture with Sky tonight. Hopefully any residual foot soreness with deter him from running around like an idiot!

I've definitely been a busy lady in the meantime. Adam and I joined three friends for a backpacking trip on Cumberland Island, GA. It was my very first backpacking trip, and it was amazing! We hiked 4 miles to a back country campsite the first day and spent the afternoon on the most incredible, pristine beach. The next day we hiked 4.5 miles to Plum Orchard Mansion, built by the Carnegie family circa 1900. The mansion was absolutely incredible- it even had an indoor heated swimming pool! After picnicking on the side porch of Plum Orchard we hiked 6.5 miles to the island's Sea Camp. The next morning we hiked up to the Dungeness Ruins to catch a glimpse of the island's main attraction- wild horses!! They weren't phased in the least by our presence, and I was able to get close enough to snap some great pictures!

On the boat in St. Mary's- we're ready for our adventure!

Beautiful salt marshes

Horseshoe crabs

Reindeer moss

Plum Orchard Mansion

Indoor heated swimming pool

Dungeness Ruins

Curious stallion!

Spanish moss everywhere- beautiful!

Where Have All the Drugs Gone?

Okay that sounds bad, but seriously, where have they gone?!? I put Kwik on Pentosan for several reasons:

1. My vet uses it A LOT and has had A LOT of success with it

2. It's cheaper than Adequan

3. Adequan's manufacturing facility is closed for renovations to address FDA observations (what exactly did the FDA observe?!?!) and to meet enhanced quality standards. This means there is an Adequan shortage and I couldn't get it right now even if I wanted it.

I called my vet's office to pay my bill and asked about ordering another bottle of Pentosan since I'm about 2 doses away from empty, and apparently there is now a Pentosan shortage as well. I'm thinking many people couldn't get their Adequan and decided to switch over to Pentosan. I'm waiting to hear more about this new shortage from my vet, but if I can't get Pentosan (which really seems to be working for Kwik), I'll have to think about trying something else in the meantime. Sigh..

It's good to be back home. Adam and I had a really good time in Florida, but I was ready by the end to get back to my puppies and my pony! I imagined a glorious reunion, but Kwik was eating dinner when I arrived and nothing would divert his attention. I decided to put him on the longe just in case he was a wild child after his 10 day vacay, but it was hot and he was lazy. I did manage to get him to trot a few circles with some energy, and then I asked him to canter. He crow hopped for a few strides, cantered normally for a few strides, and then broke to a trot. Same deal the other direction. Son of a B! While I didn't think the hock injections, Pentosan, and time off would magically cure him, I was hoping to see some improvement at the canter. I have a few thoughts on this:

1. He hadn't been worked for 10 days- don't worry about it.

2. He's been overcompensating for his ouchy hocks and has somehow jacked up his back as a result. Maybe he's due for a chiro sesh.

3. He's still not balanced enough and doesn't have the proper muscling for canter work (although he was going great at the canter in April/May...). More work on the ground on the longe and in side reins to develop balance and muscle will help him figure himself out at the canter.

4. Maybe a combination of all of the above?

I just don't know! On the bright side, he was great on our little trail ride yesterday!




Cantering is hard!

We Ride!

Kwik got the remainder of Monday and all of Tuesday off to get used to life without staples, and we went back to work on Wednesday. I don't really want to do a lot of lunge work in the next couple of weeks- no sense in putting added stress on his already stiff joints, but I figured it would be in my best interest to do a little round pen work before getting on a horse that hasn't been worked in three weeks. We did a little walk/trot free lunging, and he looked good for the most part. Its not like he had developed a ton of muscle before his accident, but he has definitely lost whatever he did have. He did, however, look very happy to be back to work. I got on for some stretchy walk work, and he definitely felt stiff. We did serpentines, changes across the diagonal, and some leg yields to try and loosen everything up, and he may have felt a little better towards the end.

We got a ton of rain the remainder of the week, and the ground was really sloppy this weekend. I was hoping it would be dry enough to do a little bit of lunging, but the footing was way too deep to ride, let alone lunge. P was teaching a lesson in the little grass dressage arena and offered to share with us. Kwik was nowhere near as stiff as he was on Wednesday, and he felt great after about ten minutes of walking. I did a tiny bit of trot work as well, and he felt good!

My plan for the week is as follows:

Tuesday: Continue stretchy walk work in the arena, ~20 minutes. 5 minutes of trot work. End with short paddock loop trail.

Wednesday: Arena warm-up: walking, 6 minutes trot work. End with 10 minutes walking hills outside of the arena.

Thursday: Arena warm-up: walking, 7 minutes trot work. Walking hills 10 minutes. End with short trail.

Saturday/Sunday: Off! Happy Easter!

I'll increase the trot work little by little over this week and next until we are back to our regularly scheduled program. Hopefully the hill walking will help build back the muscle that was lost and increase his fitness at the same time. I'll start bringing back our lunging with side reins in the third week. I'm hoping to schedule a trail riding session with Ann for sometime during the first week of April. If all goes well, maybe we can incorporate some more trail riding in our routine as well.

No More Staples!

Kwik got his staples out this morning! Dr. P decided to sedate him since he had so many (12), and everything went really well. The best part: I can start riding him! Dr. P says he can immediately get started back into work. We'll take things slowly with some light work in the roundpen, walking under saddle, and maybe a little trot for the first couple of days to see how he feels, and then we'll gradually work back to our program. After the sedative wore off, I turned him out with his good buddy Skye, and Kwik rejoiced in his new found freedom. I got some video:

By the looks of things, I don't think it will be long at all until we're back in business!

Love that pony face!

Recovery Part 2



Ceftiofur. Hello again O-chem.

 Thank goodness, Kwik is back to his normal self again! I called to him Wednesday as I walked into the barn like I normally do, and when he looked up from his hay, I could tell immediately that he felt 1,000,000 times better. We went for a hand graze in the remaining sunlight, and he was sound again, the swelling at the injection site had gone down drastically, and he was back to taking his grazing very seriously. I gave him a good grooming, and then I went home and had my first worry-free sleep in almost a week. Kaptain Kwik gets his staples
out on Monday, and I can start bringing him slowly back to work afterwards. Bliss!

On a side note, I did some research on Excede. Excede is a sterile suspension formulation of ceftiofur, an antibiotic that is effective against both gram positive and gram negative bacteria. It is a sustained-release antiobiotic acting over 5 days given IM four days apart in 2 doses (as opposed to 10 daily doses of a comparative antibiotic). Exede is FDA approved, and adverse side effects include swelling at the injection site and diarrhea or loose stool. I also did some forum hunting, and there were some pretty scary accounts of more serious side effects, including laminitis, antibiotic-induced colitis, and death. As a microbiologist who deals with highly drug resistant bugs and "big gun" antibiotics, I'm aware that adverse reactions are a possibility when using any drug, albeit rare. I'm not about to swear off using Excede forever, but I do think its a great opportunity to have a conversation with my vet to better understand the array of antiobiotic options available for treating horses. What are your experiences with equine antibiotics?

Recovery Part. 1

 It was so wonderful to see Kwik bright-eyed and perky when I went out to the barn Saturday afternoon. I checked his bandages, added a little more Elasticon wrap to his hoof bandage, and then we went for a little hand graze. He was definitely happy to be out of his stall! Adam came out with me on Sunday, and he stuffed Kwik full of carrots and even helped out with the hand grazing!

Dr. P came out on Monday to change his bandage and said the laceration looks really great and is healing nicely. The plan was to put his shoe back on towards the end of the week, allow him to go out for a little while in a small medical paddock on Wednesday, remove the bandage when he comes in on Wednesday evening, and remove the staples on Monday.

My farrier was in the area last night (Tuesday), and Dr. P ok'd putting the shoe back on. When I got out to the barn last night, Kwik looked like he was in a daze. I pulled him out of his stall for a hand graze, and he was definitely off, wasn't interested in eating grass, and just looked like he wasn't all there. Something wasn't quite right, so I texted L, and she came right out. She agreed that he looked lethargic, and we took his temperature. He was on the borderline of running a low temperature, so we called Dr. P for her opinion. He ate all of his dinner, ate some hay, pooped, and drank water while we waited for the call-back, so I wasn't terribly worried. My first thought was that he was having a reaction to the second dose of antibiotics he received on Monday or he picked up a cold at the hospital. Dr. P called back, and she seemed to think it was an adverse reaction to the second dose of Excede as well.

L says he is walking better and is a little perkier this morning. He's outside in the mini paddock enjoying the sunshine, and his bandage comes off this evening. I really hope I'm greeted by my bright-eyed, happy go lucky Kwik this evening- we're so close to reaching the end of this whole ordeal (knock on wood!).