More Down Time...

Time for another update, most likely the last one for the year.

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Mercy is back in paddock/stall rest with regular hand walking when I'm able to. Again. I took her out to ride the day after my last blog post and found her seriously lame on her left front leg after I tacked her up. No heat, no swelling, no hoof tester sensitivity. I gave her 2 weeks off just in case there was an abscess brewing, but nothing changed. So, I had Dr. Bob out to do a full lameness work up. After blocking her leg, starting with her sole, then her whole foot, then her fetlock, and finally blocking her up to the knee, she was still lame when making tight circles. There was no lameness detected on the straight aways unless her joint was flexed (stressed).

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Since the symptoms of this lameness were very similar to her previous right front leg lameness, we decided to shave the leg down any way and check her tendons and ligaments via ultrasound.

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And we found nothing. Well, we saw the previous injury in her RF that has healed nicely! But nothing more...

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Since we were no closer to a diagnosis after the very thorough exam, I decided to take Mercy back to the track to see Dr. Schneider. Once at the track, it became very clear that the lameness I was seeing and the lameness Dr. Schneider was finding could be two different ailments. This is because after only one low hoof block, he declared Mercy sound, which means the pain was in the hoof.

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We took a few radiographs to check her lower leg and Dr. Schneider found some bony changes on the front of her short pastern bone at the coffin joint. He also found a small bone spur at the pastern joint. Although these are unlikely to cause her pain, that was the best he could find that day without doing an MRI. So- back to stall and paddock rest for 60 days (til early January) and recheck with Dr.Bob.

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I'm personally not convinced that the bony changes and spur are the issues here, but I don't have anything else to go on. When I compare the new images to the old images (Aug 2010), there really isn't that much change. I guess time will tell... again...

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Until then, Mercy certainly keeps herself busy by destroying my lovely Christmas decorations... lol! ;)

Believe It or not, but Spring is HERE!!!

The Hellebore I bought last year is in full bloom right now and might I say, what a beauty!!! I love it! Every flower is a slightly different shade of pinky-purple with random hints of lime green. The cats are doing good too! Chai has momentarily (voluntarily) taken up residence in Cuda's crate...

...and Tiki is posing for all to see!... No, really she is just getting positioned to watch the swallows better. They're back! ;D

Mercy got to ride in style to her recheck ultrasound with Dr. Schneider on Thursday. This is "Meaty," my new 2005 Ford F250! I purchased this beauty a little over a month ago, but needed to have some work done on it first before it assumed the position of "Official Hauling Vehicle." It hauls like a dream and all of the special features inside doesn't hurt either!

Mercy got a clean bill of health at our visit and Dr. Schneider said saddle up and ride! Her tendon is healed as good as it will ever get, so he said to start more trot work and add in some loping too! Well, we didn't waste time doing just that:

Someone is tired of waiting

The trails haven't changed much

It's really hard not loping up hills like we use to...

Yup, the grass tastes the same! Om Nom Nom!

The Lake is really high! The 'shoreline' is completely submerged

The creek is showing off it's white water and strong current

The ride went well considering there are a lot of new trees down. Luckily they are low enough that I can ask her to simply step over them instead of launching over them (like we usually do, heehee!). She did get a little squirrely at one spot near the lake where we usually blast up a rocky hill to the top. She was getting jiggy and kept pulling on the bit, so to work we went. Circles, serpentines, backing circles, and spins quickly knocked the jig right out of her, and once we could easily stand still on a loose rein, we headed back home the way we came.

Here is a clip from the lake. Mercy never ceases to amaze me with her pawing power! I never make it home with dry legs or boots! Even Star gets into the act! Enjoy!

Oh, by the way, the Ricky Quinn Clinic is ON for us! We will be there and hopefully we will be in the bosal! ;P

Injury Update

Well, I had Dr. Bob out again to recheck Mercy's lameness. It was dark by the time he got out to our place, so we were pretty limited on what we could ask Mercy to do. He started out by palpating her legs, where he couldn't really find anything- no heat or soreness. Then, he asked me to trot Mercy in large circles both directions, where we discovered that she is now favoring her left front leg ever so slightly... He watched her for quite a while trot in circles, then asked to see her move in a straight line. Even thought it was dark out, the barn light hitting her shiny white hooves was just enough for him to be able to evaluate her movement.

Dr. Bob had suggested ultra sounding her leg when she was first injured, but he now thinks it is better if I take her over to Emerald Downs to be seen by Dr. Schneider. He has more high tech equipment that would more likely find the problem. She could have a bone bruise or a super small tear in her suspensery ligament, but either way I have got to get this figured out! It has been over a month of stall/paddock rest and even though she has improved, it is still not gone. And we don't know what "it" is!

I have been able to ride her bareback in the pasture a couple times during the week. She has really lost a lot of muscle along her back and shoulders. Dang. Oh well, it's almost winter anyway.