Yay vet visit (not)

Not that the vet visit was bad mind you. Just that we’re seeing the vet A LOT lol.

Doc was headed out to take a look at Whisper, and did a 2 week check up on Amber as well. I had grabbed a few things for Amber before the visit – mostly a weight measure and some Equioxx. With her being laminitic, she can’t have too much alfalfa, but I don’t know exactly how much food a day we give her, and I wanted to weigh it, tell the doc, and form a plan. So, we’re good on the amount of alfalfa she’s getting ( ~3.5 lbs 2x a day), but overall she was getting too much especially with her being out of work. So, our aim is to cut back to 16 lbs ideally, so I’ll be cutting her back slowly. Now that her metabolism has slowed and she’s finally lost all the muscle she tenaciously hung on to, she’s not voraciously eating everything in sight. She’s leaving some, which is a good sign to us. So, I’ll be cutting down her food, but everything else I’m feeding her is okay.

Even though she’s in soft rides, I’m liking how the barefoot is helping her hind feet. Her sole is getting harder, and the spot is less spongy, which I take as a good thing. He wants to see her in 8 weeks tho – I’m thinking to see if her sole has thickened a bit more or how it’s growing in those 8 weeks. I questioned him about her being barefoot in the front, but he didn’t seem to think that was a good idea. Which I’m completely fine with, I was just putting it out there for curiosity’s sake. I’m just asking tons of questions since this is all new to me, but my vet has been taking this all in stride and has been more than willing to tell me the whys and his reasons for suggesting/doing certain things. So she stays in front shoes and we have some more waiting before figuring out her hind feet. The good news is that there’s no more bad news right now, soooooo….??? Ha I’ll take it.

Unfortunately our little ride we did was a big no-no. Poor Amber can’t get out of her stall at all (I mean, aside from going to the crossties for baths or grooming) in the next 8 weeks. Poor thing is going to go crazy. I could feel how happy she was even for the 5 minutes we walked. Her ears were pricked, and she was back to her “let’s go do stuff ma!” attitude. She keeps nosing her gate, wanting to be out and pestering me when I don’t get her out. She doesn’t understand why we can’t go out, especially since she’s now feeling better with the soft rides. That’s certainly been difficult.

It does feel a bit like “injury central” here tho haha. Whisper is doing very well since her hock injections but now has soreness in her LF so we have a couple things going on that’ll help weed out whether it’s not enough support for shoeing or something else in her leg. We’re hoping that she’ll be back in contention to start the next 3-show series come September, but it’s getting a bit close. So if she can’t show then we’ll probably still trailer her there just to get her off property, see the sights and promptly go home. Choco too has been pretty limpy lately. Her left shoulder is bothering her (what is it with our animals and their left sides at the moment? lol), so we have her on some anti-inflammatories which have seemed to help a lot. We’re also looking into canine adequan. Our biggest worry is that she’s still so full of life even at 14 that if we don’t help her feel better as best we can she may not really recover from it. We’d like to keep her as happy and active as we possibly can for as long as we can. Since Amber AND Whisper have been a bit out of commission, I really haven’t ridden at all (and yes I’m dying haha). But I’ve supplemented that with finally starting PT, this time with a doctor and physical therapist that actually care about my health concerns and are really trying to help me with preventative measures instead of “come back when you’re more broken and can’t walk”. Thanks. Real helpful guys. Right now I’m working on my right leg where I got kicked, and it’s pretty hard, but I’m keeping up with it. It needs to get stronger and function as best as it can, and I want to break up that scar tissue. Hopefully soon, I’ll get back to lessons. I also just….really need to work out since I have no fitness left at all since I haven’t ridden in a while lol. I have been pretty much a lump, so there’s that haha.

I do want to start up lessons again soon, dressage and jumping if it all works out, so hopefully I can get my butt in gear and work out some more!