Stressful Adventures

Wowza! That was an adventure. And a whirlwind... 

After doing the seminar with Dr. DeClue, I was even more convinced that Lyrics issues were her iliopsoas and then shoulder girdle from the saddle. I was more concerned with her shoulder girdle as I had thought I was making progress already on the hind end and she seemed more painful in the front. BUT... start with the back and pelvis, so.. I did. And it didn't go well. So I had reached out to Dr. DeClue and she told me to bring Lyric to Ocala to let her show me how to treat her. And I had a friend with a horse that was struggling too with no real diagnosis. I had offered to treat her but also suggested she could go to see Dr. DeClue since her case was rather complicated and tricky. She opted to see Dr. DeClue. (Wise choice, I'm glad she did). I drive right past her house to get to Ocala but... two chestnut neurotic mares with trailering issues... we decided for our sanity and anxiety it was probably best to haul separately. Lyric doesn't load super well, especially when her routine has changed. And her horse is used to hauling loose in the box stall. And her other mare kicked the tar out of her other horse, so my friend had some ptsd about that. And even if we put her horse in the box stall and Lyric in the plus one I wasn't sure Lyric would load in her trailer. So.. we just hauled separate. 

We left Thursday and Dr. DeClue didn't have room for us so we stayed at another vet's farm that also did the seminar. Turns out, her and my friend were on the UGA Equestrian team together so that was funny. Her farm was lovely and the girls had stalls across from each other. We managed to get to Florida with no issues and got the girls unloaded and settled in. Lyric was a bit frantic and wouldn't eat... wouldn't drink. She rode the whole way sitting on the ramp with her butt and as soon as I put her in the stall, she parked her butt on the wall and leaned on it. Sigh... another symptom. We ended up leaving them to chill and went out to dinner, which was delicious. The Salted Brick. I had bourbon maple scallops, sweet potatoes, and asparagus. And then keylime pie. Oh, and we had crispy brussel sprouts and then brie and bread as appetizers. So.. we ate good! Lyric didn't eat still when we got home. She was at least quiet and chilling and had maybe eaten and drank a tiny bit. So we headed to the hotel for the night. 

Friday morning the truck wouldn't start! I think I had accidentally left my friends back door open slightly. UGH!!! We were starting to panic, but luckily the lovely hotel lady gave us a jump and her truck started. Phew! We managed to get the ponies fed. Not that Lyric ate, although she did at least finish her dinner from the night before and drank about 1/4 of a bucket. And she was pooping. So then it was time to load. I managed to get Lyric on without too much effort and then went to help my friend. Her mare was a bit more resistant and it took us about 15 minutes or so to get her on. We were starting to get stressed because of the time, but we managed to get to Dr. DeClue's only 8 minutes late. 

 

We put them in her round pen paddock/stalls next to each other and went inside to talk and get histories. We started with my friends horse and watched her lunge. Then we took Lyric out and watched her go. Dr. DeClue basically saw all the things that I had been seeing and also noted a sore right TMJ and poll and elbows. I knew about all but the TMJ. Which, could have been from pulling back on the cross ties earlier this week. Then we watched another vet's PRE horse go. She had also done the seminar with me and had brought her horse to get worked on too. 

 

We did Lyric's injections first because she was going to be trickier. And I feel much less incompetent because even with torb and Dr. DeClue doing her injections, she needed lots of drugs. Dr. DeClue mentioned how tight she was and reactive and painful. She ultrasounded her and said that she had some changes/stepping but overall her back was good because she had good spacing between her wings. So yay for that. She was a bit irritated in her sciatic nerve, more so on the left. However, because she was blowing through the drugs, she only got the right sciatic injected (she tried to kick her when she did the left so she rightfully called it quits) and she only did her iliopsoas. She didn't get to her iliacis, which is what causes the stringhalt. She also mentioned that she usually doesn't do TMJ's or elbows at the same time but she would for me, but then she decided not to based on how tough she was to inject in her back. So pretty decent news. At least I know I'm on the right track... thinking and seeing all the right things... and she didn't make me cry like Dr. Kate did. ;) She made it sound like we could fix her. She did suggest I get her hocks and stifles injected too as she was pretty edematous there. 

 

So then we put her back in the paddock/stall and worked on the other vets mare. And while we were doing that, Lyric was okay out there alone. She had a friend in the pasture behind her and was still drugged, so.. good deal. And she even ate and drank!! Yay! 

So then it was time to go home. And I had parked my trailer in such a way that the ramp was fairly steep again. Grrrr. And of course Lyric didn't want to load. And I had an audience which made it worse. And they all tried to help, which is nice, but... just made Lyric more frazzled and frantic. She started backing up and being ridiculous so I backed her and then she just kept backing... almost into Dr. DeClue's fourwheeler! Eeeks. I stopped her and gave her a minute to just... come back to her brain. And then, it took a minute, but I was able to tap tap tap her into the trailer. 

We got back to the barn and Lyric was still upset and nervous and didn't eat again. We had plans to meet Dr. DeClue, her visiting intern and the other vet for dinner, so... I just let her be. I wasn't exactly consoling to her either. Although she did eat some hay when I hand fed her. (Or maybe that was the first night). So we left them and went to dinner. La Hacienda! It was delicious. The best burrito ever! It was a fun meal. Then we did bed check and still... not eating. Sigh.. Oh well. We're going home tomorrow morning girl! 

The next morning we cleaned stalls and got everything as tidy as we could. Then we hand grazed the girls a bit before loading them up. Which was great because they were loving the grass and it made us happy to see them eating. So then we tried to load. Both girls lost their minds. Lyric was fussy, pulling back, running in circles, frantic again. And my friends mare was rearing and being a total cow. Like... scaring my friend she was so bad. And I was stressing because I was trying to get Lyric loaded so I could go help her because she sounded so scared and worried. And that was making Lyric worse. She ended up putting her horse in a stall but for some reason she couldn't get her in there and lock her in so she just stood in it with her and almost got squished against the wall. I heard her little plea for help but Lyric was spinning and spazzing. I finally got Lyric in and shut all the doors and went to help her. As we're working on her mare I could hear Lyric thrashing about in my trailer. Good gravy! I thought she was going to flip it over! Thank God she didn't. My friends mare was being pushy and naughty so we got the rope halter on and she did a few walk to halt to walk transitions and then.. the mare fairly politely loaded up. We locked her and got my friend out before the mare could panic and bolt off and we hit the road. DRIVE DRIVE DRIVE!!! 

I think it took us all about 15 minutes of just... nervous quiet driving before the adrenaline buzz wore off. Good gravy. That was NOT fun at all. And then we each had 6 hours of drive time to start to process the weekend... and think.. and all the what ifs? and hows? and whys? and... stressing that we took so much money out of our ponies confidence bank... and to what end... and would they ever get better... and will they ever load again?? Sigh... Kelli called shortly into my drive and she only had a short window before she had to catch a plane so I vomited all my feelings at her... Which helped a little but I hadn't even had time to process. And then add in the fact that I was wanting to help my patients by doing this but it was driven home to me that I needed to invest some time and energy to it... and I was stressing about... do I want to? Do I want to sacrifice? Or do I want to just stay in my happy little chiro/acupuncture/some SW niche and work on cutting back hours to be able to spend more time with Mike and my ponies. So... there was a whole lot of emotions and stress going on. And then as we were the last 45 minutes or so to home... Lyric started biting at the chest bar. It almost looked like self mutilation in the camera. Which made me want to cry. I've traumatized her so bad that she's either mutilating or cribbing. Sigh... 

So yeah.. not exactly a great trip to Ocala... although, I got good news and a good prognosis. But quite the stressful trip from Lyric's standpoint. 

Funny missed her seester!