Ugh... lame again

 Noooooo. :( Sadness. She's lame again. 

 

The weather was crappy today. It was that misting rain all morning.... and cold. It finally quit enough and the radar looked like my best option was to ride at Ashland after lunch. The big giant radar cloud looked like it was going to be skirting around the house but was too far south to be at Ashland. Then it looked like later in the afternoon, it would be much more likely to be dryer at home. So... I opted to take Lyric to Ashland. She's next in line for a hack again. Plus... as sassy as she was yesterday I figured a nice long hack warm up would be smart before we did some ring work. 

 

So we headed out and braved the cold. And Brrrr.. it was cold. I felt bad pulling her blanket. She got a good rigorous currying and then we tacked up quick. And her bridle was in the truck so her bit wasn't cold. Cause I'm a nice mom. :) We headed out and hit the trails and it wasn't too bad once we got going. I was glad I kept my jacket on but it wasn't awful. We had a nice hack. She was like a bloodhound though... we must have stopped about 10 times and sniffed for at least a full minute each time. It looked like the armadillos had been rooting around most of the spots. Or there was manure. I just let her stop and smell. We did a short loop but hit a bunch of hills, so that was nice. My plan was to see the Christmas tree, so we headed there. Towards the end I trotted a tiny bit but... she felt lame. Really?? Maybe it was the terrain?? Let's hope. 

 

We headed back in and went to the arena. I was surprised it was open but it was. And we stayed out of the wet spots, though it wasn't too bad. We picked up the trot pretty quick and yep... lame. Like.. head bobbing lame. Still worse tracking right. And it did feel like left front, although sometimes it felt like a hind end issue. And she lost her hind end quite a few times too. Hard twice. Ugh. She had moments that felt good... like the leg yields. And then, I was tempted to keep going.. but then she felt bad again. I decided to try the canter before I called it quits.. just in case...  I don't know.. .wishful thinking I guess. She cantered okay, but was definitely still lame after, so... we headed back to the trailer. 

 

 

Sigh.... then after we got home I hopped on Funny pretty quickly after and as we were walking to the arena I saw Lyric straddling the water trough again. Sigh... I'm sorry girl. I really thought I had made that better at least. :( I'm still fairly confused as to why she's front end lame... losing her hind end... and straddling the water trough. Like... the front end, if it's foot, shouldn't cause the water trough stuff or the hind end falling out. I would expect the hind end falling out to be stifles or pelvis or SI joints...which should have been addressed more or less. And then straddling the water trough makes me think back or lower back, which... I was hoping was resolved with the SI joint injections. Unless maybe the pain is stemming from her cervicothoracic junction, and by lifting her belly it's lifting the cervicothoracic junction and making her more comfortable?? Which would explain the front end lameness.. and maybe even the hind end neuro-ish signs. I think... I need to reread my anatomy... T3-L3 can cause upper motor neuron up front and lower motor neuron behind? Or something like that? I can't remember. Sigh... but regardless, I think my plan is to go ahead and inject her shoulder girdle because I bought all the drugs. And I can't really afford another lameness exam. Although it might behoove me to do it sooner rather than later. But I figure.. maybe this Friday I can inject her shoulder girdle... then she'll get a few days off.. then I can lunge her a few days then go back to riding and see. And get through Christmas... then if she's still lame... call and try to make an appointment with Dr. Barrow. Let her work her up... do hind foot films and ECVM neck films... and let her block out the forelimb lameness.. and then see what she says. I guess worst case scenario I start saving for an MRI. Because... if she thinks foot too...and lower cervical facet injections, shoulder girdle injections, and brachial plexus injections don't work... I'm not sure what else I can do? And... I'll have to know if it's in the foot or not. Even if her neck films show awful ECVM, I may still have to do an MRI on her foot to find out for sure. Although I suspect it'll be normal. BUT... what if it's not?? And what if it's fixable?? Argh.... I don't even know what would be in the foot that would be fixable... 

 

My poor sweet, kind, willing mare. I really do love her and her heart and pray that we can fix her.