It's warm finally... but windy again.

It's finally getting nice here again, and it's about time. I went for another ride on Gus today and it dawned on me that's it has been a year since Gus was first diagnosed with a torn CCL and meniscus damage to his right stifle. It's amazing what all has happened since then.

First, it was a good 6 weeks of stall rest for most of May and June, with handwalking daily (or as often as I could get out there to do it). Then we progressed to walking under saddle. After a week or two of that (and still on stall rest), Gus was allowed turnout after (and only after) he was walked under saddle. That progressed to eventually being turned out daily, regardless of being walked under saddle or not.

We had many setbacks after that. One being when another horse was turned out with Gus... ended up with a very lame horse again and a BO not understanding why. Sheesh, you think it could be because he's running around outside like an idiot with the other horse he's turned out with? No... couldn't be because of that.

That particular scenario happened at least twice over the summer (more like 3-4 times) when new horses kept coming and going from what was supposed to be a PRIVATE turnout situation for Gus. Really ticked me off as we just weren't making any progresses because he kept restressing that stifle by being an idiot in turnout (only because he was rough-housing with the other horse(s)).

We also had the issue that popped up this past fall - where his left hind cannon bone swelled dramatically, seemingly overnight. Still don't know what caused it and he's still got the "bump" but he's sound on it. Go figure. That required a month of stall rest and daily sweatings... didn't do much but who knows?

Thankfully he came thru winter, none the worse for wear. No major problems cropped up. Though we were stuck in the arena all winter, he didn't regress... and he wasn't any lamer come this spring (which is what usually happens every spring).

Found out in January at Gus does not have Cushings disease, but further diagnostics showed that he is insulin resistant (I've blogged about this before). Thankfully that seems to be doing okay... waiting to see how the bloodwork comes back to see if things have improved at all. Vet was supposed to be out last Tuesday, but due to an emergency he needed to reschedule. He should now be here on Monday... keeping fingers crossed that that appointment doesn't get rescheduled.

Then, just a few days after the boys' move to their new home, Gus gets chased through the fence. So, now we're dealing with that wire burn on the hind leg that still won't heal. I debrided it today, and boy was it gushing blood. I didn't realize that the chickens were attracted to blood... so I had to fend off Gus's leg from those hunger blood-peckers. Dumb birds. Here's what it looked like after the debriding:



Ouch, right? OMG I haven't seen so much blood in forever. It just kept pouring out. Ended up just using plain water (still need to locate some Nolvasan solution) and adding the Wonder Dust (activated charcoal) afterwards. The WD is supposed to help prevent proud flesh and help stop bleeding.

Regardless, both boys seem to be thriving out at the B farm. The love it there and the constant moving is doing wonders for Gus. Gringo is still lame... but I think he always will be. We'll see if he starts improving after a few more months.