I can't help it if I've got one horse who is kinda like an equine Fabio ... and another who isn't. I'm thinking you can guess which is which.
So, this past Thursday, I had the day off and decided to shoot some new shots of Gringo. One of these days I need to get more photos of Gus as well, maybe Monday ...
Anyways, I went out the the barn with the sole intent of taking new photos of Gringo in Toaster's old pasture. However, once I cleaned Gringo up and tossed him out there, all he wanted to do was eat. That wasn't going to work, so off we go back into his turnout.
At no prompting from me, these were the results.
Glad that I wasn't having to ride out this buck ...
Yep, unfortunately Jade is faster. But that's okay, Gringo is more graceful.
Love, love, LOVE this photo. Turned out pretty amazing, I think.
Anyways, other then that, Gringo is doing well enough. His "grain" has been bumped up to triple of what he was getting before ... meaning he's getting about 1.5c of alfalfa pellets daily, instead of a half cup. I think he's filling out nicely again, so I may need to adjust his feed yet again.
Haha. So I was so going to title this post "The Situation" but then the only thing I could think of was the guy from the reality TV show, Jersey Shore. So didn't want to go there, so instead I came up with Gusituation.
Gusituation = Gus + The Situation
So, what is "the situation" you may ask? Well, he's still lame. I guess that sums it up nicely in just a few words. The reason why he still is, is due to the fact that the vet hasn't had a chance to do the stifle injections yet. Back when he first came up lame, I called right away (rather emailed, I guess) and was told she wouldn't be able to make it out until the next week. Fast forward to then and well, for one reason or another, by the time he was looked at, it was the same day as strangles vaccination day at the barn. So it was a no-go for stifle injections then - due to the high risk of infection associated with both the stifle injections, because they are in a joint, and the strangles vaccination, because it's a live virus.
D-day for stifles is finally on Tuesday, April 24th. I'm really hoping that these injections work ... Dr. N wasn't very optimistic when I notified her again about doing the injections. In fact, here's an excerpt of our email exchange:
" I've been thinking a lot about Gus and wondering what to do next. If
you want to spend the money on xrays, I'd almost rather have you take
him to Anoka and have the digitals done on the stifles and hocks. He almost flexed worse on the RH than on the LH (I mean the change was
more dramatic), and when we first put him on the longe line he was
very stiff on the fronts.
His eyes looked uncomfortable too. I have
to be honest, I hate to keep poking him with needles, injecting
steroids as I feel I am playing with fire with the rest of him and I
couldn't bear to think I induced laminitis. And, of course you know
every time we put a needle in a joint we are potentially adding to the
long-term problem. So it's a dilemma--keep injecting and try to keep
him comfortable in the short-term and hope we don't set anything off,
or stop, let him rest and retire and see if he can be happy that way.
I know you don't like to see him uncomfortable. But I also don't want
to keep spending your money on something, in the long run, I can't
fix. Please let me know how you'd like to proceed--I will honor
whatever you choose to do but I just felt I had to let you know what
I've been thinking about. "
So ... that of course hit me in the gut. I know we're dealing with multiple issues with Gus. Not only does he have long-term lameness issues (the stifles, primarily), but he's got Insulin Resistance, Equine Recurrent Uveitis, possibly Cushings and other funky, front-end issues. He's just a mess. Plus we have, more then likely, dealt with laminitis a couple years back ...
Anyway, I decided to weight the odds and it still tilts in favor of the stifle injections. They have worked well for Gus in the past and doing nothing, well, we won't solve anything by doing that. Even being on daily bute right now does diddly-squat for Gus.
On top of that (doing the stifle injections), I had Gus's blood drawn again to recheck his ACTH levels. This is the test to determine if he's got Cushings. Although last year he was well-within the guidelines of being a "normal" horse, Dr. N wanted to go ahead with meds anyways. Well, since he tested "normal" again this year, actually almost below normal, I opted to pull him off the meds. We are going to retest in about 6 months and see what everything looks like, but I don't think the meds are helping Gus. He's still lame (I think the Prascend can help reduce the risk of laminitis, and subsequent founder, if left untreated) and still hairy. So, nice thing about dropping the meds, I'll be saving about $50/month on medication.
J, the farrier, happened to be at the barn last week while I was out and asked about Gus. I told him what we're dealing with and the fact that we still have front end issues. J decided to try Gus in some eggbar shoes the next shoeing cycle. So, this coming Wednesday, Gus will be sporting steel eggbars ... hopefully they offer some relief. Who knows?
And, I haven't done pictures in a while ... so here are a bunch from late last month and a few more recent.
These were taken March 18th ... it was hot enough for a bath. After which, Gus promptly rolled. <insert rolling eye smiley>
Pure bliss ... complete with grunting sound effects.
Very proud of his new, uniform brown-chestnut coat.
These next few were taken April 1st.
And, finally, we have the "OMG, is he DEAD?" photos from April 13th, I think. This is how Gus spends a vast majority of his time ... sleeping flat out, like he's dead to the world. His belly barely moves. On this particular day, I did get a big grunt before he finally "woke up".
This is a "What did you want?" look ... and if looks could kill, ...
So, hopefully next week I'll have some better news on the Gus front. I'm hoping for some soundness from the back end and with the change of shoes, hopefully a better moving front end as well. One can only hope and cross every finger.
Go figure. It's springtime in Minnesota and Gus is lame again. But that's nothing new, right?
Last Wednesday during my lesson, Gus was extremely stiff and sore all over. Although I wouldn't consider him lame, at the time, he was certainly wasn't his usual self. B noted that Gus kept switching which hind leg was bothering him ... but it seemed to be more left side then right side. During our entire lesson, we worked on just getting him to loosen up. If I recall correctly, we mainly worked on walk/trot figures - mostly serpentines/loopy figure-8s/etc. I think we did some canter work as well, mostly making the arena a large rectangle versus rounding the corners (which is taboo anyways, but we all still do it).
After my lesson, I did give Gus a gram of bute. He had been on an anti-grain kick as of late, so he wasn't getting any supps except his Prascend (the new pergolide tablet). I thought all was well, for the most part, and talked with B about possibly getting Gus looked at by Dr. N in the near future - whether that be for a Legend injection or joint injections.Well, on Sunday Gus made the decision easy for me.
I had planned to ride outside on Sunday, taking advantage of the really nice weather, once again. Upon mounting though, it was evident almost immediately that Gus was more then just off ... he was just about head-bobbing lame. So I took him back inside and B confirmed my suspicions ... off on left hind. (Granted I couldn't tell undersaddle exactly which leg it was ... but on the lunge it was obvious).
An email has been placed to Dr. N, so it looks like Gus will have at least one more week off before he gets looked at. I'm sure he's okay with that ... but I do know he's in some discomfort. B noted that Gus has been laying down a lot more then usual, so until he's seen by Dr. N he's on 1g of bute daily. Still no additional supps, but I did increase his grain back up to 1lb/twice daily. He's now back to eating again. Yeah!
Stay tuned for more information ... I guess the ACTH was FINALLY going to be pulled this morning. Should be interesting to see what those results state.
Haha. So like the title states, Gringo seems to think he's a pretty boy. Actually, I do think he's a nice horse to look at. He's shiny year around, despite living out 24/7 in Minnesota. Our weather is, typically, far from perfect. So far though, it's been a GREAT start to 2012. Mild winter and so far, a very warm spring. I'll take it.
So, yesterday I was out to see Gringo and I decided to take some video, along with some photos. I wasn't able to upload all of them, yet, but here's one of the better ones ...
I think that shows the best trot movement from Gringo, least taken in a still frame.
Here's the video, as promised. Please excuse the unlatched noseband (also visible in the above photo). I did not realize that it had come undone ... hence the excessive head shaking. He's typically not that bad.
On to other things ...
Gringo has lost quite a bit of weight over the winter. Which was a good thing, as he was quite pudgy all last year, but in addition to the weight loss, there is muscle loss as well. So, he's now getting about 2c of alfalfa pellets daily, up from the measly 1/3c he was getting prior. I need to weight the pellets ... cause I'm curious as to exactly how much I bumped him up, grain wise.
He still needs to be dewormed soon as well. I'm wanting to do a powerpak, but I have yet to find a local dealer in 10% fenbendazole solution. I refuse to pay full price for the the highly marked up "equine" powerpak.
And ... I still gotta get the vet out for spring vaccines. One of these days ...
