Easy Does It

Poor Gogo has really just not been herself this week. I do feel as though this is the early stage of what really could have been a pretty raging Lyme infection, because she's gone from really really good, to really good and spooky, to okay and irrationally spooky, to okay but pretty blah and dull. The numbers weren't totally conclusive, but it definitely showed a recent infection, and I think we caught this early on, before it spiralled way out of control. Thank god for that too. She was pretty good during our conditioning hack last Sunday, had Monday to just play with me, but these past three days of dressage have been just so-so. She just doesn't really feel like herself. From what I understand of people-type Lyme, you have generalized fatigue, muscle and joint stiffness, and personality changes - most often, anxiety and depression. We obviously can't ask the horses how they're feeling today, but she's acting like you would if you had the flu and you just felt crappy. She's been dull in the aisle for grooming and tacking (usually very alert and perky), has no go under saddle and is just flopping around on her forehand (no amount of transitions, bending, or other routine sharpening work has much effect on it, which it usually does), and has kinks in her body that she just can't seem to iron out (is traveling consistantly crooked with her right haunch in all the time, and was resting that right hind an awful lot yesterday). I went through the usual ruling out of things that I normally do - am I sitting crooked today, is it because it's hot, was she running around in the field, did she work hard yesterday, is she just having a bad mare day, etc - but three days in a row of very consistantly blah work makes it really seem like she's just feeling caca. We've done mostly walk work with a little bit of trot in there, but hardly anything because she just doesn't feel all that up to it. She was a bit better today, thankfully, but she had a preemptive dose of Banamine in her, so that could have easily explained it.

She did start Doxy yesterday, thankfully, and she now has 5 doses in her, 50 pills a dose. She's also been started on Probios, just as a standard protocol to keep that tummy happy while noxious antibiotics are in there eating away at her stomach lining. The good news here is that she's actually eating the pills, provided I wet her grain. I experimented with this a bit and discovered that yes, she will in fact eat the pills whole in her breakfast and dinner if I soak everything a bit before she eats. I tried it dry just for laughs but she just spit everything back out, kind of as expected. I was going to resort to the blender if I had to, and then maybe the oral syringe (THAT would have been fun), but thankfully water is all we need! The other good news is that Doxy tends to have a pretty profound effect on most Lymey horses, with a quick response and turnaround within a week if it's really bothering them. As with all antibiotics, you need to let it run its course (in this case, 30 days of drugs), but she should be feeling WAY better in a much shorter amount of time if this really is bothering her this much.

Poor Mami-mare. She's getting even more lovin' than she usually does (is that even possible?). She had a soothing lavender bath today, wore her Back on Track wraps all afternoon, had an extra hour of the thick grass outside the pastures tonight, and had her mane pulled and coiffed today after I rode. She also has a brand-new bag of Mrs. Pasture's cookies and a new Pony Pop to enjoy. So spoiled. So, so spoiled.


Tomorrow, we're going to do a very modified gallop, mostly just trotwork and a light canter in the field to see how she's feeling... who knows, maybe she just needs to get out and move a bit, and then she'll be feeling better. But I want to give the Doxy the benefit of the doubt. After our gallop, I intend on heading over to the Quinnipiac river and going for a dunk with her. The river is a bit too fast flowing to go for a real swim, but there's a nice sandy area near one of the banks that has plenty of room for a wading horse and her kid. I've also been in attempting to get ub touch with Town Hill, Ethel Walkers, Stoneleigh-Burham, and Mystic Valley in terms of XC schooling our little brains out as soon as we feel better, so that Valinor Farm and the AECs are right as rain for us. My entry for the AECs is going out very, very soon.... yes!!! Opening date was the 28th, so we still have a little bit of time. I am SO, SO excited!

Doxy, do your stuff!