Recheck!

Yesterday was Gogo's 2-month ultrasound recheck out from the March setback. There was no reason for me to think there would be anything but good news, as everything at this point had gone swimmingly and according to plan, and thankfully, I was not dissapointed! We were up WAY too early and on the road by 7, which of course due to traffic put us in to the clinic way late... oops! And again, as usual, when we jogged her and flexed her right hind, she was once again ever so slightly off. The culprit? Those dumb hocks! If you're a new follower, I'll fill you in: Crazy Trainer who starved, beat and flipped Gogo over while I was away in New Zealand also lunged her in tight sidereins on a 12 meter circle in rutted, choppy footing, all in ONE direction, 6 days a week, for 6 whole months. THAT will damage a young horse's joints. Gogo has mild degeneration in her right hock because of it. We treated it conservatively for a year, then opted to go ahead and inject the hocks last August, and well, that's a whole 'nother story in itself. But anyhow, it would appear that 9 months out from those injections, she is still sore in that right hock. Standing around in a still will do that to you, I suppose. Thankfully, however, we flexed the fetlock (where the lesion is, which would possibly have aggravated it and shown it was the source of the soreness), and the stifle, which I was worried about before, and both were negative. Sweet! Sore hocks can be dealt with. Sore tendons and sore stifles would be a different matter altogether. So that's good news.

We ran the ultrasound over both hinds, and were pleased to see that the left SDFT looks gorgeous and intact. It healed beautifully. In terms of the rehab process, it's just now a matter of getting back into work for that leg. As for the right, the margins of the new lesion are much improved, right where we'd expect them to be at this point in the rehab. The plan from here? Get her walking under saddle TODAY (WOOHOO), and walking on a loose rein for about 30 minutes (can that be done?). At the end of that, pick up the reins and do about 5 minutes of simple lateral work. As Dr. C said, "these guys are tough, that is nothing that is going to aggravate anything. We want her to get out of breath without hurting her." I think 5 minutes of lateral work is HARDLY going to make her tired, and I'm obviously not going to do more than a few simple and VERY shallow leg yields, but we can do our best! From there, we add 5 minutes of lateral work on every week, so at the end of the month we'll be up to 30 minutes of loose rein tackwalking and 20 minutes of putting her together. From there, we can begin 5 minutes of trot, on the long sides of the arena ONLY. (Possibly where I went wrong before. However, now I have the enormous outdoor arena to use instead of the small and spooky indoor, so I won't have to worry about turns or arena demons in the corner.) We can add 5 minutes every week of trot to that walk work, and then reevaluate at the end of two months. At that time, she recommends I also get her hocks injected, and she's probably right. It will be a year at that point. I'm still as anti-injection as I ever was, but... I have to do what's right for her. Unlike last time, we are also not going to be turning her out while we are trying to leg her back up. We will see in 2 months how it goes. Unfortunately at this point, we just can't risk her being stupid. Everything has to be controlled.

But this is all good news! I'm going to continue to graze, ice and treadmill her daily, but we are going to try and wean her wraps off of her. The legs will fill - I hate that!! - but it takes time for her system to readjust and compensate for what the wraps have been doing. She's had them off during the day for at least the last month or more, and the legs have looked just fine, so we'll see.


Yay good news!!!!!!!!




An extra treat: I got a little video of Gogo's, um.... 'tude as she walks out the barn to her grass every day. She goes out the same way every single day without fail, making horrible nasty faces at all the horses on her way, and then perking her ears going "GRASS!?" In this video, she realizes, I'm not paying attention to her and tries to sneak some grass before she is allowed to... bad, bad Gogo.






Wavy legs, chunkiness, gorgeous shavings-y tail and all.... we are happy.