Yes, we went to visit our good friend again today as Solo showed no improvement when asked to engage his hind end after a week and a half of taking it easy following his chiropractic adjustment. My instincts screamed at me that there was something else holding him back.
I gave Dr. Bob my observations of the week: locked left jaw with heavy leaning, inability to lift the back or engage the hind end, inability to balance on the rear quarters, strong resistance to bending to the left, muscle twitching on the right side of the body when stretched. From a horse, who though sometimes opinionated, does NOT have belligerent in his character. There was much poking, prodding, and Solo giving me pathetic faces of dismay.
Dr. Bob is nothing if not thorough; he always starts at the nose and works back. And he immediately discovers Solo has gingivitis! His gums are inflamed around some of his teeth and bleed when rubbed. I insist that he has not been eating gummy bears and neither will I take up flossing his teeth for him. Also, he has had no problems eating hay or grain and dives readily into both.
His neck and back have held their alignment well but it is quickly apparent as Dr. Bob runs practiced fingers over his midback and hindquarters that there is a great deal of soreness there. Then he palpates Solo's belly midline and my horse twitches and kicks a hindleg at his stomach (which I have noticed has become rather potbellied of late). To finish, we draw blood for a panel and grab a nice fresh turd for a fecal.
Today's verdict: my instincts are not wrong. There are four big ligaments that attach the pelvis to the spine (see the turquoise spot on top of the horse's butt at left). These are very very sore, so they each get injected with a muscle relaxer. Solo does not particularly enjoy this process.
The belly can have several explanations. (1) Sand in the gut (although it's a bit far forward for that apparently). (2) Ulcer. (3) Something else. However, after checking on the fecal, we discover that poor Solo is *choke* full of worms. WTF????? Valley Vet, I have been paying for your yearly wormer premium pack and following the directions and now my horse is a wormball??? Me not happy. At all. Guess that potbelly is not a hay belly.
There are a variety of reasons a pasture can become loaded with worms and that a horse can subsequently adopt said worms. Our pastures are Bermuda grass, kept mowed short for weed and tick control (ticks are HORRID here) and dragged once or twice a week. Of course, the shorter your grass is, the more densely packed the worms are on the blade. And the more you drag when the weather is warm, the more worms are spread around. But if you don't drag, you have poop hell and the flies dance a dance of joy, unless you follow your horse around with a pitchfork and a bucket. And the longer you let your grass grow, the more ticks and weeds you get. Seems to me we have a near-impossible situation, but BO is in charge of pasture management, so that is something beyond my control. And obviously what we do works at least some of the time -- of four horses who got a fecal last fall, all were clean except one who just had a few scattered worms (he is an old guy).
So. Solo gets the weekend off anyway, as I will be gone. I jammed a tube of moxidectin in his mouth when I brought him back to the farm, horrified that my horse is parasite-ridden despite my attempts at perfect wormer application.. Starting next week, I will start rehab work (volume II) and see if we get some more improvement this time. I'll have blood results tomorrow, so that may give me some more information as well. I suspect the gum issues may be related to the parasite load, but that I am not sure of yet.
We also got a new (improved!) worming schedule. *drumroll* For agressive parasite control, worm every six weeks with:
Winter: (1) Panacur/Safeguard (fenbendazole)
(2) Quest/Quest Plus (moxidectin; Quest Plus
[moxidectin/praziquantel blend] is currently not
available but company swears they will start
making it again soon)
Spring: (1) Zimectrin Gold/Equimax
(see generic ivermectrin warning here)
(2) Quest/Quest Plus
Summer: (1) Panacur/Safeguard
(2) Guess what? Quest/Quest Plus
Fall: (1) Strongid (pyrantel pamoate)
(2) You know it, Quest/Quest Plus
In addition, make sure you worm for tapeworms at least 2x per year (praziquantel does this).
If Solo is still showing signs of issues after we clean this mess up, then we will try feeding psyllium for a week and/or treating for ulcers. I am hoping that will not be an issue... I will never know what he did to himself. Most likely, he slipped in the pasture and just slammed his hips playing. But what I beg/plead/gasp/hope/want now is for him to get better!!
I gave Dr. Bob my observations of the week: locked left jaw with heavy leaning, inability to lift the back or engage the hind end, inability to balance on the rear quarters, strong resistance to bending to the left, muscle twitching on the right side of the body when stretched. From a horse, who though sometimes opinionated, does NOT have belligerent in his character. There was much poking, prodding, and Solo giving me pathetic faces of dismay.
Dr. Bob is nothing if not thorough; he always starts at the nose and works back. And he immediately discovers Solo has gingivitis! His gums are inflamed around some of his teeth and bleed when rubbed. I insist that he has not been eating gummy bears and neither will I take up flossing his teeth for him. Also, he has had no problems eating hay or grain and dives readily into both.
His neck and back have held their alignment well but it is quickly apparent as Dr. Bob runs practiced fingers over his midback and hindquarters that there is a great deal of soreness there. Then he palpates Solo's belly midline and my horse twitches and kicks a hindleg at his stomach (which I have noticed has become rather potbellied of late). To finish, we draw blood for a panel and grab a nice fresh turd for a fecal.
Today's verdict: my instincts are not wrong. There are four big ligaments that attach the pelvis to the spine (see the turquoise spot on top of the horse's butt at left). These are very very sore, so they each get injected with a muscle relaxer. Solo does not particularly enjoy this process.
The belly can have several explanations. (1) Sand in the gut (although it's a bit far forward for that apparently). (2) Ulcer. (3) Something else. However, after checking on the fecal, we discover that poor Solo is *choke* full of worms. WTF????? Valley Vet, I have been paying for your yearly wormer premium pack and following the directions and now my horse is a wormball??? Me not happy. At all. Guess that potbelly is not a hay belly.
There are a variety of reasons a pasture can become loaded with worms and that a horse can subsequently adopt said worms. Our pastures are Bermuda grass, kept mowed short for weed and tick control (ticks are HORRID here) and dragged once or twice a week. Of course, the shorter your grass is, the more densely packed the worms are on the blade. And the more you drag when the weather is warm, the more worms are spread around. But if you don't drag, you have poop hell and the flies dance a dance of joy, unless you follow your horse around with a pitchfork and a bucket. And the longer you let your grass grow, the more ticks and weeds you get. Seems to me we have a near-impossible situation, but BO is in charge of pasture management, so that is something beyond my control. And obviously what we do works at least some of the time -- of four horses who got a fecal last fall, all were clean except one who just had a few scattered worms (he is an old guy).
So. Solo gets the weekend off anyway, as I will be gone. I jammed a tube of moxidectin in his mouth when I brought him back to the farm, horrified that my horse is parasite-ridden despite my attempts at perfect wormer application.. Starting next week, I will start rehab work (volume II) and see if we get some more improvement this time. I'll have blood results tomorrow, so that may give me some more information as well. I suspect the gum issues may be related to the parasite load, but that I am not sure of yet.
We also got a new (improved!) worming schedule. *drumroll* For agressive parasite control, worm every six weeks with:
Winter: (1) Panacur/Safeguard (fenbendazole)
(2) Quest/Quest Plus (moxidectin; Quest Plus
[moxidectin/praziquantel blend] is currently not
available but company swears they will start
making it again soon)
Spring: (1) Zimectrin Gold/Equimax
(see generic ivermectrin warning here)
(2) Quest/Quest Plus
Summer: (1) Panacur/Safeguard
(2) Guess what? Quest/Quest Plus
Fall: (1) Strongid (pyrantel pamoate)
(2) You know it, Quest/Quest Plus
In addition, make sure you worm for tapeworms at least 2x per year (praziquantel does this).
If Solo is still showing signs of issues after we clean this mess up, then we will try feeding psyllium for a week and/or treating for ulcers. I am hoping that will not be an issue... I will never know what he did to himself. Most likely, he slipped in the pasture and just slammed his hips playing. But what I beg/plead/gasp/hope/want now is for him to get better!!