Rock and Racehorses: The Blog

Monday, 1/9/12

On Monday night, I longed Wizard, just to give him a little exercise. We basically repeated our Sunday session, but it was a little shorter. I saw a little shortness in his right front when he warmed up, but it went away by the time he was done. Videos above of him longeing. It’s not easy to longe and film! I could not really rate him, so he rushed to the right and plodded to the left, ha ha. I’ve gotta practice. I usually use my phone but I shot an actual video this time.

On Tuesday morning, my vet called me with his Lyme Disease test results. Here are his values (Cornell Multiplex Test):

Acute = 7,000
Chronic = 9,500
Vaccination = nil

My vet explained that his acute levels are on the high end of the spectrum, and the chronic values are in the middle range of the spectrum. She prescribed three months of doxycyclene administered twice daily.

Wizard’s history and symptoms:

– Sensitivity to grooming and touch. People said it was a “Thoroughbred thing”, but he would sometimes jolt like he was zapped by an electric fence if I touched him, even very lightly with my fingers.
– Grouchiness about blanketing and saddling.
– Seasonal crankiness under saddle. In the spring and summer, he would practically improve with every ride. In the winter and sometimes fall, he did a lot of ear-pinning under saddle. Tail-swishing, a little kicking at the girth. He was worst at the canter, but also sometimes really irritated at the trot. On a really loose rein at the walk, I could get him to relax, but as soon as I took contact and his topline changed, he would get worked up. He also seemed to have difficulty with upward transitions. He was never bad, but he was “not right”- something was bothering him. I’ve been suspecting SI joint/back, and that was going to be our next line of examination.
– Occasional body soreness. My friend does massage work with him, and sometimes he was really tense.
– Chiropractically all over the map. He never had one particular thing that was always “out”. It was usually a few things here and there.
– Occasional minor lameness in different legs. No swelling or heat, and it always resolved itself with a few days of rest.
– Occasional stumbling.
– Some difficulty maintaining weight. He did not lose an extreme amount of weight, but he seems to not hold his weight as well as he did in the past.
– Occasional odd/quirky behavior. He did not get lethargic- he was the opposite- keyed up for no good reason, overreacting to things, etc.

These are the things I tried:

– 30 days of omeprazole (the blue pop rocks)
– 3 weeks of Mag-Restore
– Nightly Back on Track blanketing
– Massage
– Chiropractic
– Bought a new (used) saddle
– Decreased activity
– Increased activity
– Bute as an experiment. He warmed up a little faster and moved a little nicer than before, but it did not resolve the under-saddle issues.
– The vet did a basic lameness evaluation and did not locate any issues that should have caused his problems. She located minor issues, but nothing that should prevent him from doing the low-level work that we do. When she did the exam, she said to try the Lyme test as the next diagnostic step if he did not improve, and we did.
– The vet did a basic neurological exam and did not see any issues.
– Shoeing changes

So now we have a diagnosis and a treatment plan. If only I could get him to eat the medicine in his grain now…