Post by Vida on Mar 12, 2003 0:25:14 GMT -5
Thanks you guys. To answer some questions, when you see him from far away, his body looks likes it's in pain as he stands and moves so funky. But when you see him up close and can see his eyes, they're usually bright as a button and look happy or content for the most part. That's why it's been so hard to make a decision as I generally go from the eyes. About the only time they go dull except for a rough day here and there is when his feet abcess but those episodes finished last summer and he hasn't had one since. They also go dull when a stranger comes - he seems very scared of adults he doesn't know. He's a little naughty and bites me often, but soft nips and lets go if he feels skin. His coat is soft, thick and shiney, not dull and lifeless. His front feet just suck and he has no flexion in one pastern plus it's a little knuckled over. They'll never get better than what they are this stage and he stands on his toes. Today the little bugger was cantering when we went for our walk. He's very surefooted on those crappy front feet of his even with the locked pastern (and the other one isn't far behind). His trouble is more in his hips, back and internally. His back feet are in fabulous condition although the pasterns are sunk. Although he's no longer peeing blood, his urine is still super dark and always has been. When he first gets up, he sometimes stands normalish but as he gets tired, he rocks back hard and humps his back. He lays alot but seems very content doing it. He seems relatively content in his body, maybe because he's been that way for so long. It's like he's a prisoner in his own body and he's accepted it for what it is. Except on a rare occasion, he does not move unless I move him or the other horses move him. He doesn't try to do anything on his own. He won't go to get a drink of water on his own. Either the horses shove him over to the water tank or I take him a bucket of water. The same thing with hay - either I or the horses have to move him to the hay pile. If he wants to go somewhere, he stands there shaking his head up and down at me until I tell him to move. The stupid thing is I don't do anything, just tell him to walk on and then off he goes for a couple of steps. Then he shakes his head again at me and then I tell him to move on again and we do this until he gets to where he wants to go. I can do this from a chair! Even if I put his feed bucket three feet in front of him, he'll stand there shaking his head at me until I tell him to move to go to it. He has goobies in his eyes every morning which we clean every day and gets a bad build up of plaque on the teeth which the vet takes off whenever he comes. He doesn't look as much that he's in pain although looking at his body, he should. He looks more tired than anything and lays alot. I mess with him about an hour a day as he takes a long time to clean up and then we go for a walk. If we walk too long, his front legs start to shake, especially after trotting and cantering. I make him do at least one little trot a day if not more so that he doesn't forget that he can move on his own! If I push him too hard, he kicks me and I have two sets of scar tissue on my thighs. The other factors against him is that when the bugs come, he doesn't make any effort to get rid of them and they bite him like crazy and he's miserable. I can no longer trim his feet as my back just hurts too much down at his level and the farrier I had out to do him won't come back as I was a little short with him when he pared under the coffin bone when he looked at one of my other horses as we were discussing something (I think that's about the 4th farrier I've burnt bridges with!). If he's not trimmed every couple of weeks, he starts to knuckle over and trip on our walks. He can only canter when his feet are really short all the way around.
The vet hasn't called back yet.
The vet hasn't called back yet.
