Amazing!

Took Lutine for a walk down the little stony lane that runs along the side of our property. She was wearing her boots all round and I've now put the firmer red comfort pads in too see if they offer a bit more support. The medium density black ones had totally squashed down whereas the red ones are resisting very well. I think that she's really quite a big horse - must be around 525kg+ now - plus she's tall at 167cm/16.3hh and the medium density pads were just not offering enough support and comfort.

Well! Lutine absolutely stomped down the lane with the biggest, most swinging stride I've ever seen her do and what was even better was that she's all but stopped doing that funny hop-into-trot transition. The osteo had commented that this was related to the D10 and D18 osteopathic lesions but I'd not been completely sure. It seems she was right!

Gimpy foot is almost better

I went away with work for a day and a half and Lutine was left in the sand round pen with hay and water during that time (of course, the rest of my family were here so she was being looked after and fed as normal). As I came back, I could see immediately that she was much better. No limping as such, just the slightest lift of the head as her foot went down. I put her Easyboots on her front feet and went to put her back in the normal paddock but she decided to have a hoon about and was trotting and cantering about taking big long strides, again with only the slightest indication from her head carriage that she wasn't fully weighting the front foot. I think now she must have just bruised her foot and this was being aggravated by not being allowed to rest it properly.

This is a good sign though - she recovered this time after just a couple of days' rest. I remember when it used to take two weeks for her to get over a set back. I am going to put her boots on all 4 feet later and just take her for a walk down the lane, see how she gets on.

That 4 letter word beginning with W...

I made the mistake of uttering that 4 letter word-that-should-never-be-spoken within Lutine's earshot

W-O-R-K

And what should I find on Saturday? A horse limping about with either a stone bruise (in other words, self inflicted and probably intentional!!) or an abscess. I could kick myself for being silly enough to actually PLAN to do something with her on the Sunday. Anyway, one of the other horses was picking on her and this was just going to aggravate the sore foot so I've put her in the round pen on the flat sand base. She's getting better, bit by bit, though if she spots me watching her I'm convinced she gimps about just a bit more than necessary. And then her back left leg started swelling in sympathy - just for good measure.

Luckily, I had an order of Global Herbs in today so had some stuff at hand to give to her (Restore plus Lymph Blend). I'm getting so used to her now and, by hook or by crook, that horse is going to get to W-o-R-k soon!!

Couple of good articles for navicular and pelvic misalignment

Sorry, you'll have to cut and paste 'em.

The first is on navicular:

http://www.alternativevet.org/WS133-07.pdf

But then there's a link to pelvic misalignment, which the osteopath found on both visits with Lutine:

http://www.alternativevet.org/WS108-07.pdf

Interesting in that it says the pelvic misalignment is often on the opposite diagonal to the affected 'navicular' foot. In the old vet report I have in her passport, the limb being examined and X rayed is the front right leg - so that fits. However, that foot doesn't actually cause her any trouble any more! If anything, it's her front left foot that has niggled her. But, given the first osteopathic evaluation that showed all the stiffness/blockages in that whole leg, plus the lesion at D10 on that side this time, could it be that we're dealing with residual issues to do with her compensating somehow? Interesting thought...

As for a brief update - well, she's still on her 3 day rest period but for sure, I'm finding her stood square at the back now much more often and she's even been resting the left hind leg (was almost always one hind foot further forward than the other or resting right hind). I also think that she's holding her tail higher when she walks, which I hadn't expected as it was never held to one side which is the most often quoted indicator.

Osteopath results

It's so interesting to have someone else to talk to about Lutine! Anyway, the osteopath came and did an evaluation and then some movements to help Lutine. She noted that her neck was much freer and had not regained the 'lesions' (dunno the appropriate term in English for this) from before but she noted that the pelvis was more forward on her left side than her right side and hence wasn't fully mobile and wasn't being used symmetrically. This fits with the issues she has had in canter where on one rein she uses both hinds together rather than stepping under with the leading hind and supporting herself on it. Also it had caused an irritation at L6, which in turn was irritating the sciatic nerve. This potentially explains the 'shivers' type leg-hiking Lutine sometimes has on that left hind leg and the reason why she struggles to hold it up for the farrier. Finally, there were a couple of niggles along the dorsal vertebrae. Again, the blockage at D10 on the left side fits with the little hop she makes in the trot transition on that side. But it was so interesting to see her do proper carrot stretches all the way round towards her flanks. I never thought I would see her neck so flexible!

So the programme is now 3 days of rest followed by 8 days with lots of walking, up and down hills especially then a return to work but with lots of straight lines to allow her the opportunity to regain strength and symmetry in the left hind leg.

Photos show her visit paper from March 06 and today.

March 06 (two months after arriving here)













Today

Equine Osteopath coming on Wednesday.

I've got the equine osteopath coming on Wednesday this week to see Lutine. I want to get her checked out in time for the better weather, which I am sure is just around the corner! When I first got her she saw the osteo then too and it was notated that she had a sacroiliac subluxation. I definitely want to get her pelvis, sacral and lumbar area checked and in good order.

Laminitic hooves?

Near hind after mustang roll.

Off hind after little mustang roll applied.

Prior to mustang roll.

These are photos of Lutine's hind hooves on the first day that I went to see her in Jan 06. The extensive bruising was evident in all of the white hooves plus there seems to be such a clear event line and angle deviation in these two hind hooves. It does make me wonder again about whether she was, in fact, laminitic when I first went to see her.

Bars and heels

I may have won my bet with the farrier! We had an in-depth discussion the last time he was here, just after Christmas, because he had trimmed away her bars (to normal levels for an 'average' healthy horse) and had left her heels longer than I liked. He trimmed her heels a bit more at my request and was adamant that her bars weren't overtrimmed. I agree that he hadn't trimmed her bars too much per se but it's too much for this horse. My experience of trimming her myself for almost 2 years was that every time you try to remove those ghastly big bars and the ridge around the frog apex, she goes sore and they grow back in double quick time!! Plus, she does better in terms of soundness and how she uses the leg and foot when you just leave 'em be, within reason. We also discussed that the heel height needed to be lower because she needs to develop the caudal (heel) aspect of the foot and when she's left with high heels the reverse happens; she gets hoof contraction and central sulcus infections.

Sure enough after he'd trimmed her she was moving very short and gingerly in the paddock and he said 'that's cos you made me over trim the heels' (they were about 2mm above level of live sole at the turn of the bar) and I said 'that's cos you've trimmed off those bars!' so we agreed we would wait to see what the horse grew back in double quick time as an indicator of what should have been left.

Tee hee - the heels haven't grown back a lot but the bars have popped back as though they were never trimmed! This is how it looks after around 3 weeks post trim.



There's something about the photo that makes the heels look really uneven, but they're not. The heel on the left side of the photo is just blending into the background.

Here's the concave view showing the huge bar that's just popped straight back.



The interesting thing on this foot though is that she's started shedding an enormous wadge of frog, almost the whole thickness of the insensitive part is peeling away from the heel forwards. I checked it and it's not stinky or black under there - in fact, the new stuff looks in good order but it's a heck of a piece to shed!

Swelly Nelly Strikes Again!

Last episode of swelling.


After a bit of a walk around the field to get the circulation going.



















Swelly Nelly is her other nickname. I think it was over the winter of 2006/2007 that Lutine had 3 or 4 episodes of swollen legs. The first couple of times I did the usual thing of calling the vet, and so she was prescribed 3 - 5 days of diuretics, antibiotics and bute (equipalazone in France) each time. But the episodes were recurring every month and I was not happy about giving such drugs each time. So, the next time I saw her pasterns starting to fill I started giving her photonic therapy every 12 hours until the swelling stopped getting worse and then every 24 hours thereafter and, sure enough, after 3 days the attack had gone without the use of any drugs at all. I then started her on Global Herbs Lymph Blend, which I increased as the next episode kicked off, alongside the photonic therapy. This time, after 12 hours the swelling had stopped increasing, it was much milder than before and had completely gone within 36 hours.

Then, of course, we had the horrid 'skin explosion/creeping crud' issue over the summer, which has taken a while to shift after all manner of treatment, including several weeks of conventional vet treatment. That's now completely gone with no trace left on the near fore and there's just the tiniest streak of scabbiness on the inside of the off hind left. We've got muddy, wet fields at the moment after several weeks of rain and, though the girls are mostly under the barn where the ground is dry, they do get exposed to the mud every day. This hasn't made a jot of difference to Lutine's legs so I am again convinced that the Crud is not some kind of mud fever.

Anyway, Swelly Nelly started to swell again just before Christmas. This time I used only Apis Mel 15c, 3 times a day, for the first 48 hours and then photonic therapy for a couple of days and again, the problem had gone completely within 4 days. I re-ordered the Lymph Blend and also started her on high doses of natural Vitamin E - she gets 5250 iu in her feed per day, split over 2 feeds. This was the recommendation of a friend who used to have high level event horses - she'd found vit E useful for one of her mares who had similar issues with leg swelling/lymphangitis. High levels of Vit E is also indicated for EPSM and isn't toxic in these quantities. Anyway, since that episode and despite the very wet mud for the last few weeks, her fetlocks, pasterns and cannons are 'drier' than they've ever been with hardly any puffiness whatsoever.