Well, we take each day at a time. Every day that she is waiting at the gate for her feed is a good day. We had two incidents where she got stuck on my neighbor’s lawn. The first time I commandeered a UPS driver that was in the right place at the right time. We were able to get her to her feet by just pulling on her halter. (I think she needed a little moral support.) About a week later, she got stuck in the same place and my husband was able to help her up. She is no longer allowed to go to my neighbor’s lawn unsupervised. (She can’t resist the cushy grass, lays down, and gets stuck.)
So far on our property, she has not been on the ground unable to get up. Now that doesn’t mean that she isn’t struggling to rise, we just aren’t seeing it. I know she has some issues because her hocks are torn up. She is on 3 acres, and there aren’t many soft places to lay down. I purposely haven’t put out some thick straw because I’m not convinced that it will help her if she can’t get any traction to rise. In reading other posts with horses with hock sores, some people said that thicker bedding can actually create a tougher surface to rise from. For example, I don’t know if the grass is problematic because it is more slippery, and she might not be able to get traction with her stiff legs.
My vet wanted bloodwork before we moved from bute to firocoxib. They ran the blood in their office and everything was normal except that her ALT was slightly elevated. They suggested sending it out to get some refinement with some of the other liver-related blood components, but I elected to not do that. – Basically because I didn’t think it would change our behavior. Generally, my understanding is that the firocoxib would be easier on her system than bute, so we were going there anyway. And if she can’t get off the ground, then there aren’t too many options beyond that. She also wanted 5 days to let the bute leave her system before we started the firocoxib, but I only waited 24 hours. I had only been giving her 1.5 grams of bute per day for several days prior to the change – fairly low dose for a 1,400 lb horse. I didn’t think we could afford to have her without meds. That was 10 days ago. So far so good.
She is bright, hungry and still dominant over the other horses. I even saw her loping up to greet me after work.
I’m not sure how to evaluate her lameness. She does not limp. She does look like she is out of alignment when she walks. It is like the hind end tracks to the right behind her front legs. So the right hind will step about 4 inches to the right of the right front hoof print. Now I will tell you that I have never studied how she walks, and maybe she has been doing this for years.
My vet said that she seemed stiffer than what he remembered. – which without extensive analysis is about where we are at in terms of veterinary analysis – old, stiff horse.
I read one post on the internet where they said that when their horse was due for another hock injection that she would start scraping up her hocks. I still keep wondering if hock injections might help her.
My procrastination in taking this farther is that I don’t want to impact any healing that might be taking place by trailering her and trotting her up and down for a vet. I’m guessing that we are looking at x-rays at a minimum for her hocks, maybe her stifles and hips? I’m not sure how far to take this for a horse with advanced age. She will be 24 in April. (Not that old for an Arab, but pretty old for a Friesian from what I can tell.)
As far as helping her hock sores, I have ordered some hock shields (which I’m dubious if they will stay on, be tolerated, etc.) So far the most successful technique for hock protection from what I have read is a strip of duct tape. 😉 While I wait for the shield arrival, I’m going to try duct tape.
So….that’s where we are at.
Best,
Laurie