We Have A Plan
Dr. Jo came out this morning for fall shots and to take a look at my little problem child and see what the heck is going on with his hind end these days.
I hopped on Dino for a quick ride before Dr. Jo arrived, and he did feel a bit better in the walk and trot. Mainly more balanced, and he was able to go from trot to walk and consistently step under in the down transition, which is more than I could say for him on Sunday. Canter still felt pretty crappy, but I'll take what I can get at this point.
Once it was our turn to talk to the vet, I gave Dr. Jo the rundown of Dino's mystery hind end thing. One of the first things she said was that the change of seasons can affect soundness in horses with Cushing's, since it triggers hormonal changes and their hormones are already wacky, going from summer to fall just seriously whacks them out on all fronts. I actually did not know this, and it makes a lot of sense since Dino started having issues pretty much on the dot of the Autumn Equinox, and the weather here has been absolutely nuts lately.
Dr. Jo palpated Dino's back, which was of course flawless and not sore anywhere. He's a freak of nature. We then put Dino in the round pen to free lunge and just watch him go. Dr. Jo thought he looked great, actually, and the only "lameness" she saw was a slight shortness all the way around when he started out, which he worked out of quickly, and a tiny little hitch in his right stifle, which I already knew about and have been dealing with since I got Dino. So far so good.
Next came the flexion tests. I was most curious to see the results of the flexions since, aside from x-rays, a flexion test is a sure-fire way to find joint problems. Dino's left hind leg flexed 100% sound. His right hind leg showed, again, a SLIGHT something in the stifle. Absolutely nothing else popped up.
The results were in, and Dr. Jo gave me my options. I could either take x-rays to really target what was going on in his stifles, and then inject the joints if we found significant reason to, inject the stifles anyway without doing x-rays, or start with a course of estrone injections.
Not wanting to go poking needles into my pony's joint capsules quite yet, I opted for the estrone.
Estrone is a synthetic hormone. The real deal is found in women, and is the stuff that allows the pelvic ligaments in a female body to stretch and relax in order to accommodate the birth process. So, when injected into a being not trying to birth out other little beings, it helps tight ligaments become flexible. When combined with fitness and strength training, estrone can get muscles and ligaments that are weak and out of sync to start working together again, thereby increasing performance.
Since I won't get a chance to ride for the next five days, come Monday Dino will get his first estrone shot and we'll start doing hill work to engage his hindquarters, as well as strengthen the gaskin muscles that will support and protect his stifles.
Here's hoping we see some improvement!
I hopped on Dino for a quick ride before Dr. Jo arrived, and he did feel a bit better in the walk and trot. Mainly more balanced, and he was able to go from trot to walk and consistently step under in the down transition, which is more than I could say for him on Sunday. Canter still felt pretty crappy, but I'll take what I can get at this point.
Once it was our turn to talk to the vet, I gave Dr. Jo the rundown of Dino's mystery hind end thing. One of the first things she said was that the change of seasons can affect soundness in horses with Cushing's, since it triggers hormonal changes and their hormones are already wacky, going from summer to fall just seriously whacks them out on all fronts. I actually did not know this, and it makes a lot of sense since Dino started having issues pretty much on the dot of the Autumn Equinox, and the weather here has been absolutely nuts lately.
Dr. Jo palpated Dino's back, which was of course flawless and not sore anywhere. He's a freak of nature. We then put Dino in the round pen to free lunge and just watch him go. Dr. Jo thought he looked great, actually, and the only "lameness" she saw was a slight shortness all the way around when he started out, which he worked out of quickly, and a tiny little hitch in his right stifle, which I already knew about and have been dealing with since I got Dino. So far so good.
Next came the flexion tests. I was most curious to see the results of the flexions since, aside from x-rays, a flexion test is a sure-fire way to find joint problems. Dino's left hind leg flexed 100% sound. His right hind leg showed, again, a SLIGHT something in the stifle. Absolutely nothing else popped up.
The results were in, and Dr. Jo gave me my options. I could either take x-rays to really target what was going on in his stifles, and then inject the joints if we found significant reason to, inject the stifles anyway without doing x-rays, or start with a course of estrone injections.
Not wanting to go poking needles into my pony's joint capsules quite yet, I opted for the estrone.
Estrone is a synthetic hormone. The real deal is found in women, and is the stuff that allows the pelvic ligaments in a female body to stretch and relax in order to accommodate the birth process. So, when injected into a being not trying to birth out other little beings, it helps tight ligaments become flexible. When combined with fitness and strength training, estrone can get muscles and ligaments that are weak and out of sync to start working together again, thereby increasing performance.
Since I won't get a chance to ride for the next five days, come Monday Dino will get his first estrone shot and we'll start doing hill work to engage his hindquarters, as well as strengthen the gaskin muscles that will support and protect his stifles.
Here's hoping we see some improvement!
I honestly did not know estrone therapy was a thing. Interesting, thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteInjecting stifles is such a crapshoot IMO because the joint is so large. I know one lady at our barn thought it was a mistake to inject her mare's stifles earlier this year. That being said we should do all we can to keep our ponies happy and healthy and whatever route you go will be the right thing for Dino.
ReplyDeleteHope it works!
ReplyDelete