Or Not...
I went out today to ice Dino's weird puffy leg and see how he was doing, and the puffiness was less of an amorphous blob near his splint bone and more like a... vein. A really puffy vein. I made Jess feel it too, and she agreed with me that we were looking at a vein in his leg that was swollen for whatever reason, and not a popped splint, even though it was very close to one of his older, set splints.
Weird.
We also threw him on the lunge line for a bit to see how he was feeling, and since Jess has a better eye for lameness than I do, I really wanted her to watch Dino move. In an improvement from yesterday, he was willing to march right out at the walk instead of crawling along like a slug. But both Jess and I still saw a slight shortness in the left front at a slow jog, though once I pushed Dino into a faster trot and canter, neither of us could see any lameness whatsoever. We both agreed that he showed an overall reluctance to use himself, but aside from the slight occasional bobble at the jog, we couldn't identify much of a definitive issue.
My game plan remains to continue icing, since obviously there is some kind of inflammation going on there, to stick with a week of time off to start with, and reevaluate from there. I'm also considering having Paula out to massage him and see if that makes a difference. He may have just tweaked something and just needs a little vacation to heal. My other thought is that perhaps Dino is starting to go through some arthritic changes, which wouldn't necessarily be a terrible thing since arthritis is generally very manageable.
At least he decided to do this to himself when it's cold and nasty out!
Weird.
We also threw him on the lunge line for a bit to see how he was feeling, and since Jess has a better eye for lameness than I do, I really wanted her to watch Dino move. In an improvement from yesterday, he was willing to march right out at the walk instead of crawling along like a slug. But both Jess and I still saw a slight shortness in the left front at a slow jog, though once I pushed Dino into a faster trot and canter, neither of us could see any lameness whatsoever. We both agreed that he showed an overall reluctance to use himself, but aside from the slight occasional bobble at the jog, we couldn't identify much of a definitive issue.
My game plan remains to continue icing, since obviously there is some kind of inflammation going on there, to stick with a week of time off to start with, and reevaluate from there. I'm also considering having Paula out to massage him and see if that makes a difference. He may have just tweaked something and just needs a little vacation to heal. My other thought is that perhaps Dino is starting to go through some arthritic changes, which wouldn't necessarily be a terrible thing since arthritis is generally very manageable.
At least he decided to do this to himself when it's cold and nasty out!
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