Poor Filly. She really has been having a tough time recently.
A few weeks ago we found that she had a sore back and so took the descision not to ride her for a while in order to allow it to recover and to get our osteopath over to look at her. (Top tip. If you find a good osteopath don't tell anyone else. She is now so booked up it takes ages to get an appointment !)
The osteo said it was not the riding or the saddle that had caused the soreness but probably just the exuberance she puts into play sometimes. Believe me it is exuberant. When she get like this I just let her work it out of her system for a little while, then gently start redirecting her and getting her to connect to me. Within five minutes she is as attentive a horse as you could want, but shutting her down when she really wants to play would have the precise opposite effect.
So no riding had happened for a while. Then the weather in the UK, believe it or not became hot bringing with it a load of flies. I think she then got bitten on her eyelid which swelled up so much she couldn't open that eye. We bathed it and kept her in out of the heat as much as possible. I also put her fly mask on, which I had avoided as she dislikes it so much.
Monday night I spent at Aikido where etiquette quite rightly says no mobile phones. To be honest our DoJo is pretty relaxed about this if we need to be contactable for work, but prefers them off if possible. After the session at around 10:30pm I switched mine back on to get a message that Filly had been kicked in the field and was now in her stable. I dashed to the yard to see her and found a small raw area on the front of her right rear cannon bone. She was fully weighting it whilst resting the left hind. Didn't look too bad so I went home to bed.
The next morning I went back to the yard to check on her. The eye had swollen up again and I also heard the saga of the night before. A gelding had gotten into the mares field and in the ensuing rucus Filly had been kicked. When the staff finally managed to sort things out (they had thankfully come back to the yard when they heard there was a problem) they brought Filly in. I was told she was hopping lame and would barely weight the leg at all.
What with the eye and the leg enough was enough. I called the vet. I then actually had a pleasant sunny wait for the vet, just spending time hanging out with Filly in her box and the yard staff for coffee. The vet arrived, by which time of course the eye swelling had gone down and she looked even better on the leg. However, given the site of the kick straight onto bone he decided we should get it x-rayed to rule out the possibility of a hairline fracture and disappeared off to get the x-ray machine.
He came back some hours later with an assistant. After Filly's initial suspicion of the apparatus we managed to get some good x-rays of her leg which showed a) there was no hairline fracture and b) she had broken the leg in the past and it had healed naturally and well !
So the initial panic was over. However the vet still wanted Filly to stay in the box for the next ten days in case a sequestrum formed. Rather than describe it here is a nice link to a website which gives a good explanation Sequestrum .
So we are keeping Filly in in case a part of her bones is damaged and will x-ray it again in around 10 to 14 days to see if there is a problem. If not she can go straight back out and also be ridden. If there is then it's 6 to 8 weeks of box rest while the bone heals itself.
Now the main problem is keeping her entertained whilst she is confined to quarters. It also gives me a chance to work on all sorts of little projects I have been putting off. Haltering her whilst kneeling down for example. Actually we cracked that one today :)
A few weeks ago we found that she had a sore back and so took the descision not to ride her for a while in order to allow it to recover and to get our osteopath over to look at her. (Top tip. If you find a good osteopath don't tell anyone else. She is now so booked up it takes ages to get an appointment !)
The osteo said it was not the riding or the saddle that had caused the soreness but probably just the exuberance she puts into play sometimes. Believe me it is exuberant. When she get like this I just let her work it out of her system for a little while, then gently start redirecting her and getting her to connect to me. Within five minutes she is as attentive a horse as you could want, but shutting her down when she really wants to play would have the precise opposite effect.
So no riding had happened for a while. Then the weather in the UK, believe it or not became hot bringing with it a load of flies. I think she then got bitten on her eyelid which swelled up so much she couldn't open that eye. We bathed it and kept her in out of the heat as much as possible. I also put her fly mask on, which I had avoided as she dislikes it so much.
Monday night I spent at Aikido where etiquette quite rightly says no mobile phones. To be honest our DoJo is pretty relaxed about this if we need to be contactable for work, but prefers them off if possible. After the session at around 10:30pm I switched mine back on to get a message that Filly had been kicked in the field and was now in her stable. I dashed to the yard to see her and found a small raw area on the front of her right rear cannon bone. She was fully weighting it whilst resting the left hind. Didn't look too bad so I went home to bed.
The next morning I went back to the yard to check on her. The eye had swollen up again and I also heard the saga of the night before. A gelding had gotten into the mares field and in the ensuing rucus Filly had been kicked. When the staff finally managed to sort things out (they had thankfully come back to the yard when they heard there was a problem) they brought Filly in. I was told she was hopping lame and would barely weight the leg at all.
What with the eye and the leg enough was enough. I called the vet. I then actually had a pleasant sunny wait for the vet, just spending time hanging out with Filly in her box and the yard staff for coffee. The vet arrived, by which time of course the eye swelling had gone down and she looked even better on the leg. However, given the site of the kick straight onto bone he decided we should get it x-rayed to rule out the possibility of a hairline fracture and disappeared off to get the x-ray machine.
He came back some hours later with an assistant. After Filly's initial suspicion of the apparatus we managed to get some good x-rays of her leg which showed a) there was no hairline fracture and b) she had broken the leg in the past and it had healed naturally and well !
So the initial panic was over. However the vet still wanted Filly to stay in the box for the next ten days in case a sequestrum formed. Rather than describe it here is a nice link to a website which gives a good explanation Sequestrum .
So we are keeping Filly in in case a part of her bones is damaged and will x-ray it again in around 10 to 14 days to see if there is a problem. If not she can go straight back out and also be ridden. If there is then it's 6 to 8 weeks of box rest while the bone heals itself.
Now the main problem is keeping her entertained whilst she is confined to quarters. It also gives me a chance to work on all sorts of little projects I have been putting off. Haltering her whilst kneeling down for example. Actually we cracked that one today :)
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