Wednesday, March 5, 2014

It Never Ends...

It's been awhile. For some reason I am just not good at keeping up with this thing lol, but I swear I am going to really try to make regular posts.

So, just like everyone else living in this Wintery hell, I'm sick of it, it just seems like it's never going to end. Everything around here is either a sheet of ice or a foot of hard crunchy snow, and it's making everything miserable. I mean you know that Winter has overstayed it's welcome when the animals don't want to play in it. My poor dogs (Zoey and Mini) are having such a hard time finding a place to go to the bathroom, because they are having trouble walking on the hard snow. The horses who LOVE the snow, are sick of it as well. When I let them out of the barn in the morning, they stop look at the snow/ice and sigh before walking the rest of the way into the paddock. Me, I've always hated the Winter, I don't find anything fun about freezing temperatures, hard ground, snow, ice, and whatever else comes with Winter. The worst part about the Winter, I can't ride, not cool, I haven't ridden since November.

Of course even if the weather and ground wasn't the way it is, I still wouldn't be able to ride both of the horses. I'd be able to get Nosey going and start getting him back in shape, but not the princess. So, Miss Wind is having issues once again! It seems like it never ends when it comes to this mare and health issues, if it's not one thing it's another. I just want to enjoy my horse and not have to worry about whats wrong with her this time, and the cost that comes with figuring it out. Its all so frustrating, I haven't had a good year without an issue, with this horse since 2010.

The problem this time, started about in November, when Wind began having intermittent, shifting lameness. At first I chalked it up to her just having an episode of tying up, but after giving her time and following the protocol I have for when she does have an episode, there was no improvement. Over time other symptoms started showing up. She became sensitive to touch all over, but she was especially sore in back/loin area, and would drop to the floor at the slightest touch. The other symptom that showed up, which is the biggest one, is that Wind has become VERY moody, and not just mare moody, she has become aggressive, aggressive towards both people and Nosey. She's constantly pinning her ears flat back, baring her teeth, trying to bite and kick. The biggest thing about her aggression is that she is viciously going after Nosey, especially when he is down trying to roll, it's very scary, she's come close to seriously hurting him a few times. Now this behavior is very much out of the norm for Wind, we have always joked and said that Wind is a Gelding stuck in a Mares body.

 All of her symptoms, were those of a horse with Lyme Disease, so I decided to have the vet out and pull a Lyme titer. The vet agreed that it could be Lyme, and that the test was a good start. He also said that if is not Lyme Disease there is a possibility that it could be Ovarian Tumors, which commonly causes the horse to act like an aggressive Stallion.

Today I received the results of Miss Wind's Lyme titer, it came back negative. It's horrible to say, but I really wish that it came back positive, cause if it did I would at least  know what is wrong with her and we could begin treatment and be on our merry way to getting back to work. So, now we are back at square one, and have to do more diagnostics to try and figure out what the issue is. The next step is to test for the Ovarian Tumors, and if it's not that then I don't know what would be next, but hopefully we will be able to get some answers soon, since I am going to use Tufts for the rest of the diagnostic testing. So, keep your fingers crossed and I shall keep you all updated.


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