Monday, January 05, 2009

Just got off the phone with my vet. He was willing to switch Tonka to tetracycline, but I haven't seen so much improvement that I feel safe doing that yet. So another bottle of Naxcel. $$$ I also asked about Bella, since she still has that hitch in her gitty-up that he thought was from a prepubic tendon strain. He said it could take a year to heal, or it could never heal. That's depressing. He couldn't recommend a supplement that would help. He mentioned Bute and arnica, but didn't want to chance the bute, and arnica is topical and I don't know where exactly to put it. I think I'll look into an herbal anti-inflammatory though. One weird thing I noticed about Bella is that her coat looks burnt on the ends. Not horribly so, but noticeable. The other horses have healthy coats. I wonder why the difference, unless it's pain related, or maybe for some reason she has different needs than the other horses. It's confusing...

We got about 10 inches of new snow, up to 3 feet where it drifted, and it's still snowing. Blech. I'm having a yucky day.
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6 comments:

Lady Of Chaos said...

You might try adding some kelp to Bella's feed. It helps with circulatory, joints, muscle condition, hair/coat, and well is just over all good for them. It might help with the tendon injury as well, definitely would help with the coat.

12:11 PM
Kara said...

That is depressing about Bella. Last year, while Chico was healing from his leg gash, his coat looked terrible. Even in June when the other two had completely shed out and were shiny, Chico still had his dull winter coat (or at least some of it) even though his gash was almost completely healed at that time. I considered supplementing him with something, but then he was put on green pasture, and in a couple weeks, he looked a lot better. I figured maybe he just needed a little something extra than the other two, then he got it on pasture.

2:28 PM
Linda said...

Blech is a good way to put it.

I knew another mare who got a gimp after childbirth and kept it for a couple of years, but she had another colt and last I heard she was doing pretty good. The docs couldn't figure it out either.

Yep, Cowboy had a bad coat during his rehab--not burnt looking at the end, but just lack-luster. My old boy, Red, has a coat that isn't quite right, too--but not bad for 29 years old. I think pain might have something to do with it--circulation problems (?). I use the Allegra Senior--maybe I'll try the kelp, too.

7:53 PM
Lea and her Mustangs said...

If you are as sick of this weather as I am we could commiserate about it. Enough already. ENOUGH. I hope you figure out about Bella. Ditto was like that after her last baby. He was huge though and I thought that was it. She got better after a while and I never bred her again.

8:38 PM
froglander said...

How hard is kelp to find? You might even just try adding some msm, I remember reading about all sorts of joint supplements when I had a mare in her teens that I was doing jumping and dressage with and just wanted to keep her going as long as possible (and boy did she love to go!). Msm can help with a variety of things, there is an article here about the anti-inflammatory and increased circulation properties of msm. Have you considered having a chiropractor look at Bella to see if maybe there is something tweaked out of whack?

Well, the crossed fingers worked for Tracy's snow, so I'll keep my fingers crossed that this bottle of Naxcel will do the trick for Tonka :)

9:48 PM
Linda said...

I agree about the MSM. I used to use it for my old guy, but when we stopped using him for 4-H, I laid off it and he seemed fine for the little work he did. I was amazed at what the supplements glucosamine and msm together did for him, though.

3:23 PM

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