Second Treatment

I’m very grateful that I have a husband who understand animals and is supportive of my horse hobby. He was on board with me getting a follow up treatment for Scarlet 2 weeks after the first one, even though its an extra expense for us. It worked out great as Scarlet had a farrier visit on Thursday. It was just as bad, if not worse than the last one.

My farrier does a good job and he listened to me saying Scarlet needed a break. It is just very hard on him. I don’t think it helps that he has little muscling at this point. But we got it done over the course of an hour. I was very nervous about what he would look like the next day balance wise.

Miffed that I pulled out my phone and not another cookie for him.

Friday he seemed pretty good. It had poured overnight and the ground was super super slippery. I’d been planning on giving him a day off after the shoeing so it worked out well. I could still get to all his feet and do his exercises with him so he seemed to be okay. Less sore than I had expected.

The soreness just came later. Saturday Scarlet was definitely having issues. He was leaning to the side a lot and had difficulties letting me pick his hooves. Sunday was even worse. I couldn’t pick up the left hind, the one he supports himself with, to clean it. We truncated his stretches since he was having issues balancing. It was painful to watch him hobble around his stall. I was very, very worried. I’d talked to the vet on Friday and had an appointment scheduled for Monday morning though. Pretty much as soon as I could manage it after the farrier visit.

Monday morning lean, which is better than the previous day.

The vet came and did her thing this morning. He actually looked better when I was out there before she came. A bit less unbalanced and I could pick up all his hooves and do his stretches, though it was difficult. He relaxed into his acupuncture and PEMF and was moving better by the time we were done. I’m looking forward to tomorrow to see how he does walking around a bit.

I’d asked last time about balance boards and she did a bit of research into it. She thinks it will be okay if we do the firmest boards and start small and carefully. So I’m going to look into that to see what the cost of the boards would be.

I’m so glad I could get a treatment into him asap after the farrier visit. I just hope that we can slowly work our way back up with walking again. Regaining some muscle would greatly help with these types of problems. But trying to regain the muscle causes soreness problems. Its a delicate balance I’m working with. Luckily, it will be dry for a while so we can go for walks and work our way up from there.

Rain, Rain Go Away

It’s been raining a lot this last week. Its quite frustrating. I can’t get Scarlet out to walk when it’s raining because its too slippery outside his stall. I don’t think the exercise is worth potentially causing him to get injured more by slipping.

What it looks like when it gets really raining. 

I did manage to get him out for a short walk on Monday. The rain had dried up a bit then and I was able to get him out and walk back and forth on a short dry patch near his stall. He seemed to be enjoying it. It was nice and sunny so I think he was happy with it.

I was able to schedule a vet visit on Thursday. It was pouring intermittently that day so I was concerned about doing anything outside of his stall. The river in front of his stall was there and it was slippery enough that I was slipping. It had been raining all week so I’d warned the vet that we might not be able to do anything more than the acupuncture.

She surprised me by having a long extension cord. So we were able to plug that in to the aisle of Scarlet’s mare motel and do both the acupuncture and PEMF. I was really pleased with that. She told me that his asymmetrical nerve regrowth is normal and that I should expect it. I told her about a recommendation I’d received regarding balance pads and wanted to know what she thought. She hadn’t done much research on them so she noted that and said she’d get back to me.

The day after, it was still too wet to get Scarlet out, though the rain had stopped. He seemed to be a bit more evenly balanced. Still more on the left leg than the right but less so. On Saturday, we got out for a short little walk. He did okay considering there were a lot of tight turns due to our small area to walk. Those load up his legs more and make it difficult for him.

Sunday, it was fairly dry so we got about a 4 minute walk along our normal route. We probably could have gone further as the ground was good but I learned my lesson about pushing past what we should be doing. I got the distance right I think. Scarlet never struggled on our walk. He had a few bobbles on the way back to his stall but he was able to do every part of the walk easier than before. I think he was more balanced overall.

I have another appointment in 2 weeks as it’s easier to cancel than it is to get on the schedule. I do want to keep it and then see if he can go for a while after that. I just need to figure out how that fits into the budget.

Sometimes Plan Don’t Work

Sometimes plans just don’t actually work out. I’d scheduled a vet visit for Thursday and our first BEMER treatment on Friday. But neither of those happened.

The vet had to cancel due to having a lot of emergencies. It happens so I can’t be upset but I definitely was disappointed. I wanted Scarlet to get some treatment from her and I wanted to talk to her about other things that I could do to help with the asymmetrical nerve healing.

I wasn’t sure how that appointment would have gone. Its so soupy that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to try taking him out. I was thinking we could at least do the acupuncture in his stall but we wouldn’t be able to get to the outlets for the PEMF. We are supposed to reschedule for next week. I hope that the rain slows down at bit so that the ground solidifies a bit.

The BEMER lad also had to cancel day of. She has a cracked rib and it got strained so she wouldn’t be able to do her treatments. I didn’t find that out until I was already at the barn at our appointment time waiting. It isn’t such an inconvenience for me as it would be for other people but it still was frustrating.

So, two treatment options and none of them worked out. I will be trying to reschedule both of them but I really wanted it to work out sooner so that he could get some assistance asap.

Future Hopes

Scarlet is still doing meh. Its been useful to actually have written records of what I’m actually doing each day. He does okay some days and then bad some other days. We haven’t gotten consistently past 6 minutes. I’ve been able to pinpoint what it looks like is the problem to me.

I believe his nerves are returning asymmetrically in his hind. He can definitely feel his left leg. He rests almost all of his weight on that leg when he is just standing. He can shift his weight onto the right leg for picking his feet. But not for long. And it takes some maneuvering sometimes. When walking, he generally is able to walk using his right hind. He searches for the ground a bit with it but walks out of it.

The issues happen when he is having a bad day of feeling on his right hind. He overbalances on the left and then tries to catch himself. Which ends up being an awkward scramble sideways where his hind falls out from under him. Its pretty scary to watch and concerning because he sometimes doesn’t have the ability to stop himself.

I have contacted the vet but I’m still waiting to be on the schedule. L gave me the info for a BEMER practitioner. Its similar to PEMF but is much cheaper per session. I don’t know for sure if PEMF is what helps Scarlet or if it is the acupuncture. At $30 bucks, its worth a few tries to see if he reacts well to BEMER. Our first session is on Friday. I plan to be there for it.

Lina is being a puppy. She’s sleeping a bit better. I think she wakes me up once a night on average. That’s not to terrible in my book. And it is only going to get better from here. She and my husband still aren’t clicking. I think she will be more my dog than his in the long run. She seems to see him more as a toy and a playmate rather than someone who she will obey.

Given their issues, we decided to try a puppy training class for them. We got a recommendation from Carey. There are classes for not fully vaccinated puppies where they take extra care to make sure they are safe. We tried one on Saturday and it… didn’t go so well. Lina is really really shy. And she freaked out and fear peed when she got cornered to be sniffed by a few puppies. The trainer suggested we try the petite and shy class next Saturday. We are definitely doing that. Lina needs a lot of socialization to get over the being super scared. She may never be super outgoing, but I do not want her to stay fearful of other dogs. She is young though, just under 3 months old so she has plenty of time to learn.