Secondly - Adam is still with us!
Since starting out rehab, we went on some lovely rides, took him out quite a bit with the odd bad day with his DJD. He was starting to fitten up slightly but he was then starting to show behavioural problems all over again. He was getting grumpier with rugging, tacking up, brushing etc.
He was booked into physio (his ultimate favourite!) and we went for a ride in the morning. We met some alpacas, also well known as dinosaurs, and Adam totally flipped his lid. He got into a right old pickle with everything and continued to empty his bowels all the way home. Charming!
Popped him back out into the field and went home for a few hours. Came back for the physio at 2pm and found him very uncomfortable in the field. His stomach was banging very loudly, he was stretching his tummy out as though he was going to have a wee and wouldn't lead in from the field.
Vet was called, physio was canceled and we hoped for the best.
Vet came to see Adam for 4 days nearly every morning and evening to inject him with buscopan. He was suffering with spasmodic colic that just wouldn't shift! Possible that he actually had impaction colic and the alpacas got it moving... weird.
He stayed out in the field, to encourage grazing and movement, I checked on him every 2 hours for 4 days. Never ever have I felt quite so tired and terrified.
Kissing Spine was a walk in the park compared to this.
He eventually stopped the spazaming and the vet suggested we scoped him. He coliced on the Monday and was scoped on the Thursday. Starvation is not a fun thing!
We found glandular and squamous ulcers, which where between grade 3 and 4, poor chap was in agony.
Sent home with a massive goody bag and instructions and we started a course of Omeprazole. Annoyingly, he had both types of ulcers so it is harder to treat. So we planned on treating the squamous first and then the glandular.
This all happened in September, he was rescoped 5-6 weeks after first starting treatment and his squamous has started to heal, but the glandular had gotten worse due to the omeprazole. Near christmas time, I stressed to the vet that I wasn't seeing much improvement in his weight and himself. He scanned his colon and did a succeed faeces test to see if we had any problems with the hind gut. Surprise Surprise, he has colonic ulcers too. It literally never seems to end!
He has now finished the omeprazole and is on a gut balancer, sand supplement (smells like beef crisps) and something else that smells like paint stripper.
In the past few weeks I have started to really see an improvement. He is piling on the weight again, his mood is probably the best I have ever seen him. So fingers crossed, we are heading in the right direction.
My very poorly pony. Photos taken to send to my vet.
Here he is now, Very hairy, little bit chubby but alot happier!
Finally meeting Anna from 'horses with kissing spines' Facebook page.
My gorgeous boy enjoying a windy and wet christmas day.
During all this time, Adam threw a spanner in the works and decided to give himself a weeks box rest with the fattest legs! Photos don't actually look that bad, but vet suspected he had done his two suspensorys behind and his check ligament infront. I really did have to prepare myself for the worst that week. A weeks box rest sorted him out, and he didn't need a scan after all. turned out to be a bruised splint bone. Well done Adam. This horse needs a padded room and his legs tied together.
Ah and you have probably noticed, he is now barefoot! 4 months ago he had his shoes off, and seems to be coping very well!
Vet checkup on Friday. Lets see how that goes!
