Chimi Goes to the Vet and I Hear a Story From His Past

I mentioned briefly in my last post how on Monday for our lesson Chimi came up lame on his right hind. I was hoping it was the start of an abscess and that it would blow out and life would go on. Unfortunately not. Chimi never got worse and was pretty sound tracking to the left and on a straight line but was lame when I'd lunge him to the right. Damnit.

I'm innocent!!!

My farrier was coming out Wednesday to trim Chimi so I asked him if he'd hoof test him and see if he found anything (still trying to cling to hope that it was an abnormal abscess) Chimi's legs were normal as always and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't find any swelling or heat (other than his normal wind puffs on his hind legs, but they're really not that bad as far as wind puffs go)

via GIPHY

One of the first "spring" days had the ponies feeling frisky

Meanwhile Chimi's still galloping around the field, bucking and carrying on so I don't think he hurt to much. What a dorkus. :)

WEEEEEEEEEEE

Anyways Wednesday rolls around and Farrier comes to look at Chimi and he hoof tested fine on every foot except his right front. Interesting. So I decided it was time to call the vet and see what's up. They could schedule me in for an appointment at 9:30am on Thurs and wrote down "mystery lameness" as the reason for the appointment. It was a terrible night as I kept thinking about what could possibly be wrong with my horse and how many thousands of dollars I'd be willing to put into making Chimi better. Of course when you start to panic you only think about worse case scenarios!

via GIPHY

Thursday morning rolls around and off we go to the vet clinic. Chimi's a pretty chill guy and once we got there he hung out in a stall until Dr H could come and see him. Once Dr. H was free he came over and had a vet tech hold him so he could run his hands over Chimi and figure out things from there. As he's feeling Chimi's legs he comments "He has really mellowed out hasn't he? I remember him standing up on his back legs when they were trying to load him in the trailer after his colic surgery. That's when he stretched his surgical incision and caused that (pointing to his hernia)" I was like wait what? This is a story I've never heard!!!!! I knew he'd had colic surgery before I bought him and had a hernia as a result of the surgery (plus a hernia repair surgery and it still came through that) but I didn't know the exact story behind it. I laughed and told Dr H this and he was like "oh yeah, he was not a calm horse back then, he didn't even like being touched" and then he proceeded to compliment how good Chimi looked and he seemed pretty happy with the overall picture and knowing Chimi's history.  Which made me happy b/c I've worked really hard to keep Chimi in one piece and do right by him.

Must gallop to my friends who are 20 feet away!!!

It was a pretty busy day for Dr H b/c he was bouncing back and forth between Chimi and another horse there for "mystery lameness" plus there was a horse just chilling out in the day stalls probably waiting for a vet to be free to look at him, and all the horses that are currently waiting for/healing from various surgeries and whatever else would make them be overnight guests at the clinic. Plus there's a HJ show at TIEC and a lot of the vets were having to go over there for various reasons. Yep, spring show season is in the air!!!

 Anyways, back to Chimi. They ended up blocking his front right to see if it'd help his right hind lameness improve and luckily it did! I decided to go ahead and get X-rays of his front feet b/c it's something my farrier and I have talked about b/c we are constantly having a debate about "Shoes or No Shoes" for Chimi. Currently he's barefoot and has been for 4+ years. I've been hesitant to put shoes on him b/c 1) he's been fine and 2) he's barefoot b/c I couldn't keep shoes on him when I first got him. OMG it was almost a joke how long Chimi would keep his shoes on before ripping them off somewhere in the pasture. It came back that Chimi's soles are on the thinner side (Farrier has always said that, damn him for being so smart hahaha) and his angles in his front right aren't correct. His left front is great but his right front grows weird and it's been a constant battle for Farrier to try and get it correct. The X-rays also allow Farrier to see how much hoof he can take off his toe (b/c he needs less toe on that right front) without getting to close to important structures inside. Dr H recommended putting shoes on his front or getting boots of some kind for Chimi and seeing if that helps make him more comfortable. So sadly my amazing barefoot horse and cheap farrier bill will no longer be.

Bad long toe!!! Farrier has been working on fixing you but you choose to grow like a dish!!! None of the other hooves do this!!! Only you bad long toe!!!!!

As far as Chimi's right hind lameness (he was still a little off there, but much improved after blocking the right front) Dr H recommended putting him on a series of Adequan and seeing if that helps. He wanted to start more conservatively before going to injections b/c Chimi really wasn't that bad on the flexions. Yes he was a bit positive but considering he's 15 this year (next month!) the Adequan could be all that he needs. I did jokingly say "I don't want to do injections b/c he's to damn athletic and I don't know if I could stay on him if he was feeling that good!!!" Dr H laughed and said "Oh yes, that is a memory I will never forget of him standing straight up on his legs and basically walking around! He is a really athletic horse!"

Case in point- one of the MANY photos I have of Chimi over jumping

After paying and saying goodbye I loaded Chimi up and back home we went. As soon as I turned Chimi out he took off galloping up the hill to eat some grass and I laughed and shook my head. Damn horse might be lame but he's not sore enough to not enjoy himself. I really do love my quirky horse :)