Arthritis returns?

Well, it looks like Limerick's hocks are bothering her again. It is not a severe case but I want to nip this in the bud before it gets worse.

Last night I sat down and removed all the SmartCalm from the Smartpaks she already had in her bin. Following orders of the Smartpaks will be without the SmartCalm.

If she continues to not consume her supplements then I will have to start giving them to her via oral syringe. I got into a good daily groove when I was giving her dissolved SMZs via oral syringe for some time so it won't be a big deal....and if I go on a trip, Lim is usually good for other people when they give her oral medication.

I am also considering having my new vet, Dr. Heinze, come out and meet the both of us and give Lim an injection of Adequan or Legend. I still have three vials of (good) Adequan from last winter, so this trip should not cost me much. I hope!

I can't believe how quickly Lim's winter coat has begun to grow in! Last week she was still a sleek, sassy thing. But almost overnight, she became a fuzzy darker brown. Now, either due to this (Who says mares don't have "I'm fat!" days, too!?) or because she is in heat, she's been Missy Crankypants lately.

If she were in heat, it would be a good thing....I feel like she skipped a heat cycle in September since the reproductive specialist gave her a shot of Estrumate in mid-August, thereby kick-starting her estrus cycles.

A video of Limerick

Yesterday I took a video of Limerick at walk/trot/canter in the round pen. She's been feeling a little "short" at the canter lately, although she doesn't complain when I ask her to canter, and holds it on her own just fine. In fact, she often shakes her head around or throws a mini-buck and otherwise acts like a clown when I first ask, and it's in a "Whee!" way, not a cranky-mare way.

You can see a little of that in the video. But what do you think--do you see anything here? Being ever-paranoid about her left fore foot, my brain always automatically blames that foot for every misstep she takes.

It's most likely something in her hind end, however. I suspect that thanks to the Lucky Charms-smelling SmartCalm Ultra, she hasn't been eating all of her supplements as she should. Besides the SmartCalm, she's also on Smartflex Senior for her arthritis and SmartHoof for hooves, skin, and joint health.

Hopefully taking her off that stuff, which I don't think works anyway, will help.

Limerick on YouTube

Pining for a trail ride.

I really want to get back on the trails with Lim before winter settles in. She was just okay (I’d give her a B-) during our one trail jaunt this year. I give her props for not exploding at the sight of a deer, a golf umbrella, a toddler being carried on the shoulders of an adult, absent-minded teenage girls chatting on bicycles, and a terrifying young tree menacingly tied to the ground from all angles (Lim disliked this creature the most). But she could have been far better, and I’d like to end the year on a good note with trail riding.

My typical trail ride pre-plan is to ride her for 30-60 minutes prior to leaving the property. Last time, there was an unusual July chill in the air, the sky was overcast with ominous clouds , and Lim kept shaking her head and acting goofy while I rode in the outdoor arena before hitting the trail. And the usually-calm horse we were with was spooking more than Lim. Not good signs.

I think next time I’ll ride her both days prior to the trail ride, then again for an hour before the trail ride. And I am going out with a couple horses that ride the trails multiples a week and are pretty much unfazed by anything…except maybe cougars.

Supposedly there’s a cougar loose in the Danada forest preserve area now. And why am I planning a trail ride? Well, I’m guessing the cat—if it is positively, actually there—will have moved on by then. Actually, this cougar is disrupting my running more than my riding!

No shows this year, obviously.

I realized the other day that although I was so sure I would show Lim this year, it never happened. I was either not riding because she was being insane, or I was too busy mourning the death of my marathon plans, or this, or that.

I never got serious about it!

It's a shame but not a big deal. Limerick is physically and mentally younger than her 18 years. Her fitness doesn't spring back instantly as it once did but at the same time, I am confident that she could win just about any Green As Grass class at any time, providing she behaves.

She's a push-button horse to ride. She collects automatically, many times on her own accord. She quickly remembers leg yields and circles and serpentines. In short, there's always next year or the year after that.

By the end of 2008, after first seeing her rebound from arthritis and pedal osteitis, then thinking I was going to lose her--first as a companion, then as a riding horse--I was in a hurry to show her. I thought there was no better way to celebrate our return to riding than by riding in a show. But in the end, it wasn't necessary.

On the swollen udder/pseudopregnancy front, I am still awaiting Lim's return to estrus. The first, or worst, of the signs will probably peak just as my in-laws are visiting her this weekend.

"Is Limerick always so talkative and excitable? And my, she has a weak bladder!"

"Oh, uh, heh heh..."

The strangest chapter yet.

I’ve arrived at one of the most unusual chapters of my history with Limerick.

Sometime in March, in the middle of Lim’s intense case of the spring crazies, as I groomed her I noticed her udder was a bit puffy. Since the swelling was mild and uniform, and Limerick is the type of mare that will kick your head off if you casually reach down and manhandle her udder, I decided to just keep an eye on it.

Over the next several months the swelling held steady. It intensified in late May but I was not ready to call the vet…yet. Lim was showing no signs of illness or soreness and the swelling continued to be uniform. No alarm bells were going off in my head.

Then one day in early June I noticed the udder was more swollen than ever. Now I was starting to worry a bit.

I asked a fellow boarder about it and she said it was odd. I even peeked at the udders of a couple other mares to make sure I wasn’t just “seeing” things with Lim’s udder. The teats of these mares were so tiny I could hardly find them. The vet that gave vaccinations at the barn happened to be there and I asked him to take a look at Limerick’s udder.

Several violent kicks and one very angry mare later, the vet showed me his hand—it was covered in clear liquid.

I made an appointment with my own vet. In the meantime, not being one to sit on my hands, I began Googling and looking up past articles on The Horse about mammary swelling in non-pregnant mares. According to my research, the most common cause of such swelling was an infection. However, an infection often included lopsided swelling, fever, pus or gray/chunky discharge, and lameness. Lim had none of these symptoms.

I asked a vet friend what it could be and she gave me some possibilities. I also asked a woman with more mare udder experience than I could ever have in a hundred lifetimes about what it could be. She said that sometimes infections have no clear symptoms other than swelling.

I ran through a list of possible causes.

Infection? See above.

Ovarian cysts or tumors? Ehh…these will make a mare extremely irritable or even aggressive, and Lim had been unusually sweet in the past months. In fact she was so sweet that she let me hug and cuddle her much more than she typically allowed—and she always liked it!

Allergy or trauma to the area? Due to the very slow growth of the swelling and lack of hives or lameness or other more obvious symptoms, this was seriously doubtful.

Mammary tumor? This one scared me. From what I read, while very rare, mammary tumors were almost always fatal. Symptoms were often confused with those of an infection early on, and included swelling and clear discharge.

The fact that Lim had not gone into heat since April also came to mind, as well as the knowledge that Lim’s “boyfriend” Nick mounted her in the early spring. He was busted doing this to other mares so of course he’d do it to his top girl!

During the vet visit, my vet was not in the least concerned which reassured me…a bit. Like me, she was doubtful that Limerick had an infection. She thought it could be “some kind of hormone issue” and injected Lim with progesterone and estrogen. She was also doubtful that the udder was due to an allergy but since the start of the swelling was around the time the barn switched from shavings to corn cob stall bedding, she gave me a bottle of hydroxyzine capsules to give Lim.

Two weeks later there was no change, other than Lim displaying very brief and weak heat symptoms a couple days after the injections (I would later learn this was from the estrogen injection).

I asked that she get a culture of the discharge so we could see what exactly was in there. She also drew blood to make sure everything was okay with that. The blood came back fine and the culture wasn’t bad, although it had a small population of bacteria that could be causing a problem. My vet prescribed Lim SMZ’s for an undetermined time—10 tablets twice a day.

Two weeks later they had done absolutely nil—in fact, her udder seemed a tad more swollen. I felt it was time for another opinion. My farrier recommended an equine reproductive specialist and I made an appointment with him.

This is where it gets interesting….

Lim was sedated and I positioned her for a transrectal examination and ultrasound (non-horse people: a mare’s reproductive organs are best felt through her butt. Fortunately the same doesn’t apply for humans…). The vet had his arm in there for some time. Finally, he pulled his arm out and said, “Something isn’t right.”

Now, I would usually freak out if a vet says “something isn’t right” but you know what? I got the impression that nothing was bad, just unusual. So, my curiosity at levels greater than ever, I waited.

The vet passed the ultrasound wand over Lim’s ovaries. The left one was just sitting there, doing nothing special. The right one had a white mass over it. The vet did not comment (but I would later find out that this was a corpus luteum). He passed the ultrasound wand over Lim’s uterus. Or at least, where it should be.

After a couple silent minutes he withdrew the wand. “I can’t find her uterus,” he said. “Are there any stallions on the property? It is possible she is pregnant.” What?! He explained that her uterus may be forward and down, in the pregnancy position. He said that the uterus is usually positioned in a semi-circle behind the ovaries and feels like a tubular muscle much like your forearm. Yet he did not feel or see this.

He applied more lube to the long plastic glove covering his hand and arm, and put his arm back in Lim’s butt.

Finally, he found her uterus. It was where it was supposed to be, by the ovaries, but rather than feeling like a muscle, it was thin and papery. He retrieved the ultrasound wand and passed it over her uterus again. This time he found it. The ultrasound confirmed the texture of the uterus and also revealed two harmless (and common) cysts in it.

After some discussion with the vet it was decided that since Limerick appeared to be displaying signs of false pregnancy (swollen udder, stretched-out, flaccid uterus, corpus luteum, lack of heat cycles), he would give her a shot of Estrumate, which jump-starts the mare’s hormonal cycle.

He also reviewed the results of the blood and culture tests my usual vet ran and noted that the small population of bacteria that could be causing issues was resistant to SMZs. But you know what? My vet did not clean Lim’s udder before collecting the discharge for culture, while the reproductive specialist took care to clean her udder very well before collecting discharge for his own viewing purposes. So the results of the culture could be meaningless, after all.

I was shocked, relieved, and fascinated beyond belief. I started this appointment expectant with the unknown (would he find a tumor? Confirm the infection? What?) and walked away with a tentative, rare diagnosis.

How Lim reacted to the Estrumate injection—and a follow-up visit—would confirm the diagnosis. Did I want the specialist to come back? You bet!

Two days after the Estrumate injection, as I groomed Limerick, I noticed drops of pure white liquid coming out of her udder. Wow! The stuff wasn’t clearish-white, or whitish-clear—it was definitely white. I emailed the specialist about this and he said the Estrumate would force her body into a “labor/delivery” stage, and lactation occurs when a mare (any mammal, really) delivers a baby. So the white stuff was witch’s milk.

Exactly one week after the Estrumate injection, the specialist was back to being shoulder-deep in a sedated Lim’s butt. The examination revealed her uterus had sprung back to normal, which the ultrasound confirmed. The ultrasound also showed that in place of the corpus luteum on her right ovary was a 40mm follicle—she was ovulating (but I didn’t need an ultrasound to tell me that, oh no…). The uterine cysts were still there but unchanged.

The diagnosis of false pregnancy was confirmed!

I asked the vet why this had occurred. I knew from my recent research that this typically only happens when a pregnant mare loses her embryo and the brain does not receive notification of the loss. He said maybe, just maybe, her body mis-interpreted the uterine cysts as an embryo. Personally I also think the extreme swing of her hormones in early spring, along with her boyfriend mounting her, contributed to the whole thing.

I’ve always thought Lim was special, in so many ways….now she’s practically a textbook miracle!

Now I just need to watch and see if she comes back into heat in a couple weeks. As for her udder…it is expected to remain swollen for some months, but will go down eventually.

Honest Scrap

When you receive The Honest Scrap award you must stick to some rules:
Recognize your award presenter and link back to their blog in your post.
List 10 honest things about yourself that others might not now.
Present this award to 10 admirable bloggers and link to their blogs.
Leave a comment on your recipients' blogs to let them know to visit your post to retrieve their award.

Thanks to Cathryn for the Honest Scrap award!

10 honest scraps about me that you may not know:

1. I spend a good chunk of any extra money I come across on more tattoos.

2. I *love* horror movies and watch them whenever I get a chance. From classics to laughably bad cheesefests, I love them all!

3. To save time, I sometimes go on runs from the barn and back (I head to the trails across the street).

4. I love the city and the country but hate the suburbs.

5. I seriously considered moving to New Orleans at one time.

6. I sometimes get the impression that people think I'm a snob. I'm not--not at all. I'm just shy. Or I didn't hear you.

7. I read whenever I can--magazines, books, newspapers, the backs of cereal boxes.

8. I often feel like I don't have enough time to do everything. As a result I need to pare down my life to what matters--my animals and husband, working out, my job, and sleep.

9. For the above reason, I often have oatmeal for dinner--it's quick and easy to make! (I have a big lunch to make up for it)

10. And once again, for the above reasons I rarely watch TV. However, I always try to make time for Ghosthunters, Intervention, and Obsessed (the latter makes me feel better about my own neurotics!). And I never miss True Blood.

And now time to pass my award on to 10 other bloggers....okay, 9.

Fugly Horse of the Day

The Great Fitness Experiment

Equine ER

Clinton Lake Ultra

A Trail Runner's Blog

Dirt Diva

Riding the Wind

The Jockey - Arlington Park Live

Running off Road

Another day, another floating!

Limerick officially had her fourth floating in 12 months the other day. When her teeth were last done in February, Ron Chenoweth declared her mouth a mess and stated he would need to return over the summer. Fine.

However, Lim continued to have occasional issues with chewing dry grain. She no longer dribbled it but would sometimes stop and make a yawning face, her eyes rolling about within their sockets, as if something had become stuck in her mouth. And of course, the mouthful of partially-chewed grain would drop out of her mouth. I found that wetting the grain seemed to halt this problem.

But of course, it doesn't cure the problem, does it? I always felt so helpless when she made those faces. There was nothing I could do at that moment to make it better for her, and it wrenched my heart.

After a friend abruptly lost her mare to severe colic, I was more motivated than ever to have Lim's teeth fixed for once and for all. Last week I sent out a mass email to my fellow boarders asking if anyone else was interested in an appointment with Chenoweth. A boarder responded that she was having Lance Rubin do her horse's teeth on the 24th, and was I interested? Yeah! As I found out shortly, he had a great reputation. More opinions never hurt in a case like this.

Long story short, he said that while her individual molars were in good shape from February's floating, the rows of molars did not line up. Horses chew from side to side and if the rows of molars are not aligned properly with each other, instead of going over each other as the horse chews, they will bump together and prevent proper chewing. Ah ha! A light bulb went off in my head.

Chenoweth and my vet had said nothing about this; they had only spoken of the individual teeth in her mouth, of hooks and waves and slopes and ramps.

Hopefully Lim will have no further problems with chewing dry grain. Due to the heat I have been continuing to wet her grain (more water is always better at times like this) but once it cools down I will give her dry grain and see what happens. Fingers crossed!