Bright & Shiny!

The past few days it's been hot and sunny, so today Barokko had his first bath since last summer. After a long, muddy winter and spring at pasture without a blanket there was lots of dust and grime to get rid of. But after an hour and a half his white spots were blindingly white, his black was once again black instead of greyish, his mane and tail soft and luxurious, his feathers silky. No more gunk around the eyes, nostrils, and, uhm, other parts that tend to collect gunk ;)



I. is out on a ride as I type, she made sure to plan her ride after his bath so she can enjoy the results of our effortsbefore he has a chance to find the dustiest spot in the pasture and roll in it :P

Barokko's in his 5th out of the 8 weeks until the next vet check. He's been ridden 4 times a week, gradually increasing the amount of trotting. He's up to about 30 mins of trotting in total, but he's not doing it willingly, they have to keep at him almost constantly to complete the intervals. If he's very fresh (for ex if it's windy) or if they have another horse in front to pull him along then they can get him to trot and canter more willingly, but if he's calm and relaxed it's very hard.

It's been 3 weeks since I last saw him under saddle, so I had M ride him in the arena on Saturday. He's lways calm and unexitble in the arena so it's a good way to check how he's really feeling. In the woods he'll always feel like he's doing better because he's distracted by his surroundigs.

It wasn't good news. Absolutely no improvement, he almost seemed worse than he did 3 weeks ago. We had planned on her doing the first 2 trot intervals in the arena and then going out on trails, but he didn't even make it through the first interval. He had to be literally kicked forward to even get him trotting, he resisted every step of the way, and after about 90 seconds he just stopped, refused to trot any more :(

I can accept having to push him a bit beyond what he wants to do, but having to FORCE him to just trot around the arena, and to have him say NO after just 90 seconds... It's not fair to him, and I just won't do it anymore. I've told my riders to forget about set intervals, take him out into the woods, get as much trot and canter out of him as they can, but no more force.

This Post has Nothing to do with Barokko

Just found a pic of M teaching her horse to climb trees and thought I'd share ;)

Pasture Buddies

It was raining the other morning when I go to the pasture, and Barokko and the others were huddling under the trees -



The weather was better today, and one of he mares was enjoying a moment in the sun by the lake :)

Not Responding to the Meds...

The vet called yesterday with the results of the BAL. Clean again, no infection. There was a very slightly elevated mast cell count which coud be indicative of an allergic or autoimmune reaction, but it wasn't present in any of the previous BAL samples, so it's not causative of his problems. Not much to do about it anyway as he didn't respond to Prednisolone, which would have been the treatment... She said she honestly didn't think it was significant.

She asked how he's been doing since he was at the clinic. He's been on the bronchdilator for 9 days now, and has shown no improvement. She says he should definitely have responded by now. Since he hasn't there's no reason to continue medicating him after the bottle I have is empty. She frankly admitted that she's out of ideas now, getting him fit is the only thing left to try, and he'll have to do it without the relief we had hoped he would get from the bronchodilator :(

We agreed to give him a total of 8 weeks fitness training, and then reevaluate. He'll just have to work through the discomfort he has, oh I hate doing this to him. And I can't even ride him myself :( I have two friends who ride him two days a week each, so he'll be worked 4 days a week. The first day, last Thurs, he was trotted 5*2 minutes, so 10 minutes total. By the end of week 4 he should be trotting a total of 30 minutes, still in short intervals. The following 4 weeks we'll have to push him a bit harder, with longer trot intervals, and adding in canter intervals.

Back From the Vet

Took Barokko to the clinic yesterday. I brought M along to ride him in the work test. The test was to see how his pulse and respiration evolved when he was worked, and to provoke irritation so she could see him under pressure.

The work test was simple, first the vet listened to his heart and lungs, measured pulse and respiration at rest. She heard a slight "something" in his lungs, but it was very faint at rest. Then 10 mins of forward trot, listen and measure again, and another 10 minutes of forward trot. It was a really hard test for Barokko, already after the first 2 minutes he asked to please stop, and he had to be pushed, pushed, pushed the rest of the time to keep him in trot. He was sooooo tired at the end :(

His pulse and respiration rates were acceptable for a horse out of work, not alarming in themselves. But as he was worked he developed a clear squeaking sound in his lungs, a sign of constriction in the lower airways.

Immediately after the work test he was endoscoped. As expected, his upper airways looked fine, just slightly red from irrittion, but no mucous, and no anatomical abnormalities anywhere. She took a new BAL sample, to be absolutely sure there's no new infection - with long term irritation and constriction of the airways he's much more prone to catching infections than a healthy horse - but she agrees that the problems he has now asre not due to an infection, if he has contracted a new infection then it's secondary.

So if it's not a mechanical issue in the upper airways, it's not an auto-immune irritation, and it's not an active infection, we're left with the worst possible option left - physical damage of the lower airway tissues. My vet got a hold of a vet in the US who is an expert on pseudomonas, and what he had to tell her wasn't good news. Pseudomonas pneumonias are not only sneaky to discover and hard to get rid of, they also tend to leave a mess behind once they're finally eradicated. He said that if the lung capacity of horses who had had pseudomonas pneumonias had been tested before and after, he'd expect every single one of them to be diminished. It's not a question of did they leave any damage behind, but of how much.

The plan now is to bring him back into work while he receives a bronchodilator. He's to be worked 4-5 times/week for the next 2-3 months to increase his fitness level, before she can properly assess how damaged his lungs are. She still has a slim hope that by working him on a bronchodilator, and getting him back up to a good aerobic fitness level he'll be able to
overcome the effects of the damage the pseudomonas have wreaked and be able to function as a sports horse afterward, although he may need to be medicated to do so. However, the most probable outcome is that he will not ever be able to be ridden normally again :(

Confuddling the vet...

I talked to the vet this morning, and she's at a bit of a loss at his lack of response to the Prednisolone treatment. I'm bringing him to the clinic to have him scoped after being ridden, she wants to double-tripple check that she hasn't missed a mechanical problem in his palate, larynx, or throat, but I don't think that's it, his symptoms aren't similar to any of the horses I've known with either a low palate or constricted larynx...

24/7!

I've unfortunately developed preg.-related pelvic instability, which not only means I have been absolutely forbidden any kind riding at all until after the baby is born (bummer), but also radically limits my mobility in general. So to avoid having to lead him back and forth, mess with feed buckets etc, I decided to turn him out 24/7 a couple of weeks early. He's already been gradually adjusted to a full day's worth of grass, so no problem there, and he's made good friends with the little pinto pony, so he'll be alright. I did feel like a bit of a bad owner to turn him out full-time right in the middle of a rainy period, but the temps are OK, and there are trees along the fenceline for shelter, so intelectually I know he'll be just fine. He's still being weaned off Prednisolone, but now only needs meds every other morning, so I just bike down and feed that to him at the pasture. Luckily, biking is quite comfortable for me, much more so than walking, and the physiotherapist said as long as it doesn't hurt biking is fine, and actuly to try to bike a little bit each day to keep just some fitness. I'll also start some physiotherapy-led training in water, so I'm hoping I can retain some strength and fitness so it won't be too hard to come back to normal after the baby's born!

I contacted my vet re: Barokko's lack of progress on Prednisolone, he's actually gotten worse lately. She said it didn't sound too good, and asked me to send more detailed description of his symptoms, which I did yesterday afternoon. Today is a holiday, so she probably won't reply until Monday, I'll just have to wait and see what she decides we should do next.