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56 Posts
To start off with, I've had my haflinger (could be a draft cross, she's taller and wider than a lot of them) for four years now. Normally she's this super lively girl hopping and hollering after you, making sure everyone knows she's present. She has always been the boss of the herd in any herd she's ever been in, and one of the most active horses I know. Not to mention she absolutely adores the trails and endurance riding, and really enjoys going fast and zig-zagging in forests. Anything that requires her brain, she's there, she's alive, she wants you to look at her.
Last year, she got more and more lethargic. Gone were the days that she ran after me and shook her head willfully at my crazy antics. She got slower, and slower. Where she would have bucked and made her very convincing impression of an OTTB on the race tracks in the nearby woods, she cantered. She went as fast as you would ask her to, but that's were it ended. As if I was riding a machine instead of a live animal.
By July, she got an abcess. She lost all muscle tone, her ribs started showing, and her flanks disappeared. The abcess in her foot was quickly dealt with, but it took ages for her to walk alright again. Months. There were maggots, for Christ's sake. Those days were cleaning, cleaning, cleaning... By the end of the summer, she was quite fine, but something about her gait was still off. We were bound to go on a vacation - an extreme trail that went on for a week. I was worried, I didn't want to go. The friend who came with me with a borrowed horse peer pressured me into it however, and I went. It was my mistake, and I'll never listen to so-called friends again, trust me on that.
The third day came and went and I was sick of it. I didn't want to continue, I was calling someone to pick us up with a trailer. No matter what I was going to need to pay. My friend got very, very mad at me and told me I was selfish. She told me afterwards the reason why she was in the right and I was in the wrong is that her horse didn't trailer well. It's safe to say that was the end of that friendship.
After we came home, I was so worried I got out the big guns. My usual vet came around, the dentist came, an osteopath/vet came, and no one could tell me what the hell was wrong with my horse. After giving the osteopath the blood results, she immediately told me to go and get the heavy worming syringes. My mare had bloodworms due to the other horse with her, who never got wormed. I'm still mad at his owner, and it's the reason why I left the place.
Fast forward to january. We'd done some riding on and off, but things didn't sit well with me. Something was still wrong, I knew it in my gut. She'd gotten so thin she'd acquired ataxia, and she wobbled. The vet came, another one (by now, she'd actually seen three different vets in the span of 6 months) and he told me he would do what the others couldn't - find out what was wrong. Her blood was checked and... nothing. She should've been the healthiest horse alive, but she wasn't. No worms, no abcesses, no sensitivity anywhere. I had a manure test done - nothing again. Free of worms. No Cushings, no PSSM, no Lyme. I was ready to take my head to a wall.
To make matters worse, she fell down in the hierarchy, which obviously wasn't normal and it hadn't ever happened before. One arabian started tearing her to shreds and kicked her lame, which healed after a week or two. I separated them.
At this point, she looked like this -
The osteo came and went, who told me to treat her for ulcers, to be sure. Quickly done - I got the medication, did everything as prescribed. She got it for a month on full dose, and... Nothing. No change. I started experimenting with different feeds and supplements, and she's now on something against Ulcers, a joint supplement because her joints crack all the time (which hasn't helped whatsoever, she cracks just as much and her movement hasn't gotten better) and aloe vera juice.
She also has no artritis. As I said - I just... don't know. She's gained enough weight that I can say she's not ataxic anymore, but she carries herself all wrong. It's weird. She's sensitive on all hard ground - not just asphalt, but hard forest ground, rocks, tiny pebbles, bike lanes,...
Another farrier is coming on wednesday - she hasn't seen a farrier for about six months due to me keeping her feet rounded as she walked to see if that helped. Maybe I'm the one doing everything wrong, I don't know. I really hope it's her feet by now. It's the last place I can stop. There's no one else to help.
She now looks like this -
But she's still lethargic and with these new horses, she kept herself super quiet. She normally acts out, trots circles around anyone new,... but she just walked and trotted as little as possible.
What are your thoughts on this?
Last year, she got more and more lethargic. Gone were the days that she ran after me and shook her head willfully at my crazy antics. She got slower, and slower. Where she would have bucked and made her very convincing impression of an OTTB on the race tracks in the nearby woods, she cantered. She went as fast as you would ask her to, but that's were it ended. As if I was riding a machine instead of a live animal.
By July, she got an abcess. She lost all muscle tone, her ribs started showing, and her flanks disappeared. The abcess in her foot was quickly dealt with, but it took ages for her to walk alright again. Months. There were maggots, for Christ's sake. Those days were cleaning, cleaning, cleaning... By the end of the summer, she was quite fine, but something about her gait was still off. We were bound to go on a vacation - an extreme trail that went on for a week. I was worried, I didn't want to go. The friend who came with me with a borrowed horse peer pressured me into it however, and I went. It was my mistake, and I'll never listen to so-called friends again, trust me on that.
The third day came and went and I was sick of it. I didn't want to continue, I was calling someone to pick us up with a trailer. No matter what I was going to need to pay. My friend got very, very mad at me and told me I was selfish. She told me afterwards the reason why she was in the right and I was in the wrong is that her horse didn't trailer well. It's safe to say that was the end of that friendship.
After we came home, I was so worried I got out the big guns. My usual vet came around, the dentist came, an osteopath/vet came, and no one could tell me what the hell was wrong with my horse. After giving the osteopath the blood results, she immediately told me to go and get the heavy worming syringes. My mare had bloodworms due to the other horse with her, who never got wormed. I'm still mad at his owner, and it's the reason why I left the place.
Fast forward to january. We'd done some riding on and off, but things didn't sit well with me. Something was still wrong, I knew it in my gut. She'd gotten so thin she'd acquired ataxia, and she wobbled. The vet came, another one (by now, she'd actually seen three different vets in the span of 6 months) and he told me he would do what the others couldn't - find out what was wrong. Her blood was checked and... nothing. She should've been the healthiest horse alive, but she wasn't. No worms, no abcesses, no sensitivity anywhere. I had a manure test done - nothing again. Free of worms. No Cushings, no PSSM, no Lyme. I was ready to take my head to a wall.
To make matters worse, she fell down in the hierarchy, which obviously wasn't normal and it hadn't ever happened before. One arabian started tearing her to shreds and kicked her lame, which healed after a week or two. I separated them.
At this point, she looked like this -

The osteo came and went, who told me to treat her for ulcers, to be sure. Quickly done - I got the medication, did everything as prescribed. She got it for a month on full dose, and... Nothing. No change. I started experimenting with different feeds and supplements, and she's now on something against Ulcers, a joint supplement because her joints crack all the time (which hasn't helped whatsoever, she cracks just as much and her movement hasn't gotten better) and aloe vera juice.
She also has no artritis. As I said - I just... don't know. She's gained enough weight that I can say she's not ataxic anymore, but she carries herself all wrong. It's weird. She's sensitive on all hard ground - not just asphalt, but hard forest ground, rocks, tiny pebbles, bike lanes,...
Another farrier is coming on wednesday - she hasn't seen a farrier for about six months due to me keeping her feet rounded as she walked to see if that helped. Maybe I'm the one doing everything wrong, I don't know. I really hope it's her feet by now. It's the last place I can stop. There's no one else to help.
She now looks like this -

But she's still lethargic and with these new horses, she kept herself super quiet. She normally acts out, trots circles around anyone new,... but she just walked and trotted as little as possible.
What are your thoughts on this?