I got to the ranch this morning and was excited to ride, I wore breeches so I could practice wearing my tall boots for the show. I almost always ride in jeans and half chaps these days and when I put tall boots on they feel slippery for a while. Yesterday I went to the mall (ugh) and bought 2 new polos- one in black for the show and one in burgundy because it matches my saddle pad. Yesterday I had 2 fences set up- a crossbar and a 2' jump with cones under it. He trotted in to each easily and cantered away. He cantered into both as well- the timing wasn't always right but he didn't hesitate. Today I was going to set up a small combination to see what happened. My mom agreed to come to the show and bring her video camera so I could get his rounds on tape.
I could tell something wasn't quite right as I approached him. His jaw looked funny, and as I got closer I could tell that it was quite swollen. The area between his jaw bones is swollen, mostly on the right side. I thought he might have gotten kicked under there. The vet came out and did an ultrasound. He found multiple pockets of fluid, but not clear fluid, which probably means puss. It's right where a lot of lymph nodes are and the thinks he has abcesses, probably from eating something and it poking down under his tongue.
It's not too tender to the touch. He's eating and drinking andwalking around behaving in his normal horsey way, doesn't have a temperature, and there's no nasal discharge. The swollen area is pretty hard, though, and looks like it might be around for a while. He's going to get hot compresses twice a day to see if we can get the abcesses to open up and drain. Poor guy.
Aaagh so no riding him in this beautiful, beautiful weather we're having. No show. I got a vet certificate so I should get my money back minus an office fee. I was just... SO looking forward to it.
9 comments:
Bummer!!
Don't they always have a way of fouling up our glorious plans?!
Doesn't have anything to do with teeth coming in, does it?
Hope he's back to jumping (fences, not pasture gates) ASAP.
So sorry - better luck next time and hope he feels better soon! It's amazing the trouble horses can get into!
Awww, poor guy! They do always manage to injure themselves when we have plans for them!
Hopefully you'll be able to get your show fees back!
Aww, bummer! Hope it resolves itself soon.
Right after we FIRST got a horse - like, maybe three weeks or a month after - we had the vet out to check on his teeth. And good thing we did. He pulled open Bailey's mouth and held his tongue and showed us how he had little foxtails (the poky parts at the end?) burrowed in places in his gums and under his tongue. He pulled them all out and we bought new hay, but if we hadn't have found them, man it would've been nasty.
awwww.....That's too bad! Hope he's back to 100% soon..
Thanks guys, I really appreciate the comments. It is sometimes uncanny how they know when a show is coming up and manage to injure themselves.
EvenSong- I asked the vet about an abscessed tooth and he didn't think so...
Today he got hot packs and was really good about it. I was able to wedge them under his halter and tighten it up and they stayed pretty well without me having to hold them in place.
MMA- THAT sounds HORRIBLE. I got one of those in my sock once and it felt like a bee was stinging me and wouldn't stop! How horrible to have them in your mouth!
Well, maybe that show was jinxed or something. At any rate, you weren't supposed to be there! Look at it that way!
How is poor Jaspy doing? Any better? I'm sorry to hear we are all having such fun medical issues lately! AGH!
~Mindy
Did your vet check to make sure he didn't fracture his jaw? I had a gelding that actually broke his jaw somehow in the pasture.
When I found him, he had swelling between in jawbones and that was it. He was still drinking and trying to eat. I had the vet come out right away and one of the things he checked for was things moving in his jaw that shouldn't. The vet felt some "wiggle" and suggested we take him to Oregon State University for x rays.
Sure enough, he had a nasty fracture high up in his jaw on one side. They had to put a ton of hardware both inside and outside his face. It was nasty, but the gelding recovered eventually.
Took nearly a year, but he now rides with a bit normally. The only evidence of his broken jaw is that his front teeth don't quite line up front to back or side to side.
Just something to look out for as your description of Jasper's face sounds JUST like what I found on my gelding that awful morning...
Sorry to hear you had to miss your show. Bummer!
starrynights- jeez, that sounds horrible! You were lucky to have a vet that was able to figure that out.
Jasper definitely (thankfully) just has an abscess. It's about the size of half of a golf ball and today it opened up and it draining. All of the other swelling is gone. I had to let him out in the pasture to run today, he was practically climbing the walls of his pen that he's been for all of 5 days now. He ran and ran and ran like he'd been locked in a stall for months.
Thoroughbreds.
Post a Comment