Hi! I'm DressageMom! You might remember me from such special presentations as "Fix Your Hocks With Eight Easy Joint Injections!" and "Nerving - The Final Solution." Please allow me to present our latest special, "If You've Got Neuromas, We've Got Your Cure!"
Yes, Kaswyn developed painful neuromas from his nerving. Apparently all horses get them, but only some are painful. Lucky us!
Here's the story - Kaswyn was off and on with lameness since his recovery from the surgery. Finally I decided to have Dr. B come out and evaluate him. He watched Kaswyn go on the lunge line, then palpated the nerving sites. He let me feel two small "peas" under the skin that were very sensitive to Kaswyn when pushed on. He explained that they were the ends of the nerves that were cut. The peas always develop, but not all of them cause pain. He suspected that these neuromas were giving Kaswyn phantom pain - making him think there was pain in his foot when the nerves don't really go down there. The solution was to inject both neuromas with vetalog (a steriod anti-imflammatory) and carbocaine (a local anesthetic to see if indeed the nerves were causing the problem), wait 10 minutes, and see if Kaswyn was more sound. He was. The plan now is to give him two days off and then ride him Saturday.
I asked how often we would have to repeat this, and he said this should completely solve the problem and we shouldn't have to do it again. I asked "What if he's not sound on Saturday?" and he said "If he's not sound after this then I'll be crying louder than you will."
Somehow, I doubt that.
All Good Things Must Come To An End
3 years ago
2 comments:
I'll be keeping my fingers crossed on Saturday!!
I enjoyed picking through the archives on your site to get Kaswyn's history. Hopefully he will begin to heal.
I understand what you're going through to some degree, I bought a 5' jumper as an upper level prospect (he was already schooling 3rd), and had nothing but problems: with his feet, his back, etc. It got progressively worse and he was declared neurological, although all tests came up negative. The eventual EPM diagnosis only came about via necropsy. Anyhow, he was so unstable that he was a danger in the public barn - he lived in a padlocked stall so no one could go in with him and get accidentally squashed when-not if-he fell. He lost most of his hind limb control and bladder control, as well as his balance. We put him down and discovered that he actually had live larvae living in his spinal column (previously unheard of) , and that they had eaten away 15% of his spinal cord. In some places it was so thin, the necrologist was amazed that he wasn't paralyzed. He estimated that he had had the disease for atleast a year and a half. I only owned him 13 months. He'd never seen a case like that before, and they're still researching the parts of him that they kept. (Thank God he was insured!)
The worst part is that, if ever a horse could be a soul-mate, Chinook was it. I am grateful for what he taught me, but wish I could have seen him become what we knew he could have been. We were scoring in the 70's at lower levels while this disease was progressing unnoticed. I can only imagine what he could have done if he had been healthy. Although it's been three years, I still miss him.
I am just starting to think about training again (we have draft horses, too, but I haven't done dressage for 3 years) as my trainer has a couple of horses that need riders, but I haven't yet decided whether or not I'm willing to make that commitment again.
I'm also curious to know how Craig handles being a "horse husband". Mine had issues with it the last time I was seriously competing...but maybe this time will be better...who knows. Does he have any tips on how to convince my Wonderful Husband that this is a good thing??
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