A better day

Well, good news, he has been lovely tonight. I bought him in to the yard to brush him etc, and he was a bit tense, agitated and wouldn't stand still.
I've bought some magnets to put in his rug so i fitted them and he actually settled quite nicely and was having a nice snooze whilst I groomed him.
I don't know if the magnets had that effect, but he certainly never usually calms down once he a bit unsettled, usually the other way round! So I'm quite positive about the magnets now, and will be buying the full rug on pay day (these pads are useable in conjunction with the rug so am just beefing up the system!)
After that I was able to just faff and fuss over him while he stood and snoozed.
When I was ready to tuck him in for the night he was quite happy in his stable and when I left him he was eating without even bothering to come to the door in between every mouthful so that's REALLY good news....normally the slightest anxiety and he's snatching at food and dashing to the door.
Will be interesting to see the effect of the magnets after a bit of regular use.

An awful night

So it's raining here, a lot.

My friend decided to bring her horses in out of the mud, and she always brings Snip in with hers in the evening for me....but this was earlier in the day.

He was calm when she left him, but by the time I got there he was in such a state. Dripping with sweat, veins standing up, bed walked almost totally away, eyes wide and with the whites showing, legs filled.

Box walked himself half to death all afternoon.

I got him out of the stable and into the arena and let him go - he galloped up and down the fence and then stopped and stood shaking, kicking his back legs up, and scratching his back end on the fence, eas back and head up high.

I've not seen him in this much of a state since moving yards almost a year ago.

There was no way he was going to settle, and one of the other liveries so so so kindly offered to move her pony to the stable next to Snip to see if that helped - so we then had to move all his bedding and stuff over, this was pretty late at night so it was a very kind thing of her to do.

I walked Snip for a while and at first he wouldn't walk on at all, but eventually did, very slowly. When he was calm I took him back to the stable, let him talk to his new neighbour for a while and then put him in.

He did sort of settle, anxious but no boxwalking.

The stable that the pony moved into had a mare in it until 2 weeks ago, when she left the yard Snip was a little upset for a couple of nights, but seemed to get over it. but then another horse from further down the yard was sold, and the mare on the other side of Snip was moved into the vacant stable as it's bigger....which left 2 empty stables to his left, and one empty stable to his right. He's been anxious in the stable ever since, but tonight was just something else.

I can only think that it's being a few doors away from the others that's caused tonight, and that it's been building up.

I would give it another go leaving him out but the fields are so flooded that they are barely coping with daytime turnout, let alone night as well - and noone else wants theirs out all night in this weather so he'd be just as stresed on his own in the field.

I can't seem to do anything to help my poor horse, whatever i do is never good enough.

20.01.10

Tonight was a nicely 'normal' night...how normal should be, with a normal horse.

He was calm when I got there, let me pick out his feet and do a long lining session, he was polite, and relaxed, and well mannered.

He let me pick out all 4 feet without kicking out or snatching with his hinds.

I long lined him in his rug so I couldn't really see him working, but he was striding out nicely and still has a nice flex to all is joints.

No major update....which I count as a good thing at this stage!

Gradual improvements

Throughout the following week he became more confident on his new feet, and also more relaxed to handle, and the following weekend i lunged him and was amazed at how much he opened up his strides!

The new trim did show up that he had one good side and one bad, and there was noticeable tension in the worse side.

I continueed with the gentle ground work, and with the new diet, and this is where we arrive at an up to date point. The weekend just past I lunged him (easier to analyse his paces with only one rein to worry about) and he was starting to show much better hock flexion, heel first landing, and a little lift to his knees again.

So on Sunday i got on him after the ground work session. I made sure someone was leading him (my safety and his confidence!) and he walked several times round the arena with no stops, only a few ears back moments and only mild squirming.

BIG improvement.

He is still having random anxious time in the stable, not badly, and he is allowing himself to be walked out and he does settle...whereas before he would never come down from that stress, once he'd 'gone' there was no getting through to him.

There have been numerous little improvements like picking his feet out is easier, he walks out better to the field with no shuffling and dragging along, and no stopping and refusing to go forwards.

I'm not expecting to see any more dramatic results than that for another week or a few, and everything I've read has said to expect 6 months minimum for a full recovery....with no cure, just life long management - but aat this point, it looks as though EPSM is the real diagnosis.

So 12 months & £6k of treating ulcers, and it seems that it was all a symptom of something far more sinister! When he was first scoped showing the ulcers at grade 2, the vet said that they were so mild, and so few, that it shouldn't cause the violent behaviour that I was seeing - but they were there, and therefore it must be the cause. Just goes to show, eh!?

I'm no planning to buy a magnetic rug on pay day, bit of reading has shown that thre are some good result to be had from that. I considered a massage pad, but might hold fire on that for a few months and invest later in the year.

So, that's the catch up so far. i WILL be better at kepping up to date, I will one day regret it if I don't document all of this. Early days yet, but Snip's ulcer diary now seems to have turned into an EPSM diary - I just hope hope hope that it stays as an EPSM diet and I don't find myself geeking up some other random, bad behaviour causing health problem!!!

New feet

On a saturday the trimmer came out.

Yes feet were out of balance, yes paces were compromised. So that's good news in a way, something else to tackle. Sack the farrier, I'm sticking with a trimmer now!

It was FREEZING cold that day, and Snip was crabby. I explained the weeks revelations to the trimmer and we gt down to trimming the feet.

For three of the feet he was fine, but one of the hinds he just wlould not - or could not - hold it up and became increasingly aggressive, and began lashing out dangerously. This got to the point where I had to do some work with a rope looped around his foot just to keep hold of it, and when we got to a point where he was allowing us to handle it, i asked if we could leave the trimming and finish the job another day - too risky to try, and too much of a risk setting him off again and undoing the hard work.

Not like I was riding him at the time, and any ground work was so gentle that one odd foot was not going to do any lasting damage.

The next day i did some long lining and although at first he was cautious, he soon began striding a bit better. He was clearly tight through his whole body but the quality o his strides was noticeably improved in the newly trimmed hooves. The untrimmed one was noticeably poorer.

A new mission!

There were too many coincidences to ignore, so I immediately put him on the EPSM diet. Interestingly, in summer 2008 I inadvertently had him on the EPSM diet....and strangely enough summer 2008 is always the yime I refer back to as being when he was my perfect dream horse. Winter 2008 was when t first went really wrong, and I realised I'd changed his diet to really not suit EPSM - basically a fibre cube and carrots and apples.

Without typing out every little coincidence, I can confirm that I have been back over his time with me in great detail and every time he has been 'good' he has been on diet and management suitable for EPSM. Every time he has been bad, his diet and management has either been slightly, or totally wrong for EPSM.

So I changed his feeding from:

Adlib hay
Soaked Alfabeet
Huge volumes of Readigrass
Topspec
Ulcer prevention herbs

To:
Adlib hay
Soaked unmolassed sugarbeet
Alfa A Oil
Equijewel
Copious amounts of Corn oil
Selenivite E

Within 3 days he settled in the stable again.

After a week he was calm to handle.

All the reports said it would take at least a month to see any real results, but the faster and more noticeable the results, the more your horse needed the EPSM diet, and the worse the condition was.

More research and another geekdom to conquer!

I spent the next few days sitting up until the early hours of the morning, researching everything on EPSM - the best lead I had.

Everything fit.

The discoordination, the difficulty holding his back feet up, the muscle wastage, the stopping and kicking up, refusing to go forwards (thought to be a reaction to ulcers - could be tying up!) the dislike of cold despite being a hot horse, the excessive sweating, the sudden decline in behaviour after a full clip, the even more sudden decline after being worked without an exercise balnket, the weeight loss despite extra food (he was on a trug of Readigrass - Rye Grass, a known culprit in worsening EPSM horses) the uneven strides, the stressing - even rearing and bucking in the stable was a symptom.

And, guess what, so is 'colic and gastric problems'...no shit!

Time to bear the soul again!!!

Gutted, despite everything it looked like the ulcers were back, but none of it made sense. Feed and management was all spot on to keep them away, and he was on Gastrogard!! They COULDN'T be back....not possible! But something must be causing them, so we started looking into his paces, and the toe first landing - you never know, if he's uncomfortable, that could give a sensitive little flower ulcers, couldn't it?

With HUGE thanks to everyone who sat up on the internet with me on New Years eve, scrutinising photographs of him past and present, and pulling apart his foot conformation, and analysing slow motion videos of his paces, the conclusion was that his foot conformation needed work, his paces were compromised and uneven, and that he was not muscled as well as he should be - even for a horse who'd been technically put of work.

I had noticed his condition loss, not weight loss, but topline loss...and I'd upped his feed accordingly, to a point where he was on adlib hay, a large trug of alfalfa and readigrass every night, and supplements for weight gain - with no effect.

In the days following Liz's video his behaviour became rapidly worse again, almost immediately after the visit the stable stress came back, he was rearing in hand, barging, panicking, spooky, boxwalking...all right back to where we were a year ago.

Liz put me in touch with a barefoot trimmer who I booked an appointment with, and for a day or 2 I pinned my hopes on maybe a miracle cure from his feet.

Then a week after that, I reached rock bottom, his behaviour had worn me down very quickly - so fast I think because I've been through all this before every year. It was on the Saturday that i reached a point where I made 'that' decision. If it had been a week day when i reached that, he wouldn't be here now. was ready to call the vet and have him PTS.

I owe a lot to the people who spent their time on text or calls with me whilst I was in tears and totally despairing of what I had to do. (particularly someone who put me first even though they were on their way to A&E with a broken ankle!)

That afternoon i came back from the yard and checked my emails, and there was an email from another of Liz's clients. We'd been in touch in the summer when she was having troubles with her horse, and with suspected ulcers Liz put us in touch so I could offer some support and advice - horse scoped clear though.

She'd heard that things had gone wrong again, and asked if I'd looked into the possibility of Snip having EPSM. (I'd barely heard of it) as it seemed that was the issue with her horse, discovered after the clear scope.

I Googled it, as you do, and there was instantly about 3 million search results all describing my horse down to the very last detail...and I mean the very tiniest last detail. even little quirks and traits I'd never associated with being problems, were there in the symptoms lists.

Slippery slope...

So, late November, early December was getting slightly worse, he was still so chilled out all the time, yet to be ridden he was resistant and was starting to kick a hind leg up and stop dead.

Even on Gastrogard he was showing no improvement.

I went to an IHDG meet up and arranged for Liz to come out and see if anything obvious was going wrong....I was still able to happily say he was chilled and relaxed etc, it was just ridden.

Even Liz commented on how relaxed he looked stood on the yard, when she visited (27th December)

We got straight on with long lining, which was ok, one spook (typically the first in months!) and a few more tips/improvements - but nothing major.

Then on to the ridden....within a minute he was stopping and throwing his head back at me, kicking up with a hind leg, doing very small bucks, and even put in a couple of attempts at rears (small) he was walking around like he didn't know what to do with himself, seeming to be napping, but with no real pattern to it.

Behaviour was worse than it had been previously - the only difference being that this was the first time I'd ridden him without an exercise sheet as i wanted us to be able to see his whole body moving, in case there were any clues.

Liz did comment that his paces were short and not nearly as impressive as a horse like him should show - and that he seemed to be landing toe first.

But the main conclusion was that the ulcers were back. Despite everything. despite being on the Gastrogard.

Great.

Continuing the diary of a troubled Parsnip

Well, I've been thoroughly rubbish at keeping this up to date! After my last Blog, things were going very nicely for some time, and I planned to leave a dramatic pause in my Blog and then come back with some amazing pics and stories of the progress we'd made.

Then things sort of went wrong again. Slowly, then faster, until we reached breaking point (mine) again.

I'm going to try and add a series of posts in sort of the right order to catch up with everything we've done, and gone through since the last Blog.

To start, like i say, things were going well. We were daily having a good session, mixed ground work and ridden, in 3 paces, bridle or Dually. I was vaguely aware that he was not really building any stamina or strength, and was not really appearing to get any fitter, and his paces weren't nearly as nice as before, but I was pretty sure that would all return in time.

So, summer ended and it was time to bring in at nights (we managed out 24/7 till end of October - but he'd been begging to come in for a few weeks) Course, I was paranoid and watching him like a hawk for the first sign of the ulcers returning, but all seemed good. He was chilled in the stable, glad to come in, his stable was clean and neat in the mornings.

I even dared to admit I thought we'd cracked it and were going to make it through the winter with no ulcers!

Then little tiny tiny niggles started. I remember posting on various forums about how to get him thinking more forward as he was quite sluggish, not crabby or resistant, just behind my leg and not at all forwards.

He was very hairy, and always sweated up excessively when ridden, so I chaser clipped him, then blanket clipped him the following week, but he was still getting excessively sweated up, and was still sluggish, so I full clipped him.

The first time i rode him after the full clip, was also the first time riding in the dark after work....we just walked, he was ok - but a little crabby, and a little resistant. But it was our first time in the dark.

After that he got slowly more resistant and crabby, not bucking, not rearing, not even kicking up at me....but he was stopping dead occasionally. So, just in case, I started him on a maintenance dose of gastrogard....just in case.