Mt. Adams and a trip to WSU - didn't expect what they found.

So it's been a bit since I posted an update. Mostly because so many things were up in the air and I HATE that!

After pulling Bunny at Coyote Ridge I started her on 28 days of UlcerGard, chatted with her vet and did a fecal occult blood test. It tests their manure to see if there is any blood present. It can also tell if that's from the hind gut or farther up. Pretty, cool. It's fairly cheep and fairly accurate. Good combo.

Bunny perked up a lot on the UlcerGard and the fecal test came back negative. So the vet and I decided I would ride her at Mt. Adams and see how it went.

I had high hopes for Mt. Adams. I could tell right a way she felt better. She was perky in camp, she was eager but good. She was acting like her old self, only she had learned some manners.

She felt amazing on the trail. She started like a champ, she was eager and forward but easy to handle. I could not have asked for more. At the first several holds she ate well. Not a chow hound but eating well.

Things changed a bit at 45 miles. At the last hold her gut sounds were down a bit and she still ate but she was really just picking. She didn't stop eating but it was slow and lacked enthusiasm.

I decided to finish. I only had 10 miles left. I wanted to see how she was on the trail and see if when I came back in she would eat or what would happen.

She lacked a bit of her normal enthusiasm, not what I expected but nothing bad. We slowed down and stopped to eat several times, which she did. We finished the ride in 6^th place. She vetted well but still not great on the gut sounds.

I ran blood work before and after the ride. Pre ride was all right in line. Post ride the CK, AST and TBIL were elevated but several vets agreed they were not elevated beyond what they would expect for a hard 55 mile ride.

It took her 4 hours to really dig in to her feed and and for her gut sounds to come back up. She wasn't in trouble, she just wasn't 100%. I had several people tell me they thought she looked great and they wouldn't worry about it. But in my heart I knew something wasn't 100%.

Back at home I called my vet to have a chat about where to go from here. My guess was that the UlcerGard wasn't enough and she needed GastroGard. It made sense to me. She had perked up so much, eaten better and felt great on the trail almost to the end. I just wondered if it didn't take care of the whole deal and she needed the big guns.

The vet said that she agreed she still might have ulcers and need GastoGard. She was also worried that there might be a second problem. She was worried about her respiratory system. One way or the other she wanted her to go to WSU and have a scope.

So I made the appointment and tried not to worry as I waited. Yesterday was the big day!

First off, WSU is cool! The veterinary hospital there is really something. As we were walking Bunny in to this huge building, past stalls, exam rooms, stocks and all sorts of scary sights sounds and smells, I was super glad to have a wonderful horse. She took it all in stride and just walked right on in. She never panicked, threw a fit or did anything other then behave like the lady that she is.

When we got in the exam room, we were met by two vets, a vet tech and half a dozen fourth year vet students. Bunny just stood quietly as they took a very extensive history on her. I loved being able to chat with all of them. To know that they were trying to think of what might be the issue and they were there to help.

Bunny stood stock still for a very thorough examination. Most of the time she had two people working on either side of her and she never budged.

To test her lungs and see if they thought that theory merited farther investigation they put a large plastic bag over her nose to stress her breathing. Four of them listed to her lungs as it became harder for her to breath, then they watched and listened to how she recovered when they took the bag off. She did all this with no sedation.

The vet said her lungs sounded great and her recovery was better then average. She said that when they did the GI scope they would look down the trachea but if that looked good they didn't think we needed to worry about the lungs.

Before they gave her a bit of sedation for the GI scope they wanted to take a look at her muscular skeletal system. They all agreed that even though she had not exhibited any signs of lameness, that if she was in pain that could explain her lack of apatite later in a ride.

I wish I would have taken pictures. I could not believe how much she let them stretch, flex and tweak her. She never pulled a foot down, nothing. They lifted her front foot almost to the level of her withers. They flexed her whole back leg and lifted it high and up into her hip, almost tipping her to the side she just stood firm and bended this way and that. They kept commenting on how amazing she was and that was great! It would let them see a much better picture then a horse who fought them or had to be sedated.

Early on my brother, who was kind enough to haul Bunny up there, asked one of the students if they ever had horses just get in that room and loose it. Looking around I could just imagine it happening. The vet student grinned and said it had happened. She also said it wasn't uncommon for them to have to sedate horses just to get them in the building, let alone the exam room.

Next we went outside to watch her move. After all the tweeking, she looked terrible in the hind end. My hart sank. Not what I expected or what I wanted to see.

Based on watching her and what they felt during the exam they were pretty sure the problem was low in her back and in her left hip. Interestingly enough, she is a bit higher in the left hip. The area in her back that concerned them is one I have noticed. After particularly hard rides some of the vertebra seem to raise a bit. After some body work and time off they come back down but I've always kind of wondered about it. She doesn't seem sore there but it always kind of makes me uncomfortable.

So back to the exam room for GI scope and then they would move on from there.

This time Bunny got a little bit of sedation and then stood stock still while they shoved a scope up her nose. Almost immediately you could see that her epiglottis was not normal. The epiglottis is the little flap in the back of the throat that closes when they eat. Hers was a bit entrapped. It wasn't closing as it should. It also had a little sore on the edge, odd but could be caused by a bunch of things including a bit of hay getting stuck there. They drew blood to check for signs of infection or inflammation.

They went down the trachea and it looked great so they backed out and went down the esophagus. Her stomach was one of the cleanest stomachs they had ever seen. No ulcers, not irritated stomach lining, nothing! The esophagus looked good too.

By the way, that scope is so cool! It shoots water and air and seeing the picture of what is going on is just too neat!

By this time it was near 1pm so we took a break for lunch. One of the vets was going to consult with a surgeon and show him pictures of Bunny's epiglottis and see what he thought. We were also waiting for the blood work to come back.

Blood work came back “unremarkable”. No signs of infection, the globulin which can point to inflammation was on the high side of normal but still within limits. The surgeon said he didn't think the epiglottis was giving her any trouble, they watched her eat and swallow. They said it explained whey at times she breaths loud but that isn't hindering her breathing or causing issues for her when she eats.

At this time the other vet took over. She said what she wanted to do was ultrasound to get a look at Bunny's hip and spine and then come up with a rehab plan, did that sound okay to me. She wanted to make sure I understood that the success of this plan would hing on me spending at least an hour a day 6 days a week working with her, for at least 4 to 6 weeks. I told her if that's what it took, I was in.

So we headed off to the ultrasound.

To get a look at the pelvis and bottom side of the vertebral structures they use an ultrasound probe and go in through the rectum. Then they look at the vertebra from above and on the side.

The vet students got really excited because apparently Bunny images really well. They were able to see things so much better then they had been able to see on previous horses.

The short answer is that they saw some mineralization on the SI joint on the left side and on a few of the vertebra just back from that spot that gets slightly raised (I do mean slightly, it's not much). You could see the raised vertebra, that's just what it is, it's being pulled up by tight muscles. You could see a bit of muscle scarring on the left side. About what you would expect for her symptoms but nothing really bad.

Several people commented that if you brought in a ton of horses, even ones without issues and imaged them like this, you would always find something. It was just a matter of how bad it was and how it was affecting things.

Sooooo.... The long and the short of it. They suspect the back issues go back to the track. She might have done something in the last year to cause that area to become sore again. When that happened she quite using her back as well as she should and lost some muscle. That muscle is vital to support along the back and just allowed the problem to become worse.

The solution? They suggested injecting those areas with a combination of anti inflammatories and steroids. The goal is to get make her comfortable enough to work those back muscles the way she should and build them back up. The prognosis for long term recovery and what she will be able to do? Not sure till they see how she responds to the injections and rehab. One of the vets told me all the reasons she had to be optimistic, I appreciated that. Bunny is in good health, she is very physically fit, she has already done a lot of miles with this injury and she has a good work ethic, I think as soon as the pain eases a bit, she will work it.

So here is hoping! Hoping she will respond well, hoping she will be able to use those muscles and rehab well. Here's hoping we have more miles to look forward to.

Right now I'm waiting for her to come home on Friday. Today I received word that the injections went great and she was back, eating in her stall. I miss her and can't wait to get to work on our rehab. The doctor is writing out the specifics of the rehab now so we'll see what we are in for.

Hopefully we will see you on the trail again!

Bunny and I at Mt. Adams. This horse loves her job. 

If I didn't believe that I wouldn't ask her to do it.

Riding this horse is so much fun!

Photo by Jessica Wynne