This is a Rosalie update - so if you are not into long horsey stories don't read any further.

First let's recap -
July 2008 Rosalie comes up a little lame - she had been working pretty hard all summer, had done a show a couple weeks before. We figured a few days off, couple days in stall, then slowly work back up. After several days she was fine - we all left town. While we were all away she came up very lame. Instead of keeping her in at that point, the girl who keeps her for us continued turning her out. By the time we got back she was very lame indeed - she could barely walk. We started over with several days in, a couple weeks limited area turn out - then slowly back to work. She did ok for a few weeks, then was lame again. Start over, a couple weeks after that a nasty abscess opened in the heel of her left hind - we figured OK this is what it has been - we treated it and waited (heel abscesses are nasty and take a long time to heal) we gave her a few months and she seemed fine for a bit - then she was off again.

By this time it was early Jan '09. We finally gave up and took her down to the specialization vet (45 min down the mountain from here). At first they thought soft tissue (which is what we had been thinking though there was never any swelling or heat anywhere in her legs or hooves) - but x-rays showed a cyst in the navicular bone of her left front foot. As I have said before - this is a degenerative disease - we tried the first line treatment of shoeing changes and bute (horse aspirin) for pain and applied to the FDA for permission to import a drug from France that has shown promise in arresting and reversing the disease.

March 12, 2009 the drug is finally here and we administer it - it is an IV drip. Good lord you would not believe how expensive this drug is. A couple weeks later we begin daily 30 min walk rides to help build strength and to help with bone regeneration. She is sound for the most part. This continues for a couple months, sometimes she is sound, sometimes she is not. We begin a little trot. She develops a nasty abscess in her right foot in this period and a series of bruises in her hoof as well - most of her off days in this time are due to the right front problems rather than the left.

4 months later we take new x-rays. X-rays show the cyst has shrunk about 15% and some increased density as well as good bone growth around the margins of the cyst (the margins of the cyst were frighteningly close to the outer wall of the bone - bone shatters - life over so shrinkage and extra hard bone around edges very very good). But she continues to be off every now and then.

3 months later we go back again. She had been doing much better in this 3 month period (far fewer off days) but on the day we went to the vet she was the most in pain she had been in a while, and the most pain the vets had seen since we began the process and now understand what I had been telling them on the phone off and on about it being more pain than I would like.

We decide to take the next step, which is to remove the nerve in the back of her lower leg, just above her hoof, that feeds the pain signal to her brain - drastic, but effective for pain. We planned to do the surgery in January so that it would be during the time that the pasture is mostly dead anyway, but when we returned from Thailand in late Nov she was off and I just couldn't take her being in pain any more so we did the surgery in early Dec.

Surgical follow up was changing bandages every 2 days for 30 days, stall rest only, no walking, equine senior horse feed- mixed with hot water, and expensive - hard to find around here alfalfa hay - stitches out after 2 weeks (but weather kept us from being able to have the stitches removed until about 3 1/2 weeks post surgery) this is late Dec. She develops a pressure sore on her right front "ankle" (fetlock) because of the way she has chosen to lie down in her stall and after about a week it becomes infected. So now she needs an antibiotic and I have to go out every night to wrap both her front legs, then go out every morning to remove the wraps in order to protect the area, something I will have to continue doing as long as she is still in her stall in order to avoid recurrence of the pressure sore, which just now is finally completely healed up. We needed to take her back down the mountain after 30 days for a post surgery check up but weather again kept us from being able to do that until about 6 weeks post surgery. At this point her left foot was totally fine. No problem. But she was off on her right - sigh, drop head.

Vet says continue keeping her in, start 30 min hand walking every day. Only a few days later she is sound. In fact, as I said at the time, stupidly sound. She went absolutely nuts after having been cooped up for so long and tore around bucking, kicking, running as hard as she could - every time I took her out - for five days, but each of those days she was sound. I gave her a couple days rest. Next time I took her out to walk she was off again - on the right again. This is about four weeks ago now and the vet wants to see her so we set an appointment - and it snows - so we reschedule and it snows again and again for four weeks. While waiting to be able to get down the mountain we let her rest again for a week then started back to walking, but I simply did not let her have her head to pitch a fit. We all believe in her excitement to finally be moving again she injured herself on the right. The last two weeks I have walked her religiously and only allowed her 8-10 steps of trot at any time and for these two weeks she has been sound.

Finally, today, we made it back to the vet. She is sound. I thought the vets were going to pop the corks on champaign. They were so happy. She has two vets down there, the surgeon,Dr Hay - seriously- and Dr Basket the vet who has been following her through the whole process. The poor surgeon, who was almost as disappointed as me when she was off last time I took her down, after he saw one sound pass at the trot wanted us to just stop right then, for fear she would start limping again. But she didn't and she is sound. Now to keep her that way. We have had so many times over the last year and a half when she was sound for a short time, then off again. I am afraid every time I ask her to trot.

So the plan now is that she continues to live full time in her stall (where she has been since Dec 2) for at least 6 more weeks. For the next 4 weeks I must ride her 30-45 min a day (not just hand walk) walk only - then for one week we do three - two min trot sets. Then for one week three - three min trot sets. Then we go back and they evaluate before we up her work load and make a plan to gradually start turning her out again. This is a far more complicated matter than you might think - when we turn her out she is going to run and run and run and buck and kick and make moves that would make a Lipizzaner jealous. Plus the grass will be coming in and a horse can kill itself eating too much grass too quickly when they have not had it for a while.

She is sound now! The trick will be keeping it.

the little bit more:
I forgot to say I rode her this afternoon, but because she feels so good and is so excited to be getting out and being ridden (she actually LOVES to go) I have to give her horsey valium to keep her from going nuts. I don't bounce so good anymore. Count me in as the newest member of the ACE (said valium) fan club! I bet I'm the only person any of you know who carries horse sedative in her purse...