[RC] Tank's tests at Davis - TypeF \(Jackie Floyd\)
Several people asked me to post back after Tank's
visit to Davis. For those that aren't familiar with his symptoms, he's had good
days and bad days, more bad than good on training rides. Some days I can go
out and have a rip-roaring great time. Other days, he has no energy and
sometimes will refuse a downhill, and even sometimes gets to the point where
he's refusing everything and stops every few steps. Sometimes even looking back
over his shoulder like he's trying to tell me something. And he yawns alot.
Sometimes I can go 15 miles. Sometimes I can hardly make 3 miles. I've gotten
fitter getting off and tugging him back to the trailer.
Bottom line is, after redoing the ulcer scoping,
intestinal xrays, then adding kidney ultrasound, bladder ultrasound, neurology
tests and lamess tests, they didn't come up with a whole heck of a
lot.
They decided the only thing they could come up with
is his back seems a little sensitive. Although if you touch Tank any any spot on
his body the way they were pushing on his back, he'll move away from the
pressure, also. They also decided he is Grade 2 lame on a scale of 1-5 on his
left front. My riding budding Bev Senior went with me and after standing there
watch me trot him back and forth a million times, she suggested she trot him so
I could see. When she was done, she and I stood there and stared at each other
in silence for a few seconds and I said "I don't see a damn thing." Bev said,
"That's why I wanted you to watch. I don't see anything either!" I turned to the
doctor and said if this is lame, every endurance horse in the world is lame."
His reply, "just about every horse will show something on a lameness test." He
does have a very old splint on the front left. They said they could explore
whether it was putting any pressure on the suspensory. No flexion tests on any
of his legs produced any difference. And that doesn't explain why he won't
travel the last 20 feet to the trailer after a ride. I have had him mistep in a
stream and wrench himself and keep on going with a head bob. So I can't see that
being his problem. Especially when I can't see it! They didn't think it was his
stifles or his hocks, even though he has some arthritis there.
I couldn't talk them into doing an EPM test, at the
suggestion of a someone who had a friend with a horse with similar symptoms and
typically not classical EPM symtoms, but they didn't want to seem to go there.
So I let it go.
All his other blood tests, including myoglobin
after some pretty good round pen exercise, were all normal. And they didn't seem
to think my examples of his stopping were tie-ups. And I'm on the fence about
that one. They'll be times when he refuses a long downhill, but will then take
off like a demon racing the other horse to the trailer. Then there are other
times when he'll let them leave him and whinny pitifully. They didn't feel his
anemia was worth talking about, nor the crystals in his urine. They considered
both with normal parameters. So no more Red Cell or grain.
We left with instructions to rest him for a month
(like he hasn't been resting since August already) and try to get my physical
therapist out to look at his back. I'll keep you posted on how that comes
out.
If anyone is interested in the journals I've been
keeping of my training rides that show the total inconsistency of the whole
thing, I'd be glad to share them. The whole reason I joined newsgroups in the
first place was to learn. They might help someone else down the
road.
