Joints, Joints, Joints

I feel so behind writing about last Friday when it’s already Wednesday! The vet came out for Ben’s regularly scheduled chiropractic adjustment. He doesn’t need it more than every 3-4 month which is great on the wallet. I can’t ever tell if the body work he gets done helps him because he’s so tense when he gets worked on, plus he’s already a really flexible guy. As soon as he sees the vet, who does nothing but love on him and give him cookies, he becomes a giraffe, starts breathing heavy, and gives major side-eye. He’s a good boy though and stands for it all. Honestly, for how dramatic he is about it, he’ll let anyone do just about anything. He does draw the line at sheath cleaning though. He needs to be sedated for that.

I also had the vet check on his legs. Lately I’ve noticed his hocks don’t glide as smoothly as they used to. Overall his joint health isn’t bad for a 22 year old horse. However he did appear to have some swelling on his leg that I originally thought was just a windpuff but turned out it palpated rather hot and by that evening it had swelled to a good size. Thanks for getting hurt the day the vet was scheduled to show up, Ben. That’s very helpful. Except you could just not hurt yourself to begin with. He’s on bute and ice until the heat goes away, then he’ll move to previcox for his hocks. We discussed hock injections but decided to see what joint supplements and pain management do first. Whatever keeps him comfortable, that’s all I really care about.

I am bummed though because someone was supposed to ride him this past weekend with interest in leasing. Aria is coming back in a few days and I was looking forward to not worrying about how I was going to exercise all my horses! Oh well, Ben will recover and the potential leasee can try him out in a couple weeks. Fingers crossed that everything goes well.

Ben wasn’t the only one with joint issues! We wormed Catalina and gave her a general checkup. Her hind fetlock joints are a little inflamed. Not enough to panic about joint damage, though. She’s growing too quickly (is anyone really surprised?). Valeria’s alfalfa might be the inflammation culprit so I have taken away all but a handful of alfalfa and increased their bermuda portions. Valeria is not amused. She’s made her feelings quite clear by destroying her stall, which in turn has made me not amused.

I love my horses but they sure know how to pick the most inopportune moments to stir shit. Haha. Between my hands and Ben/Catalina’s legs we’re a big happy swollen joint family!