For two weeks I was running all over the east coast doing things for others and also farm sitting.
In the last week of those two weeks I got Acute Sinusitis. I don't know if any of you have ever had it but it feels like your face is going to explode. Literally. The pain in your face literally throbs and there is absolutely no relief at all. You can't sleep, you can hardly breath. Eating, nope. Everything hurts. I went for four days straight with no sleep at all. I originally went to my dentist because I thought it was an abscess because of the tooth pain it was causing. Nope. My sinuses were infected into my mouth.
Tell me that isn't disgusting!
About 3 weeks after being diagnosed with this loverly ailment, I started to feel human again.
Right in time for America to get Lymphangitis. "But Kris, what ISSSS Lymphangitis?" I had no clue until he got it. It is when there is an infection in the lymphatic system (in this case the lymph vessels and ducts in his leg). There is a lot of swelling! Luckily, I caught it within an hour or two of it blowing up. We are not sure how he got it. Usually some sort of trauma triggers it. With the amount of rain we had had, it was just a cesspool of bacteria waiting to attack!
Poor Derp!
When I found him, he couldn't walk up to the barn. He ALWAYS walks up to greet me when I get there. So when he wouldn't walk up, I knew something was wrong. I went out to him and he wasn't putting any weight on that leg. It was SWOLLEN all the way passed the knee, into his thigh. There was a little heat from his stifle all the way to his hoof. I picked up some meds and we kept him in that night. I had it worked out to let him go out in a small flat pasture during the day (opposite of everyone else). We did that for a few days. The swelling went down quite a bit.
Two days with Turnout
Then a vet, that I am not particularly fond of, came out to the barn for some other things and the BO told her to look him. While I appreciate the notion, the resulting freak out on my part, could have been avoided. I was told he has a high suspensory injury. That he needs an ultrasound ASAP and he absolutely cannot go out. He has to to stay in his stall. --ok I think it's good to say that my brain totally did not agree with this. Just seeing how much he progressed in the past three days, I could tell that turn out was doing really well with turn out.
Day three or four after no turn out, more swelling
I called my vet. They couldn't come out within the next few days so I opted to bring him in so we could get that ultrasound done. Because they couldn't come out, we decided to "play it safe" and listen to previous vet and keep him in. I wish I hadn't but at this point, I didn't know what to do.
So Thursday (I found him on Saturday) we get to the vets office. He takes one look at him, asks me a few questions and says, there is no way this is a high suspensory injury. He had seen three other lymphangitis cases that WEEK. I'm telling you, it was something with the weather. So we got him on SMZ's, and some other stuff. We also moved to our new barn all in one fell swoop!
America began improving immediately.
Friday
By the end of the weekend
Last weekend - He is still holding just a smidge of swelling in his joint. But very little and the only time you see it is when he's been in during the day.
So definitely improving. I am going to try a few things to try and get that edema out.
1. Riding. We are going to start walking. A lot. Getting those muscles working and his hind end moving and blood circulating.
2. I am going to try sweating it for a few days.
3. He has locked up his SI being injured. So I am going to have the Chiro out.
4. Also for the SI issue, I am making a heating pad to fit his SI area.
So that's our update. Other than the injury, he looks great. He's back to being dark and dappley. He seems to really like the barn. It's very calm and laid back. The barn owner is amazing. Extremely knowledgeable. It's nice to be at a place where I can get help with things that I don't know anything about. She goes above and beyond to care for all the horses.
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