Our day with the vet started early- we were back out to the farm with the donkeys for a re-check by 9am. There was still some sensitivity on the foot, so Doc advised that the foot continue to be wrapped for at least one more week.
Our next appointment was over 2 hours away- much farther than Doc normally travels. The client was one that used to live close by, but upon moving away she still wanted Doc to treat her animals. Her horse, a 29-yr old mare who had been a champion endurance horse, had been having upper respiratory distress for a couple of months. Doc had been out and done an endoscopic exam and had not found anything. The lungs sounded clear, with no crackles or whistles. The horse was put on a nebulizer and some antibiotics, and while it helped slightly, the horse began to sound much worse the last couple of days. So we headed up today to see if we could find anything else. Doc admitted that he really didn't know what else to do at this point if he didn't find anything... Luckily, we did. What was not a big enough problem to show up on the first endoscopy showed up on this one- a large pimple-looking pustule on a vocal cord, and a paralyzed vocal cord. One of the vocal arch and cords were unable to be contracted to allow air to pass, and thus the horse made a rasping noise while breathing. Doc suspected that a foreign object had gotten lodged in the vocal cord, and the pimple-looking thing was something like an abscess. I unfortunately did not get to look through the endoscope, as the horse (unsedated) needed to be held quite carefully to avoid damage to the very expensive endoscope fiber optics.
Doc drew a diagram for the owner to explain what was going on, and I took a snapshot of it.
The picture here is from a human, but the idea is the same: inflammation and a bit of a saggy arch and muscle.
We then took x-rays of the neck to see if we could see any sort of foreign body. We took about five views (after sedating the horse so that we could stretch her neck out for the best view). One of the views showed a small sliver, but it did not show up on any of the others. Doc could not conclude that it was anything other than a fluke since it was absent from 4 views, though he suspected it could be a piece of hay. But now we had an answer for the raspy breathing, and Doc suggested she take the horse to a surgeon in New Bolton for a consult at the least. With a 29-yr old horse it is not an easy decision to spend a ton of money on surgery, so the owner wanted to have Doc talk to the surgeon and get a estimate for a consult as well as feel him out for the price of a surgery. The other option was to put the horse on antibiotics and try to clear up the infection- though of course if something is lodged there it will just continue to get infected. The owner was quite upset, though happy to have an answer. Her husband recently died from emphysema, and so the horse having breathing problems has been quite terrible on her, as well as the fact that the horse has been hers for so many years and they have been through so much together. Her love for her horse was incredibly beautiful and touching- I turned around after looking at the x-rays to find her smelling her horse's neck, tears streaming down her face, and I had tears come up in my eyes as well.
Doc gave her a hug, and we headed out to our last call, another foot re-check. The owners let the horses run around the property, with a couple different enclosures, but have their property fenced off in it's entirety. I got to see a fairly recent baby that they had, as well as their very handsome and good-natured stallion. The horse that we were looking at had a foot abscess that had spread under the sole, and the horse had grown what is called a false sole after the abscess had been drained. The owners had been soaking the foot in betadine and epson salts, and wrapping it with sugar and icthamol to dry out the hoof. Today doc went ahead and took off the false sole, including part of the frog which sloughed off on it's own. It was very neat because you could see the layers of sole, including the healthy one underneath the false one. Once doc took off all the extra stuff and filed down the hoof, it looked almost as good as new! Just a couple more weeks of wrapping it with betadine to keep it clean and duct tape to keep it dry, and the horse should be sound enough to ride.
After a stop at the grocery store, we made it back home around 8 o'clock. I was amazed to find I only have one more week before I start up with band camp! So next week will be my last week with Doc- he promised to call me for any emergencies in the next couple of days. I also have to schedule my horses for their shots and teeth floating. My horse has hooks in her mouth so she needs an extended dental to file those down. I will finally be able to take some pictures of that since they are my own horses!
On a very exciting note, Doc also said he would talk to the board that he is on at a local huge small animal emergency clinic to see if he could get me in during the school years on at least a night every couple of weeks to shadow. This isn't something they normally do- they let recent graduates of vet school shadow but not pre-vet students. However, Doc is pretty influential there, and since I have been with him for two years now, he knows me pretty well. I am really hoping he is able to get me a spot- I would LOVE to see some emergency small animal work. I feel like that sort of fast-paced environment would be very enjoyable. Keeping my fingers crossed!!
~Rich With Life~
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