March 17, 2012 - Still swimming...

I took brat for an almost half hour road hack today. We went round the block mostly in trot and canter. Walked the last bit home which was hard on my tail, but was worth it to get out again.

Rory and Totyo at play

 I worked Rory a bit on the longe and in hand yesterday and he was very good. Started to get the idea of shoulder-in. He seemed to be enjoying the outing.

A misty morning in March!

His poop juice issue has been better in the last couple of weeks. We should know around the end of April if the biopsy gave us the right answer. At any rate I might be convinced around then if he's been clean for a month.

March 12, 2013 - About that hindgut biopsy...

Yep, that nicely filled out, healthy looking body houses a nasty worm load.

 If you're wondering about the biopsy, the results suggested encysted strongyles - apparently Rory is very sensitive to some phase of the burrowing in or out (unrelated to egg laying, so they don't necessarily show on a fecal at that time which is what fooled us into ruling out worms) and doesn't have a heavy enough infestation to have a constant problem - thus the intermittent nature. Anyway he got dewormed with Quest today after an oxybendazole dewormer knocked off the bulk of his active wormload two weeks ago. We recount in about six weeks and see how he's doing. If he's okay I'll deworm for tapeworms then. But it looks like I'll have to make Quest part of his regular dewormer rotation to keep on top of the encysted worms. I used Quest when it first came out and didn't like it from a user perspective. I found the horses spat more of it out, so I haven't used it since - until now. Rory will be getting it at least once a year from now on.

February 16, 2012 - Hindgut biopsy

Rory needs some good luck. He had the biopsy of his hind gut done today to be sent off for examination. I really hope it shows something that we can resolve fairly easily to fix his poop juice issues.  I had the vet pull some blood too.

The process was quite simple.  The vet had brought a sterilized metal bottle cap (yes, a beer bottle cap - it had a beaver and a maple leaf on it) which she used to pinch off a sample of his gut wall.  Rory was really good about the biopsy though he did keep trying to twist around to see what she was doing. I was holding his head and his tail at the same time and remembering when I could put one arm round his chest and the other round his bum at the same time. I was stretching to hold his tail today.

December 2011 - Tunnel vision

I felt like I spent the whole month focused on what was going on under Rory's tail.  The swollen fetlock took a while to go down, and I didn't do a lot of riding.  This poop juice thing is stealing my energy and worrying me more than ever.  Everything we try seems to help a little bit, but doesn't get anywhere near resolving the problem and it takes weeks to figure out how much of a difference anything made.

 The Equi-Shure didn't work as hoped, but the three week cycle has been disrupted.  He had a dirty bum for three weeks straight in December.  His tail bag is disgusting, and his poor bum coated most of the time, and it's too cold to clean him up properly.  I'm sure there must be some pain or internal discomfort for him too.

Rory checking out the barn kitten

Right before Christmas the vet came out for another check up and discussion of options.  We eventually decided to try him on 5 Prednisone tablets per day and see if it would relieve any inflammation in his hindgut and give his body a chance to heal properly.  But we also agreed that if he failed to show significant improvement the biopsy would be our next step.