Apache’s Adjustment

 

Apache had some visitors on Thursday. Dr. LeBlanc, DVM, is also a Certified American Veterinary Chiropractic Associate. She was here to examine Apache’s lameness and give her some adjustments to help her feel better.

After examining Apache, testing her feet and watching her walk and move, Dr. LeBlanc suggested giving my mare a Palmar Digital Nerve Block to diagnose if Apache has heel pain and/or navicular issues. Dr. LeBlanc did seem to think that the nerve block made a 50-60% difference in her movement, but I noticed that she was still favoring that same leg and shoulder walking uphill. So, we moved ahead to the chiro adjustments hoping they would give my mare some relief from her stiff shoulder and leg.

Here are the videos I took during Apache’s adjustments.

Soon after the chiro work was done, Apache looked very relaxed and after we removed her halter she walked right over to me and began licking my arm for at least 3-5 minutes! And then Apache stood there beside me while I talked with the vet about her diagnosis and prognosis. I think Apache mare really appreciated the care and attention everyone gave her.

It’s been two days and Apache does seem to be moving slightly better, but Dr. LeBlanc says it usually takes a few days until you notice a big difference. And Apache may still need more adjustments, too. Dr. LeBlanc seems to think that after my farrier gives my mare a trim next week, specifically to address the pain and stiffness she’s been having, that I’ll notice an even bigger difference in Apache’s movement. I sure hope so. I’m worried about my girl and I also hope she’ll be rideable by this month’s Halloween ACTHA ride. Positive thoughts and prayers, please?    

   

We’ve Been Better

 

 

Between Apache and I, we’re like a tangled, knotted mound of string.

(Apache after a rain storm and a roll in the mud)

We both have issues.

I’ve been trying to take it easy, but there’s so much to do, especially with Ranchman John working in Philly. There’s the llamas, goats and horse to feed three times a day and the chickens to feed every morning and the gathering of eggs every afternoon. There’s the kidlets to feed all day long, too. And the laundry, dishes and cleaning. And that’s the normal daily stuff to do.

I’ve been busy preparing my kidlets’ homeschool curriculum for which their school starts right after Labor Day (just like it did for me when I was growing up). After an in-depth study of Eastern Asia last year, my twinling Jem has decided that he wants to work towards visiting Japan in the next few years. Leading to that goal, he has also asked to learn Japanese for his chosen foreign language this school year, even though I thought that Spanish would be a better choice. Jem reminded me that he already took a short-course of Spanish a few years ago and it was very easy for him to learn the Spanish language. He will pick it back up again in another year or two. He wants to be bilingual and he isn’t at all intimidated by the strange and beautiful symbols of the Japanese language, like I am.

Speaking of languages, I was recently reading the Alltech FEI World Equestrian games website and was surprised to read this information on the Spectator page: “The United States does not have an official national language, although the majority of the population is fluent in English as a Native Language.”

Well that information threw me for a loop! Am I the only American that has grown up all her life believing that English is the Official National Language of the United States of America?

Anyway, is anyone planning on going to the FEI Equestrian Games beginning on September 26th? It promises to be an absolutely amazing event filled with so many beautiful horses and exciting competitions. I’d love to go, but between the high costs and finding a ranch/kidlet/animal sitter, it won’t be happening.

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I am still having issues with my vision, mainly with tracking and focus. But the most annoying issues are the headaches if I do too much. Like the other day I was pulling weeds and trimming bushes and trees. A few hours later my head was screaming.

I’m not driving in the city because of the vision issues, but I have been doing quite a bit of driving the last few days around the mountains. I’ve been carting my twinlings to their guitar lessons. I had a WNCR Horse Rescue meeting at our local Starbucks, the other day. I’m on the Advertising and Publicity Team. Then later that evening I took my twinlings to their Boy Scouts meeting. Then today I had to go pick up a package at the post office (Thanks Sydney) and then drove my daughter to her Girl Scouts Ice Cream Social party, after which I took my twinlings to visit with their buddy, C, while my daughter participated in a fun music class. Whew!

By the time I got home, the right side of my head was throbbing, my eye was aching, and I was exhausted. All I wanted to do was lay down and take a nap. My head feels like I have a severe sinus headache, which probably wouldn’t be far from the truth. I’m not supposed to blow my nose or sneeze with my mouth closed because of the possibility of air getting into my sinuses and rupturing the broken bones surrounding my eye, or even causing my eye to bulge out. (eeeww). But if you’ve ever sneezed while keeping your mouth open, you know how dissatisfying it is.

I also find that I can’t do more than 20-30 minutes of computer time before my head and right eye aches, so if anyone has missed me at their blog, that’s why.

Heck, it’s taken me 3 days just to get this post written and uploaded.

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Well, those are just my issues. Apache has some of her own, hence the analogy of a tangled, knotted mound of string. We all know how frustrating it is to untangle a confusing mess of knotted string, and that’s how I view Apache’s issues.

Some of you might remember how she came up lame after our first day riding in the Carson National Forest during our horse camping July 4th weekend. She seemed to have strained her shoulder or leg. I gave her a month off and she seemed to be all healed up. I took my daughter Jen for a ride and I rode her a couple times, too. We even did some obstacle training exercises and she was looking great.

(I took this video of Apache practicing the Black Hole, today.)

Then she kicked me in the face and she had off another week. About 5 days after she kicked me, I went up to feed her and when she walked towards me I was shocked and upset to see her stumbling and weaving sideways several times, whenever she reached back to her flanks to bite or chase away a fly.

(This video was taken the first day I noticed her ataxia symptoms)

My first thought was that she had injured herself, or pulled something in her back while my neighbor friend was running her horses around their arena, which shares a fence line with Apache’s paddock. Sometimes when her Arabians run, Apache will get excited and join them.

Her stumbling only affected her front legs, so I knew it wasn’t several other illnesses. Apache also had a normal appetite and she was pooping normally, too.

But her imbalance and stumbling are certainly upsetting and worrisome because I’ve been constantly aware of her when she’s near me, concerned that she might stumble and fall into me.

So after speaking with my WNCR Horse Rescue mentor, Colleen, who advised me to keep a daily diary, and doing more research and investigating, both with Apache in movement, and on the internet, I discovered that horses can be poisoned by sage, of which we have many sage shrubs in our paddock. And come to find out, I had actually seen Apache nibbling on the sage that week.

(I took this video of her stumbling, just two days after the first time I saw her symptoms of ataxia. This time really disturbed me, for the distance that she stumbled and weaved sideways. I thought she might even fall over!)

 

But what had changed? I had never seen Apache eat sage before. Heck, I’d never seen my previous mare, Baby Doll eat any sage for that matter.

I remembered how Apache had an allergic reaction to the Pirahana fly spray that I sprayed on her a few weeks ago, before she kicked me. She became swollen all over and her skin even oozed serum in two places on her back end and lost some hair where the fly spray must have been sprayed too wet. I felt stupid because she had had a similar reaction during the June ACTHA event when Colleen and I sprayed her with fly spray, too. But we thought her reaction was to the flies and no-see-ums instead.

I just wanted to give her some relief from the nasty, annoying, biting flies, but now I know that she’s allergic to typical fly sprays. I washed her down right after I realized what had happened, and the swelling went down by the next day. Except recently I’ve noticed that the texture of her hair on her back and withers is rougher and the hair looks ‘ruffled’ in waves, for lack of a better term. I wonder if this is related to the fly spray reaction? Or something else?

The only other thing I could figure was that Apache was hungry. After she kicked me in the face, Ranchman John or my twinlings fed her for almost an entire week so I could heal and not have to deal with the dust and hay. I never asked them to feed her any of the simple grain mixture I typically fed her once a day, because I didn’t want to ask too much from them, and with Apache not doing any work, her grain, even though it is molasses-free, isn’t really necessary anyway. It’s just something I like to do for her, and the flax and extra vitamins make her coat shinier, too.

But I also discovered that they were only feeding her a flake of hay twice a day, while I tend to feed her a flake and 1/2 of grass hay three times a day. So she was missing an entire meal. No wonder she was hungry enough to eat the sage.

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Well, I immediately started feeding Apache her third meal and her typical cup of grain at lunch or dinner and within a few days, her stumbling, tripping and weaving sideways seemed to have gone away.

Only to be replaced yesterday by the same type of lameness she had after her injury in the Carson National Forest in July! Aggh!

(I took this video today as we were walking up to the barn. See how she favors that left leg?)

She is favoring the same leg and shoulder she did during our horse camping trip, especially walking up hill. Oddly enough I’ve seen her trotting without any limping and she doesn’t seem to have any trouble putting weight on it when she is standing still. Why now? What could she have done to re-strain that shoulder or leg?

And then on Sunday, I was working with her, at liberty, over the ground poles and she kept stumbling and tripping over them. After a couple tries, I just gave up. I think part of the problem was she kept focusing on me and not the poles, but still, I don’t think she should have stumbled over the poles as much as she did.

I’ve felt her legs and feet and don’t feel any areas of swelling or heat. I can pick up all four hooves and she doesn’t favor one, or seem tender, while I’m holding any of them. I’ve rubbed and prodded her shoulder and can’t find anything that feels sensitive or sore. Or maybe Apache is just very stoic?

(Another video taken today of her left side, the side she seems to be favoring. What do you see? What do you think?)

I’m planning to have the chiropractor come out to check her and give Apache a treatment next week. Colleen and I worry there might also be something neurological going on, but I hope we’re wrong.

My birthday is in three days and sadly Ranchman John won’t be able to come home to help me celebrate. And with all the worries I have with myself and Apache, I’ve just not been in the mood to be very upbeat or spend time blogging.

Positive thoughts and prayers would be very much appreciated……..

   

  

      

 

Pony Ride

 

As some of you may know, my almost 7 yr old daughter, Jenna has Aspergers Syndrome, which is a high functioning form of Autism. She has her issues, but she is also very bright, loving, affectionate, funny, and she has a keen sense of intuition. Especially when it comes to animals. Laughing Orca Ranch was actually named by my daughter. You can read about that in my very first blog post actually.

One day when I asked my daughter what color horse she would like, she said “An Orca Horse”

So when I discovered Dakotas Baby Doll, a black and white tobiano paint horse, who looked a lot like an orca. I figured it must be destiny.

I obviously let my heart control my head.

Interestingly, I never placed my daughter upon Baby Doll’s back before I bought her, and after I brought her home, Jenna refused to ride her even on a lead line. In the 2 1/2 yrs I owned Baby Doll, my daughter never sat on my mare’s back. She would help me groom her, feed her, refill her water, and even give her cookies, but Jenna didn’t trust Baby Doll enough to sit on her back.

I would say my little girl had excellent intuition.

Now, over the last 2 weeks, I’ve shown my daughter pictures of ‘Sugar’, including the one that ‘Sugar’s’ owner sent me, and she seemed very interested in meeting this horse in person. But I was shocked when Jenna told me that she wanted to ride ‘Sugar’. Jenna hasn’t sat on a horse’s back since she was 3 years old. She was also very affected by the injuries that Baby Doll caused me. I didn’t know if she would ever trust a horse again.

But, thanks to sweet, kind, gentle ‘Sugar’, my little girl has regained her trust.

Jenna insisted on going with Ranchman John and I today for ‘Sugar’s’ Vet Check. Before the vet arrived we visited with ‘Sugar’ in her stall. She seemed happy to see us and I even forgot to bring treats yet again. I was most happy about the gentle and curious way ‘Sugar’ approached Jenna, nuzzling her softly and allowing my daughter to hug her around the head and kiss her on the nose. My daughter was thrilled. It was beautiful to watch.

 

And after the Vet Check (I’ll share more about that later. ‘Sugar’ checked out just fine, though.), I saddled up the little mare and Ranchman John helped Jenna climb up onto ‘Sugar’s’ back.

The ground was covered in about an inch of slick, greasy mud, and I had to hunt for higher ground so I could lead ‘Sugar’ and Jenna around.

I figured we’d walk around a couple times and my daughter would say she was done. But every time I stopped and asked her if she wanted to dismount, she’d tell me no, that she wanted to keep riding. So we did. And ‘Sugar’ was calm, quiet and gentle the entire time, even when the horse herd on the other side of the fence got excited and were bucking and squealing. She watched them, but seemed to know she had a job to do. To take safe care of my daughter.

I was even able to talk Jenna into playing “Flying Horse” a couple of times. She spread her ‘wings’ out and helped ‘Sugar’ ‘fly’ as we took a few steps. That exercise did wonders for my daughter’s confidence as she grinned from ear-to-ear!

‘Sugar’ only did one ‘naughty’ thing while Jenna was on her back, but I credit that to the chiro work that was done on her during the vet visit. ‘Sugar’ was so relaxed and feeling good, she was almost sleep-walking. At one point we walked over a deeper area of mud, and I was talking to Ranchman John, all of a sudden I saw ‘Sugar’s’ knees buckle like she was preparing to lay down in the mud. I quickly told her “No! Up! Stand!” and her eyes shot open and she straightened up right away, seeming to realize that she had made a mistake. But she didn’t startle or jump and unseat Jenna at all. And though Jenna was surprised at being tilted forward and down so suddenly, she and I had a good laugh about it afterwards realizing that Sugar just felt so good and relaxed with us after her chiro adjustments.

We walked around in the wind for about an hour until our tummies were growling for lunch. I think Jenna could have rode ‘Sugar’ all day long, though.

Colleen wasn’t there with us as she had some appointments to attend to over at the horse rescue, but she did show us where the horse treats were, so after I removed ‘Sugar’s’ saddle, we were sure to give her some. I liked how gently ‘Sugar’ took the treats, too.

And she likes to give kisses and nuzzles, too.

After we led ‘Sugar’ back to her pen, we hung around for a little while longer, brushing her and scratching her cheeks (her favorite thing). She really likes to be given head hugs and just totally relaxes in my arms.

‘Sugar’ definitely scored huge points with me today for how well she related to my daughter and for how safely she carried my daughter on her back. Now if only all this mud and snow would dry up so I could ride ‘Sugar’ again.