Weekend Recap: the vet visit

So, I’m sorry, guys. I totally left you hanging for the weekend. Truth is since Thursday morning I’ve been going nonstop and there really has been no time for blogging, so I’m going to try to catch up with next week. As I mentioned before I had friends come to town, so they wanted the Vegas experience, and seeing as I’ve never actually done that, these were the friends that I’d count on to party with no matter what.

But first – Amber’s vet visit! My lesson was cancelled for Thursday morning since the infernal wind decided to come back, but luckily we were able to reschedule for Friday. Amber’s vet visit went well, and it also didn’t. Luckily, the weird bump on her chin was pretty easy to figure out – she had an abscess in the root of her tooth. It looked like there was some root degeneration that seemed to be the cause, and while there were other things we could do, it wouldn’t help the abscess stay away. So I concurred with the vet to have the tooth pulled.

He blocked her stifle to ensure that indeed it was the stifle giving her the problem, and it was definitely her stifle that was still bothering her. He gave me a few options, one being arthroscopy to actually go in live and see the joint and see if there’s anything else going on in there since she didn’t respond well to the initial injection. There could be fraying in the joint which is causing discomfort and they can clean that up in arthroscopy (which I’m secretly hoping is all that’s seriously wrong with it), and she and I have had success with arthroscopy, so I wanted to go with that option. That will be in January though.

He took a look at the swelling on her knee, and thankfully the actual tendon looked absolutely fine. It was only the sheath that filled with swelling. He suggested it seemed like some trauma had befallen it, but wasn’t too sure, but to just let it take care of itself. We made a plan to bring Amber back on Friday for her tooth extraction which coincided perfectly with my lesson. So poor thing got dragged up to the vet again. She wasn’t too happy with me. More so for the fact that mother left me there; how dare she lol. But they were able to get the tooth out successfully without too much trouble.

So, what caused the abscessing? Yeah, not normal tooth degeneration. Nope. No, she FRACTURED the root of her tooth. Enough so that the nerve was most likely exposed and causing her a lot of pain. I am legit amazed that she never once refused the bit or contact when I rode her and that lump was bigger. All she did was a slight ouchie when I put on her halter.

Coincidentally, my mom noticed that Amber no longer threw a fit when Whisper would leave her to go out on trail. Not so coincidentally (I know, I’m sorry; I keep saying that word lol) that happened on Monday when my mom heard the giant bang but hadn’t seen what happened, and then Tuesday is when I noticed the lump on her leg. The tooth bump popped up around the exact same time. Pretty sure that supports my theory of she did something traumatic to herself SOMEHOW. I never know how she manages to do this to herself. But for her to swell up and be hot it has to be something very ouchie.

Good to figure that out, but damn. Thank you mare. She was extremely upset at me when I came to get her. She even turned her head away from me! I’m so sorry, sweetie. But really, you’ll feel better. And I think she does. She’s on some meds for a good week, but this also gives her time to recover from this before I drag her back to the vet to go under anesthesia for her arthroscopy. She’s been sleeping A LOT and laying down which I am so happy about – I bet while she’s still sore, she’s absolutely not in as much pain as that exposed nerve, and she’s catching up on all the sleep she missed, which is probably why she was getting grumpy by the time her vet visit rolled around. She’s eating well, and thankfully lapping up all her grain – even with a gram of bute and 15 tabs of SMZs. Good girl!

But this obviously sets us back. First with about 5 weeks of tooth recovery, then about 4 weeks of recovery from the arthroscopy, and during those 4 weeks figuring out what to do depending on the prognosis. And Amber may not be up to the challenge of eventing when all is said and done. But I don’t want to give up yet. We’re looking at 2-3 months at least of time off, and then we don’t generally see joint change until 6-9 months away, so I plan to nab some pentosan and start doing that while she’s “off” – I’ll still be riding, we’ll just be walking again. Which we all know she just adores lol. Hopefully, while that may not improve her joint, it’ll stop the degeneration when we go to take a look again in a few months. So, good news and bad news, but as I said I’m still hopeful. I am hoping that a debridement of her joint will be all we’ll need.

I won’t stop taking lessons. Which I see this as a good chance for me to really get back in the swing of jumping and at least be more confident before going at it with her. But geez what a vet visit lol. Up next – the lesson!