The Reason I've Been Absent

I wanted to post earlier this weekend and say how deeply sorry that I am for L. William's loss, but unfortunately I was in the middle of my own crisis that was a little too close to home.  The sentiment remains though and hit me particularly hard since on Friday, my farrier called and told me I needed a vet to x-ray Walker's legs because he was afraid he had laminitis.

I called the vet on Friday and she made an appointment for Monday.  My farrier assured me that Monday was ok, and when I told my barn owner about it on Saturday, he kindly calmed me down saying that if the farrier had been super concerned about a current episode of laminitis, he obviously would not have waited two days to call me (he did Walker's feet on Wednesday after all) and he would not have said Monday was ok.

After he calmed me down on that point saying that it may have been an old case of laminitis manifesting itself, he then proceeded to work me back up again saying that Walker was severely lame (which I knew) and that if it was his horse, he would call the vet immediately.

So I called the vet, who promptly explained to me that she could come out, but she couldn't have the x-ray technician until Monday.  If she came out on the weekend, she was simply going to have to come out again on Monday, and as far as we were all concerned, this was something that was going to need to be solved with x-rays.  She was very kind to me, however, and we talked over his symptoms - severe lameness in both feet, evident even when he walks in his padded stall, but not a complete unwillingness to walk as he would come to the stall door if I opened it.  He also wasn't rocking back on his haunches to shift weight off his front feet or laying down in his stall, refusing to get up.  She urged me to call her if this last thing occurred.

Frankly, I have spent the weekend alternating between balling and being through-the-roof angry at my last farrier. It's obviously not his fault for Walker's current lameness (nope, I'm pretty sure I did that by letting him run in the indoor arena), but if there was anything wrong with his feet, he either should have trimmed them appropriately or else notified me.  I mean, the farrier told me that the horse had an old abscess in BOTH back feet which would have obviously been discoverable had the old farrier been trimming them.  I know that I too should be able to suspect abscesses but frankly, Walker spent 3 months on stall rest so I never noticed any lameness issues.  The new farrier found them in 10 seconds, and presumably the old farrier could have found them too.

I don't know about you, but I rely 100% on the equine professionals in my life - my farrier, my vet, even my barn owner.  I am not a horse expert, and I expect that these people are.  If I tell my farrier that I think Walker's feet aren't trimmed enough and he tells me this is the way they should look and in fact, this is the way all the other horses' feet look like in the barn and I have never had any other farrier, obviously I am going to believe him.  Run-on sentence intended!

So now I am on pins and needles, going to the barn several times a day to check on Walker who, luckily enough, is in his normal good spirits.  Pursuant to my research, I would say he is a Grade 4 lame (out of 5) because it is noticeable at the walk.  He has been lame for a week, and frankly, I would have called the vet earlier if there had been a different series of events (lame on Monday, called farrier for Wednesday, but farrier didn't call me again until Friday, and now it's the weekend...).  My mind has been cycling through every possibility - laminitis/founder, some form of navicular, broken/torn muscles or ligaments, etc.

I just want the best for him, and this weekend has really made me appreciate L. William's strength this last month.  It has only been two days since Friday and already I am in a fit of despair.  I don't know if I can make it to Monday at 2:30.  And I'm seriously afraid that my next post will not be a happy one either.