Visit to the specialist

This week Dr. Dora Jean Ferris is in town so I took the opportunity and scheduled an appointment time with her for Sinwaan.

We did more lameness evaluations with flexion testing and it was more obvious today that he was "off." Dr Ferris pointed out to me that he is dropping his right hind lower to compensate for the pain on his left side.  Today he was even doing a little toe dragging without me riding him. (Obvious in the photo above). Another thing she pointed out to me was his muscles quivering in a specific spot, when flexing him, more so on the left than on the right. 

Video #1 - left flexion test

Video #2 - as a comparison, right flexion test

After these she did some more flexion tests, focusing more on the stifle area but my video camera was not recording when I thought it was. Oops.

Video #3 - starts at 10 sec. right flexion test on right

Video #4 - starts at about 18 sec. flexion test on left

Video #5 - flexion on right

Then she used a hoof tester and checked all his feet for any soreness issues. Other than some mild tenderness on the inside frog of the left fore, there were no issues.

Then we talked, or I should say, she talked to me about what she was seeing.  I will include the report in the next post because it covers the whole visit.

Thickening area

We had the options of blocking, radiographs and ultrasound. I asked her what option she would choose, if she could only do one (due to my financial limitations), and she said the blocking should give her the most answers today. The price quote for that was cheaper than the radiographs so I said let's go ahead. Well, they had another appointment due to come in within 30 minutes, and not wanting to get started only to be interrupted, they asked if I could leave him with them for a couple of  hours. I said that was no problem.

As we walked him back to his pen, we passed the cattle in the stocks. It was castration day for them, and there was quite a bit of blood, which they had warned us about before walking over there. Ellie was with me, carrying a armload of hay for Sinwaan, and I told her to watch Sinwaan, which she did. She told me later she did not see any blood,  but she wanted to know all about castration!  Sinwaan was settled into his stall next to a horse who was all bandaged up from injuries resulting from the storm we just had. Bandages all the way up two of his legs, stitches in his neck, but he was upright and looked like he was going to make it.

Exciting day at the vet clinic to be sure. I'll report more later after I pick him up.