Wednesday update: Vet visit (ugh…) and Loomis Basin Equine opinion
Hi all, another update…
This morning (Wednesday) I spoke with Dr Yarborough at Loomis Basin, he is an orthopedic surgeon (equine). I really liked him!
He said the prognosis was very good… and was MUCH more upbeat. He also sounded like he had seen this plenty of times, and had personal experience with this going very well..
The one thing I liked the MOST was that he had a ’stepwise approach’, He would like to do the check ligament desmotomy first, then give him some time and hoofcare to bring the heel down… and if that doesn’t work, then do the tenotomy…. and see if that gives us enough loosening… etc.
I like that… he also was clear, the desmotomy will NOT decrease his athletic ability at all! The tenotomy might, so best to do the least of the surgeries.
Then, the illness…. today the vet came and looked at him… mumbled about how surgeons and internal medicine vets ‘butt heads’ over ‘this stuff’… pronounced him very sick, broncho-pneumonia, nasal congestion, cough of course, fever, swollen lymph nodes, sore throat…. ack. Anyway, starting on IM antibiotics tonight, cough syrup, etc… and redo labs on Monday with another exam… glad I called her…. she is confident that the Naxcel will cover strangles if that is what it is… and he is not abscessing yet if it is, so we are ok.. (she did a culture to identify what we are dealing with) and he has to come into the barn. Fingers crossed that it is NOT strangles, as he won’t be totally isolated there, but with the pneumonia, and the forecasted rain on Friday, whatcha gonna do…. ??
