Gatsby's Grand Adventure--#2!

That's right, old sports! I had another adventure off the farm today. I'll be well prepared for shows, I can tell you that! Spode came early in the morning to get me ready for the day. She came in the great big truck that got me here to Fox Hollow. I was a little wary (I don't want to move barns!) but she told me it was just a short trip to the city and back today and I will be home again before I know it. Okay then! Go ahead and put those boots on!

I think I've grown some more. These hind boots seem even smaller now! 

 Spode said it was time to go, grabbed my bucket of breakfast, and we walked onto the trailer just like that. Yeah, you couldn't call me a difficult loader. I'll follow that bucket anywhere! Plus, there was hay inside. Not a bad place to be. When it's a choice between a trailer and a stall, the trailer wins. At least I'm moving then. Unfortunately I couldn't look out the windows this time because Spode covered them all up! Kind of defeats the purpose of a trip in the trailer if you ask me. So much for watching thee world go by. I wanted to see the city!

Luckily, Spode let me have a long look once we got to Alta Vista vet. I scared some dogs walking by and also saw a rabbit. Lots of interesting things to keep me occupied while I waited on the vets. Spode's mum also took pity on me and brought me a constant grass buffet. Sweet--a ride with service!

So this is the city, huh? There sure are a lot of cars.

Oh good. Cities have grass. This is perfectly acceptable, thank you. 

Grass and a view. This is better than home!

Wait! Come back and feed me more!!

Soon enough, three vets came out and we had a chat about all my eye issues (well okay, I didn't talk. I just listened). Then one of the vets put a funny mining lamp on his head and closed the door. Just me and him. I didn't like this arrangement very much but the vet was okay. He did this 4 more times with different head gear each time, and then the humans all chatted again. 

The good: The uveitis is gone for now! Huzzah! I can come off the meds, FINALLY. I couldn't be happier. I have to stay on painkiller for a long time, but no more sticking fingers in my eyes. Phew. I'll come off the steroids slowly over the next two weeks and then we're going to pray that we beat our previous record of two weeks without any medication or uveitis. I don't think Spode is going to relax until we pass that two week mark. 

The doubleplusgood (oh wait, wrong literary reference. Sorry, George Orwell--get your own horse). I'm allowed outside again! Now that I'm no longer on atropine, I'm a free man. I can be back out with my friends and live a normal horsey life again. Get ready for a party, friends! 

The bad: I have cataracts in both eyes. Aw shucks. Yet another eye problem. These cataracts are a result of all the inflammation I've had in my eyes. They're not terrible cataracts, but they have the potential to get worse and the left one is already worse than the right one. The humans are all going to watch my eyes closely for more signs of cloudiness, which might mean that my cataracts are currently getting worse rather than being stable. Yikes. Not much we can do about them, so those are the cards. If they don't get any worse, they should be a major hinderance except for some slight vision issues in my left eye, it seems. 

So with the knowledge, we headed back home. 

Let's hit the road so I can go outside, please. 

Once home, I was put back in my stall temporarily and then Spode dewormed me. Yuck. I was kind of hoping we'd never have to do that. Man it tastes terrible!! And Spode practically put her whole arm into my mouth this time to stop my crazy tongue maneuver. For the first time, I didn't manage to spit any of the stuff out that way. And even when I put my head to the ceiling it didn't help. I guess I'll just have to accept it one day, but might as well make Spode work for it for now. 

And then I was taken to my field for the first time in well over a month. Oh bliss. There are no friends for me right now because we have to introduce me back into the herd slowly it's been so long. Plus, the other horses are on the summer grass now but I need to be worked up to that slowly as well. So I get to be with other horses in the nice fields on Monday, Right now I'm alone in the winter field but there are horses on the other side of the fence to chat with. Today I had no time for chatting. Just RUNNING! I love the wind in my mane!!

Excuse the photography. I was too fast for Spode today!

The wonderful thing about Tiggers...

Can you do the splits while also doing a hand stand? I can. And I did. 

I'm the only one!

Had to do some super trotting to make Spode's dressage heart go pitter patter. 

But then it was back to rodeoing! 

They call me Speedygongatsby.

It sure was a happy time! But after about 10 minutes the novelty wore off (and fine, I was tired!) and so I had a good roll and then went in search of the hay pile. 

Are you hay? Do you have treats for me? Because that will also be acceptable. If you don't have treats, then get out of my way!

It was a happy day despite the bad cataract news. A nice way to end your first week as a three year old. This was the real party--Spode should have made me wear my crown today!

Can my present be not to wear this silly hat? Thanks. A lot. 

Ain't no party like a Gatsby party.

Thank you, Spode. I am ready to move forward to the next step in our journey. Ready, set, go! 

Until later, old sports.

Jay.

I don't want a bath! I want to go out and play!

Hello, old sports!

Not much to report eye wise (thank goodness!). I am off to Ottawa on Thursday with Spode and her dad for a visit to another specialist and we'll go from there. We're all hoping he will say we can take me off meds. Sure, it means the fogginess in my eyes is there for good, but I need to get back to being a horse. Spode said she made up a little timeline of my eye history to send to the vet, and I have been having ointment and eye drops for 9 weeks straight. 9 weeks! And I've been on stall rest for almost a month now. I've had enough. It's time to get out, I tell you!

It's been getting a little better, at least. I'm allowed out for 3 hours when the weather is good for my eyes, and Spode usually takes me out for grass and a walk in the evenings or whenever she has a spare moment. I just wish I could see some other horses again and romp around with my friends. If all goes well, I should be doing that in one week. I can barely contain my excitement!

Today was bath day because Spode says I am absolutely disgusting and I should be ashamed. Typical teenage boy--my room is always a mess. The only problem is, I'm a horse, so my room is also my bed. I am drinking about 6 buckets of water a day and peeing like crazy because of all these meds. I have plenty of shavings, but after 5 hours or so it's disgusting. I lie down anyway, so my beautiful white legs are covered in pee and poop stains. Whatever, I'm a boy.  I don't give a damn. Spode sure does though. So today was bath day because it was both cloudy and hot.

Come on, Spode. I'm not that gross! Do I really need a bath today?

I was a pretty good boy, you know. Last year Spode gave me baths in a wash stall with cross ties, so it really didn't matter if I tried to move around. But this time I have to be held or tied to a hitching post to have a bath, so I actually need to stand. And I did! I admit, I struggled with the tail dousing, but aside from that it was all okay. Spode scrubbed and scrubbed at my legs, but those stains didn't come off. She says she'll have to get special whitening shampoo for me because Mane and Tail just isn't going to cut it. Sigh. I guess I will be having another bath soon then.

So Spode was super pleased with me, but then I kind of ruined it all when she took me over to the grass to eat while I dried off. She wanted to take me way into the grass, but I wanted to eat right away. She pulled my head up and I pulled back. Then she pulled again and I... I.... Well... I reared. I reared really high, and then I did it again when I came back down. Spode and I had a flash back to almost one year ago when she was first teaching me how to lead, and I got scared and reared up in fear. My hooves went past Spode's head that time, and they did again today. I just had too much energy bundled up in there. No excuse, I know. I'm ashamed. Spode was astonished and disappointed in me. I had a ten minute session on manners--Spode was pretty mad at me. Lesson learned. And that meant a ten minute delay in getting to my grass. If I had only just listened to her I could have had more. I am a bad boy. What an embarrassment.  Promise I'll be better next time, Spode.

Sorry, Spode. And thank you for letting me eat now. Note the still present yellow stains...

After a while, the sun came out again so Spode asked me to come back inside. I did not protest at all on the way back to the barn. I know better than to push her twice!

Spode pampered me and primped some more today before I finally went back to my stall. First I had to have my last dexamethasone shot. Tomorrow I will no longer be poked with needles--yay! It's just 4 drops a day and some painkiller in my breakfast. Almost done, almost done. I can survive one more week in the stall, I know it.

At least I can see out the barn door from my stall. That gives me something to do. And I have my stall toys and buckets to play with, of course. 

My tail has suffered from being inside. I rubbed out quite a bit. At least the conditioner made it a bit fluffier. And look! I'm starting to put back on some of the weight I have lost over the past 2 months! I'll balloon as soon as I'm on pasture with my friends again, I just know it. 

Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny, sadly. That means no grass and such for me. Hopefully the weather man will be nice to me on Monday (my birthday!) though. I would love some grass for that special day! 

Until later, old sports.

Jay. 

The Curse of The Great Gatsby Soundtrack..

Let me start by saying I had a super awesome long blog post all typed up, which is hard enough with my hooves, and then Blogger ate it! Stupid internet. If a horse had invented it, we probably wouldn't have all these technical difficulties. Just saying.

Anyway, let me try and remember what I typed up. Ah yes. The curse. It has always been Spode's plan to one day do a dressage freestyle with me to The Great Gatsby soundtrack (our Spode is not that creative). That's still in the books, but more and more Spode is thinking that she should just do it to one song from the soundtrack: "Love is Blindness". What? Not "Young and Beautiful"? Oh, I don't really mind. No, I will stick by Spode and accept what comes as long as she keeps feeding me treats. It'll all be okay as long as that fact remains, and I'm pretty sure it will.

It has not been a very exciting week. Things have been much the same, with the exception that Spode now works at my house as the cleaning and feeding lady. It's taken some getting used to. The first couple of days I kept whinnying to say "Hello! I'm over here! You're leading the wrong horse, genius!" But I've figured it out now. Spode has to clean up everyone's poop, not just mine. I wish she didn't feed everyone though. Any food that comes from Spode should be mine by right, I think. I stare at her through the stall bars to make her feel guilty. It has caused an increase in treats, you bet.

Spode eats her lunch with me. Er, well she is with me, and I eat her lunch. I really annoy her because I eat her lunch and then I spit it out because I'm such a picky eater. Whatever, she was laughing. She said she was hungry later though...

Today Mrs. Vet visited, and so now I get a bit of a change. She said I am getting better. Hooray! My eyes still have a touch of fogginess inside, but nothing like the "pea soup" I had before. Unfortunately, I am still not seeing great out of my left eye. This is odd because the vet says she can't see any structural damage to my retina. The only major thing she can see is that I have a cloudy line in my left eye. She dyed my eye green to make sure it wasn't an ulcer. Thankfully it wasn't, because I am not ready to have blood squirted into my eye again! So it's either pus in my eye again (my eyes are lovely, shut up) or calcification as a result of the huge amount of steroids I've been on. Either way, it should not be making it hard for me to see. I can see shadows but not much else in that eye. My right eye seems to be better though--woohoo!

It's now been 4 weeks since the surgery, so my special implants should now be full force ready to crack down on my reckless white blood cells. Hopefully they're going to rock the defensive position and fend off those wild and crazy blood cells. It would be a lot easier if I could just say "chill, little dudes. No need to send up the war cry all the time. Those things you're attacking? Those would be my eyes, not some hideous disease. Drop the gun and back off!" Yes, it would be a lot simpler if I could control those little blood cells. Darn body. But hopefully the cyclosporine implants will do the job for me.

Because we've passed the four week mark, my meds can now be reduced. HALLELUJAH! I'm now down to just 5 times a day. Such an awesome holiday! Atropine once, tobrex once, maxidex 3 times, and my oral banamine twice a day. While I was on the heavy duty schedule of 15 times a day the week before, I was also getting a dexamethasone shot, which I'm going to go back on as a final attempt to get rid of that fogginess once and for all. Then I get my recheck next Thursday or Friday and hopefully Mrs. Vet will reduce my meds even more. We're getting close! This has felt endless lately. But if there's one person who needs a big thank you it's Mrs Vet. Spode was ready to give up on that left eye two weeks ago but Mrs. Vet kept on fighting full force and hoping I'd get better, and it's clearly paid off full vision or not. We are very thankful that she has been so aggressive and has contacted other doctors to consult and try new things with me. I am never happy about having so many drops in my eyes, but she's getting rid of the swelling inside my eye, and I'm chuffed with that. We are both super pleased with Mrs Vet. She is the greatest. (The Great Mrs. Vet? I could have a club).

Even though I don't have full sight back in my left eye, we're hoping I can still get back some more if we get rid of all the cloud inside. We're still being very cautious about outside, so I'm allowed out for 3 hours a day when it's cloudy. Better than nothing, I guess. It's lovely to feel the wind on my back for a bit. Today, as a special treat, Spode even let me eat grass for half an hour since it was so cloudy outside. It was lovely. It cheered me right up.

Thanks for taking me to the buffet!

She also gave me 2 minutes of freedom tonight to run loose in the arena. A brief respite after so much hand walking. She gave me a stern lecture that I wasn't to get too crazy and that it could only be for a short time to take the edge off. I was very good. I ran around the arena twice, bucked 3 times, and then calmly joined Spode for our evening stroll around the arena. It was grand.

Just let me stand on my head once and then I'll walk, ok?

Just making the most of my two minutes, Spode.

So, hopefully there are no set backs as we start reducing meds. We should be over the hill now, but we are all holding our breath and being cautious. Slowly returning to normal is definitely the way to go. Maybe one day this blog can once again return to being about my training adventures rather than a diary of eye issues. I'm crossing my hooves (except not when Spode is looking, because that might freak her out a little. Just a guess). I'll be living a normal life one of these days! It's my birthday in about a week and a half. I'll be three years old. I hope I can be outside for that--what a gift that would be! A horse can only hope...

Spode says that I should shed out for my birthday to reveal the rest of my beautiful dapples. Being inside has messed up my coat shedding. The lack of natural light will do that. I need to go outside for Spode's birthday gift too! Wait, whose birthday is this supposed to be anyway? Why does Spode need a gift of dapples??

Until later, Old Sports.

Is it time for walkies?

Jay.

You're putting what in my eye!?

Well, Old Sports, it's been quite a roller coaster this past few weeks. The reason I haven't updated my blog is because I wasn't supposed to stare at a computer screen for too long, and because I kind of wanted to make sure I knew what was going to happen to me before I blabbed about it online. But 4 vet appointments later, I'm ready to talk!

First question. Am I still considered a vegetarian if they're squirting my own blood into my eye every couple of hours? Spode says it grosses her out. Grosses her out! What about me!? And they wonder why I throw my head up in the air when I see the syringe...

Why were they squirting blood into my eye? Because, lucky me, I got a corneal ulcer on top of everything else. Sheesh. That felt like a bit much after having gone to surgery, come down with bad uveitis in my left eye, and having a reaction to a tetanus shot. Spode and I were just thrilled.  It was pretty awful to start with. Spode had seen my eye look a little odd with a tiny mark of cloudiness on it, so she stopped putting steroids in my eye and called the vet. A couple days later she came and my eye was swollen and weeping like crazy. It really hurt. Spode didn't take pictures of my eye when it was bad (just as well, I was in a very sad state. I even made the poor vet tear up when she saw me). This was my eye ulcer looking much better:

The ulcer in my right eye. Admittedly the camera flash removed some of the blue look. Without light shining on it, my eye was half blue and covered in blood vessels as the bottom. Yuck. 

So because of the eye ulcer, things changed medication wise. I was on a heavy schedule. All in all, I had something 15 times a day in the right eye and something 12 times a day in the left eye. Sigh. I was also stuck inside and still am.  We increased my painkiller and that helped a lot. The EDTA and blood serum sucked the most. The EDTA stung a lot, and the serum was just icky...

The vet had to come on Thursday, Friday, Monday, and Thursday. And then Mrs. Vet is coming again next Tuesday and Thursday to make sure all is still well and to adjust my medications if needed. On Wednesday we added a new medication and this one is an injection--honestly, I prefer an injection to having ointment in my eye again. Spode disagrees though! She is not a fan of giving horses needles, from my understanding...

It was a very dull week in my stall, but at least I was allowed a bit of hand walking inside the arena.

Lemme just sneak a peek out of this window...

I made my own fun, because walking in circles is pretty damn boring, old sports.

Sure, you amused yourself by braiding my mane, but I am still walking in endless circles...

Hmmm, let's see what trouble I can get into over here....

You are absolutely no fun at all, missy.

Other than the hand walking, I didn't do much at all. Let's just say I am VERY clean considering I have not had a bath yet. I spent most of the week catching up on my sleep. 

I even look dashing when I'm snoozing!

Oh, well. Maybe not all the time. 

Anyway, so the big news today is that after that week of hell, the ulcer has healed with zero complications. HUZZAH! I am feeling pretty lucky. Those eye ulcers can be pretty nasty if things don't heal as planned. So I guess the frequent medication sucked but really did help, so I'm grateful. Now the vet can start treating my uveitis in the ulcered eye and maybe I will get my clear vision back in that eye. I can safely say that my vet is better than any Dr. T. J. Eckleburg, Oculist, in the Valley of Ashes. My Mrs. Vet is the very best! 

As for eye number two, it's also improving slowly. Mrs. Vet could see my fundus for the first time today. For those of you who aren't equine eye experts like my Spode is becoming, the fundus is a part of the back of the eye that looks like a small white circle. It's visible now but still hard to see. Hopefully my vision will return as the cloudiness goes away! More waiting and more treatment. Such is life. 

Even though my ulcer is healed, I have to stay inside still because I'm on so much atropine that the bright light is hurting my eyes. I am allowed out for a couple hours if it's cloudy out, so Spode is hoping for an overcast day tomorrow. I hope so too! I'm sick of these four walls, I tell you!

My left uveitis eye. Looks perfectly healthy on the outside, not so much on the inside. 

My right ulcered + uveitis eye. It should start looking clearer inside and out soon, we all hope! And look! My eye lashes and whiskers are growing back great after surgery! I missed them lots. 

So that's my news for the week, old sports! Spode is hoping that it continues from here on out and I don't have any further set backs. We all are hoping that, especially Mrs. Vet I imagine! She's here all the time!

In other news, Spode is now working at the farm so at least I can gaze upon her while she mucks stalls. Kind of weird to see her in the barn and not with me though. I stared at her for a long time today to make sure she didn't forget I was there. Guess it gives me something to do when I'm not eating and making more mess for her. The messier I am, the more she has to come and clean my stall and see me... it's all part of my scheme for attention!

Until later, Old Sports.

Jay.