Hello old sports! Yep, still a disgraceful excuse for a writer. My excuse this time? Well, in July I was as healthy as the proverbial horse. But that changed in August and I decided I would write an update when I had figured out what was wrong with me. And you know what? 5 months later and I'm still not sure what's wrong. But I suppose it is time for an update regardless.
First, I am still undeniably attractive. A stylish old sport if ever there was one.
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| Sporting my new travel halter courtesy of Christmas. One of my relatives/admirers got it for me. |
So, where to begin? Back in August, Spode first noticed trouble when I became quite tired and reluctant to work. I really didn't want to do much and then I started to get sore abdominal muscles. I quickly started losing weight as well, and even I thought my inflammatory bowel disease disaster had flared up again after all the work to get my weight back to normal.
But after some deductions and panicked calls to the vet, Spode figured out I had sand in my intestines (please, don't ask how Spode tested for this. She disgusts me sometimes. Horse people are so gross). It was a nice quick fix with psyllium husks added to my diet and I quickly started to perk up after I got rid of the sand issue.
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| Back to normal? Alas, it didn't last! |
Shortly after this sand issue had been resolved and Spode was trying to bring my fitness levels back up after a few weeks of lethargy, my breathing issues became apparent. I started snorting loads and had a heave line on my belly from breathing and snorting hard. Cue more panicked phone calls to the vet.
Out came the vet and there were no lung sounds to be heard. He watched me in the round pen, but did I snort much then? No, only a few times so Spode looked like a fool. I'm good at that. Our friend Albert the vet still believed there was a problem though, so after more monitoring and ideas, he decided I should come to the hospital for a series of tests. Spode booked the horse trailer and was all ready to go when our vet called to say he had broken his leg! All things cancelled, but Spode had another vet come out to do an endoscopy.
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| Have you ever had an endoscopy? Let me tell you, old sports, it was not fun. I don't recommend it. 0/5 stars. |
The vets came out, still no lung sounds (hmmm?) sedated me (woohoo, love me some sedation!) and shoved a tube down my nose. Um, no thank you. So, so unpleasant. And to top it all off, my nose started to bleed. I admit, I did this to myself with the struggle, but I got them all back by snorting blood specks over the vet student's pressed white shirt. And that will be the last time HE wears a white shirt to a farm call! Valuable life lessons courtesy moi.
They uncovered a heck of a lot of mucus on my trachea yet could not find a reason for this. They took a sample and that was that.
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| Then the waiting game. Those results took ages! |
My blood tests came back first and revealed nothing too out of whack, and then the trach wash showed very high levels of inflammatory cells. Finally, the swab results came back showing... now hang on, I'll need to get the spelling right here... streptococcus equi subspecies zooepidemicus. What a mouth full! This is a relative to the scary sounding strangles disease. Not good news. Mrs vet tested to see what antibiotics it was sensitive to and then I went on a course of them. Not tasty.
Because of the amount of snot I had in my throat, I also went on a course of sputulosin, which was supposed to reduce it. But alas, it did not help. And neither did the antibiotics. We did another test and found that I was still infected, and went on antibiotics again. Still no help.
Next step, ventipulmin to open up my airways. No help. Next, steroids. These helped to reduce my rapid breathing rate a bit, but were no help with my snorting problem and my breathing rate was not consistently lower. In other words, despite the tests and drugs, I am still a medical mystery.
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| What can I say? I've ALWAYS been a very special horse when it comes to my health. And everything for that matter. |
Now, Spode had been bothered by the fact that back when I went to the hospital for my inflammatory bowel disease, they discovered a small problem with my right lung. I had no difficulty breathing back then, so we didn't follow it up due to being much more concerned with my weight loss. Spode wondered if perhaps the non-working parts of the lung they saw (I had patches of lung that weren't filling with air) had gotten bigger. So Spode and the vet decided the next best step would be to do an ultrasound of my lungs. The good news was that my right lung seems to be fully aerated again. The bad news? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME!? I did have a few small issues with my right lung called comet tails, but the vet wasn't too worried about these. Yes, they can be a sign of lung issue and it does mean the lung is not functioning perfectly, but these can sometimes be found even on horses with no problems breathing. Apparently it could be an aging process or "scarring" from the original lung issue I had. Either way, it should not be causing the symptoms of rapid breathing, lethargy, and excessive snorting if not accompanied with fluid in the lungs or other issues. And I still have no unusual lung sounds so the chances of me having fluid is slim.
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| Sorry, everyone. I'm not an easy case. |
More videos and note taking. Throughout all of this, Spode has changed my feed, changed how I eat my hay, changed my bedding three times, tried riding in the morning, the evening, without eating hay, without eating grass, hacking only... nothing has made a difference so far. I'm still snorting loads, and the more I work, the more I snort. I rarely snort up snot, but always have a runny nose when I exercise.
After consulting with other vets, they have decided that our best strategy is now to try to get fit. Their best guess is that the infection I had triggered a breathing issue that is now being exacerbated by my lack of fitness. The worse I get, the less Spode has been riding me, and so the worse I get. That's the theory. So what has the doctor ordered? A fitness regime.
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| I am not impressed, old sports. Not. Impressed. |
Spode is on orders to trot me on the lunge for 6 minutes at the trot every day this week, increasing to 10 mins next week, 15 the week after, and so on. If after this six week program, which will hopefully lead to riding again in 4 weeks time, I am still difficult to exercise and still snorting and breathing rapidly, then I will go to the hospital for a deeper scope to the base of my lungs (ugh, not another nose tube!) and an x ray of my lungs. A CT scan of my head is on their minds as well in case it's head shaking syndrome, but that seems less likely. I might go to the hospital sooner if Spode's anxiety about my health gets the better of her and I show zero signs of improvement, but we'll see how things go.
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| Can I stop now? Oh good! |
I have only done 2 sessions of this exercise regime so far, and let me tell you, it is not fun. I need a lot of pushing and coaxing to get myself up to speed. I hope it will get easier. And I hope this resolves things! I'll try and update again more regularly with my progress. Hooves crossed for good results and a positive update! Because I really, really don't want another camera and tube up my nose please.
Until later, old sports.
Jay.
