Soap received his first treatment for what we are diagnosing as ‘Navicular’ caused by bony damage/arthritis on August 1st.
I can’t afford to have an MRI scan done, so we are going by the evidence we can see from the x-rays which points to some bony changes on the outside of his near fore’s Navicular bone. He stood like a lamb for an hour whilst he was attached to a Tildren drip, and once the drip was finished he had a steroid and HA injection into the hoof joint.
The full effect of this should be evident in 4 weeks, but already just 12 days after treatment he is sound, but sadly not sane! 😉
I went to pop him on the lunge today to watch him move to check that all the antics I had seen going on in the field weren’t just a mirage, and that he was in fact now sound. Well he started very well walking nicely and listening, and then a motorbike back firing as it drove past was apparently enough to spark a VERY naughty ‘spook and b*gger off manoeuvre’. As he haired around the paddock doing his version of ‘The Derby’ whilst being chased by a long blue snake I was simultaneously pleased, annoyed, and hoping he would run out of steam quickly so that I could catch him.
After a few very impressive and VERY sound laps 🙂 🙂 🙂 he was pooped and I caught him up, and put him back on a circle to reinforce that 2 months turned out doesn’t mean you are feral, and yes you do have to remember your manners!
Unfortunately in the excitement he also managed to pull off one of his front shoes complete with pad *humph* My farrier is coming out on Monday to shoe him all round and then I can begin hacking him out in walk, and bringing him back into work taking it one step at a time. I think a week of work and he will be back to normal sane Soap and no more Mr Feral. I can’t be mad at him for his naughty behaviour because I am just so glad to see him moving and feeling well again. He has totally stopped pointing that foot when he stands now, and from the athletics I witnessed today I think he is very happy to be back on form 🙂
