This morning Foster goes into surgery, and I will certainly post tomorrow about how it went. Until then, let’s take a look at the pesky bone chips themselves.

This is the first bone chip we discovered, and though it looks like it is located at the front of the fetlock, the x-ray doesn’t show depth, so surgery will show us exactly where it lies. Before going into surgery, the surgeon thought this was the one likely causing the most trauma, because you can see it is perfectly positioned to really tear up the cartilage in that joint. It may also be trying to form a cyst. Lovely.

The second chip is a bit tricker to spot. It’s back by the sesamoid bones, and here we are looking through the fetlock at a diagonal angle. For a better view of what the chip looks like, here is the other side of the fetlock compared to the bone chip.

Bone chip on the right (click to enlarge)

On the left you can see that the edges of the bones are nice and smooth, whereas on the right, there’s a decent sized chunk missing from the lower piece, and some jaggedness to the upper. Very scientific terms here, but you get the idea. The surgeon theorizes that the chip in this area (top left of the circle) may be buried in the surrounding soft tissue, so it is not clear until we delve into it whether or not the chip is worth removing.

Without the flexion test (which we only did because of some slight lingering swelling) and subsequent x-rays, I would have had no idea these issues existed. For now Foster is “serviceably sound” (video below), but I have every hope that this surgery will allow him a greater chance of both being comfortable and add some longevity to his career.

Thanks again for your continued support and I hope I’ll have great news to share tomorrow!

Ok, so. Keeping in mind that my brain is absolutely mush from being at overcapacity, and the fact that I am enjoying what I feel is a rather deserved glass of wine at the moment, I am going to do my best to explain what we think is going on. Sorry in advance for the long post, though I promise this is the condensed version. You want a summary? Skip to the bottom.

[First things first- you remember Foster’s diary that I keep? That has been invaluable during this whole process, and if your type A-ness needs an outlet and you have an accident prone horse, I highly recommend it.]

The Bone Scan
Let’s start with the bone scan. The bone scan really frustrated me at first, in that the results seemed inconclusive to little-old-not-a-veterinarian-me. Basically, the areas that “lit up” (actual term: increased radiopharmaceutical uptake) were his hocks, slightly FL navicular area (which had me saying WTF- that’s the good leg), and slightly outside cannon bone HL. That troubled FR, and really lame HR? Nada.

But from the bone scan we were able to rule out anything really active in the FR, the stifles, and the SI area (which we thought would be the problem). The hocks, after getting 2 radiologists’ opinions, are likely bone edema/remodeling and though a source of discomfort, not likely to cause the acute lameness we are seeing.

The Lameness Exam
Fast forward 3 days to tonight’s vet appointment. We had chatted yesterday about the results, and were thinking probably suspensory issue in the RH but also the possibility (though small) of neurological disease such as EPM or Lyme. So the plan was to ultrasound the leg and/or do nerve blocks to pinpoint the lameness.

We trotted him up the concrete aisle and threw him on the lunge to get a baseline lameness, and saw that the RF seems to have resolved itself, and we were still looking at a definite RH, slight LH lameness. After much discussion, we decided to ultrasound the leg first and then nerve block after (not the typical way of doing things, but I was getting anxious). But first we would block the foot just in case, since that wouldn’t interfere with the ultrasound and we could rule it out if it didn’t improve.

And what do you know, it looked better. A lot better. Now knowing that the lameness was in the foot, we could consider 3 causes:

• The palmar angle is too low and is making him extremely heel sore
• Deep digital flexor tendon injury
• Injury to any of the ligaments in and around the navicular bone

So we blocked the left hind foot, since that was also still showing lameness.

And that looked better, too.

More walking

In Summary
So, while we don’t have a definitive answer, we have a location(s) on the body to concentrate on. The vet thinks that the palmar angles in the hind feet are likely the key to all this, and so we will be doing X-Rays and having a discussion with my farrier a week and a half from now, basically as soon as we can squeeze him in. Ideally the X-Rays will confirm terrible palmar angles and we can begin with corrective shoeing to sort it out.

It may take as long as two shoeing cycles to allow Foster’s feet time to heel and react to the changes, in which time I can work him but must keep all concussion to his feet at a minimum- in other words, walk only. I can do whatever I want at the walk, which is great news to me, but trotting should be at a minimum and cantering and jumping are definitely out. If, after those 2 shoeing cycles, we bring him back in to work and he is no better or still lame, then we will have to look at getting an MRI done to determine soft tissue injury. I would also assume that if the X-Rays show awesome palmar angles, an MRI will be more quickly in our future.

I can’t tell you how relieved I am just to even know where the problem is, and even more so to be hopeful that it can be resolved with corrective shoeing. I’m actually hoping to see some pretty terrible x-rays at our next farrier appointment, and I’ll certainly be posting an update when I have it.

Until then- bring on the walk suggestions! What fun walk exercises can we do?

I won’t lie, every time I think of what I might hear tonight I’m filled with a sense of dread, and yet I’m still looking forward to our appointment and desperately hoping to get answers. We’ll be testing for everything from neurological (not likely) to suspensory issues (much, much more likely) and right now the future seems like an uncertain fog looming in the very near distance.

Video of Foster from Tuesday, discussing the fluffy shavings at the vet school and trotting at the 1:20 mark:

I’ve been asked a couple times what I will do if he needs time off. Well, the obvious answer is that he’ll get time off. If that is the solution, then I will find a situation for him to heal that works best for the both of us and we will simply start over again when he’s ready. But if I’m honest, after losing the entire spring season to ulcers and having finally clawed our way back to progressing again in our training, this would be a most bitter pill to swallow.

I don’t know what I’m hoping to find, but I suppose it would be some small insignificant thing that will be mended quickly and quietly.

Hopefully a more clarifying post coming tomorrow. Thanks all for your continued support.

After going over paperwork for the release of two horses, sedating Foster’s barnmate to head off any mareish moments in the trailer, and loading both horses up, we finally got back to the barn safe and well, not quite sound, right around 7:30 last night.

Foster was so happy to be home, and his entire expression went from worried at the vet school to bright and perky as he tore into his nibble net in his stall. I lunged him to be sure he could get his sillies out in a controlled way (surprise: there were none) and see how he went. To me there’s still obvious issues with the right hind and slight HL but I’m struggling to see the FR of before. His hind legs are no longer resembling pool noodles, though the FR still has a little heat and puffiness.

After being entirely too clean for 3 days straight, of course this is his first response

I did get a rather rushed version of the results while I was there, but unfortunately felt like I didn’t get all my questions answered in the process. To me, they don’t add up, so I am waiting for the radiologist to speak with my vet, who will then hopefully explain how the bone scan results match what we are seeing. I hope.

Because of this, I won’t go into the details here today but will share more on Friday. We have our follow up vet appointment tomorrow afternoon, and I hope to put all this information into a palatable form at that time.

I want to thank everyone who reached out to me, either via the blog or by phone, in support of Foster and his trip to the vet school. It means so much to me to know I’m not the only one who cares about a particular painted pony, and how much he is to me.

Right now we’re playing the waiting game until the radiography specialist interprets the images, which I’m told could be later the afternoon or even tomorrow. And then, once we get those results, I’ll be speaking with my vet to determine a plan of action.

It’s an exercise in patience at the moment not to take to Dr. Google to see all that might be wrong with him, so I do hope I get that call sooner rather than later. I will certainly be providing an update on the blog once I have those results and a plan to go along with them.

Thanks again all, when I see Foster this evening I’ll be sure to tell him how loved he is!