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State of the Zorro
21 December 2011 22:14Zorro has been to horsepital.
Two months of box rest have made a negligible difference - he was alright on pure box rest, the moment he went out at all he was coming in lame again - so he needed a full work-up. For that we had to go to the vets, where they have lots of facilities and can do a proper job.
Consequently yesterday we put Zorro in a horse box ( after he had almost bitten my thumbnail off by accident ) and drove him over to the Equine Hospital for a series of nerve blocks. The first blocks reduced the lameness but didn't clear it entirely, the second block was similar. They X-rayed his feet, which showed arthritic changes in the coffin joint and around the short pastern. These seemed to be present in both front feet though, so that may not be the source of the lameness. The vet wanted to try blocking the coffin joint, but he couldn't do that while Zorro was still affected by the previous nerve blocks so he had to stay the night at the hospital. That meant the ride home I had booked wouldn't work out and the transporter couldn't do the next day. It was a stressful evening and I had a sore thumb.
This morning we came in to find that Zorro had already impressed the nursing staff by taking himself on a self-guided tour of the facilities. I'm not sure how he got out, but probably he caught the door when someone opened it and went walkabout. He was very easy to catch apparently. He did have warnings about biting and potentially escaping on his little patient card outside his stable so I didn't feel too guilty.
This morning's nerve block didn't completely resolve the lameness but knocked it down a long way. The vet thought it was worth using a steroid injection into the joint. If the arthritis is causing the lameness then this should help. If not, then we'll maybe need to go back in a couple of months ( which we will spend on box rest ) for MRI. If it's a ligament injury - could still be, then we're probably looking at six months or more of recuperation.
So not great news and we don't really have much idea about a long term prognosis yet, but Zorro is home and happy to be home and my thumbnail hasn't fallen off yet, so I guess there are some rays of light.
Two months of box rest have made a negligible difference - he was alright on pure box rest, the moment he went out at all he was coming in lame again - so he needed a full work-up. For that we had to go to the vets, where they have lots of facilities and can do a proper job.
Consequently yesterday we put Zorro in a horse box ( after he had almost bitten my thumbnail off by accident ) and drove him over to the Equine Hospital for a series of nerve blocks. The first blocks reduced the lameness but didn't clear it entirely, the second block was similar. They X-rayed his feet, which showed arthritic changes in the coffin joint and around the short pastern. These seemed to be present in both front feet though, so that may not be the source of the lameness. The vet wanted to try blocking the coffin joint, but he couldn't do that while Zorro was still affected by the previous nerve blocks so he had to stay the night at the hospital. That meant the ride home I had booked wouldn't work out and the transporter couldn't do the next day. It was a stressful evening and I had a sore thumb.
This morning we came in to find that Zorro had already impressed the nursing staff by taking himself on a self-guided tour of the facilities. I'm not sure how he got out, but probably he caught the door when someone opened it and went walkabout. He was very easy to catch apparently. He did have warnings about biting and potentially escaping on his little patient card outside his stable so I didn't feel too guilty.
This morning's nerve block didn't completely resolve the lameness but knocked it down a long way. The vet thought it was worth using a steroid injection into the joint. If the arthritis is causing the lameness then this should help. If not, then we'll maybe need to go back in a couple of months ( which we will spend on box rest ) for MRI. If it's a ligament injury - could still be, then we're probably looking at six months or more of recuperation.
So not great news and we don't really have much idea about a long term prognosis yet, but Zorro is home and happy to be home and my thumbnail hasn't fallen off yet, so I guess there are some rays of light.
