Laz and I walking down the dirt roads.
They've been especially wet and cushy so I though/hoped the different terrain would be good for his hooves to walk on, while still being comfortable
His Right Hind medial sole still shows some bruising as that hoof wall continues to grow down, but not yet hitting the ground. HURRRRRRY up hoof wall (trust me, he's on all supplements, vitamins, hoof lotions and potions to get it to grow..it's time)
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On Thursday, we had our 2nd Chiro/Acupuncture visit from the AMAZING Dr. W.
We lurve him
He's cool, humble, SMART and awesome
Did I mention, we like him??
LOTS
What I like best about him; His quiet ability to listen to the animals.
Also, Laz loves his treatments and stands still and quiet for him.
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Above is after the Chiro work, Dr W is putting the Accu needles in Lazaroo.
Then he follows it with a shot of B12 vitamin to help 'keep' the adjustment
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He thought Laz was looking really good and was happy.
I am to keep working on stretching out his R Front shoulder to help break up that scar tissue, but he thought it's already looking a bit better.
Go, us!
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Then, I had him look at Mason
Masie Pie is 8 yrs old (9 in May) so I thought it couldn't hurt
Dr. W thought his hips were off a little (actually similar to Laz, lol) and adjusted him.
He didn't feel anything bad in his hips otherwise
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Mason was a VERY good patient
"Uh...Mom...who dis??"
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Dr. W confirmed my suspicions (without me telling him!) that Mason left front leg was hurting him.
Mason has been limping a little, and it's inconsistent. Some days it's there, some days he's fine. For the past month or so, I've stopped throwing his ball/frisbee because he runs with 10000% speed and then slams to stop and it's wearing on his joints.
At any rate, Dr. W found a bit of pain in Mason's left elbow area.
See how below, Mason's face is relaxed...
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And here he quickly stopped breathing, shut his mouth and showed signs of "ouch"
Glucousime will be added to his diet, per wondrous Dr. W.
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Wagging his tail during his 2 minutes of acupuncture
Can you see his needles? They are the same as the ones used for humans
He has 7 here, and had 2 or 3 near his shoulder/elbow area
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We also chit chatted about vaccinations, etc.
He prefers to do Rabies for Dogs (and he's waiting on testing to be released that perhaps we only have to do that once every 5-7 yrs) and for Horses, annually : Rabies, Tetanus, and West Niles combo. They said, "Those three could kill your horse and it's a terrible death."
Something to really consider for Laz coming up...it's the same three my new Vet thinks I should do too.
Laz is clearly benefiting from this extra TLC
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Video of Laz and his WB X bestie
Oh, and for those that wanted to see how Laz kicks it in reverse to try to 'sit' on his friend, zoom to 0.37. He does this maneuver all the time, lol
Mason was a bit extra tired after his appointment. He tends to get excited over new things, and I knew it would knock him out a bit. But, later that night, he seemed re-energized and prancey
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Pudgie wants to know if I'm going stick pins in him too ;)
Not yet littlest one...
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Wow, Laz sure is feeling good! What cute buddies they make :) I'm really interested in trying some chiro and acupuncture for Jetta eventually...
ReplyDeleteI love the video! I love seeing horses play, it is so cute! If Shy ever needs it, I will have to get Dr. W's number from you and see if he will come down to my barn, he sounds amazing!
ReplyDeleteYour doc sounds amazing!! I would love to get my elderly goldens looked at-I know Sammy's hips in particular are hurting him first thing in the morning, and I'm terrified it's going to get worse. Laz is looking adorable as always-whatever youre doing its working:)
ReplyDeleteVery cool and Laz looks so happy playing with his friend!!! Love me!!!
ReplyDeleteLove watching horses play--they're so cute. Looks like Laz likes his treatment!
ReplyDeleteI used to work for a vet who did acupuncture and chiro for horses and dogs (plus the occasional cat) and it was pretty neat stuff. I hope to get certified someday!
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised that Dr. W picked those three vaccines as the most important for Laz. I agree that all horses need to be vaccinated against tetanus and WNV but I would add EEE/WEE (especially EEE) to the list. EEE might not be as common as WNV but it has a far higher fatality rate!! I'm not sure what the incidence of WNV in Michigan is, but I do know that it was the third highest state in the country with 59 reported EEE horse deaths from 2009-2011. Very, very scary disease (not that WNV isn't).
Where I'm at the prevalence of rabies is so low that we skip that vaccine and only do it every couple years. I suspect their titers protect them for longer than a year anyways!
That video of the two of them playing is really cute!
Ooops, Jessica, you are SO right. He mentioned a 'name' for those three WNV/EEE/WEE..you will know, I fogot, and YES, he had lumped those three together as being very important. Thanks for the reminder :)
DeleteHe suspected the same about Rabies for horses too, but I know it's been since 09 that I've given Laz ANYTHING, so it's something I need to weigh out. I'm just so nervous to give a drug that could possibly interfere with his hoof healing. Any thoughts on those mentioned above with horses that have had toxic laminitis?
Ha oh good, sorry for the lecture about the EEE stuff, just wanted to make sure it's on your radar too!
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm not sure how available this is for horses but you might want to look into testing his blood titer levels (which will look at the amount of circulating antibodies he has against those diseases) and if they are all high then you can feel safer not vaccinating him or perhaps cutting back on them. I would guess that if you were to work with a University or something you could get this done for Laz, although it will be more expensive then it would cost to just vaccinate him. I do know that a lot of hollistic dog/cat vets will do the titer testing instead of revaccinating every year.
If you can't go that route, I understand you are stuck in a hard spot. You might be able to rank them in order of "importance" (keeping in mind they are all serious disease) and decide which ones present the most risk to Laz. For example, tetanus is in the environment and with his rough housing with horses being horses there is always the chance they will get exposed to it. As I mentioned before, we actually don't vaccinate for rabies often since the prevalence is very low here and our horses are stalled at night so they are probably less likely to have an encounter with a rabid animal (our barn is in the middle of corn fields so there isn't as much wildlife as there would be if we were by woods). You could talk to your vet about the prevalence of rabies in your area and maybe consider not doing that one, or at least not doing it often.
WNV/EEE/WEE all scare the crap out of me. Horses that stay on their feet with WNV have a decent shot at surviving, but I've personally seen a horse become neurologic, not be able to stand and die from WNV. It was incredibly sad. EEE has a horrible survival rate and it IS out there. I don't think that WEE is as common in the US as the other two, so that might be another one that you can consider cutting out.
I understand your concern with the laminitis and I think that your best bet is to space them out as much as you can. You'll want to do the WNV and possibly EEE/WEE in the spring just prior to the mosquitos showing up, but you can do rabies or tetanus in the fall or winter. I would steer clear of the vaccines that are combined in a combo as they are more likely to cause a reaction (but not as severe of a reaction as laminitis, I mean more of a local reaction). If you work with a vet you trust they can help you select the vaccines that they have been having the best luck with minimal reactions.
Ultimately it's going to be your decision what you feel comfortable doing for Laz. Really the chance of him getting those diseases is probably fairly low, but like your vet said they all cause horrible deaths. I've decided that I couldn't live with myself if Prince died from a preventable disease so I've been vaccinating him yearly since his laminitis and he's been fine with it so far, although he doesn't have the chronic laminitis like Laz does, nor is he as sensitive.
I'm sorry I can't give you better advice, but I'm really not experienced enough to give you a good answer. I would talk it over with the vets that you trust since they know much more than I do, especially when it comes to drugs affecting hoof growth. I'll try to do a little research for you, and you'll have to let me know what you decide and how it goes. The blood titer thing might be your best option if you really can't come to terms with vaccinating him for all those.
Sorry for the long post!
Yay! I was the one who wanted to see video of Lazaroo trying to park his butt on his horsey friend, and i have to say, I laughed out loud & replayed it 3 or 4 times! What a little stinker - he's hilarious! I'm so glad he's feeling good these days - you must be so happy.
ReplyDeleteThanks for capturing that, I loved it!
~Jenn & the monkey
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ReplyDeleteReally Cool post!!! :)
ReplyDelete