Tendon sprain

Well, the weekend of fun trail riding did NOT happen.

We had glorious weather too :(((

On Saturday morning, I arrived at the barn to find Laz laying down. 

Not an odd sight being it was his naptime window, but when he stood, he was LAME. 

My heart dropped onto my stomach which dropped onto the pasture grass.

I quickly grabbed him and started looking at his hooves, sure it was that.
When I was picking out his club RF, he was gently yanking his foot from me.

Huh? 

Usually he is SUCH a gentleman and leaves his hoof in my hand. I set him down and sure enough, I noticed a slight swelling in his LF.

UGH. He seemed he twisted his leg or tweaked it. He was standing off set and not weighing his LF like he usually does.

I opted to do a cold hose for about 15 minutes and then rubbed my liniment gel on it to help with swelling.

I came BACK that night, loosing it. I went from a sane horse person who thought maybe he tweaked it, to WHY?!?! and after googling tendon injuries, it further sent me down a crazy spiral of fright. I cold hosed him again, applied a light amount of gel and used his standing wraps.  I haven't wrapped him since he was first sick a couple of years ago, which then really brought me down, down, down, down. I just felt awful for him.  I felt all those terrifying feelings rise up again from a couple years ago.  I hate seeing him in any amount of pain. I kept telling myself, HE IS FINE. HE IS NOT DYING.

BUT, he was standing better and the swelling went down considerably so I kept it barely together. Poor Frizzle for my crazzzzzy frantic emails! ;)

 Sunday morning he was better yet and he was walking 90% normal. Again, just did a cold hose and rub rub rub with liniment and I left the wraps off.
I didn't dare trot him, so I just waited until Monday to book our appointment.

 I decided that for MY sanity, I needed to have my vet out to confirm via ultrasound that indeed it wasn't major. or if it was, to prepare of how to handle it.

Otherwise, I didn't feel right saying "oh he's fine" and riding him out on the trails for miles, etc.

So, on Tuesday we had our Vet out. She confirmed that he has a mild suspensory branch strain.  She compared it to a twisted ankle.  We've had a few days of rain, so the pastures have sections of slick mud and I'm guessing that was it, or when they geldings all play and gallop around. It happens, I guess when you choose a life of turnout for a horse. 

So, our plan to help him heal;

 Rest it (no riding---der), ice it, cold hose it and apply Surpass to the area, when dry, and rub it in.

He has sliiiiight swelling in joint area that showed up on the Ultrasound. He also tested slightly when she tested him with her fingers.

So, I'm to apply the Surpass once a day, rub into his lateral and medial side for 5 minutes into the skin, until she re checks him next Thursday. She hopes he'll continue to be tough and I"ll be back on his back soon after. Hopefully, he'll stay quiet since I WONT stall him (she didn't even suggest it) and it will continue to heal.

I know I'll worry a bit on our next ride but I'll only go for it if he seems to be back to normal.  She mentioned if he isn't back to normal by his re check, to maybe think about a Legend injection---eek

Tendon issues scare the bejesus out me!