Dax is coming home and a gimpy dog

Well, it's official.  Dax will be coming back "home" after her bone cyst injection.  The first reason for doing this is because it became an option!  For those of you unfamiliar with my housing arrangements, my furry family + hubby + me live on a 120+ acre farm that has roughly 90 rolling mixed acres fenced in for cattle.  There's also a large covered run-in metal shed with smaller pens attached (primarily for sorting cattle).  A while ago we had Dax living "at home" in 2acres fenced off with electric fencing.  Unfortunately, this 2acres was the windiest-least-sheltered acreage possible, right off of our backyard.  We have a water spigot outside, but it's not frost free.  So yeah, that basically resulted in hubby and I dragging muck-tubs of water from our bathtub out to pony-butt in 30mph winds from which she essentially had no shelter.  Just so you don't think we were totally neglectful, we did have one of those Cover-All tubular steel/tarp shelters up for her....however those things are not made for wind (it even says so in the instructions).  We didn't take the tarp down one spring storm and the wind actually COLLAPSED the entire side of the structure.  Seriously - bent 6 2inch metal ribs like they were toothpicks.  Did I mention we get a lot of wind in Crozet??  Actually, it's really just at our house where the Blue Ridge funnels wind onto the farm.  Nice in the summer but nasty in winter.  At the time Dax was separated into these two acres (she couldn't be with the cows in the rest of the field) because the cows were fed liquid molasses with enzymes that would be poisonous to a horse.  Plus I don't relish the idea of my already spunky little mare constantly hyped up on molasses.

Windy much?

So the less than stellar shelter situation combined with me starting a masters degree program equaled moving Dax to a barn where she would receive good care and shelter and I would have a lit indoor arena to ride in when I got out of lab late at night.  Win-Win right?

Right...as long as the pony is ride-able to make use of all the wonderful facilities which we paid a very reasonable board considering the location, care included and facilities available (but it's still not cheap!!)  First Dax got hurt within 2months of moving her (damaged a collateral ligament in her hoof) which, combined with the 4th snowiest winter on record in central Virginia, made for a solid 4months of no riding.  But she healed, the snow melted and we did our first little schooling dressage show in the spring!  That was great, but then my Masters started to wrap up and before I knew it I was deeeeeep in to thesis writing with nary a thought for fresh air or sunshine.  There goes two more months.  A very sweet girl half leased her for two months, but I'm pretty sure there were more cookies than riding involved.  So late summer/fall brought  a getting-back-into-shape-riding-schedule.  We were doing a ton of trail rides, adding in slowly more trotting and canter to improve fitness.  (Brag moment - Dax is a champ on trails.  During a little canter session on a nice flat stretch next to a creek, we jumped a doe which proceeded to run along NEXT to Dax for about 15 yards before sprinting ahead of her and across our path.  Dax just kept cantering at almost exactly the same pace, although I do think her eyes almost fell out of her head!!) It was when we returned to the ring and began working in smaller circles that I realized something wasn't right going to the left.  It was inconsistent and not noticeable at all going straight or to the right.  After a couple months of inconsistent "weirdness" to the left, it rather suddenly became consistent and significant - enough for serious diagnostic tests.  Some surprising results, way more needles in joints than I care to remember and a LOT of money later, the vets found a 1inch bone cyst in her left femur head.  It's large and Dax is relatively old for this  (9yrs old) so the prognosis is only 50/50 that she'll come sound with the best treatment - which is a steroid injection directly into the cyst.  (As a side note for those of you interested, the name "cyst" is actually a misnomer.  It is not a fluid-filled void like we would commonly think of.  More likely it is an area of dead and dying tissue - yes, bone has living tissue all throughout - which has set up an inflammatory cascade leading to de-mineralization of the bone.  So basically it's really a nasty mushy spot in the bone where it should be nice and hard.)  So now Dax is not ride-able until we find out if the shot works.

Keep in mind how big the knobby end of a horse's femur is, then look at the size of that dark spot. 

 Oof.

In combination with Dax's bone cyst, the new folks renting the cow pastures have taken their cows home for the winter.  That means we have access to the whole place - of particular interest the small well-fenced pens and attached large metal run-in sheds.  I can close off the perfect lay-up pen with shelter, and if necessary close her into a makeshift stall with metal gates in the run-in.  There's plenty of room to store hay under shelter AND there's a frost-proof spigot next to the run-in.  This is such a better arrangement than the 2 acres we previously tried, it just makes all sorts of sense!!!  The only bummer is Dax will be alone.  I know this really isn't ideal, but she will be recovering from a majorly invasive injection and doesn't need to be chased around or be chasing anyone else around.  Plus she's been pastured alone before and handled it great.  I won't say it's perfect....but there's also the possibility that we might reunite her with a goat buddy for the winter. (Oreo the goat lived with Dax for a while until Dax went to the boarding farm.  Oreo went to an Aunt's milk goat farm and gave them a cute baby this past spring!!  We do have very fond memories of her :-)  But Oreo's return is a BIG if.  There's also the question of what happens when the cows return - in April.  That is really going to depend on how Dax is doing soundness-wise so we've decided to cross that bridge when we get to it.  There are just too many variables to plan everything out!!

Whew, I just realized I shared Dax's entire history for the last two years......hope nobody is snoring ;-)
On other news, we also have an unsound dog, as the subject line suggests.  Poor Haley is getting older but just doesn't seem to realize it.  Now both our dogs are as out of shape as I am.  During the holidays, my dear hubby had more time off and took both pups for hikes and then had a good fetch session....and when I got home and Haley got up off the floor she was hopping on three legs.  That lasted for a couple of steps, but then seemed to work out of it to an almost undetectable limp.  We popped her a baby aspirin and have been taking it easy (i.e. no fetching!!).  She's doing fine and hasn't had any more significant limping, but we'll wait another week before testing it with some more vigorous exercise.  Both dogs are already on glucosamine and fish oil supplements per the vet's recommendation to head off joint issues early.  Haley is 8yrs old and Zack, the other one, is roughly 10.  Again for those who might be visiting, both dogs are Australian cattle dogs, more commonly known as blue heelers, and both came from the SPCA (ergo the less than precise age on Zack).  Yeah, so the lack of fetching is a pretty big bummer since Haley lives for her ball....well, any ball really.  In fact, if no ball is available, a small bit of mulch will do.  If you can throw it, she can fetch it.  No, don't try to pet her and tell her how cute she is and how smart she is, just THROW something!!  Luckily when she's inside the fetch thing turns off a bit and she's a real snuggle bug....but we can't keep tennis balls in the house!

The fetching-pool gremlin!

Well, I think that's enough detail for tonight.  Now I need to get back on more PhD applications....maybe  I'll blog about that next *YAWN*