Buck, Medication, and College

So yeah, we have been having between 0 and 15 degree days at my house.  It hasn't kept me inside though, which is surprising.  I have always hated the cold.  This is the first winter that I have actually been outside nearly every single day.  It's all because of Buck, too.  Him and I have been going on daily rides.  We get to watch the sun set over the snowy fields and spend a lot of time together in the silence.  We can hear each other so clearly.  He has been feeling good lately.  His transitions are flawless.  He can go from a walk to a canter in a split second--something that was impossible to do a few short months ago.  

The last play day we had Jennie and Larry noticed that Buck was rotating his hind legs out a significant amount at a walk and trot.  It was brought to my attention from a vet at the play day that Buck's previous owners had taken them to her and had him evaluated for bone spavins.  He tested positive for them.  For those of you who don't know what a bone spavin is, it is the final stage of joint degeneration in the hocks.  We don't know how long ago he was diagnosed with it and how severe it was when he was tested, so we decided to take him back in.  Four x-rays later we were able to determine that Buck has nearly fused the lower 1 and 2 joints in both his hocks.  These lower joints are not the primary joints that the hock relies on for flexing.  He may appear to be slightly more stiff on the hind end, but overall it should not affect his performance. This is a very painful process for horses, but it is a relief that his body started to fuse them so long ago and now they are nearly complete.  I feel bad though because we had no idea he was in the process of fusing.  The strain on his hocks during certain movements explains his resistance to following through with repeated commands.  Although irritating the joints encourages fusing, without any pain medication it is really quite an unpleasant thing to experience for a horse.

 These are his four x-rays.  The part outlined in red is the area where the two joints are fusing.  The blue circle indicates the remaining space between the two joints that needs to finish fusing.  His right joints are nearly completely fused, which is great.  His left, as you can see, has a significant amount left to go.  As a treatment option to encourage the joints to continuing fusing with the minimal pain possible, we injected Buck's hocks with dormosedan, polyglycan, and banamine....basically a bunch of stuff to reduce pain, help the other joints in the area, and encourage fusing.  We don't know if the rotation he was having was due to the pain on his hocks or if it is his stifles.  I will have to watch over the next couple weeks to see if the injections reduced the amount of rotation or not. All in all though Buck will be with me for a long time.  The only thing I'll have to watch out for is making sure I am not putting him in situations where he has to have an increased amount of prolonged pressure on the joints, as the fusion can break (ouch!).

As a side note, it is very possible Buck pulls himself with his front instead of pushing himself with his hind because of the pain he has experienced in his hocks.  Pulling himself relieves pressure on those joints.  I'm hoping once he has finished fusing he will start pushing instead, but we will see.  He has been pulling for a long, long time.

Aside from Buck, things have been "eh."  My medication is still doing its jobs, but the side affects have not gone away yet, which is not a good sign.  Just last night I woke up due to a night sweat.  It's so annoying. No one likes waking up covered in sweat -.-  The vivid dreams are still pretty common, almost nightly.  So far they haven't been disturbing but I don't necessarily enjoy having them.  I've never heard voices before, but man, last night was a first for that.  I was woken up by some voice yelling my name. It sounded like a demon.  Then for about thirty minutes after that random sounds were amplified in such a way they didn't seem real.  I've been so light headed and dizzy lately too.  I dunno.  Ugh.  I need to make another appointment with my doctor.

I am going to have a VERY busy next month a half.  I didn't know it at the time I signed up for my classes, but my biopsychology course is a 7 week speed course.  Four exams, at least one research based paper, plus multiple assignemnts...joy.  My ENGL 3300 class is gonna be fun.  My professor said that if we don't want to be overwhelmed when the semester starts that it would be a good idea to read 14 of the 35 books assigned before January 6.  I need to make a trip to the library, ha.  And I have three other classes, too.  My PRAXIS exam is scheduled for January 13.  I've already started studying for it, but it's going to take a lot of work.  I have to pass the first time around or I am in major jeopardy of not being able to start my education levels until Spring 2015.  That would put my degree back another year, and I would be unable to take other courses that are applicable towards my degree until then.  I don't even want to think about that.

My hair is getting so long!

 Oh, and Tango kicked me in the shin.  Little shit.