Touch A Prince and the Vet Visit

Touch A Prince had his scheduled appointment with the veterinarian.  I like to do a thorough evaluation on new horses that come into the Bit of Honey Training program so I know what sort of jewelry the horse is arriving with.  We went over Touch A Prince, performing a detailed exam, because I want to make sure I'm training him to do a job that he will enjoy, where he will stay sound, and he will be happy.  I am able to privately adopt out Touch A Prince because I am an exhibition ride with the Equine Comeback Challenge this year, and as such I'm not competing for the prize money but rather to get this horse trained and into his forever home.  To make sure I send him to the right forever home doing a job that is best suited to him, I needed more information about him from the vet.

I work with Dr. Landes with Equine Medical Services for these types of assessments because his practice is entirely equine, and he has spent quite a bit of time specializing in sport horses.  His specialty training includes acupuncture, chiropractic, manual therapy, dental work using hand floats, and together we have rehabilitated many horses who have come from the track.

Dr. Landes carefully went over Touch A Prince to determine if he was sore anywhere and if he needed a chiropractic adjustment.  There were a couple places that had somewhat limited mobility and flexibility, so Dr. Landes gently corrected those.

We also did a thorough exam on Touch A Prince's legs.  The vet assessed how he moves on the lunge line, on a straight-away, and we did flexion tests to see if any of his leg joints were sore.  We found a few things on this portion of the exam that merited further diagnostics, so we adjourned to the barn for x-rays.

One of the issues we wanted more information on was Touch A Prince's left front knee, or carpus.  In this first photo you can see the arrows pointing to the knees on the horse, and you can see that the horse's left knee is larger and shaped differently than the right.  The knee is cold, hard, and tight, indicating that whatever caused it to be this way happened a long time ago, likely many years ago from his racing days as a youngster.  If it was a new injury, there would be heat and swelling that feels like a water balloon.  We decided to take some radiographs (x-rays) of this knee to see what is going on inside with the bones in this joint.

Dr. Landes has a mobile digital setup for x-rays, which makes it very convenient and easy to see what is going on while out in the field and without needing a dark room.  We set up shop in the tack room with the computer and other equipment and we were able to look at the radiographs right away!  Such a fast system compared to all the hours I used to spend in the dark room developing films for the veterinarians I worked for.  The yellow box is the x-ray camera, and you can see the cassette holding the film is placed behind the horse's leg.  I was holding the film with a pole to keep it in position, and I also snapped this photo of the process.  I think I only knocked off Dr. Landes hat once with my journalistic endeavors.

We got really great pictures of the knee which showed us several different things that were new to me. To make sure we have the most information from these images we also sent them to CSU to have a radiologist look at them and give us a detailed report.  Dr. Landes and I were geeking out about the interesting x-rays, and because we thought it was exciting, the dogs thought it was exciting, but my cats were nonplussed.  They were lying on a set of shipping boots and slept through the whole thing. 

We also found that Touch A Prince definitely needed a dental and his incisors were first on the list.  Dr. Landes always checks incisors first, because the way they meet (or don't) greatly affects how the back cheek teeth meet each other and how well they grind against each other.

This first mouth photo shows the view when you are standing in front of the horse pointing the camera into his open mouth.  Blue gloves are holding the tongue out of the way, and if you look closely you can see teeth in the back.  

The entire vet appointment was really helpful.  It gave me so much more detail as to what Touch A Prince is dealing with in his body, and what kind of riding and training will allow him to be comfortable.  For now I'll be working with Touch A Prince on obstacles, trail riding, and flat work.  I want to make sure he's comfortable throughout the training process. The radiologist at CSU explained that the x-rays showed an old racing injury, so that confirms that we are doing the right thing by channeling Touch A Prince into a light riding job.  He is such a pleasant horse, I think he'll make a lovely mount for someone who wants to do trail riding.