Oh no, back down that road again....

About two weeks ago, Woody began to have the appearance of being short behind again. We decided to Bute him and give him a day off. Connie forgot that Austin had a lesson with him the following day, but they don't do a lot of work so thought it would be no big deal. Woody did show improvement though, so Connie did some laser therapy on him and when I rode him on Friday, he was doing great! But after that he progressively got worse, meaning he had pain somewhere and the Bute & laser just made him feel better. I went ahead and made an appointment for the vet to come out to take a look at him, possibly thinking he might have an issue in his hocks or stifle.

During the appointment he flexed fine, but was extremely body sore. My vet felt that there was defiantly an issue with his hip and suggested taking him to another vet to get an ultra sound or x-rays done.

So I was able to get an appointment with Dr. Harrison on Monday. Connie & I embarked on adventure and after a quick exam, he advised that it is a similar issue like the last time we saw him and there was no point in an ultrasound. He advised that an injection could probably help, but he doesn't do them and recommended Dr. Casey. Lucky us, we were able to get an appointment with him (he was on our way home). We advised him what was going on, he showed us exactly where he was sore (withers, back & hips) and then adjusted his spine. After the adjustment, Woody was no longer sore anywhere but on his right hip which has the initial injury. He injected Woody's own blood into acupuncture points in his hips, gave us some homework to do and sent us on our way.

I thought it was amazing that just from adjusting his spine, what a major difference it made. He did comment that if he was still body sore in a week or not improving in his moment that we should start him on Doxy. Woody has been tested for Lymes, but he stated that the test can give a false negative and it really doesn't hurt to treat him for it. He said this is an easy injury to get, as all they have to do is slip in the field and it can happen.

Woody was given yesterday off, so today we get to see if his movement has improved any, though sometimes they will get slightly worse before getting better. I had planned on going to the show this weekend, but it is up in the air if we will show or not. If we do show, it will most likely just be in WP since its the only class that someone could pass me in points and it wouldn't require any poles or turns (He can't do poles for a week).

We have another appointment with Dr. Casey in two weeks and he said usually most horses will only need to be seen two or three times at the most.

So crossing fingers on a good ride today! Christina