Lyme Disease

Alright, sit back and get comfortable, because I've got a story for all of you.

When I got to the vet's office over my lunch hour today to pick up the meds I found out that, when they called the pharmacy about this again yesterday, they were told that there were more delays and it was going to be even longer before the meds were ready (the pharmacy is apparently claiming to be backlogged with orders right now, or something along those lines).  My vet's office was irate.  They asked what the pharmacy had in stock, because this was taking far too long.  Apparently the pharmacy had the medicine in granule form in stock, and it was enough to take care of Sis for the full 2 months prescribed by my vet, so the pharmacy was told to cancel the previous order for the pellets and to immediately overnight a 2 month supply of the granules.  That is what arrived this morning.  Frankly, at this point I don't care what form it's in, I just need to have it so I can start giving it to Sis!

Now for the rest of the story...

During the almost 3 weeks that I've been waiting for the medicine to arrive, a couple of things have happened.  The first was that Sis had a rough week not this past week but the week before.  She was spending a lot of time laying down and just looking miserable.  Fortunately by last week she had perked back up a bit and was back to just looking really tired most of the time, but not to the point of laying down so much.

Also, during this time Zena has started being very lethargic, looking tired, she's been grumpy (all of which is so completely out of character for Zena), she had random joint swelling in her fetlocks a couple of days and, while I wouldn't necessarily call it lameness, she has had days where she just wasn't walking quite normally.  I had taken my dog to the vet this past Friday (routine nail trim and annual heartworm blood test - nothing wrong with my dog) so while I was there I spoke to my vet about Zena.  She asked me if I wanted to have Zena blood tested for Lyme Disease too, but I told her that, since we already have a definite blood test confirmed diagnosis on Sis, and based on Zena's symptoms, I was willing to just assume that Zena also has it, and that I would like to just start treating her too.  My vet absolutely agreed.

So, when the meds arrived today, the vet's office labeled one month's worth for Zena and one month's worth for Sis (Sis is getting 22cc of Doxycycline twice a day, and Zena is getting 25cc of Doxycycline twice a day), and they ordered another month's worth of meds for each of them today as well.  I told them that I don't care if it's granules again or pellets, but that I absolutely cannot have any lapse in between giving the first month's doses and the second month's doses, so those meds had better get here before the first month is over!  They assured me that they will stay on top of the pharmacy.

Both horses got started on their meds tonight, but of course nothing is ever easy for me (story of my life).  The meds are supposedly apple flavored, but neither horse wanted to eat it.  Fortunately, knowing how picky my girls can be, I had planned ahead for this possibility and I had a jar of molasses on hand.  I mixed some molasses into the food and medicine that they hadn't eaten, and they gobbled it right up!  Tomorrow I won't even give it to them without putting molasses in it first.

This is what the medicine looks like, if anyone is interested.

Sorry I haven't updated sooner, but there's been a lot going on, I've been really busy, and just haven't had much free time.

Sis is doing great! In fact Sis is feeling so good that she's been trying to see what she can get away with.  wag finger   That girl needs a serious refresher in the round pen, but I won't push her that hard just yet, so she's just being corrected immediately as usual whenever she tries to get away with something.

Zena on the other hand has had me on a roller coaster ride!  After about a week on the meds I could tell that both girls were starting to feel better, but Sis was improving faster than Zena.  Then Zena started having good days and bad days, with two mild colics thrown in for good measure.  Fortunately both colics were mild and both resolved on their own after I gave her a dose of banamine.  Obviously I was concerned, though, so I put a call in to my vet.  I was afraid that Zena might be having some sort of bad reaction to the meds, so the vet asked me to take Zena off the meds and keep her off them for a week.  I stopped the meds, but Zena was still just not quite right, so I asked the vet to come check her out.  The vet went ahead and tubed her while she was there just in case Zena might have a small impaction, although the vet said Zena's gut sounds were good and all of her vitals were normal.  We kept them in their stalls that night so I could monitor Zena's poop.  She did pass 3 poops overnight, the first two being loose and sticky looking, and the third one being normal (sorry, probably TMI, right?  LOL).

Anyway, around the same time that we started the meds, we had also started the process of weaning the girls out to pasture.  I always wean them out very slowly, and I've never had a problem doing it this way, but this year we started getting a LOT of rain shortly after we started the weaning process (it was basically raining every single day!) and the grass was growing like crazy.  By the time Zena had her 2nd mild colic, she and Sis were up to grazing for 3 hours.  The vet believes that Zena wasn't having a bad reaction to the meds, but rather that Zena was gorging herself on grass and was giving herself gas colic because the grass is so rich due to all the rain.  The vet recommended that I get Zena a grazing muzzle.  I got the grazing muzzle for Zena and I also backed off how much grass time both horses get right now, but it's been like walking on a tight rope trying to balance their time out to grass and trying to make sure Zena is getting enough grass while wearing the muzzle, but not too much. This whole situation has made me a stressed out basket case; I feel like I'm losing my mind, and I just want to pull my hair out!  On the plus side, Zena has been doing great since the vet tubed her and we cut back her grass time.  She's looking and acting much more like her old happy self again.

Tomorrow Zena starts back up on her meds again.  At this point I'm just ready for the rain to stop (or at least slow down) so things can dry up a bit and the grass won't be so rich, so we can get back on a more normal routine.