Into Fall and Winter

As promised - a conclusion to the Year 2021.

This kid started ground driving like a good baby and 
even packed a western saddle around like a pro!

Following the decision to stay home from the BVX, I listed my little horse trailer for sale formally and it was sold nearly four days later to the very first person who came to view it. Watching it pull out of the driveway put both a smile on my face and a tear in my eye. That little trailer was the epitome of blood, sweat, and tears and to see her attached to another rig and being funnelled down the road made a lump rise in my throat. 

We had been through a lot together, that little trailer and I. 

And although I was excited to welcome a newer, bigger, and fancier trailer to my life, I owe a lot to that little trailer.

So much love went into this <3

And since my horses continue to fund my Vet's vacation fund, Maizey was started on some ulcer medication and antibiotics for two separate issues. Moreso because I found she was looking a bit weedy and unkempt. I upped her feed during this time as well, and found the most help came from the omeprazole, which helped her fill out quite a lot more. I was quite happy with the end result, as was our Vet when I updated her a month later.

It's amazing the difference ulcer meds make!

With her on the mend, I opted to take Annie and Spud to the covered riding arena an hour away two weeks in a row - once to just gallop around and have fun during a really awful rainstorm and the second time to ride with a friend. Unfortunately, I was not able to ride her much during our second visit to the arena, as any gait higher than a walk ended up in coughing fits despite her nebulizing clear and being on medication and supplements. 

It worked out alright because we just went for a trail ride and I actually was able to ride my friend's Morgan stallion! It was fun, despite the frustration with Annie's breathing.

We ended up trail riding the surrounding area
which was quite nice.

And I got to ride my friends cool little Morgan stallion! 

Since we had a looming Vet appointment to retest Annie for allergies, I sat on my hands a bit and waited until we could make some definitive heads or tails of the situation. I had spent a majority of the Summer adding, removing and reintroducing so many things in attempts to figure out what was causing the reaction. I came no closer to solving the mystery by the time mid-September rolled around and the Vet appointment was staring me in the face.

However, there was a large snafu when the Vet cancelled her trip up to the area, leaving me utterly crushed and frustrated. I licked my wounds for several moments before springing back into action - if anyone could make it still happen, it would be me. I have a hard time taking no for an answer and if I can see some kind of potential resolution, I'll take it.

So, with a plan of sorts, I managed to make a rather confusing and highly involved game plan which involved the following: 

1. Alternate travelling Vet drawing the blood (this alternate Vet only sends blood to the same lab Annie had had hers sent to back in the Summer, and I did not want to use that clinic). I am thankful she offered to draw blood and do an exam on Annie to facilitate what I was trying to achieve, 

2. My old boss at the Small Animal Hospital spinning the blood at his clinic, 

3. Me packaging and sending off the spun blood to the original Vet,

4. The original clinic receiving the blood and shipping to the allergy testing facility.

Once I had the Vets (all 3 of them!) agree to my crazy plan, I immediately went to work purchasing an unholy amount ice packs and a fancy Styrofoam container that keeps items insulated (ie. cold, in this instance). The blood made it to the Vet still frozen, despite the two day layover it took to get there.

We went to a cube-only diet for a while.

Backing this train up slightly, just before we had the appointment for Annie's blood draw and exam, things went from bad to worse with not only Annie, but Spud. As I attempted to alleviate symptoms in one horse, I was battling them in the other. It was quite exhausting and after an entire mental breakdown (which included a panicked phone call to my old 4-H coach wherein I sobbed for nearly half an hour, and a defeated call to my Vet), a new plan was made.

If Spud was exhibiting the same symptoms as Annie was, I needed to eliminate the remainder of the questions to see if things got better, worse, or stayed the same.

I ended up removing dry hay from the horse's diets entirely and stocked up on alfalfa cubes. As per Vet recommendations, both horses were placed on a soaked cube diet for 30 days to see if symptoms persisted or were eliminated.

I pretty much bought out the Feed Store
several times over. 

Why yes that is the top of the pile.
For reference, I am 5'0".

What ensued was 5am wake ups, lunch hour snacks, and 5pm night feeds while working 10-12 hours a day and travelling 30km 3x a day.

I was exhausted.

But - on Day 4 or 5 of the new regime, the unimaginable happened.

Both horses' symptoms ceased. 

When the alternate Vet came and examined Annie, about two and a half weeks into the new feeding routine, we did an overall exam which included listening to her lungs as well as two rebreathe tests. I was exceptionally nervous when they did the rebreathe exam, as Annie has never passed a rebreathe exam since the entire debacle with her lungs started. (As a hilarious sidenote, it took a while for them to get her to breathe deeply, as Mare thought she was wearing her nebulizer, not a bag over her nose and attempted to play with it for several moments before actually paying attention and breathing properly).

Mash face on a rainy day.

Color me absolutely shocked when she passed both tests and her entire exam and the Vet looked at me with a little bit of disbelief in her eyes, "You know, I do believe you... but she's absolutely fine in this exact moment."

The Vet went on to detail that whatever trigger causes Annie's symptoms is not currently affecting her, but if the trigger is reintroduced or brought back, it will cause the symptoms to reoccur again. The phenomenal news is that the Vet cannot hear any crackling, wheezing or anything to suggest there is long term damage to her lungs. Of course, she did also state that she can only go as far as her in-field diagnostic tools allow. Long-time readers may recall that a previous ultrasound in 2019 showed there were some changes to her lungs, however there were not deemed as "severe".

I laughed and shed a few happy tears, knowing that finally I would get the answers of her allergy test and had some good proof that the regime was helping thus far. We chatted some more about the fact that a lot of horses in our area that this Vet has allergy tested seem to be allergic to tree pollen and she recommended if we could relocate the horses, to do so. (As a sidenote, this was already in the works).

Spoiler. They moved.

After the exam, I sent the blood away and conferred with my Vet once again the findings from the alternate Vet, as well as how the soaked cubes diet was going. There was a long discussion which ensued, outlining how I could continue the path we were on with a little less of a wallet dent and some more freedom (we all know I would do what is best for my animals, regardless of cost or time, but I wanted to see if there was a way we could make things comfortable for the both of us).

What came out of it was looking at hay steamers and attempting to put her (and Spud) back on forage full time. I also opted to move Annie and Spud to my old 4-H leader's home in efforts to get her out of the trees and be in an area that could facilitate me using a hay steamer. While I loved where the horses were, it would be impossible to steam hay without some kind of garage or tack shed to do so. Running cord and trying to keep the machine out of the elements would be cumbersome, awkward, and expensive. Additionally, getting Annie out from under the trees would be a plus, of course pending her allergy test results. 

After going back and forth on buying a smaller
unit, I ended up buying the larger unit for a few 
different reasons (to be explained in my review).

The horses were officially moved on October 17th and remained on their cube-only feed regime until I secured and purchased a hay steamer, which is it's own story in and of itself (because of course it is). The long and the short of it, which I'll lay out much better in a review later this year, is that the chests are massively backordered and after a deal was struck with the manufacturer, they basically told me I had to wait 12-16 weeks for my purchase. 

I managed to chase down a tack shop (in the same province as me to boot!) who had 3 models in stock and could send to me ASAP. I went back to the manufacturer and asked if they'd honour the deal, they said no and I basically retorted that I wasn't going to wait 12-16 weeks when I could have one delivered to my door in two days. The amount of money I'd spend on cubes during the time period wouldn't be worth the deal we had made, so I purchased a unit from the tack store with hopes, dreams, and the promise of my first born (kidding... kind of).

Happy Mare.

I was able to start both horses on hay for the first time in over a month on October 26th and we haven't looked back since. It definitely took some finessing and was a bit of a learning curve to utilize (which will be talked about in my review of the product), but I feel like it's down to a science at this point and it certainly has made my horses life (and my life) much, much easier. 

It isn't as easy as tossing hay out and walking away, and it means I'll have to make some adjustments as to how I keep my horses (ie. going back to feeding square bales vs rounds). The time that is eaten up by stuffing a net, as well as the space required to pull apart a roundbale is exponential and is just... not it for me. It is doable for the time being, mostly because that is all I have to feed for now, but in an effort to make my life easier and keep my horses on a regime that clearly works for them, I'll need to consider moving back to square bales and utilize them in my COPD journey with Annie. Of course there is nothing I can do about it now other than patiently wait until haying season 2022 starts to make that adjustment.

My crazy set up - it isn't perfect, but it works for now.
The bale I strip is in behind and the steamer up front.
Of course, with the -29C temperatures I actually 
had to bring the steamer unit home because it kept
freezing and no amount of insulating was helping.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to ride Annie much during the Fall, as Daylight Savings reared it's ugly head, work doubled down, and we had a side project we were working on that ate up nearly all of my time. But, after years of wishing, hoping and slogging through so much red tape, I was (dare I say it?) happy the reason I wasn't riding was for the much bigger picture.

At some point I'll have to do a post dedicated just to this project, but I'll post some teasers in hopes that someone will guess what we've been up to. 

Any guesses?

On a particularly rainy day, wearing my most beautiful
highlighter flourescent jacket and pants. Standing in what 
will eventually be an aisleway <3

A rear view, and some snow.

Walls. 
Would you believe me if I told you I had to hand shovel most of the snow
inside the foundation out while I was sick?

All covered just in time for a massive amount of snow
incoming nearly two days later. This was taken on December 15th.

We had hoped to be farther along, but there were a few more hurdles in the way which delayed us nearly two and a half weeks and those precious days cost us framing and a roof. With the weather bitterly cold (-29°C or -20°F) and snow incoming for the last several days, we decided to put a lid on it officially on December 17th and let the foundation sit until Spring. Things are ready to rock and roll once the weather warms up and things start to thaw, and once that time comes, there will be no stopping us.

The last piece of the puzzle for the year of course was Annie's allergy panel results, which came to me at a work conference mid-November. Out of the allergens Nextmune tests for, Annie showed reactivity to 23. Perhaps the most interesting (to me anyway), are the items under "Foods". Being allergic to soy and flax is a huge indicator - commercial feeds and grains consistently have these two items in them and trying to avoid soy-based products or flax-based products is nearly unheard of (especially in this area which does not carry an abundance of brands).

Hopefully it shows up big enough to 
be legible on a phone screen.

Before I go any further into it, it's important to know a few things:

1. Grasses section is pollen only - contact or inhaled allergen

2. Food section is during digestion only.

3. Smut mix is a fungus found on grasses (Bermuda and Johnson only).

4. Allergens scoring in the 90s are not of concern; only items over 100, as the test does not have "borderlines".

I am still taking time to go through this report and what it means, as a lot of items are not native to our area and pose no significant risk (ie. Palm trees, Hackberry trees, Bahai grass, etc). Of course, the items that I recognize as being native to us and/or are in foods she could be exposed to have been removed, although I went grain-free a year or so ago so it's kind of a moot point (although helpful to know for supplements). Part of me is trying to figure out the difference between the Cottonwood tree and the Cottonseed itself, so its going to take some dissecting and research to fully understand the results. 

The vials - they come in three different strengths.
I'll go into it at some point here soon.

I officially OK'ed immunotherapy back in mid-November and finally received Annie's specially made vials quite literally just before Christmas. I hesitated on administering them for a while though, as the looming warning from the Vet we had seen in the Summer played over and over in my head. I did in fact begin her immunotherapy process just before the New Year and while we are only four injections in, I can't help but feel optimism and the potential to be able to ride my mare once again - maybe, just maybe like we used to.

There is still so much to learn about COPD and allergies - I am just doing my best to absorb every little thing I can and utilize my knowledge to better the lives of my horses.

And in the near future, looking forward to seeing them comfortably established in my barn.