Hello everyone, there was no lesson this week on account of the weather, so I thought I'd give a small Shorty update instead. 

He's doing pretty well.  His swelling has gone down here in the last couple of weeks even more, so that's good.  My tentative hope is that maybe sometime in middle or late spring he could be healed fully.  He has so much winter hair on his legs that you have a hard time telling how swollen his leg is, so you have to feel it to see if it's gone down.

Our work in-hand is progressing well.  He's starting to relax more into it, and gain a 'well, this is just what we do' attitude about it.  He's not as anxious about it now, and it's easier to coax him into a stretch. 

I think that when February comes I'll be cutting him down on his Bute dosage again.  I looked back on a video of our work in-hand back in October and it's amazing how much his lameness has healed.  

1/26/2023

Another Update:

Well... Shorty has started showing signs of lameness in his other front leg.  It's not a whole lot, and not even especially obvious when he's walking.  But it does show up when he stands for a long time, he'll shift his weight a lot.  Or when he makes certain turns.  

So, that's not great.  I've upped his dosage of Bute a bit, and so now he's not in much pain at all.  My guess is is that leg is showing stress after having to bear so much weight over so many months.  It's not severe, and I hope it doesn't get that way.  I don't think the in hand work caused it, so I think I'm going to continue with it.  On Bute (a low dose of Bute at that), you can't hardly tell he's lame in either leg.

2/15/2023

Well, Shorty appears to be doing well on this dosage of Bute.  I think I'll leave him on it for awhile longer, and then cut it back again to see where he is.  But overall, I think he's doing well.  I think his left leg, the one he injured first, is still healing up slowly. 

2/23/2023