Vet Trip

I took Allie to the vet on Monday to get her teeth done and to have her scoped because she's been coughing intermittently under saddle.

When she had the gag on, I asked to have a feel inside her mouth. The pack is still in there nice and tight, everything felt pretty good in there except for a wave mouth on the bottom. The vet couldn't remove the whole wave at once so we are to go back in 3 months to flatten it out and then she can go back to 6 monthly dentals.

The scope went well. I got to see her larynx and her trachea, it was pretty cool! There was definitely more mucous in the trachea than what there is meant to be so the vet took a sample by putting some saline down there then sucking it back up again. It's been sent off to be cultured so we know exactly what we are dealing with - if it's a bacterial infection or an inflammatory response. If bacterial, obviously some antibiotics will clear it up. If it's inflammatory, then the treatment is a little more complicated. She will get some steroids to help open up the airways, iron injections, and a specific medication to help alleviate the immune response until it all clears up and she goes back to normal.

In the meantime, no riding that will cause turbulent airflow which will only aggravate the problem. So that means we need to scratch from Equestriad on the 16/17th April (my birthday weekend) so that sucks. But her health comes first of course! Poor thing, no wonder she's been coughing.

Hopefully she comes good and we can prep for Mudgee ode at the end of May. The next comp after that isn't until September so I would love to get to Mudgee before the big break.

I'll let you guys know what the outcome of the culture is. I hope it's bacterial!