Bad news for the Little Brown mule...

Today Louie went back to Annabessacook Veterinary Clinic to have x-rays of his hips. It is a wet, dreary day. I cleaned Louie up, put a blanket on him, loaded him up and headed out. When I got to the vet, I put him in a stall while we waited for the vets. I removed his blanked and he immediately rolled, as any respectable mule would. Because he was wet from the rain, the shaving stuck to him and he was a mess. Dr. Boulton and Dr. Brown were the vet's that did the x-rays today. Normally x-rays of the hips are done by putting them right out, putting them on a table, and turning them right upside down. But, Louie is small and scrawny with so little muscling of his hindquarters, they felt they would be able to do them with him standing. And they were able to do this. I'm glad as it was so much easier on Louie. He was only given a light sedative.



So, here was Dr. Conrad's theory. The x-rays show that both of Louie's hips look just the same and both are slightly malformed. Dr. Conrad theorized that Louie is showing lameness in only his right hind simply because that is the one that is most uncomfortable at this time. So, there are some hard decisions to be made here. Dr. Conrad and Dr. Brown said if I want to spend a bunch more money, we can try polyglycan injections and see if he responds to this. It may stabilize the joints for a while and slow down the progression of inevitable degenerative joint disease. Dr. Brown suggested it would not be unreasonable to consider putting Louie down.

But, they came to this conclusion of malformed hips based on Louie's hips looking different then a horses hip. They showed me pictures of a horses hips and showed me Louie's x-rays so I could see the slight difference. I don't know what to think as I would not have expected Louie's hip to look like a horses. He's NOT A HORSE. But, I have no idea what the normal differences are between a horses hip and a mules hip. I do know I'm not going to rush into ANY decision.