Day 3 at the Myhre Clinic

I arrived at Margaret's house just 10 minutes ahead of her. It was another wonderful evening visiting with a friend who I don't get to see nearly often enough. She prepared a wonderful supper, some good wine and I kept her up way too late for a work night. We were up fairly early, Margaret made some breakfast and I headed back to the clinic. There were a lot of people at the clinic when I got there around 9:00 am. I had a hard time finding a palace to park and it is not a small parking area. I had heard there were going to be 36 vets at the conference. I only counted 28but they wouldn't stay in one place and kept moving around so it was hard to get a a good count. But, with all the vet's, vet tech's, clinic staff, specialist's there to teach and sales reps, it was quite a crowd. I have to say though, that eveyone at the clinic was wonderful. They were very courtous to me, made me feel welcome to be there and participate, and made sure I knew it was fine to join them for the catered lunch. The vet tech's said Louie had been very good for his poodle cut the previous day. I was so glad he was being such a good boy.

I hung out with Louie until it was his turn for all the vets to observe a lameness exam. Everyone went outside to observe and give opinions. Louie was very well behaved though he did not really want to trot in circles. I was standing next to a couple of vets outside when one starting making some jokes about mules. I really was not paying much attention until the other vet put her hand on my shoulder and said to the first vet, "You know this woman here is the owner of that mule....". It was quite funny really. Even better was that the vet making jokes was the only vet in the group that I'd ever met me before. We met when he'd pulled me and my horse at 45 miles on a 50 mile endurance ride........ (for good reason)

Louie was then taken back into his stall and we waited until they were ready to take him into the exam room when the ultrasonograpy specialist was ready to demonstrate how to ultrasound the hock and stifle. I was told this woman was as good as they get with ultrasonography. Louie was sedated again. This was the 3rd time Louie had been sedated in 3 days. I went in and watched the demonstration. She did a very thorough examination of Louie's hock and stifle. And, I don't know if this is good or bad, but, she found nothing wrong. She said that because Louie is not carrying any excess weight and he has lean muscles, he was very easy to ultrasound. When that was done, there was a break for lunch so Louie was put back in his stall again.

Ultrasound machines had been setup in the aisles of the barn. After the lunch break Louie was sedated once again. He was getting tired of getting needles but he was still dealing with it very well. Several horses and Louie were cross tied in the aisle and the vets spend quite a bit of time practicing ultrasound techniques and reading them.





Louie was such a good boy and I was so proud of him. He stood on those cross ties for hours with people all around him, ultrasounding, and just the whole general confusion of so many people there. He was sore from having to keep weight on his "bad" leg yet he never made a fuss. Eveyone just loved him and made a big fuss over him and were amazed at his wonderful disposition. The worst thing he did in his 3 days at the clinic was on a couple occasions, when he felt he'd had as much of something as he could handle, he would walk off with a vet tech skiing along behind him on a lead line. But, he was easily corrected and then would settle right down and be fine.

Unfortunately, the mystery of Louie's lameness had not been solved. It really does appear that his episodes of locking patella's are a symptom of some other problem. But neither the radiographs nor ultrasounds have shown a problem. So, the problem is either higher in the hip or pelvis, or lower in the pastern or hoof. None of the vet's felt the problem was lower. Dr. Myhre talked with me a while. He really wanted to do a nucluer scan on Louie. But that would be at my cost. The cost for a scan would be $1,400. That is just not an option for me at this point. As it was, even with all the diagnostic work that was done for free because I let Louie be used for the conference, I still was going home with my wallet $600 lighter. I did let them inject Louie's hock. Dr. Myhre felt this would be helpful to see if it made any difference. So, once again, Louie was sedated. He did fuss a bit this time about getting yet another needle but not too bad. And they ended up giving him a second dose for a sixth time. Then his hock was injected with .....well, I'm not sure and I kind of wish now I hadn't done the hock injection as I just feel in my gut the problem is in his hip area.

I'm not totally sure what the plan of action will be now. Louie needs a few days to just rest. Dr. Myhre said he would not be doing the discharge papers until next Friday. Meanwhile he will be in touch with Jennifer Brooks, the physical therapist to discuss what should be done. Dr. Myhre will also be sending everything to my regular vet clinic and I will have to see what they say. So, while I'm happy that nothing bad was found in his hock or stifle, I am very frustrated that we still don't know what IS wrong.

Louie sure was glad to be home tonight. The first thing he did, as any respectable mule would, was roll, and roll, and roll........