Time heals.
You just need Time.
Give it Time.

Infamous sayings, no? Some we can get rather sick of hearing, but know it is still spoken in truth.
Time is something that escapes me somedays, and others I seem to have too much of it. Right now, time is moving slowly as I sort through Sully’s health issues. I know there won’t be an immediate turn-around, but man it is hard to wait!

It’s been a bit of time since my last update. In fact, I started this post’s draft over a month ago! I have had some time back and be with Sully… Much time has been spent crying unfortunately, as I am just adjusting to our current reality, and hurting when I think of times past, and the plans I had for the time ahead of us. He has lost a significant amount of weight and muscle/topline throughout this ordeal and everything we worked so hard to build up to over the years prior is gone. To me, he is a shell of his former self in physical form, but that personality I so love is still there. We just need time to get things back in order… I hope.

The recap of the last few months…
Sully came home from rehab early May. I made the trip to NJ and back in one day – with a longer layover than expected at the barn as the trailer door popped off the hinges! USRider and I found the same local welder through other shop references that was willing to come out and help me get the heavy steel door back on. Thankfully the rest of the trip was uneventful, however taxing on Sully. He walked off from the trailer ride that evening very stiffly and minimally greeted his buddies. They were happy to see him home though; I’ve never seen Scooby toss his head and throw play bucks before. I gave him some Bute the next few days to help his soreness and contacted Jessica to come out for Scooby’s bodywork check in, and a check on Sully too, at the end of May. We promptly had his farrier appointment that first week back, and I pulled Sully’s shoes, as I don’t know what the future will hold yet and I have boots for when we do ride. A few weeks later with time to recover (and no time to ride between soccer, travel and weather), they had their appointment with Jessica where Scooby was AOK- nothing needed, and Sully just had some compensation issues to fix, so that weekend Skyler and I went for a ride. At least I know the rehab did some good as he rarely experienced any “falling out” that ride and started picking spots he had to lift legs higher to walk over himself. He was happy to get out and I was preemptive with medicating him before and after to keep his pain to minimum. I felt he could handle the trip to the clinic at Hope Horsemanship again with Emily Kemp for a few days the next weekend and we would modify what we had to, or I’d share Scooby with Skyler.

Skyler and Scooby did great together! She learned how to do some groundwork & lunging with him and got him backing on the ground and under saddle really well. They are still working on lowering the head for a halter as he can become a giraffe! lol
I again preemptively medicated Sully for that whole weekend and made some adjustments on the fly for some instructions, but he did well. He was definitely quieter; you could say lazy even compared to his normal M.O. but that is just part of the disease, or the medication…

Sully had been eating well up in NJ even once starting the ‘pink pill’ to help the PPID, but once I started trying to change his diet (to ‘safer’ feeds than Coolstance) at home that quickly turned to eating a few bites and then walking away, no matter how little of any supplement, or lack of them, that I put in. He even refused alfalfa pellets… Right before the clinic I had a new set of bloodwork done to see how he was doing after 6weeks on meds. The vet and I had a bunch of time to chat (as one draw is 30min later) and discussed the PPID and his stifles. I thought I had myself a plan of doing nerve blocks and ultrasound next so we could determine which course of treatment to do on the stifles, if any, but in time that plan changed on me! I got the call the following week – his bloodwork showed no marked change, yet his appetite & energy continued to worsen. Given his “mild” numbers (and only being positive via a Stim test), it was decided to discontinue the meds for the time being. The plan is to get him eating again and use homeopathic management of the PPID to see if he improves that way. We will retest again next spring and determine further steps, or if he shows more symptoms and such before then we can always restart the medicine. It has taken nearly another 3 weeks to get him eating again – in the end he is back on Coolstance, mixed with Teff pellets (may phase out the Coolstance in the future) and a Guinness Stout, because yet another thing to throw into the mix – he stopped sweating. The anhidrosis can be a symptom of PPID OR a side effect of the meds, so once the meds have fully cleared his system, I can determine next steps there for other supplements/ remedies to get him sweating again.

Needless to say, I feel like things are just falling apart and it is just one thing after another… To combat the sweating issue aside from adding beer to his diet, I added shade tarps to two sides of their shelter, will be expanding the track back into the woods, will likely be moving their hay feeder to keep it in more shade, and have been researching solar fan options if needed. Thankfully the weather has been merciful lately, but I need to clip him again to keep off any extra fuzz. I might need to invest in lighter clippers and/or ones with more blade size options to keep up with this!

So, what comes next? Attempting to be patient and giving things time to work. It is really hard… Skyler has definitely gotten the bug and wants to do so much more now – like that camping trip I told her would happen – now can’t for the summer until Sully’s sweating issue is resolved. I’m also attempting to break the cycle on the stifles without breaking the bank. Sully is now on Equioxx for the foreseeable future as I saw an improvement in him with that after a few days on a ride and his attitude and wanting to move more. Once some of the other issues straighten out, I can tackle the stifles again. For now, I’ll be keeping his riding light and taking cues from him on what he is up to. It is a tough adjustment to go from the horse who always wanted to be up front and leading, to one who does not care so much if he is at the end of the line and lagging behind.