Just before Christmas Brooke had seen our wonderful physio Sally who had said she could start doing little walks with her and gave us some gentle wobble cushions exercises which strengthen her muscles without stressing the joints with moving. Brooke was on the cushion like a shot and keen to 'tap dance' with her front feet which she does when excited! Watching her walk very slowly round Sallys garden we worked out that she walked better on longer grass as it makes her more aware of where she is placing her feet. She still looked very lame on concrete but then having been sedentary for nine months has meant she has massive muscle wastage :-( She is basically learning to walk again without a biceps muscle!
On Jan 5th we saw Patrick the vet who had operated on her. He watched her walk on concrete (lame), walk on grass (fairly sound) and then asked if I could make her trot. Well to be honest I didn't know whether to laugh or cry! She looked like a newborn foal trying to trot for the first time ever. Her legs were everywhere and she couldn't get a rhythm at all. Patrick wasn't over concerned as she has to work out how to do everything again with a muscle missing and her other muscles have to learn to take over (and they are wasted away) He echoed our thoughts that it would be good to have her on metacam as that way she won't suffer with too much muscle soreness once she starts to walk. Also if she had magically become sound on metacam it would have meant her lameness is pain related and not mechanical. She isn't sound so that is good in a round about way!! We are keeping comprehensive notes of what we are doing which is geeky :-)
This is her walking on Week One...
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