Regionals 2020: A long strange trip

Festive set up at Regionals

 Hampton had a couple of really great months after his navicular bursa injection.

But then was unsound about a week before regionals. It was not so much that front foot this time though, but severe back soreness. 

I tried acupuncture. Robaxin. Massage. Easy walk days. I rented a f-ing magnawave machine.

Two days before we left for St. Louis I called the vet and he blasted him with IV robaxin. (He said hocks, stifles, feet checked out fine. Just seemed like muscle soreness)

I decided to put him on the trailer and see what happened. But I did not ride him for 4 days leading up to a Regional Competition. Not exactly confidence boosting.

It was a long haul so all I did was hand walk him and magnawave him on Thursday evening when we arrived. In true Hamp fashion he settled in just fine.

on the trailer!

Hand walking

(Note: Most of the following photos were generously taken by friend extraordinaire Leah who came to watch us!! It literally made my weekend to have her come!)

Hamp over our shit.

Friday I rode in the AA Equitation finals, thinking that might be a good warm up ride for him since it's easy for him. He was a perfect angel. Many of the other horses were leaping and bucking around because they can't handle trotting in a group. Anyway, there were 12 of us and only 8 were picked to do the pattern. The judges did not care for my riding this year and excused me (last time I was in the finals I almost won!). I did not make mistakes, and neither did Hampton. I simply wasn't what they were looking for and when this happens you just say "eat a bag of dicks" and move on. 

Leah gives Hamp some masked kisses

That is my Dammit Doll which makes a great horse show mascot

Mostly I was happy that Hamp felt significantly better so I decided let's do the I-1 champ class on Saturday.

Unfortunately, on Saturday morning he was stiff all over. He was short on the right hand, tight in the back and rigid in the poll. So I did not get my usual magical warm up in. But, I got him decently loosened up and hoped for the best.

Winter project: Get those hind legs to jump closer together!

The test was ... ok. I made a mistake in the 3s. He fell behind my leg in the canter work and his poll started getting lower and lower. I fought for it the best I could but we just weren't good enough.

Plus, one of the judges is one who a couple years ago wrote on a PSG test that I had no business at that level. I'm glad I didn't know that before I went in. I was doomed before I went in the ring. We weren't going to get more than a 6 no matter what I did. And with a bobble or two, and his croup being up on outer space most of the test, that gave us a 59%. A very fair score at this level of competition.  That did earn us a 5th place though, which I am pleased with. 

It's amazing to even have made it this far at all. And hell, there were some NICE horses in that class! We deserved the score. Best of all, I did do a proper victory gallop which Hampton loved! I mean, that's the whole reason to make it to Regionals anyway! 

You know what was kind of sad? Only 3 of us showed up for the awards ceremony in my division. Only Res. Champ, third place and myself showed up. 

Sunday morning I schooled him a bit at 7 am and he felt MUCH better, Which in turn made me feel much better because I am codependent. The trailer ride home was thankfully uneventful, too.

 Now he gets a week or two off to see if I can't get his back to chill out even more.

I'm super proud of him. He is just the most reliable, fun horse to show. Not the most uphill, fancy thing but his brain and character are one in a million. I'll take that any day! 

We have had quite the season (although brief) at I-1 this year and I could not be more proud of him.

We have a clinic at the end of the month, and other than that back to schooling and tasting the GP! 

Oh, by the way one of my barn mates brought two of her ducks to the show and they were invaluable comedic relief. Highly recommend.

You can add duck walker to my resume.

In Memory of Hunter | Oct. 8, 2020

 I haven't even had a chance to write up a post on Regionals, because the day I got home from the show I walked in the door and found Hunter - my sweet, toothless, diabetic, tripod cat - very very sick.

Waiting in the car at the vet.

He was catatonic, dry heaving when I tried to wake him and severely dehydrated.

I had a cat sitter for when I was gone, and that is a long story.

Basically I will never know what exactly happened. 

Thankfully, my ER nurse friend gave me a bag of fluids that I started to run sq immediately. And I called the vet. Oddly, his blood sugar was normal. His temp was normal.

Giving fluids

Once we run a bunch of tests at the vet, we found his potassium was extremely low - which could be the reason behind his lethargy. So he spent the night in the hospital on a slow drip and more fluids. I was really hoping he would perk back up in the morning.

Well, he didn't. More tests. thyroid normal, urine culture fine. Blood sugar still was not soaring even though at this point it should have been since I stopped giving him insulin (he had ZERO interest in food) After his potassium drip, we did get those numbers back up to normal but then his phosphorus plummeted. At this point the vet started calling specialists because she had never encountered this. 

On his sun window. lol

Tuesday night, there was still no change in Hunter's condition. We discussed a few things, including a possible tumor on his kidneys. There is a test for this, but you have to send the blood to the University of michigan and they only run this test once a week. OR he was more likely a very very sick DKA cat (Diabetic Ketoacidosis). We did find ketones in his urine, but his low glucose numbers were throwing us off. (A typical DKA cat will have blood glucose often so high it's off the meter). One of the specialists did say that can happen, but only in the sickest cats.

There was a chance we could pull him through. But it would require at least a couple weeks in intensive ICU on multiple drips and $5K + in bills. And still no guarantee. 

I brought up euthanasia and the vet very kindly agreed with me. We decided to give him one more night on fluids, just to see if any improvement.

By Wednesday, he remained the same. And his potassium had dropped back down.

So I went in about 3 pm and held him and pet him. I knew it was the right thing, his eyes were vacant. He did try weakly to roll over for a belly rub, and put his head on my hand. He knew I was there, but he was just too sick to pull through.

He died so peacefully in my lap.

I am trying very hard to not feel enormous guilt over this. What if I had not left town? What if it was someone else watching him? did I miss early DKA signs myself and he crashed? Did I not manage his diabetes well enough? 

It just sucks. I have no idea what happened and was not remotely prepared to lose an animal. It was so sudden.

Buckley seems to be ok, he was a little extra vocal for a couple of days and a little extra clingy. Also pissed because he isn't getting unlimited canned food anymore. Poor starved animal.

Do any of my blogger friends have diabetic animals? I have some supplies and insulin I'm willing to donate. If not, I can take to the shelter.

He would sleep with his paw in my hand almost every day lol