Any news about Hovis?

"
Sorry for the delay in updating you all but as you can imagine last night was a night of a lot of phone calls and to be honest some reflection time.
So what we DO know: the bone scan has shown an area of trauma to the front of his left hind fetlock area. So we know whatever he's done it's "boney" and not soft tissue.
And to be honest that's about it at the moment.

So what happens next:
He can't have anything done until Wednesday when he stops glowing in the dark!
He will then have another set of high resolution X-rays now we have located the area of damage to try and ascertain if it's a fracture or if it's bone trauma such a a cyst or damage to his cartilage.
If the X-ray is still not conclusive we will attempt an MRI on Friday. Despite an MRI not working on his foot the vet seems to think we might be able to get one of his fetlock.

Clearly the worry now is to see how close the damage is to the joint itself.

We're in a catch 22 situation. Ironically for long term prognosis the best option is a small fracture which hasn't compromised the joint. BUT the short term risk of a fracture is much much higher in terms of the early weeks of recovery.
Cartilage damage or a cyst is better in the short terms but will take much longer to heal with the long term prognosis not potentially being v good.

Anything that has compromised the joint itself is not good at all.

So can we now have prayers for very small fracture which hasn't compromised the joint?!!

In himself he's fine, winning hearts at the vets with those huge brown eyes and relaxed puppy dog nature. They're going to ring me again today to let me know how he's doing but he was very calm and quite interested in what was going on.

So we won't know any more until tomorrow and the big guy isn't coming home until at least the end of the week.
My amazingly wonderful vet is liaising with the hospital and me so we're all "on it" to bring this to the best possible outcome.

It's going to be a long slog but we will get there!

Amazing how such big creatures can be so delicate - we have absolutely no idea how he's done it but he will be pleased to find out that it's a common injury in race horses; which will of course confirm what he already thinks about his athletic abilities!

So we wait a bit longer, pray a bit harder and send every spare vibe we've got between us to that 750kg baby of mine.

Thanks again for all your support xx"
 
And new update from Karen:

So...
The big guy comes home tomorrow.
The MRI was successful despite him being a total fidget bum and showed no fracture.
He has however made a total mess of his cartilage and has a very large oedema on the bone underneath.
So we at least now know what we're dealing with.
Box rest for at least 8 weeks and lot and lots of drugs to both treat the bone inflammation and the damage to cartilage.
I'm also going to look into some ideas around magnetic treatment to accompany the heavy duty pharmaceuticals. Quite frankly if I thought it would help I'd tie the hair of alpacas around his stable and prance about in a tutu chanting in Latin.
So now the praying really starts, as well as us trying everything to keep him calm. I see this being a long long few months...
 
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