Zak - Update on Sinus operation

[KarlR]

Hi,

Whilst I've not had much time to write recently, Caroline did ask me to write an update on Zaks operation, especially since some of you were kind enough to enquire.

His sinus cyst was removed - although it was much worse than expected and they couldn't remove it all; it some stage it became adhered to the bone which is apparently very unusual. We had the operation carried out by one of the country's leading specialists and he was surprised by it!

He had tubes put in to allow flushing and we had to pump 1.5 litres of iodine solution through his sinuses twice each day which he was very good about! We ended up using a garden "killaspray" because using the vet supplied syringes became silly at that quantity of fluid.

The tubes cam out some weeks ago now and he has become very full of himself, so I suspect that he is feeling better! :) There's still some discharge, but hopefully that will disappear in time. In any case, they have opened up the sinus drain points which were blocked so that the sinuses now drain properly.

In theory we should be exercising him heavily to get the sinuses cleared up, but there's just nowhere to ride on this weather. We'll let you know how things go on anyway.

Cheers - Karl R

[Jay.o]

hi, i didnt know that your horse had sinus problems !
i dont really know wat to say but..
..its great that es made a recovery already and i hope that he fully recovers soon!!!! good luck with him !!!!

[judyl]

How nice to hear the update. I'm really glad that Zac seems to be well on the road to recovery! I agree, we need to keep the horses exercised but where on earth to ride?

Good luck.

[KarlR]

Thanks. Actually he's had the problems for MANY years. Look at this really old thread that I posted just after I bought him!

http://www.newrider.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4601

This will certainly be his last operation for it - if it doesn't impove this time then even the experts agree that there nothing more that can be done for him. However, I'm very hopeful that at least it will only be a minor annoyance in future! :)

Now - if only I can get him to calm down! Following the operation he seems very excitable! :)

As for riding at the moment, we live on a lovely private estate with 10 miles of private off-road riding and a cross country course (The Beauvale Cross Country Course). However, even the XC course is boggy at the moment and until he calms a little I'm not going near that!! :))

[judyl]

Bl**dy hell, you're lucky! Riding on a private estate with cross country course - I wish!! We are on the borders of National Trust land but because they obviously want to get rid of horse riders and encourage people with prams, bikes and walkers, etc. they've covered over all the bridleways with sandstone so it's rock hard (like tarmac) in the summer and pretty hard all year round anyway so you can't move out of walk. There are a couple of places you can do about 20 strides of trot but that's it. The worst thing we did was bring the horses home as the hacking round here is awful. We do have a horse box so soon we'll be travelling out every weekend to ride places where we'll be able to canter at least. Shade has forgotten what it's like to canter out on a hack as we only canter in the arena.

[KarlR]

Yes - I never forget how lucky we are. (Just to really rub it in, can I say that the 10 miles of private ride criss-crosses various brideways. I think that we calculated that the actual distance achievable without road work is about 30 miles! Sorry!! :D )

However, I'd still just like a nice, safe, winter schooling area! Perhaps next year we'll build that sand school? :)

[Pam F]

I've not been on this board for some months but I remember the sinus trouble Zac was having at the time. I assumed everything was OK again so was suprised/shocked to read of this latest op. I do hope the problem is sorted out now, poor Zac.

As for exersising, I don't know what the answer is if your land is anything like as wet as ours. Is there anywhere you can take him to lunge him?

[KarlR]

Poor lad. This was his second operation, but almost certainly his last: I wouldn't put him through another. The have had to remove several square inches of bone in his face to carry out the operation.

I suspect that he'll always now have a discharge to some extent, but hopefully it will always be minor. This operation was only really necessary because the sinus stopped draining and the pressure caused his face to bulge so much that I was worried for his eye. The draining problem has been cured now (we hope!).

All of our land is like a shallow lake at present - even the few bits that we have reserved for "late winter" use are very muddy. We have managed some lunging, but it's very limited.

That said, the discharge is much less in the last week or two. I'll update you again in the Spring! :)