Journal of April's Health: July 22, 2009

April’s Journey Continues…

On July 11, April went back to the vet for a follow-up on her PSSM condition. She has been exercised regularly with only Sundays off. Her feed has been moderate (local hay only), no grain and only low carb feed. I'm currently using LMF’s Low Carbohydrate Feed along with Equine Nutrition's Trifecta as a supplement. It’s very important she gets at least 2000 mg of Vitamin D per day.

I had been hand-walking her for 10 minutes per day plus 6 minutes of trotting. We drew blood to determine the AST & CPK Levels. They were as follows: AST: normal range is 100 to 600; April’s was 511. CPK: normal range is 10 o 350; April’s was 240. Yahoo! Now we can increase the exercise.

In the two weeks following the exam, we've had an increase of two minutes per day in her exercise. I’m currently at 20 minutes and will be drawing blood again this Friday to see if we can ride a little this weekend. I can’t wait to get back on her again! I think she’s getting pretty bored herself. This is certainly a long, slow process to get her back on track--her tying up instance was back on May 2. That's eleven weeks and counting...

Check back next Wednesday, July 29, for an update!