It's not a great morning as UP THE MILLERS has a problem which is causing some concern. During his workout out last Wednesday it was noticed that UTM was not moving well. We had the VET into see him the following day who diagnosed a case of cellulitis.
Basically cellulitis it is a bacterial infection that gets into the horses connective tissues under its skin – it can occur anywhere in the body but it is most commonly found in the hind legs in horses (as with UTM), it does tend to spread and affect the whole leg causing a high temperature and loss of appetite. Its not uncommon and a dose of antibiotics usually clears it up. It rarely gives any real cause for concern. Of course Millers has decided that he wants to be different!
We would have expected a marked improvement within 72 hours but we had the opposite over the weekend. So the vet was brought in again we have changed him to a different, twice daily intravenous antibiotic. We have done all the checks to ensure there isn’t anything else going on, he has been thoroughly x-ray from his hock, tibia, cannon bone and foot and there is nothing to see.
Our biggest worry is that because he is not bearing weight on it very well he is putting too much pressure on his good leg. This can lead to laminitis which ‘can’ be life threatening. So fingers crossed that he responds to the intravenous antibiotics and his condition begins to improve.
This is going to be a setback to his reappearance on the track but hopefully we can still get him racing before Xmas. We had him down to race at CHELMSFORD CITY on Thursday 29 November 2018 but this look very unlikely now.
I will post a further status report on this in the next 24 hours, hopefully with better news.
UPDATE 8TH NOVEMBER
Better news on Millers. He was out of his box walking round several times yesterday he has eaten well and looks better. Vet giving intravenous antibiotic jab twice daily. The cellulitis has burst out on the outside of his hock and relieved the pressure, he's lost a bucketful of infected fluid which has helped reduce the swelling.Fingers crossed the bacteria hasn’t got in to his joint. The vets think not. Maybe too soon to say but I think he is on the road to recovery.