Unfortunately, things went downhill from there. While Kai normally trips and stumbles a little bit, his tripping became more and more frequent, until he fell while I was riding. We were both okay, but it forced me to come to the conclusion that it just might be time to retire the old man. Two days later the farrier came to reset shoes, and she only made it as far as taking off his fronts before she had to stop because Kai couldn't stand up anymore.

Next week I'm going to have the vet out to at least give him an overall check, and see if they have any other ideas, but we're already doing everything we possibly can to keep the Kai-man comfy. He's gotten really bad really fast, and I just don't know what to do. I'm worried about him.

July 12 Update: Went out tonight to groom Kai and do evening chores. I went to get Kai out of his stall and he barely made it out of his door, but then I noticed one of his hind shoes was only halfway on. I called Shelby over and I held Kai while she pulled it out. The clip went a good ways into his sole, so we'll have to see how that goes. Anyhow, he was super unsteady. We decided it would be better if I went down the aisle, turned around in the arena, and then put him back into his stall, rather than try to turn him aroung in the aisle. I wasn't sure he was going to make it. This was NOT my Kai-man. He hung his head and, literally, moved an inch at a time. I called the vet, and (I didn't know it at the time), Shelby went inside to ask the owners if I could bury Kai on the property.

Vet came out and we're dealing with one of two things (or maybe a little of both):
1) EPM
2) arthritis in the spine

Only ways to tell for sure for each would be
1) spinal tap
2) x-ray of the spine....and he didn't have a big enough plate with him to do it right there

SO....if it's EPM, I'm not treating it. Even if I had the money, I can't logically shell out $1500 to treat EPM in a $1500, 22 year old horse, especially when best case scenario is sound for retirement. And I don't have the money, so that's that. Therefore, no point in putting Kai through a spinal tap.

Next...arthritis. We gave Kai a killer dose of anti-inflammatories. Double banamine, DMSO and 4g of bute a day for the next three days. If it is arthritis in his spine, we should see a marked improvement in the next day or two. If that's the case, we'll see how he maintains on bute alone, and then x-ray to see if we can target a specific area....again, best case scenario is still sound for retirement. He'll never be rideable again. Seeing as he's already on Adequan, there's really nothing ELSE we can do for him. BUT, if we can target a specific area, or better yet, keep him comfy on bute, then we'll do that.

If no improvement by Friday, then we put him down.
---------------------------------------------
There was a bit of improvement, and I also had another vet out. Dr. Ragon is pretty adamant that we're NOT dealing with EPM, and that it's much more likely something like arthritis in the spine. He said it could also be something like a mineral imbalance, although he didn't think so. He took some bloodwork, and now we wait for results on that as well.