Since the show, I've been trying to figure out what's going on with Huck. Is it attitude? training? physical issues? We've taken days off, done tons of stretching and flexing. We trail rode. We rode inside. We rode outside. We massaged. We ground worked. We researched. We've employed the help/opinions of the farrier, trainer, chiropractor, and vet.
Today we injected both of Huck's Sacroiliac (SI) joints.
Both chiro and vet agree this is the way to go so I am hoping they're both right. I had my lower back/sacrum injected a few years ago so I can somewhat understand what's going on. I also have crappy SI joints. Pretty tired of my horses mirroring my issues.
Obviously this puts a hold on show season, but clearly the showing wasn't working anyway. Perhaps this will give us a chance at some success in the future.
This also puts yet another strain on my very thinly stretched horse budget. In 9 months we've had a facial laceration, forearm laceration with infection, and injections. We also had proud flesh, scratches, and he has a swollen lymph node in his right forearm (vet says it's probably fine and that the steroids will likely take care of it.) Seriously though. WTF. This "affordably priced" horse has turned into a money pit. I sure hope there is a light at the end of this tunnel. This is supposed to be fun, right?
Seriously though, I have some things for sale: https://www.facebook.com/rebeccacherylwhite/media_set?set=a.10151796771101741.1073741831.526321740&type=3 or if you've ever thought about my decals, now's a great time to support small business and Huck's vet bills. https://www.etsy.com/shop/BuckstitchBeckys
He's in a stall with muscle relaxers, bute, and hand-walking for two more days. On Saturday he can go back out to turnout and be ridden lightly at the walk and loose-rein jog for 10 days. Then we can start loping and stopping and see where we are. Fingers crossed.
Apparently I can't even lunge my horse or practice showmanship without hurting my back. There are certain movements I do that are causing compression in my disks and/or moving my pelvis out of alignment enough to create more pressure on the affected nerves. And I can do this without noticing/feeling it at the time, only later do I feel the effects and there's nothing to be done but take the pain meds and start over. This is not helping my progress and it's very frustrating. I have not been physically normal since May 7th. But in addition to the fact that I simply want to spend time with my horse even if I can't ride, it's also out of guilt that I lunge my horse and work on showmanship. It's winter and turnout isn't as extended as it is in the warmer months and I feel bad that he has fallen out of shape as much as I have. He doesn't seem to care, he's rather lazy, but he does like to be messed with.
So I am going to get more aggressive with my treatment and try really hard not to screw it up any more.
In the mean time I went just to check on him yesterday. I brought him in from the paddock, just to groom him. And then I noticed his Left Stifle was banged up. Not severely, but maybe like he ran into something and scraped off some patches of hair and maybe a slight abrasion. Then, working down the leg noticed the lower leg and fetlock were swollen and there was a scrape/puncture on the cannon bone. He trotted off fine (I had the BO do the trotting... see, I'm TRYING not to hurt myself) but I gave him some bute and cold hosed the leg. He didn't appreciate me poking the stifle but he never really does. I'll go out today but then I'm benched for the weekend after I'm going to have a needle inserted into my spine. Ugh.
So I recruited the BM to keep a closer eye on him over the weekend. I might be able to go out, but I really need to be careful.
Of course he mildly injures himself when I can't monitor it. Sometimes I think he plans things like this.
I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, imagine me lounging on the sofa with ice packs, pain meds, and Netflix. Then maybe sooner rather than later you will be able to imagine me actually riding my stinkin' pony and having something interesting to blog about. Fingers crossed.
As per usual, the blog will be rather silent while I journey to the (apparently not yet) frozen tundra of Minnesota for some much needed family time and friend time over the holidays.
My back is not improved but we now know that I have two, yes TWO bulging disks between the S1 and L5 and the L5 and L4. Super. It seems trying to "work through" the pain wasn't the thing to do after all. I have another appointment after the new year to see another ortho-guy and I've been ordered to take it very easy and have been given some mild pain meds/anti-inflamatory drugs so if this post makes no sense you can guess why... The Pharmacist said "yeah, people really like this stuff."
All of this time off has sort of put a snag in my plan for really getting both Junior and myself back into shape. It's a rare occasion that my motivation outweighs my ability and it's driving me a bit nuts. But things could be much worse so I'm trying to stay positive. We were in such good shape last May before I hurt myself, darn it!
I have some riders set up to give the Junebug some exercise so he doesn't need to spend my whole vacation idle, as much as he would probably prefer that. And as always, BM Sarah and BO Molly will keep an extra eye on The Bug to make sure he stays out of trouble.... as if that's possible...
Thank you for all the nice compliments on my locker sign! I also made one for someone else, but shhhh! It's a secret! I'll post about that in January. ;)
In January I'll also be resurrecting my annual Equi-lutions, both scoring us on how we did this year and confessing my goals for 2012, which will be conservative considering my back issue.
So after the holidaitus I will be back with bells on, I promise.
Happy Christmas! Happy New Year! Happy Everyone!!!
I thought I'd to a Christmas Video this year instead of just the card:
I've now added "Lameness Exam" to our ever growing list of "Things Horse Owners Will Inevitably Have to Deal With" right along side "Fall off" and "Emergency Vet Call."
In true Junior fashion he presented himself 100% sound this morning, purely as a ruse since his friends were outside and he wasn't going to let anything stand in the way of his outdoor enjoyment. He wasn't warm and wasn't lame either direction. BO watched him too and we all agreed he looked totally fine. So out he went. Then Max's Mom came to the barn and says "I saw your boy limping around out there, how's he doing?" so my heart stopped and I walked briskly out to the field to see him. He walked easily over to me I felt his legs again. Nothing. I was about to be late for work. So guiltily I left him out with instructions for EVERYONE I could find to bring him in if they saw anything odd because Dr. J. would be there at noon to check another horse. So I worried about him the whole time I was at work. After work at about 2pm I couldn't help going to check on him and found that Dr. J. was running late and hadn't been there yet.
So we lunged. Dr. J. was busy with another horse and HIS lameness issues so I just worked him. Still no sign of anything at any gait in either direction. Eventually I took him back into the barn and groomed him until Dr. J. was ready to take a real look. Agreeing that he looked fine whenever he glanced over at him, but wanting to have an actual look, he did the flex tests and the hoof tester tests. I've never actually been part of this before so it was somewhat freaky to watch your horse suddenly be SUPER lame for a few steps. Nothing was remarkable. The only thing that gave Dr. J. any information was that he was sensitive if he squeezed his heel side to side and he jogged the lamest after that one. He thinks it's in the hoof, but that it probably isn't a serious issue, more likely another puzzle piece of how he ripped open the front of his blanket and has a wound on his left upper gums: Shenanigans.
So 6 days of Bute and Conquer and keep his routine the same so no riding and normal turnout. If he gets worse or if after 6 days he's not out of it, then I should call. How convenient that tomorrow will be my last day at the barn until next Friday. So now I have a week withOUT the guilty feeling from not riding.
We also discussed the possible stifle issue and he palpated the stifle, but since there is a recognizable lameness in the LF and not one in the LH, we're going to let that be fixed before moving on. Of course, reading in my new book about how important and often overlooked stifles are I'm only a teeeeeeeeeeensy bit freaked out.... in true Overanxious Horse Owner fashion....
Today was to be my first barn time in a whole week since I worked 8-12 hour days every day since Saturday when he refused to be caught and it was too muddy for me to chase him and all I did was clean stalls with a baby migraine - that day doesn't count as the kind of rejuvenating/recharging barn time I am in desperate need of.
So when I got out to the arena to ride, what do I find? I find a head-bobbing-lame-at-the-trot pony. Ugh. Thankfully my BO was there and helped me determine it was his left front. He was fine at the walk and didn't seem in any pain and was perfectly willing to trot even before I really asked him to. It was warm but not super warm, and since I was wearing gloves while grooming I didn't notice. It doesn't seem super serious so I hosed it and will check him in the morning. Dr. J. will be out at noon to check two other horses so I gave him a heads up that we'd like to be on the list, too. Unfortunately I have to be at work when he's there, of course.
Oh and this morning I got a text from the BM of THIS:
And for your entertainment the text thread the followed:
And no he wasn't sweating when I got to the barn, the BO wouldn't have actually let that happen, I was just being dramatic. Sadly it was no where near warm enough to make him sweat. It's a pretty easy fix, thankfully. He can wear his big coat for a day or two. That's the edge binding you're seeing around his neck. It's a closed-front blanket and he somehow ripped the front seam open and ripped the side out of the edge binding. And the "u" in the text was supposed to be an "I." I can type, really.
I've got a few posts in the works, including a DIY Tutorial, Christmas Festivities, and stuff about our foster pony, but for now all I can give you is this montage of a month worth of progress on Junior's head wound. As you can see, there is HAIR!!! Nearly everywhere!!! Woot!!!! The growth is approximately the same as in the area he scraped the hair off of just below his forelock, so I am finally breathing a sigh of relief that Junior will not be COMPLETELY mangled forever. I know you all told me he'd heal fine, but I was a doubter.
Hard to imagine this was the bloody flap of skin just 6 weeks ago!
It seems the worst is over for this particular injury. It has healed well, there is absolutely no swelling left and he is not sensitive in the area. It's hard to tell how much will remain hairless permanently, but there does seem to be more hair growing than I expected, so that's good. Since Dr. J said I didn't need any more aluspray on I cleaned most of it off so he's a bit easier to look at. :)
We've been working on showmanship. I checked in with KAT and I was having him move his front feet incorrectly for the pull-turn so we fixed that. In our riding we have been focusing on one thing: WHOA. Specifically a WHOA when asked and also keeping body kept round and in balance instead of sticking his head straight up. You know, stopping from the hind end. I'd LOVE for him to do that all off of a cue from my seat, but we're no where near that. For Horsemanship (and somewhat Equitation) you want to be able to stop with minimal rein action. If you watch good modern reining, their sliding stops don't have much rein contact at all. In the Horsemanship world, a "spur-stop" has been developed to get a quick, solid stop without using the reins. I am not interested in the "spur-stop." If I can't get it done with my seat, I'd rather use my reins. That's just me. It just seems that I can throw my weight around and he doesn't notice. Might be because he's learned to ignore the unbalanced riders on his back. Might be because he's never been taught. When he's tired and wants to quit (we rarely get to that point lately, though) he'll respond to my seat when I "quit" riding, but at a simple walk or trot or when he's willingly going forward he could care less what I'm doing in the saddle.
So first I worked on getting a whoa from a verbal along with the reins and seat. Now we're on to a whoa with a verbal and seat... if he's paying attention.... he pushes my buttons on purpose, I swear. Hopefully with a bit more work he'll learn to pay attention to my seat, too.
I'm doing all this because I still want to show and we really need increased refinement in order to be competitive. Ugh... SO much to work on. :)
Last Wednesday PBS premiered a documentary series called simply "Circus" about the Big Apple Circus. I don't want to ruin it for you, but in the first episode, during a rehearsal for the Equestrian act, a lovely bay paint took a tumble and cut his face open similarly to Junior's. I THINK THIS IS HIM. The episode showed him back in rehearsal and you could see a black shiny scar. Just so you know, when you google image search for "Big Apple Circus equestrian pbs" you get ALL sorts of random weirdness!
Weird little day we had today. I arrived at the barn to find my awesome farrier ready 30 minutes early. We got his feet trimmed and scheduled his next appointment.
Since we were done very early, I had some time to kill before Dr. Johnson came to remove the stitches. I didn't want to ride incase he came early so I decided to practice showmanship. While working, I decided to try the pull-turn. The "pull-turn" is essentially a counter-clockwise pivot where instead of pushing the head away from you, you are pulling the head around towards you. I'd attempted to do this before but had no luck. This time, however, I was able to keep his attention enough to get him to go one front foot at a time (with a lot of "goooood boy" with each correct step) and as soon as I saw weight removed from the pivot foot I'd say "No" and stop, then rock his weight back and ask him to move the front feet again. Once he figured out what I was asking for he would do the whole 90 degrees! KAT told me the judges are not "allowed" to ask for more than a 90 degree pull-turn but I don't know whose rule that is so we only worked on 90. We're slow at it, but he's doing it correctly and the speed will come after the accuracy.
Dr. Johnson came and very quickly removed the stitches. Junior was an excellent patient and didn't need any sedation. He just stood and let him do the work. He got a little annoyed about half way through but after a little break he was fine for the rest. There's some scabbing under where the stitches were and it's not looking promising for hair re-growth since those follicles will not grow back. There's still some pink under where the scabs were so maybe we'll be lucky. I'm just glad he didn't re-injure it before it healed. Things could be so much worse. If it looks really bad when show-season comes I'll just have to use my touch-up spray. :) Dr. J. said we can act like it never happened. Yay!
As a hopeful preventative measure I installed a rubber floor mat around the post at the front of his stall. Forgot to take a picture of the finished product. I found a small rug at Target for only $10. I had to cut the edges off to make it fit then attached it with 3/4" staples that I flattened with a nail punch and a hammer. He didn't seem to notice or care what I was doing.... made me wish there was a horsey version of cat nip. :) Hopefully he finds it, finds it pleasurable and STOPS RUBBING HIS FACE ON METAL!!! *Sigh* I won't hold my breath.
Junior seems to be healing up just fine. He was put back into regular turnout on Thursday and by Sunday was acting like his sweet old self. He let me touch the wound and gently brush most of the rest of the blood/saline/betadine off the rest of his face so he just has the big silver spot now.
I had a houseful of guests for a long weekend so there wasn't anything to post about. I took they family (same group that visited 18 months ago) to the barn and we walked the trails and said Hi to all the horses.
On Sunday my Mom and I were abandoned by the other three so we dried our tears with a visit to the QH Congress. Mom had never been so it was great fun. We only went to a few of the trade show booths: Rod's, Chicks, and Schneiders and then walked through a few aisles to see Berry Fit, and Connie's Customs. I got some new grooming tools for his lesson-horse bucket, and a (finally) a black rope halter. We shared a huge wonderful burger and a heaping plate of "ribbon fries" and watched most of the very last class of the Congress, Amateur Hunt Seat Equitation, including the finals. I still don't understand why making them walk so slow they look like they're falling asleep is such a trend. For English? Pointless. POINTLESS. If I don't actually want to GO anywhere we'll just STOP, thank you.
Thank you, everyone for your well wishes for Junior. Other than being mad as hell at being kept in his stall the last three days he seems to be doing fine so far. I keep waiting for my phone to ring with someone telling me he tore his stitches out, but so far I don't think he's rubbed it at all. At least I couldn't find any silver rub marks in his stall. Seems to be a teensy bit of puffiness in the middle of the flap and when he let me put my hand there it felt just the slightest bit warmer than the rest of his face, but only slightly. If it gets bigger/hotter I'll call Dr. Johnson but it's just ever so slight. I thought about sending him a photo but I couldn't find an angle that would actually show it, that's how slight it is.
The BM is keeping a baby sitter in for him so he's not so lonely. Yesterday it was Little Red Apples the mini who lives right next to him and today it was Ranger the QH/Arab. As soon as I walked into his line of sight he whinnied at me. SAAAAAAAVE MEEEEEE! I took him out right away and let him trot a few feet up to the wonderful grassy spot near the turnouts. He acted like he'd not eaten in months. The BM is keeping him with hay but he has been mostly trampling it instead of eating it. His stall was a MESS and it had already been cleaned once! I haven't seen his stall like that since we moved out of the old barn!
After our walk/grazing I brought him in to eat his dinner, cleaned his stall, and brought him out for some grooming. He let me brush some of the dried blood out of his face pretty close to the stitches so that was an improvement over yesterday when he wouldn't let me touch his face at all. He even rubbed his forehead on the mitt a little.
Since these face scratching injuries seem to be a trend with him, I'm looking into ways to provide him with the horsey equivalent of a scratching post. Hopefully this will prevent him from using sharp objects! I found THIS mountable scratching pad, but at $15 for only 5"x6" I'm not excited. I hate that everything with "horse" in the description is so much more expensive than it's equivalent MINUS the "horse" on the label?!?! Besides, I like creative solutions so I started brainstorming and thought of something like THESE. 16" x 24" for $18. I'm going to try to find them locally and look for some the consistency of a rubber curry comb. At least now I have a place to start. Maybe I'll find something perfect!
Squeamish people, you should consider yourself warned.... DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINKS if you'd rather not see a lot of blood. There is a little blood in the post photos too, but I linked to the worst of it.
Just after the morning feeder grained all the horses he heard a loud bang and came to find my poor pony with a bloody face. Junior managed to wound himself pretty severely this time. I believe this is face injury number 3 or even 4 within 4 months. This is the worst by far. I got a text just before 10:00 from the BO that he cut his face and that photos had been sent to the vet and the vet was coming out. I called her and asked how bad it was and she informed me she wasn't there but the feeder had sent photos to the vet and the vet's opinion was that faces heal well but a stitch would make it heal prettier. "A stitch" huh? I left work and headed to the barn. I go there to find my poor pony like this:
It may be hard to tell what's really there, but it's a big inverted triangle flap of skin. And blood. And it had already been hosed off. Yack. Dr. Johnson came out about 30 minutes after I got there. He seemed surprised at the severity and said he wasn't able to see that much from the photo. He thought for a bit and then we brought him out to the sunlight for the work. Junior was sedated and the whole area was washed with betadine and saline. THAT part was gross. I had to look away right after I took a picture. There was some splatter on my shoes. Hurl. Then Dr. J injected a bunch of blocker and stitched him up with 14 stitches. He looked just awful when we were done. His whole face was covered with betadine, saline, blood, and this silver spray that looked like RustOLeum.
The BO had arrived right before we were finished and she immediately went to work removing the board/bolt that we determined to be the culprit. It's left over from a long gone corner feeder. It's just 2" boards attached to the stall walls and there is a small bolt and washer on the top of one of the boards. Totally unassuming looking and though I knew it was there I was not concerned about it. She felt absolutely awful, but it wasn't her fault. The stall is safe, my pony is just accident prone. He has a scar on his face from long ago, which you may have noticed in some pictures so this habit did not start with US and I can't be entirely to blame. She removed the board with the bolts and installed a mat over the wall so he can't scratch on the metal corner plate either. I think he needs a padded stall.
I left him calm but alert in another stall while she was working so I could get back to work for a meeting and to apologize to my class for abandoning them to watch a movie without me this morning.
I ran to Target and picked up some peroxide and laundry detergent (to get the blood off my jacket sleeve...) and headed back to the barn. The BO had already gone out for peroxide and had cleaned most of his face so the face that met me was much nicer to look at than the face I left.
He's to stay in the stall or be hand-walked for 3-4 days to give the healing a good start. Then he can go back to normal turnout routine. If it starts to swell or starts draining puss I am supposed to call Dr. Johnson back. If not, then the stitches come out in 2 weeks. I'm hoping free-choice hay and a few walks a day will help him stay sane in the stall.
PLEASE say a prayer or cross your fingers, squeeze your rabbits's foot, wish upon a star or whatever you do to hope that he lets this heal without pulling stitches out or rubbing it. I'll keep you posted.
This is Gunner. He looks innocent, doesn't he. He looks like a nice guy, doesn't he?
But HE is responsible for THIS!
And probably all of the other wounds Junior has had in the past two months. Nice, huh? And this is AFTER I hosed it and the swelling went DOWN. Vampire pony.
They've been turned out together along with Max and a hundred year old ex-grand prix jumper since the beginning of July. The first few wounds were BIG and if you remember what he looked like when I got back on August 2nd, those were nice too. He has a new one nearly every day, but he hasn't had a "big" one since August 2nd until this one. But still, they are somewhat constant.
I'm used to grooming around them and putting ointment on them, noting which ones are healing and which ones are newer. Today I found this and did my normal freak out. I called the BM who said that she noticed a bite on his neck when they came in this morning, but it was not at all this swollen. She of course came and looked at it and we talked about what to do. I hosed it for a while which brought the swelling down and then I gave him the last dose of Banamine I had leftover from his eye.
Would you leave your horse in this situation? I know perfectly well he instigates part (if not all) of it but he is MUCH worse for wear than Gunner. If a horse ignores Junior's pestering or makes it clear that playtime is not on the agenda Junior will back off and be content to just hang out. But if he has a playmate that is game he is ALL IN. Both the BO and the BM have told me they can be separated and I will only feel a little bad if I decide to ask for that. But should I? I know it takes a while to establish herd positions and all of that, but how long do I let this go on? It's all superficial so far, but I cannot help think of how bad this one could have been. How long would you leave your horse in this situation? Is two months a decent litmus test of how horses are going to behave together? Longer?
My horse has mental problems. Or perhaps he's a masochist. Why else would he wound himself in the face THREE TIMES since the end of June!?!?! I found this new one today. Wasn't there yesterday. My awesome BM had already put Tri-Care on it for me. She rocks. You can see the first one just above and inside his eye and the one he did early in July up towards the middle of his face. Both are healed and getting their hair back and this one will heal too... just like the others and just like the multitude of abrasions that cover his left side. *Sigh* Masochist.
In other news: One step forward seems to always equal two steps back. While I was away he got some irritation from probably bug bites (they're out over night in the summer) and the BM asked if I had a fly sheet. I did but couldn't get it to the barn until I got back last weekend. It's not a great one. It was technically free because I got it for $10 at the State Line Tack tent sale at congress two years ago and then sold some of the other stuff I got for more than my total bill that day. Anyway, after wearing it for a week his shoulders are rubbed bald. I. CANNOT. WIN. I like him wearing it for bug and bite protection, but now his shoulders are bald. Do I need to go spend $65 for a softer fly sheet like THIS ONE? I really don't WANT to. With my luck that one will get torn to shreds. He's really hard on stuff....not sure if you've noticed...
In BETTER news our ride today was a huge improvement. Trotting was much more fluid and extended. His left lead started out really really rough but with some lifting and encouraging he straightened himself out. Overall a big improvement over yesterday and our best ride all week.
We moved on Friday evening. The new BO was able to come a day early and I jumped at the chance. The faster he can get acclimated the better. The hauling went smoothly. I was relieved that he loaded into the 2-horse straight trailer just as easily as he's learned to get into the big 6-horse slant he's been to shows in. He unloaded fine but he was shaky and snorty and more nervous than I'd seen him in 21 months. UNlike 21 months ago, *I* was not nervous and I'm sure that was helpful for him. Though he was snorty and nervous he never really spooked. We walked through to the barn and I took him down the aisle that leads to Max's stall. All the horses can look out over their doors so Max became very excited but it took Junior a while to realize he was there. I took him to his stall and he rolled right away and drank some water and proceeded to flirt with Nike, the huge mare in the next stall, who then proceeded to flirt right back, much to Junior's delight. On his other side is an adorable little Mini named Red Apples. (the picture @ right shows his Bettie Page I gave him)He was given some lovely hay while the other horses were fed their dinner and he was content to watch them all very curiously when they went out to the fields for the night. He didn't fuss much, to my relief. He's on quarantine for a few days so he was turned out alone for the morning in one of the sand lots and came in at noon. All of the fields and sand lots have shelters and automatic waterers and they look very well maintained.
I arrived in the afternoon today to find him looking adorably cheerful, hanging his head out of his clean stall and nickering to me. I spent some time cleaning out our tack area with Max's girls. We chose to go in the uncovered room closer to our stalls rather than the closed tack rooms that you have to walk through the arena to get to. It's not a very busy place so it wouldn't be a big deal, but it's also nice to have a TON of room all to ourselves. Other than some rarely used bins and trunks, we have a 12'x16' (or so) room to ourselves. The most immediate downside is that it is open to the indoor round pen and therefore has a nice coating of dust, but the area that Max's girls swept when they arrived 2 months ago is not bad at all yet so I think if we just keep up with it it'll be fine. When my tack-box-to-be is finished all of my stuff will be covered. I can always move to the other rooms later if I choose to. The area had been built as a farrier's area, but the farriers hate it so it has just been storage. The white squares are lights, but they're not functional at the moment.
After he ate his lunch hay (that's right, they get lunch hay!) I took him out for a walk into the outdoor arena and he snorted at things but walked up to and touched everything and walked right over the bridge so I thought he did really well. I let him eat some lawn for a while but it was so hot in the sun so I took him back to his cool fan and he drank water right away.
Then I went for a walk with Max and two of his girls along two of the trails. (That's Max on the right.) I cannot wait until Junior and I can explore them. He's not the keenest on trees (must be a Texan thing) so I'll be hand walking him through to start and we might not get that far before I head to MN/WI for my summer vacation month. I just want him to relax and take it slow. He was still showing some disgruntled school horse behavior before the move so I'd like to give him a chance to forget all those bouncy pokey yanky college kids and get back to the attention-whore horse that loves everyone and everyone loves. I still put a NO TREATS sign on his stall.
I asked Junior if he approved of his new surroundings and he replied .....
The vets came out and looked him over again today. Plural vets because we use Ohio State Vets and they always have students with them, which I think is great. Being a teacher myself I am happy to help them get experience. They've got to get it somehow, right?
Anyway they were thrilled with how well he was behaving - they squirted stain and then saline in his eye and he didn't even step away. They were also thrilled with how healed he is already. I couldn't see the scratch yesterday and today they could just barely see where it was with the dye and the light-up-eye-viewing-thingy. I'm 100% sure that's the technical term for it. So no more Banamine, but still keep gooing it a few times a day and fly mask on if possible. Since he tends to tear it off I'm not thinking it's worth it to put it on him each day, but I'll try tomorrow and see how it goes. Luckily we're on Spring Break so I CAN drive out there twice a day!
I lunged him this morning since he hasn't been worked/turned out since Monday and he's having his feet trimmed today and I'm going to go ahead and do my showmanship lesson tonight. After lunging I let him hand graze near the mud lot where his buddies were turned out. They all came over and told secrets. This is Zippy saying "Dude, why aren't you in here and WTF is on your head?!?!"
So do you know the play Equus? (You may have heard about it as the play Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) was naked in... but that's not the point of the story.) The play revolves around a boy who blinds 6 horses with a metal spike in the middle of the night.
The irony?
I got to have my very first vet call today.... for an eye problem. Duh Duh Dun! He's fine, but eyeballs are not anything I want to take a gamble on so I called the vet. He has a small superficial scratch on his cornea and will need to have some goop in his eye for 5 days and banamine for two days, or at least until he's looked at again on Wednesday. I'm pulling him out of lessons for now and keeping him in from turnout. The vet said he could go in turnout, but Charlie has been climbing all over him and it is SOOOO muddy that I would feel better if he stayed inside. He'll be cranky but it's only temporary. KAT will be put some goop in him in the morning and I'll be out tomorrow evening for more goop and banamine.
In true Overanxious Horse Owner fashion I was completely freaking out when I called KAT over to look at it, but I survived and it seems he's going to be fine, as long as it heals with no complications. They sedated him to get a good look at the eye and I have never seen a sedated horse before. He was so cute and a very good patient. I'm sorry there are no pictures, but I didn't have the camera with me and there really wasn't an opportune moment.
I'll update when there's something interesting.... and hopefully the bill doesn't make me throw up. :)
I've got a busy week at work ahead of me, but thought I'd quickly update with Junior's leg. He's fine. The swelling was nearly all the way gone when he came in from turnout, he had a lesson at 3pm, then when I arrived at 7:30 he was a little puffy again but better than Sunday. The scrape itself looks quite healthy. He wasn't tender anywhere and I could push on the scrape and the swelling and he didn't register any discomfort. He rode really well and KAT was happy to see how well he was moving. He's really improving every day now that I'm better at being consistent with him. After our ride his swelling went back down again. I'm not planning (because of busy week) to go out again until Friday so I asked KAT to keep an eye on him and if I need to come out to call me. He'll be turned out when the weather is decent and he's loving his lessons. He's a barn favorite among the college kids and the experienced show kids alike.
So worry is over. We'll continue to monitor, of course, but it doesn't seem like any more than a hard scrape that's continuing to heal. Thankfully it's improving.
These are the days when I wish I had either: A) A vet's knowledge of Equine injuries/illnes OR B) Enough money to burn that calling the vet out just to have him say "Um, yeah, your horse is fine, that'll be $100" will not mean I don't get to eat for two weeks.
I'm sure he's fine, but I wouldn't be the Overanxious Horse Owner if I didn't freak out about everything. So here I am freaking out because on Saturday when I brought him in from an hour of turn out I noticed a big black spot on his left hind cannon area, right over the suspensory ligament and the flexor tendon, or at least right about where #46 is pointing to.
Big Black Spot was between the size of a dime and a nickel. Upon further inspection Big Black Spot was a scab. Too old of a scab to have happened during the hour of turnout.... there's nothing sharp (that I know of) in his stall....Oh yeah, I had to re-mount 1/2 way through my Friday night ride because my iphone launched itself off my belt and after I remounted he tripped over the mounting block, flipping it over. He's very graceful, don't you know? I think he must of scraped himself pretty good and I feel like a terrible person for not noticing until the next day. In my defense it was very dark out and the lighting in the barn is not stellar, plus he didn't seem to ride any differently and it didn't bleed much, just in the area of the scrape. Still, I should have noticed it. He's got white legs after all!
Anyway, back to Saturday. He didn't seem lame at all. He didn't freak out when I touched it but he did try to take his leg away. He didn't seem to be in pain when I picked up all his hooves and made him put weight on the hurt one. BUT, there was a little swelling and warmth below it so I opted not to ride, just to let him rest it and I put some wound salve on it.
Well, today the swelling was worse and most of the outside of his cannon all the way down to his fetlock (#26) was warm and swollen enough that the tendons were not visible. I washed the wound with warm water and put some more salve on it. He still didn't seem to be ouchy to walk, but the worse swelling makes me nervous so KAT will look at him tonight after she gets back from the show. I gave him a little anti-inflammatory to help.
Again, he doesn't seem to be painful, but this is more swelling that I've seen on him before and I've not yet experienced swelling/heat getting worse rather than better.
On a lighter/better note, no one (knock on wood) has heard any cribbing since the feed tub was removed so hopefully that'll continue!
