Up to date

The vet came out on Thursday to float Gem and Jul's teeth and to give Alex and Never their booster shots. Jul's teeth look incredible, just a little grining to get some of the points off and a rotting molar had to be pulled, but really good otherwise. Not bad for a 36 year old mare. Her son Gem wasn't as lucky, though. Dr Esser said that if I had to prioritize floatings in the future, to put him low on the list as he didn't have much to work with anymore. She did the best she could with him, though, and he seems to be dribbling less, so I call it a job well done.

Then it was on to booster shots. Alex was a little skittish, but he stood pretty well and took the shot like a trooper. I wish I could say the same for Never. *sigh* It took forever just to sedate him. Dr. Esser tried to inject directly into the vein so he would sedate quicker, but he was just not having it. CJ, the vet assistant, wrestled with him for about 10 minutes before the good doctor finally was able to inject in the muscle instead. Then we had to wait for 20 minutes. I was so embarrased, I wanted to hide.

After the wait, he was sleepy, but not so sleepy that he couldn't put up a fuss about the vaccinations. We took the opportunity to trim his feet while he was sedated, and while he was bratty and we still had to fight with him, we managed to get his front feet trimmed. His hind feet still look okay, and that's good because he kicked Ken when he checked the left hind!

Still, they're done and trainer will be picking him up on the 10th. Thank goodness. I just don't know what happened to him. He was so good before he was gelded, it's like his brains were in his balls or something. Everything he learned before seems to be gone.

I hope Jessica can help him to be an equine good citizen.

Foals

The vet left a while ago, and after sedating, palpating, and ultra-sounding we have the verdict: Hope and Zora are pregnant. *sigh*

I kinda thought Hope might be, as she's been acting moody and looking slightly round. I though Zora was pregnant a month ago, but then thought she wasn't because I thought I saw her in heat. I wasn't even going to have her checked, but I'm glad I did. Dr Esser thinks that Zora might have two weeks, but Hope may go a little longer. I'm going to keep a close eye on her anyway, as maiden mares can really fool you.

The total cost was about $415 for the trip out, the palpations and the Dormosedan, but it's worth it to know for sure who to watch. It looks like I may be going to Rolex by myself, as Jac doesn't trust Ken farther than she can throw him. *S*

Vet visit

Last May, Never (the 3yr old colt I had gelded in December) smashed his pasture gate and got in with the mares. I didn't think he covered anyone, but recently a couple of the mares are looking a little more round than usual. Considering the possible due date would be while I'm at Rolex, and the fact that one of the mares is 25 while the others are maiden mares, I thought it best to know for sure if they are or if I'm just paranoid.

I'm not totally sure which vet will be coming out, but it should be one of the two that I requested. Dr. Johnson is great, he talks to you and explains everything, and doesn't treat you like an idiot. Dr Esser is the new vet, and she seems nice enough, so I'm willing to give her a chance. She's the one that gelded Never, and she fielded my paranoid follow up phone questions with patience and grace. She also tracked down information on spaying mares for me, so she's got bonus points right there.

I'm not sure what result I'm hoping for at this point. I'm sort of half hoping that Emmy (Diadem Fa-Emerald) is pregnant. The plus side would be that she's purebred Arab, so the baby would be purebred. Emmy and Never's pedigrees are both heavy Crabbet and CMK, so that's a plus. And Emmy is the last of her bloodlines, a Royal Diamond granddaughter on her dam's side mixed with Babson and old Egyptian on her sire's side.

The minus side, of course, would be her age (25), and the fact that this would only be her second foal. Her first was born 4 years ago, and she didn't live long. We think she may have been a 'dummy' foal, but she may have had coat color dilution lethal, or lavender foal syndrome. I'm going to send some DNA samples in for a study, I hope it helps find a test like the one for SCID.

The other possibly pregnant mares that I'm having tested are Hope and Faith. Both are acting a little different, I haven't seen either in heat lately, and while Hope is a high percentage Pinto Arabian, Faith is a graying-out brown grade Quarter horse. Both have excellent conformation and any babies would be registrable as Half-Arabs. Problem is, I don't think I have enough room at the inn, so to speak. I have two possible foaling stalls, though if I got creative I could maybe have three. I'll definitely need to make separate pastures so no one gets bullied or chased, but I was going to do that anyway.

So, I don't know how this is going to go. I guess in the end, I'm just hoping for healthy, happy mares. If they have foals, I'll love them no matter what and I'm prepared to keep them forever if need be.

Warming weather + ice and mud = injured gelding

Spring is almost here! It's been in the sixties for most of the week, and while the frost hasn't completely let go, the ice is mostly gone and has been replaced with slick greasy mud. While this transition was going on, the horses got rather spunky, and needless to say, there's a rather unhappy gelding resting his leg in the barn.

I got home on Saturday after spending the day at a hop grower's informational seminar. I fed hay and water, then went to let everyone in for supper. The first one in is Never, and he's favoring his right front leg. I check him out, looking for heat and swelling, and find that it's mostly in his upper foreleg and shoulder. He also has mud on his face, neck and a bit on his side. My best guess is that he took a tight turn while goofing off and fell, bruising his leg and shoulder. I've had him on stall rest ever since, and he's not very happy about it.

I went to the vet yesterday to pick up Dormosedan for Rho (so we can trim his feet without getting anyone getting hurt) and picked up something stronger than aspirin for Never. The vet agreed that it was probably a bone bruise and that I was treating it the best way possible. Even if it was a hairline fracture, there's not a lot to do for it but lots of stall rest and pain killers. The powdered Bute didn't cost that much, about $35 for about 50 doses, but the Dormosedan was a lot more than I remember: $67 for one 1.5 cc dose!

Never's swelling seems to be going down a little, though he's still favoring the leg somewhat. Hopefully, he'll be ready to got out again soon, so he can roll in the mud with the rest of the herd. It'll be nice when the pasture is divided, though, to make it easier to separate the rowdy ones from the ones that need more rest.

Holiday wish list

I've got a wish list at Amazon.com, but there are some things that Amazon just doesn't have a listing for. Here is a list of things that I would dearly love but I don't expect to get, in no particular order:

-20 bags of shavings a month for a year (or even 6 months)
-a pallet of Nutrena Senior horse feed a month for 6 months
-more T posts and fencing materials
-a new roof for the barn
-someone I trust around horses to help around the farm (cleaning stalls, planting trees, putting up fence...)
-a $3000 gift certificate for vet care
-unlimited access to Clavamox or Zithromax, Tobramyacin drops, and Frontline Plus or Revolution
-a boyfriend for my sister/roommate (a veterinarian-architect-millionaire philanthropist would be awesome)
-a grant or loan to get my farm/rescue started (details here, here and here)
-a divorce
-my life back on track

I've not listed anything about a boyfriend or dating or anything like that for me, because I've pretty much given up. I just can't seem to find anyone that I find interesting enough to date, and anyway, once I get divorced I'm never getting married again. I really shouldn't have made it legal the first time. Oh well, live and learn I guess.

Success and Frustration

Never is now a gelding!

I was so impressed with his behavior. He took everything in stride, hardly blinking at loading into the trailer, though the last time he was in one was when he was 4 months. He loaded and unloaded like a pro, and while he had a little sweat on his neck when we got to the clinic, he was dry and calm when we got home.

At the clinic, he was a sweetheart, curious but not volatile or jumpy. He led to the holding stall, walked right in and turned around so he watch everybody. When I came to pick him up after surgery, he saw me and whickered. I think I melted a little. *S*

I had his shots done and his wolf teeth pulled, so all we need to do is his Coggins test and booster shots in a month or so.

That was all the success part of the story. Here's the frustration part:

It's been cold here for the past few days. Not the 'oh, it's 30 degrees and I need a hat and mittens' type cold, but the 'it's 15 degrees with a wind chill of 25 below, break out the lined pants and two pair of long underwear to walk to the barn' type of cold. I had Never on stall rest on Friday, and turned him out on Saturday to get some air. I wasn't looking forward to hand walking him, but it's something that needed to be done.

So I thought, until I looked out the window and saw him doing laps in the pen! I checked up on him a couple of times that morning, and noticed he would eat, then trot around trying to catch a glimpse of the other horses (my round pen is on the other side of the barn, effectively blocking most of the view of the pastures). I had to bring him in around noon, however, because the wind was picking up and the pen has no shelter.

That's been the routine for the past few days. Today, it's a balmy 25 and no breeze, so he gets to stay in the pen all day, at least until the blizzard hits us. He's swelling a little at the mouth of his sheath, but after a couple of calls to the vet, 3 digital thermometers, and convincing Never that playing with his tail was really okay, we determined that there probably wasn't an infection and he's probably just a little puffy from all the stall rest he's gotten.

I can't wait until he's all healed so I can stop worrying about infection, and start focusing on his training. He's going to be a wonderful show horse, and maybe he'll even like trail riding!

Gelding day postponed

Nevermore was scheduled to get snipped today, but the vet called this morning and said that it was way too cold to safely sedate him at the farm. So, after much thought, I rescheduled for Thursday at the clinic. Now I need to track down a trailer (I have a few leads) and hope he remembers how to load. I may also call and schedule Alex too, but he's not as urgent to get done as Never is.

By getting Never gelded I can play musical pastures: Bahim goes in his old paddock, the younger/dominant mares get the paddock that Bahim was in, and the older mares can get the big pasture. Everybody will have access to ice-free water, hay, and shelter, and a sperm-free Nevermore will have other horses to keep him company.

I moved everybody around this morning in anticipation of the vet visit (she called as I was leading Bahim to his pen), so Never is going to be staying in the round pen for the next couple of days. He will be coming in at night, though, as it's supposed to be pretty frigid for the next week or so. I picked up a heated water bucket so he has ice-free water, and I hope to tie some sort of material to the pen to help block the wind, as he's gotten used to a run-in shelter.

I can't wait until this is all done. Too bad spaying mares isn't this easy.

Etched n Stone 1993-2008

Last night I went to feed everybody, and noticed Sketch standing funny. I walked over to the fence, and he stood there looking at me, a sign that something is really wrong if he won't walk over to dinner. I hopped in the pen he shares with Never (corral panels in a shed with a door to their pasture), and he pivoted on his front end to look at me. I checked him out, and discovered his near front leg was swollen really bad around the knee joint (where the leg connects to the shoulder).

Crap.

I have no pain meds left, and no liniments. Double crap. So I halter him up and slowly lead him out to the round pen (we had to push him after half way), give him hay, some treats with Rescue Remedy for the stress, and some topical Arnica spray for bruising (it was all I could think of). I decided to wait until morning to call the vet, as they're 45 minutes away and I might not get the doctor I want. I spent half the night trying to search for similar injuries on the Net, and came up with nada.

The vet came early this morning, and after the exam he gave me the news. Sketch managed to break his humerus up by the top of the joint.

We decided it was for the best to put him out of his pain. It was the type of injury that, even if you had thousands of dollars to toss at it, it may never heal. What amazes me is that, even with all the pain he was in, he still ate like a pig and just favored the leg. He didn't whine or complain, just whinnied for his food and company.

So, now he's in a better place, with no pain and all-you-can-eat unfenced grassy pastures, and he'll have a burial place on the hill in the pasture next to Tiara. And a little black humor: he was always trying to get out of work, he just took it a little far this time. (morbid, I know, but it's how I deal sometimes)

Etched n Stone aka Sketch 1993-2008 RIP