On To The Next Thing, Because There Is Always Something

Horsekeeping

Lucky enough to have horses

Awareness of the outside world. It’s hard not to be aware of the outside world right now.
~~~
Well, that was a weekend. Political turmoil. Way too much news. Rising Covid numbers.

… and then …

Both horses chose to have issues. Small, well-managed issues, but issues none the less.

Rodney

He’s been doing the on-again-off-again-does-your-foot-hurt-or-are-you-in-a-mood-? dance for a while. Blacksmith couldn’t find anything. Finally displayed a diagnostically useful wobble. Soaked foot for suspected abscess. No noticeable change. Clearly, it was in the foot. Maybe a bruise? New theory.

Daytime, turnout with booties over shoes to cushion his flat feet. Night, put up in heavily-bedded stall with salt poultice. Second night, both feet. [Treatment]

Rodney thought this was the bee’s knees.

Milton
So there’s Rodney. Happily tucked into a fluffy stall.

Milton decides, ‘Dinner? No thanks. I’ll pass.’

Shit.

‘Cookie? I’ll nibble at it ineffectually.’

Double shit. Break out the Banamine.

Turned out to be a mild case. Good gut sounds. Regular temp. Responded well to the shot in the neck. Removed food. Walk. Check. Wait for poop. Lather, rinse, repeat. You know the drill. Mild or not, one always gets alarmed when the c-word is involved.

In fact, he had pooped as we were standing there watching him not eat. Either the poop was already on the launchpad or he was almost over it anyway. Half an hour later, we might never have noticed. Who knows what they get up to the other 20+ hours in the day.

Speaking of hours, why do they always do this at night? On the weekend? Why can’t they chose to raise our blood pressure at 10 in the morning, on a weekday, while the vet is down the street doing an unexciting wellness check on a broodmare? In truth, a horse crisis never comes at a good time. At least at 10 am, we wouldn’t be dragging a horse around the field by flashlight.

No vet visits, this time. Pain behavior was mild in both cases. One upside to having fragile cupcakes is that they do not lie to you about their pain levels. Treatment was obvious. We did call the vet for Milton. Put this on the radar instead of coming as a complete surprise at 2 am. Fortunately, not needed.

Milton is fine. Rodney is still on foot rest protocol. I’m exhausted. The world is still a mess.

How was your weekend?

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott