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We Are Flying Solo

August 5, 2014

The Agony & The Ecstasy: An Update (Mostly On The Former)

*insert standard blogger excuse about life, jobs, shoving your horse's legs in buckets of ice at midnight, perfecting your hoof wrapping techniques, blah blah blah, whatever, no posts for you*

There, that's out of the way.

To say it's been a roller coaster would be a vast understatement.  This morning, however, was the anxiously-awaited give vast sums of money to Dr. Bob fall shots/check my horses' various & sundry issues gala. 

HorseS??  You wonder quite correctly.  Solo, not to be outdone by his big little brother, has been quite sore in his large shoulder muscles for the past 6-8 weeks.  Erica & I have been massaging & stretching & staring quizzically (ok, that's my speciality), so I was relieved I could finally just throw him at Dr. Bob and let the magic hands find the answers.

Go home, horses, you're drunk.  Oh, wait, you are home...
Sore Solo

Aside from getting to be punch drunk on 1/3 a can of PBR (aka sedation lightweight, he's a cheap date) while his teeth floated away, he was quickly pronounced footsore on both fronts.  Lots of small bruises in his hooves have him compensating with those enormous shoulders & parking out a little to distribute his weight across his feet.

*now insert mom feels bad*

Oddly enough, I was relieved at this answer.  Instead of some new shoulder injury (which I greatly feared he might have come up with during The Pasture Games), instead we just confirmed that genetics are genetics & Mr. Shiny still has wussy feet.  I had been using  his front boots when we ride out, but on the farm or in an arena, he's just been going barefoot.

I had not seen a big change in his movement until the past two weeks though.  Dr. Bob once again fit the pieces together for me:  wet weather brings out raging growth in crabgrass, which is apparently quite delicious.  My pastures are mixed forage (this makes me happy, different species offer different things and do well at different times of year) & certainly have their share of this treat.  However, it is very high in starches when wet, which makes wussy feet even more sensitive.  Given the past ten days of monsoon season...lightbulb!

The Star Pupil

Encore has kept me hopping (& also made me an expert at monitoring a digital pulse, which my farrier FINALLY was able to show me...it's a lot easier to find when it's pounding).  :-(  Three emergency line calls & four vet visits in a month, well, I could have done without.  But things are healing, in fortunate cooperation with me reaching the dregs of my vetwrap stockpile!
Encore's RFhandiwork, 16 JulyNot quite so gory, 2 Aug
You'll recall his rather spectacular self-resection of his RF hoof on July 16.  He so enjoyed all the extra attention that he decided to go dead lame on his LF foot after his most recent shoeing.

Actually at actual midnight.  :/
Whee.

Wonder-farrier ran back to the farm the next day & pulled three nails to relieve pressure on what turned out to be the same bruise we poked at in late June.  It was just wandering around in poor Encore's foot because he simply refuses to abscess things out (heaven forbid we appear normal!).

I'll skip over his attempts to kill me by heart failure, timing pulses, hoarding ice, stocking bulk supplies of Epsom salts, & practicing duct tape sculpture by headlamp.  Including last night's wail of despair as he came limping in for dinner, sans LF shoe (to be fair, it held on valiantly for having only one inside nail).

Because today...(1) I got permission to stop wrapping the RF, as Dr. Bob deemed it hard enough to just take an occasional dab of ichthammol & carry on, and (2) The Man took his determined hoof knife to Encore's LF front sole and in a few expert slices, exposed the furtive gypsy bruise at last!!!

You know you have been a horse owner long enough when you are HAPPY to see pus and blood seeping out of your horse's foot...

Ok, I admit, I majorly science-geek-out on this picture

Of course he did.
Which Leaves Us...?

Hopefully over the hump of this particular mountain!  Encore's shoe has just been tacked back on, so I can save my duct tape while his bruise heals.  Of course the idiot managed to step on himself while sedated (don't take him out for drinks, he gets the high gravity version) and cut a chunk out of his hind pastern.  *I'd headdesk but I broke the desk from over-use*  At least it's just a flesh wound!  As long as he is not sore, I can (omg, don't breathe a word) ride him in a few days.

Solo will go back to work in his snazzy boots after a little rest and we'll all feel a bit better after some painkillers!

Now, would someone mind pouring me a shot of very expensive tequila?



15 comments:

  1. So the parking out isn't ulcers? Hooray!

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    1. Well, he may still be a bit tummy fussy so Dr. Bob agreed the tractguard would help, esp with a few days of bute coming up. But he's been very tender in the last 8 day on his fronts and blew a little abscess out the front of each one so suspicious me was suspicious!

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  2. Ugh. We had five inches of rain here in the last few days... am now on abscess watch. Sadly a common theme with fellow bloggers recently. Hopefully the fact that I trimmed Val on Thursday will help.

    He didn't ever pop his last abscess - which happened after last year's monsoonish time - six weeks lame + buckets + ichthammol + duct tape.... it was only ever confirmed at a subsequent farrier visit.

    Hoping your boys sort themselves out. No need to worry about extra money laying around when you ♡ horses, right?!

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    1. It is sad that I WISH he would just abscess! But nooooo Encore insists on just holding his lil bruises in there. I guess he is just looking out for vet and farrier! $$? What is that? Shoot I have been trying to do a lot of work from home bc I can't afford diesel to work -- bit the horses get fed dangit!

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  3. Wow, I think your horses are more suicidal than my boy. Uh, congratulations?? We won't tell Encore about what you are thinking...

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    1. Thanks for keeping the secret!! I was feeling pretty mournful last night but I do have friends whose horses gave themselves holes you can put your extremities into so I try to remind myself it could be much worse. But I'd be ok if it was much better too lol!

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  4. OMG I'm impressed you've only broke one desk;) We are supposed to have flash flooding here, I guess it is rain everywhere!

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    1. HAHAHA, well, I couldn't afford another one!

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  5. My god. You've seen your own doctor for human ulcer meds, right?! ;)

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    1. I didn't ask about omeprazole, but they do make Valium! ;P

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  6. Oof. They just want to make sure you're fully paying attention to them, I guess.

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    1. Silly me, I thought GOING FUN PLACES AND GALLOPING IN THE WOODS was fun attention. Psh, what do I know, ROFLMAO!

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  7. What a whirlwind of a post! I second Aimee's comment. They're just testing you...hang in there and get a cape cod STAT

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    1. Haha, thanks! I don't know what a Cape Cod is, it sounds expensive, but I'll settle for a very long nap!!

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    2. Vodka and cranberry juice? This can be arranged....

      Sometimes us relocated Yankees are good for something :)

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