Traveler – 12/17/09

Traveler isn’t recovering nearly as quickly as Summer, but she doesn’t have the heart murmur, wasn’t castrated, and isn’t now sick with a cold.  The poor guy has goopy eyes and a runny nose, but no temp yet.  I’ve got him on SMZ for his sniffles and it seems to be helping, but he’s only been on it for two days now.

He’s finally starting to fill in a little and looks better than he did, but still not great.

The first time I put a blanket on him, he just stood there looking at me as I did up the buckles.  Like he’d worn a blanket all his life and couldn’t figure out why I was just now getting around to it.  When I take it off in the mornings he sometimes tries to move away as I’m undoing the buckles as if to say “Hey!  It’s still cold out, what are you doing???”  But he always stands still when I put the blanket back on in the evenings.  Hmmm… smart little bugger!

He’s still a bit crotchety and pins his ears back at me when I feed, but he hasn’t tried to kick me again since that first week.  We now play a little chase game at feeding time because he refuses to just put his head in his halter and make life easy on me.  Oh no.  I have to go into the pasture and walk a few circles after him until he finally gives in and lets me get his halter on.  This is a new development and I think it’s because he knows that if he’s not tied up, he can eat faster than Sky and go steal his food.  Little turd!

Summer – 12/17/09

Summer is just about done with the weight gain.  In fact, if that belly gets much larger, I might have to poke a few holes to let all the air out.

Please forgive the horribly haphazard fence job.  I gave her her own pen behind the garage over a month ago, so she could be closer to the house and have her own shelter.  I couldn’t electrify the fence, so ended up just stringing it up nice and tight and crossing my fingers.  It didn’t take her long to realize that she could just walk right in between the strands and wander about the yard.  So now the fence is mainly just for show, since I took one side down and she just comes and goes as she pleases anyway.

Her top line is just about perfect now, but it’s hard to tell under all that hair and rain rot.  The rain rot is finally healing up and coming off in big gobs without causing her any pain.  In fact, she loves having me scratch and peel it off.  She’ll stand in one place forever with her upper lip sticking out and quivering whenever I find a particularly itchy spot.  I’m on call for work this weekend and hopefully I can spend a couple of hours scrubbing all that nastiness off of her.  I have a blanket for her in case she ends up bald afterwards!

Check out that cute little bum, all filled out and round!

Brannon gave her a trim last time he was out -- he left the heal alone and took off as much toe as he could to try and straighten out those pasterns.  If we don’t get a decent angle on those pasterns soon, he’ll try putting some extended shoes on her to help out.  Fortunately, she’s still young enough that we can get her fixed now without a lot of discomfort.

I don’t think she’ll need the shoes because she already looks a lot better up front!  And you should have seen how well she behaved for him!  I doubt she’s ever had her feet trimmed before, but she was awesome!  Except for losing her balance a time or two, she was almost as good as Maverick!

Lilo – 11/28/09

This will be Lilo’s last post on Rescue Recoveries, at least until she sheds out in the Spring.  I wasn’t even intending to take pictures of her today, but I just love the light in these shots and wanted to share.

So long Lilo, see you in the Spring!

Summer – 11/27/09

When I picked up Summer, her owners told me that they had owned Summer and Traveler for two years.  I seriously doubted that and didn’t look at their teeth to confirm, but I also didn’t think that people could own horses and not know how long they had had them.

I feel so naive.  When Doc was out last week he said that Summer’s teeth put her between 8 and 10 months old.  She still has all of her baby teeth, which are chipped and broken from eating rocks and trees.  Her gums are receding, most likely from malnutrition and what she chose to chew in place of actual food.

Fortunately, there doesn’t appear to be anything else wrong with her, except for the serious rain rot.  She’s gaining weight and has proven to be quite the little talker!  Every time she sees someone she greets them with a nicker and comes walking to the fence.  A couple of weeks ago, I put up some temporary fence behind the workshop and moved her in there so I could keep a better eye on her.  She’s very happy there since she gets attention from everyone that happens by.

The rain rot is starting to peel off and she’s putting on weight quickly.  I wormed her last week with a 300lb dose of Anthelcide and will start her on Strongid C next week.  I didn’t want to overdo it with the wormer, but I still think she’s got a bit of a worm load that needs to be eradicated.

Traveler – 11/27/09

As with Summer, Traveler’s previous owners said that they had owned him for two years.  According to Doc, his teeth put him at barely over a year.  He still has a few baby teeth left in his mouth, and the top two middle adult teeth are just starting to come in.  Yet, they had tried to ride him anyway. 

The unlimited ignorance of some people truly amaze me.

Doc also found that Traveler has a heart murmur.  On a scale from 1 to 6, 6 being the worst, his is between 2 and 3.  Hopefully, like Ellie, the murmur is because of him being so underweight and will go away once he’s healthy.  Unfortunately, it will affect his weight gain and it will take longer for him to get back up to a healthy weight.

Traveler was also castrated last week and did really well.  He recovered quickly and has had no infection and very little swelling.  He hasn’t gained much weight, but I’m hopeful that he’ll start gaining soon. I gave him a 350lb dose of Anthelcide last week and will start him on Strongid C next week with Summer. 

Shane – 11/27/09

Shane has still not had his teeth floated.  I was hoping to get him done when Doc was here castrating everyone, but the problem with not having electricity in the barn is that we have to rely on natural light and that ran out as the last castration was just completed.  Now Shane will just have to be first on the list next time Doc comes out.

Shane has put on some weight, but very slowly.  He’s on 2qt beet pulp, 2 qt Strategy, and 2qt Equine Senior twice a day. 

Timmy – 11/27/09

Timmy started looking better after the first week he was here, but the next week he didn’t seem to put on an ounce.  Then he was castrated and that set him back a little more.  This past week he not only seems to be losing weight again, but he’s also started to crib.  It would not surprise me to learn that he has gastric ulcers, considering his breed and history.  With that in mind, I’ve changed him over to a low sugar diet:  4qts Purina Strategy and 2qts Rice Bran three times a day.  It took a few days to transition him off the beet pulp and senior, and he’s only been on the low sugar diet for two days.  He’s already stopped cribbing, so I’m hoping he’ll start putting the weight back on soon.

Timmy is also fighting infection from the castration, so he’s on 20cc of penicillin twice a day.  It’s difficult for an older horse like him to be castrated and is usually a lot more stressful than it is for a youngster.  But he’ll be much better off in the long run!