Mid Week Update

Monday, March 23, 3009

A good a day as any for some work. Adiva wasn’t fond of being groomed, tho she was a doll. B was doing some tractor work and she wanted to go see what all the noise was about. She was very brave, and actually worked well, even with all the hubbub. Anni was wonderful too, and I think I figured out her issue from last Friday. She’s having a freaking temper tantrum. When she decides she doesn’t want to, she balks. I’m thinking I’m going to work thru it on her terms - I’m sure not going to push a horse that balks!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

It’s so windy! The girls are spooking in the pasture at nothings! They did eat all their coastal hay from the morning, so I’m very happy. They are eating more hay, and seem to be more active. They use any excuse available to run around like fools. I tried to put lime down for the pasture - way way way too windy. Plus…Adiva kicked Anni pretty hard on her right rear leg and was three legged lame for a while. Luckily she worked her way out of it - no swelling or heat or anything - and by the time K got there to help me with the lime, you couldn’t even tell something had happened. When he started messing with the spreader, the girls took that as their excuse to run. Yeah, Anni got kicked - what.the.hell.ever. She moved better than ever! Maybe Adiva should kick her more often! Shh, I didn’t say that! She was just gorgeous to watch, and when she broke into that patented thoroughbred gallop, well, took my breath away. Literally, almost choked. I swear I’m the luckiest person alive!

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Vet day! (Gross warning - well, some gross details, so skip this day if you are squeamish!)

Today is the day that Adiva’s ear gets looked at. The vets actually pulled up right before me, 15 minutes early. Kewl. I go to get Adiva, and they are as far away as possible. Of course. Then, wouldn’t you know it, Anni lays down. Flat out. And looks at her belly. Oh, so better not be colic. I walk all the way to them (Adiva won’t come without Anni) and startle Anni. Yeah, she was sunbathing. Silly, silly mare.

The vets (I’s special, I have two vets come out!) meet me in front of the stalls to look at the ear. They both are amazed at the smell. I tried to warn them. Anni won’t leave us alone, which is very odd of her - she’s not usually that needy. We decide to take Adiva to the concrete, sedate her, lance that thing open and pull out icky stuff. To be honest, we’re all very excited about what we may find. I should have taken bets.

Vet B is hoping it’s an ear tooth. Vet A doesn’t think it is - the area isn’t hard so it’s probably just pus. Drugs hit Adiva hard but of course, she can still react to the pain of lancing. Vet B is hand twitching her and we’re both patting and trying to distract Adiva from Vet A lancing that ear. Not bad, but Vet A can’t see anything. Freaking ear is bleeding bad and it’s hard to see anything but scar tissue. The hole that was draining didn’t lead to anything. Yeah, I know. How in the bleep can it lead to nowhere? Eh, I’m special, member? Vet A finds something that could possibly be a stinger, but nothing that can explain what’s been going on. Official diagnosis….reactive scar tissue. So disappointing. For all of us. We decide to leave it open so I can flush it. Plus, if it gets sutured, there’s nothing stopping the scar tissue from getting angry again and getting infected. So, her ear won’t ever be halter quality, but all I want is it to heal and be done with this. With my luck, of course, I’ll have to go thru this at least once more. If not twice.

Now, after the vets leave, Adiva is sleeeeepy. I put her in her stall to wake up and give Anni some hay in her stall. In about 10 minutes, Adiva pops her head out, and nickers for hay. So I bring her a few handfuls, and that really helps the anesthesia wear off. Another 15 minutes and I let her out, but she’s not budging. A while later, she stumbles out, turns around, and goes right back in. I think she finally made friends with her stall! She spent a lot of time in there during the afternoon, just hanging out. Not really looking forward to cleaning it tomorrow, but we’ll see how she does.