Mercy, Cuda, Chai, and Starlett Update!

Mercy is doing good. The mysterious swelling in her right hind pastern is now gone. She just finished another loading series of Adequan and got all of her vaccines updated! All I am waiting for now is the all clear to start riding from Dr. Schneider, but until I can get an appointment with him I wait and continue to hand walk Mercy when I can...

Cuda is now spayed, microchipped, and vaccinated! We are still going through some interesting and difficult issue with housebreaking, but it is certainly better than the first week she was home. She goes to work with me Monday through Wednesday and gets lots of walks! Tough life for a little poo dog!

Chai, my Norwegian Forest cat did something to her right front leg when she was outside last Tuesday. She came into the house right after I got home from work and she was non-weight bearing on that leg and literally ROLLING in pain. We rushed her up to her regular vet and they ended up putting her on some antibiotics and steroids. We are also giving her a half a baby aspirin every 3 days, just in case this is a heart related condition, as the vet expects. She is responding well, but we still would like to to a cardiac work up on her, just so we know if something more serious is going on.

Starlett not only got her teeth done, she also had her stomach scoped for ulcers! She is has always been a classic cranky mare, but more recently cinching her up has become a more painful ordeal for her. Luckily for her and us, she is clean! No ulcers! She also had her vaccines updated and is good to go until fall!

BTW, the swallows have returned! Spring really is on the way! ;)

Knees and Rain

We finally broke down and did it. We injected Star's knees. After such a long time being off-and-on lame, as well as stumbly, we decided to give this a chance. Dr. DeWard came out on Friday morning and took good care of my yellow one. Both horses also got their fall RhinoFlu shot. I wasn't there to watch, but supposedly Star was really good for everything. She's on stall/paddock rest for 5 days, then we can start reintroducing her to work. Until then, Mercy and I can't go for rides unless someone is home to wrangler the crazy stallion mare. Star will run herself into a full body sweat when Mercy and I head out alone, which usually I could care less about, but now, since she's supposedly 'resting' and not supposed to be active, we have only been on one ride.

Our ride was only possible thanks to TrailridinRN. She haltered up Star and hand grazed her while Mercy and I headed out last rainy Sunday. Mercy was going stir-crazy in her stall/paddock, being all couped up with Gimpy. I think she knew what was up when I pulled her out of her stall cause she stood stock still while I groomed her up. She also willingly, with enthusiasm, walked up to the garage to saddle up. My dad held her while I got my Outback on, my mom grabbed Star, and we headed out.

Right out of our back gate Mercy was ready to go. We trotted all the way to the main trail! if you recall, the last couple of times we headed out alone Mercy has REALLY poked along leaving the house. We got to the creek in record time and ran up the hill to the wooded trails. We trotted faster than I think she can canter (and thank goodness she doesn't have a 'death trot,' no matter how fast she goes) almost to the next service road when we heard what was up ahead. Big rigs and gravel equipment. I couldn't tell how close they were, so we took a trail to the left and walked a loop back to the service road.

Instead of heading back home, we crossed the road and completed a few switchbacks. We ended up at the top of the gravel hill by the lake. After letting a biker pass, we headed down. She decided she didn't want to go to the lake so we continued our way back home, after long trotting up yet another service road. As soon as we got home it started to sprinkle. Perfect.

Since that ride, I have only jumped on bareback for a few laps around the pasture and a few spins. Oh, and I guess we herded Star around too. She needed a dose of her own medicine. ;)

Annual Vet Check

On Thursday, we had Dr. Bob DeWard from Mt. Rainier Equine out to our place to administer the girls annual vaccines and to check their teeth. Because Star has had a reaction to the vaccines in the past, we decided to split up the vaccine so we could try and determine what was causing the problem. Dr. Bob also gave Star a dose of banamine to try and prevent any reaction. he thought it was either the RhinoFlu vaccine or possibly the rabies vaccine, so both of those were done. All of the others will be done this coming Friday. And since they were coming back to our place to vaccinate Star, they decided to split Mercy's vaccines up too.

We decided to go ahead and get both of the horses floated too. They were at the point where Dr. Bob could have not done anything yet, but since we ride so much in the summer, I didn't want to have any behavior problems come up and need to make a second vet call for the year. So I grabbed Mercy and handed her over to Julie, but not before she felt the need to inspect all of the tools in front of her stall.

Mercedes, the sweetheart, needed two doses of sedative to get relaxed enough that Dr. Bob could work on her teeth with his neato-teeth-grinding power tools! He got done with her teeth in not too much time to the great relief of Star and Chai who constantly supervised this whole ordeal.

After having her mouth rinsed, her lips dried, and her muzzle kissed, Mercy went to sleep... with her kind legs crossed precariously, of course.... which, I guess, isn't that unusual for her, lol!

Last up was Starlett. When she got her dose of 'nighty night juice' she went limp fast. It took a little effort to get her to stand somewhat square so she wouldn't fall down, but once she did Dr. Bob went to work on her teeth. Last year he discovered a chip missing from one of her molars, but he thought it looked like it was growing out in great shape this time around! Yes!Star took a nice, LONG nap after we were all done for the day. I must say I am glad that only happens once a year at the most. Even though Dr. Bob is super with everything he does, the horses are just never quite right for a day or two afterwards.... it cuts into my riding time when I am home on break, oh well....This is what Mercy thought of it when all was said and done: Mehhh....

At least I have two happy and healthy horses for another year! :P