Life's Little Adventures, Stupid Pooka Tricks Edition

[dancinghorse]

So we had a great Camp--our first full-on family group, with all of them riding, interacting with horses, and sharing various chores and adventures in Farm Life. I got a wonderful present: all the gawdawful desert broom cleared out of the yard. And it went well and they all want to come back. The horses agree. Thirty-six hooves up.

Tuesday was the last morning of Camp. As the Campers prepared to leave for the airport, I went out to feed horses and found Pooka standing in a pile of pawed-up dirt with his back leg truly ingeniously wound through the fence. He'd been there at least an hour. Probably not all night or he'd have been in much worse shape. He'd been getting all squealy at the mares in the stalls, and forgot to aim his patented testosterone-fueled full-body explosive kick away from the fence.

I cut him out; the fencing was wrapped securely around his swollen leg, but the cuts and scrapes were minor. What concerned me more was his extreme shakiness and the weakness of the "good" leg that had been holding him up for who knows how long, plus his back was one huge quivering knot.

Vet-emergency time. Talk about your full-on horse experience for the departing Campers. I stowed him safely, with hay he was too shocky to eat, and dealt with the rest of the crew, then put him in a stall with a small amount of soaked hay--if he would eat, he'd also get water on board. And the vet was alerted to a possible colic emergency as well as who knew what kind of damage to the structures of his legs and hindquarters.

The vet arrived after an hour or so. Checked him out thoroughly. Diagnosed a whole lot of muscle soreness, but no tendon or ligament damage, and no imminent colic. Prescribed three days of wrapping to help with the swelling, six days of bute (horse aspirin), and two weeks of stall rest followed by gradual turnout and slow return to work. "And massage therapy would be a good idea." Longterm prognosis: full recovery. Short-term prognosis: Booooored Pooka. And no Roundup for him.

Well. Stall rest was not on. After a mere eight hours he was ready to Kill Things. I made a judgment call and opted for the stallion stall with run at night (no arena until the two weeks are up, which gives me time to do some serious fence repairs) but a truncated version of his usual daytime arrangements: stalls plus the back corral, but with the paddock closed off. That way he could carry on most of his usual routine and be generally less perturbed about the removal of the rest.

Generally. He is not happy about his nighttime jail sentence. Tried to explode out this morning, did passage beside me to his daytime stowage, but settled down once there and has not been pacing or swearing. He was excellent about having his wrap changed. Evidence:



They now make Vetrap in cool colors. He gets to be a Star.



S came yesterday in her capacity as Masseuse to His Highness, and worked on him for an hour. He was an ouchy pony. She agrees that keeping him immobile is not a good idea, but letting him hoo-ha around ad lib isn't genius, either. I'm to do gentle groundwork and wiggly bits in hand for a week or so, then open up the paddock so he can climb the hill and mosey around. Then in two weeks, see how he is and ease him back to work.

He's not as sore today as we feared, though he's not his perfect self yet, either. He won't be going to Sonoita after all, but I'm pondering a possibly even better Plan B, so we'll see. Meanwhile he gets lots of attention, and I'm deciding on who gets ridden in his slot for the next month. I have plenty of volunteers.

Comments

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Oh, poor guy! Massage has to have felt goooooood, tho.

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

He kvetched about some parts--ouchy muscles--but he got all oogly toward the end.

[raithen.livejournal.com]

See? This was a Girlz master plan, obviously.

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

It's somebody's master plan. Not sure whose yet.

[seachanges.livejournal.com]

Poor guy. I'm so glad to hear he's recovering well, even if he is being grumbly about it.

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Thenkyew. I was worried, but it looks as if he'll be OK.

[sfmarty.livejournal.com]

He was weaned on watered hay. Glad you have help with the massaging.

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Stacey is really good at it.

[sea-pony.livejournal.com]

Such a tricky balance to rehab -- movement is healing, but too much uncontrolled movement can send you miles in the wrong direction! And if Pooka's anything like the Lipizzans I know, he won't take his body's 'failing' too kindly. (At least one of mine think's he supposed to be impervious to any sort of mortal weakness...)

Lots of good energy -- and patience for the patient!!

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Good energy and patience are Good Things.

[deire.livejournal.com]

I am extremely glad to hear that he is all right.

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[threeringedmoon.livejournal.com]

How terrifying for you and Pooka. I am glad he is doing well with the modified stall rest. I hate having to keep horses on stall-rest.

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

I don't think it works, really. Better to keep them somewhere where they'll stay quiet and not get all loopy.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Ouch! Poor Pooka.

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

He's milking it for all he's worth, believe me.

[adriannem.livejournal.com]

Thank goodness he'll be OK!

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[herald-mari.livejournal.com]

Oh so glad Pooka is going to be all right. And cool vet wrap! I only have solid colors. (Works great as a people wrap too!)

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

I found it in one of the local feed stories. They had camo and peace signs, too. 8)

[joycemocha.livejournal.com]

Yikes! A scary thing to have happen, especially with high-mettled horses. Healing wishes to Pooka!

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Thank you. He's doing OK, thank goodness.

[estara.livejournal.com]

Best wishes to Pooka! At least the family camp was fun for all.

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Yes, it was a great Camp.

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

Dear Pook: Stop. That.
There are better ways to object than to injure yourself. Are you *sure* you're not related to Crumble?

Scritchies (but no cookie),
me.



Every vet I've ever talked to about the matter revised 'strict box rest' to 'environment in which horse is most likely to be calm and not put strain on injured legs' when informed that Crumble was weaving and climbing walls. I got a major stink eye from fellow yardies for walking him in hand and turning him out when it became clear that walking was not enough - but there was a study showing that a horse in a stall can walk around, IIRC, two miles in a day - and of course it's all twists and turns, so, yeah. Listen to your horse.


<sends good vibes>

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Thank you. That's pretty much how it plays out here. So we make judgment calls.

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

It's a logic failure. People hear 'the vet prescribes box rest' and think the vet wants the horse to stay in a box. What does the vet really want? For the horse to put as little strain as possible on the injured leg. For many horses, that can be achieved *by* keeping them in, but vets are often used to horses that go ballistic when turned out because the horses don't get turned out very much.

With Crumble, I had to make many decisions where you weigh one bad option against another, because he just _wasn't_ the calm and relaxed horse that you could keep without turnout for more than 36h. (At that point, even with exercise, he was throwing major hissy fits.)

And so you know your horse and you work around the circumstances, and you take responsibility, because ultimately, a vet who is thinking about 'the average horse' might not understand circumstances as well as the owner. (Best thing I ever did? Firing incompetent professionals. Worst thing I did? Listening to incompetent professionals.)

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Well, he's been in a box, was about to get sprung into slightly larger quarters--and reinjured himself somewhat heroically. "Looks like my guy's complex strain," says la masseuse. "Only took six months of rehab to get him over that!"

Admittedly her guy is twice Mr. Poopybrain's age, so we may not take so long, but...