Good News on the Animal Front

[dancinghorse]

Things seem to be looking up with all the aminals lately. Taminy has recovered from his abscess, has his appetite back and is gaining weight--very good thing as he was headed toward emaciated. Spot-the-Dog is much better and her back has straightened out; she looks like a Cardigan again rather than a mutant whippet. Tapering the prednisone doesn't seem to be affecting her, and that is good. She's still weak and needs more crate rest but I think we may have dodged the surgery bullet.

Just got in from having the vet here to do Tia's last baby shots--Miss Sassybutt wasn't too bad considering. She's a strong alpha but also a soft horse. Nice combination.

We also checked Pooka, whose feet have been a source of constant frustration for quite some time now. Boy keeps clobbering his own coronet bands (think cuticles) and screwing up the hoof-growth patterns. Curt the Wonder Shoer threw up his hands a couple of weeks ago, pulled his shoes and said we need to start over. In the time since, I've had Pook in bell boots to keep him from whacking himself yet again, he's lost the acrylic patches from the resections, and his feet have actually started to look like feet. The missing quarters have filled in, the big crack he made by whacking himself so hard the last time around is healing, and the bruising and pain along the coronet is gone. I took off his boots this noon to see what we had (having last checked a couple of days ago) and noted that while he was in sore need of a toe trim, he looked as if he was trying to give himself a "Natural Balance" or four-point trim.

Sure enough, Dr. Doom came, looked him over, and started him on a four-point trim; said keep him barefoot, don't shoe him, and don't ride him until the quarters finish growing out. Which considering how much they've grown in two weeks, might be a lot sooner than the 3-4 months he estimated. Dr. Doom is used to horses; Space Aliens are a bit off the charts.

Next stop: Get Curt the Wonder Shoer in to even off the vet's rough trim, keep the boots on to protect the coronary bands, and let da Pook do the rest.

We are so relieved. The vet seems to think you have to keep a horse shod to show him, but not in dressage. I actually know very few shod show Lipps--they have famously wonderful feet and mostly never see a shoe. Camilla has never had a shoe and I'm not sure Pandora has, either. Here's what they look like in the essentials ("No Foot, No Horse," after all):






Camilla models the Perfect Foot--farriers burn incense and sing hymns to these feet.


And from lynnesite, Pandora's Pillars of the Earth:






At any rate, the news is good. We are happy. No riding his lordship for a while yet, but we can live with that if it means we end up with a sound and balanced horse.

Comments

[raithen.livejournal.com]

cool!

I was going to say, before you got there, "Have you and Kurt considered a barefoot trim of some variety?" *hee*

Yay for healing animals.

and *envy* of the gurlies feets....

Miss Sassy Butt, meet Snot Rag

[raithen.livejournal.com]

JJ the Snot Rag says hi! and "I'm bigger than you so I am alpha #1 neener neener neener" to Mlle Tia ;).

Re: Miss Sassy Butt, meet Snot Rag

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Tia says "You may think you're bigger, but in the dimension I come from, I'm 19 hands tall and I've got the mojo to prove it."

Re: Miss Sassy Butt, meet Snot Rag

[raithen.livejournal.com]

*snort*

[casacorona.livejournal.com]

Camilla's brother Cai has the same feet, somewhat larger as befits his larger size. Curt doesn't even trim Cai regularly anymore. Cai trims himself, flaking off bits of hoof like a stone artist working flint. We check the angles every couple months, and I scrape out dead sole when I clean his feet. I devoutly hope never to put a nail in his hoof.

Yay for Spot! Yay for Taminy! And Pook can take a break to let his feet grow in again. If he needs bell boots forever, there are worse things in the world.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

How do wild horses manage without all the foot care? Are they so much more active that they wear their hooves down more? Or do they die young because of foot issues?

[casacorona.livejournal.com]

They either have great feet, or they die young. A lame wild horse is pretty much a dead wild horse. And they are moving all the time, not standing around on soft ground, wearing shoes.

[kerlin.livejournal.com]

I actually own a BLM mustang who was wild until he was three, and - all of the above. The majority of mustangs have really marvelous, tough feet that they wear down regularly. If they don't, they just don't survive. Tristan has just about perfect feet and will never be shod. :)

[saddle_tramp]

I usually don't pop up in the journals of people I admire so very much, but I just had to cheer you on for going barefoot with Pook.

I've been rescuing and doing natural hoofcare since '92 on everything from foundered minis to an Egyptian Arab stallion with a foreleg that was broken in three places and left untreated for six months. They all went sound barefoot, many of them after awful histories with shoes, so I'm sure Pook will do great!

Go you!! *waves the barefoot flag and stops bugging you*

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Hi there! Welcome to the asylum. ;>

[sfmarty.livejournal.com]

Didn't Pook do something nasty to his feet that necessitated shoes? I recall a great wedge of plastic having to be inserted.

I am so relieved that Taminy and Spot are doing better, and no surgery! Fingers will continue to be crossed. Do you still have to carry her in and out of doors?

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Yes, Spot is still on stall rest, but she's Much improved. I'm letting her walk a little bit and it's not making her worse.

[cindershadow.livejournal.com]

After having no foot problems whatsoever with my first two horses, and after seven years of soundness due to careful shoeing of Horse #3 to address his youthful founder, both he and Horse #4 (the Lipizzan who has Always Gone Barefoot Because of His Perfect Tough Little Feet) are currently . . . not sound. The Quarter Horse got his hoof a bit soft and soggy in our one-and-only rain in one of the dryest seasons on record, and he apparently bruised his thin, brittle sole. Fortunately, for a pretty-much-retired 19-year-old QH living in a deeply-bedded 24' x 24' pen, the treatment for this is . . . pretty much (non-working) life as usual. We feared a suspensory injury on the 9-year-old Little Lipp, since it was hard to read the dark spot on the sonagram, but then he popped an abcess, so . . . He, however, is not taking confinement to his 24' x 24' quietly. The two of them spend much of the day playing little gelding neck-nibbling/snaky-neck snapping games with each other, but when the old guy naps, the younger guy paces and kicks out at the pen and informs us that he Does Not Approve Of This. We're hand-walking now and doing ground work to engage his mind, since it's largely boredom that's bugging him, I think.

Ah, well . . . after years of almost no horse health issues, I guess I was due!

[raithen.livejournal.com]

ack! how frustrating! have you consider some sort of stall toy for the young guy?

[cindershadow.livejournal.com]

Well, he's broken two buckets--does that count as providing stall toys? I figure he's got a buddy for entertainment purposes, and he likes to stalk back and forth and express himself even under the best of circumstances, so I think it's just a matter of waiting till he heals. I'd feel differently (much worse!) if he were actually confined to a 12' x 12' stall, but, for better or worse,he's got room to hike (and trot, and sometimes buck!). So it's just mood, and I think the extra attention from me and from his beloved trainer (and former owner--since he was 3) will do the trick!

[raithen.livejournal.com]

yep, buckets count as stall toys ;) I was, however, thinking of a jolly ball, or one of those grain dispenser toys :D. My filly is SUCH a player - we have to keep the buckets tied if we want tehm to survive ;).