Friday, August 26, 2016

After trim photos and a trot out video

First the video cuz look how happy he is to be out! And apparently sound on pavement (but not sound on grass).



to be continued after I upload all my photos to the server and then force them over to blogger....

I'm sitting here with my feet in a bucket of ice water (two trays of ice) because that is the only way to survive here. It's 92F, 60% humidity, heat index 105F. And last Sunday I froze my butt off. Tomorrow should be even warmer.

I made the dumdum call today to take Mag on his first walk in many weeks (8?), since his lameness. It wouldn't have been so dumb if I'd left at dawn, or before. I thought, how hot can it be at 9:45. Oh man, I got punished. Even Mag was dragging behind me after the first half hour. We were out 2 hours. I like to do things thoroughly, good and bad, apparently. It was wonderful to see him striding out sound on pavement, but awful to see how that fell apart if he stepped onto gravel. (I'm bidding on an Easyboot Backcountry that might fit his odd LF tonight - any experiences with these boots? I'm a fan of the glove but he is measuring, still, 120X140 and 120X130 L and R fronts.)

The trimmer was here last night and she cut up all his stretched walls so his hooves are "claws" now, as she calls them. She scolded me for doing too much, for worrying and medicating and and and...however I was interested to see she took the nippers to his hooves, despite my recent trim.

She said that the pastures around here are not fit for horses. And all the hay comes from local pastures (you will never see a hay truck on a freeway here). So, what to do? Feed as much hay as you can, she said. And stop worrying, just trim him and have her over more often (she was here 5 weeks ago, so I call that often).

On ebay I found some hay today and yet again packed some tiny bales into my poor car.  I laughed on the way home, to myself, "At least my car is packed with sweet smelling hay, instead of rotten meat."

I have to show you my pasture, what it looks like at the moment. The "aftergrass" is so lovely. Aarene said it's "Teletubby hill" - I like my pasture to look like this, but eventually the penalty came in the form of hoof pain. Two abscesses in 2 months.








J told me to take this photo, cuz he spent the day weed whacking under the entire fence, the entire 5 acres. His hands and arms were numb. We like the electric fence to work.....



This is the lower grazing strip, on the right is the creek, under those odd white weeds. The creek that runs into our ponds, and the neighbors'. You can sort of see the upper fenceline at the left of this photo, cutting short our pasture into this lower strip. It's about 20 meters wide. This is all my animals have these last weeks. I can't believe how well a little strip of grass can do with two animals on it. It's high enough to brush my ankles, and full of thistle (but who cares about thistle?).



As happy as I am to see such a weed free pasture, well, if this is what yours looks like, you might bide your time til it attacks hooves. That is if you're in an emergency and have no hay.....



Here you can see one of the holes the trimmer dug on one of the quarter zones on his LF, I know, it's sick. But he's able to walk with 4 legs this week, rather than sparing this leg completely.


He was "broken leg" lame LF until that other abscess burst and only marginally better the next few days. Now that his hooves are all cut up, and there's nowhere to pack cotton into anymore, I'll just take him for walks as therapy. And give him all the hay he can eat. Did you know, when we finally got hay, they pooped a week's worth in 3 days? I couldn't believe it.

I must admit, I have not been able to solve his case of scratches even though I was cocky about it here. The vet said I had it under control, but it has not changed status. I wonder if it's photo sensitivity, but he's in the shade for most of the day. And they are on two grazing strips now, with no clover. I washed with betadine and realized I'm an ounce from running out, in 10 years. Washing and drying it seemed to help, but neosporin and athlete's food cream did not help at all. Zinc cream neither, at least, it's a standoff.

But as the trimmer sat on the bumper of her car, she refused to give me the lead line as she drank the ice water I gave her, wanting Mag right there. He nuzzled her all over, until he started using his teeth and she corrected him. Then he started to mouth her car all over, and all her equipment. I told her "Seriously, he will EAT your car if you let him" as he was starting to chew on the rubber edging under the hatch back door.

Then Mag started nuzzling my husband and, dropped (well, he's usually dropped by this point), he started nickering to J in a most inappropriate way. The trimmer and I cracked up and I pushed him away from J, who had no idea that Mag was flirting with him. WTH!?!??! I've never seen a horse flirt with a human.

I finally took Mag and told him to stand a meter from me and stay there, but I comforted him from time to time, he was just not allowed to come back into the party and start eating the car/people again. Honestly I sometimes wonder what sort of grand colic he has in store, because he loves to chew plastic and rubber, if given the chance. My wheelbarrow handles will never be comfortable again. I just hope he's gonna be OK, with all these bad choices. It only takes a second for him to notice a poop scoop left unattended. Like  a baby, it's "Eat it first, see if it tastes good later."



She has the lead line short cuz Mag was tearing apart her car. Hey, she insisted on holding him!













Scratches without end: ( Shouldn't have been so cocky. I'm starting to think it's photosensitivity due to the location.

Anyway, onto the following day.

During our walk we trailed a huge recycling truck, with men jumping off both sides running to both sides of the street to drag containers up to it. It was extremely loud, and very exciting. Mag walked as far as possible from the truck. We were only 3 meters from that thing a few times. It was so loud, the inner mechanics crushing up cardboard. It was awesome cuz we were going the same speed. We'd keep walking and they'd stop, get the paper containers, and move ahead of us, and stop, and we'd catch up, and I think those guys thought I was nuts, staying so close to them, and not just standing still for a few moments to let them get ahead of us.

We were passed by bikes 3 times, a baby stroller, an odd man with a cane, tapping his way along, and every so often reaching up to cut a blackberry bramble. What? Please, come to our place and do it there! Dogs barking behind fences, picnickers enjoying the sweltering heat (!?!), nothing bothered Mag, he was thrilled to be out there, but he seemed tired to me. I started walking slower and slower, and taking breaks, and he did too. No need to tell him to slow down. We encountered two separate fields of goats, all color coded. One field was all doberman colored goats, who ran to us happily. What, does a lady with an off-white horse feed you every day? The other was all white goats with so many babies making those sweet noises. Mag was nervous, but I told him to eat grass next to them. I'm committed now to teaching him to graze on command and not, if I don't tell him. This will probably take years.

The good neighbors stopped their car and I was happy to see them. They asked me if we're going to the carnival at the city center this weekend. I admitted it's too hot to do anything.

Mag stood there bored the entire time, even as the neighbor behind him was up on a ladder taking an electric sander to his window frames.  I know Mag is an impatient horse, but he's getting lots of practice waiting for humans.

Later another neighbor started up a pressure washer exactly as we passed by. Mag flinched, but didn't scoot. Good boy.

I'm thrilled to rediscover how non-reactive he is, for his age/experience. A silage bale made him skitter a bit, and I said ho and he stood there, pondering life and death.

When we got home he drank and drank, and then a few minutes later, drank again. I dumped out the trough and filled it with crystal clear cold water, because they have no air conditioning out there, and I do. They can at least have cold water. He drank and drank again.

I got an SMS tonight, from the lady I "helped" at her horse show Sunday. She said she signed up for the next two shows in our region and wants me there, as we make a great team.

I told her she doesn't need my help.

13 comments:

Camryn said...

Very happy & very handsome. Odd he's not sound on the grass isn't it?

Becky Bean said...

I really don't know why I'm always so shocked to hear German on your videos. "Oh thaaaaaat's right.... she lives in another country doooooesn't she?"

lytha said...

Camryn, I know. He prefers level ground to spare himself somehow. It's sad. I'm ordering easyboots.

Becky, Did you hear me?? I hate to speak on video, but I did, at the beginning, I said, "Mach es wieder!" meaning, "Do that again!" so I could get her to trot him out again on video. Then as he passes by me I say Gooooooood boy! and then I start rambling on to my husband and I have no idea what I'm saying! I did think of Caspian as I saw this video, cuz Mag's topline is so crappy in comparison. Tell us about the MORGANS!!! Aren't they the most amazing breed - like Arabs with lush hair. And slightly less hot, but in my experience, more likely to try to outsmart you, like an Appy.

TeresaA said...

That is weird! My horses are on grass all day and there's not a problem. I hope that this all heals up and you can get back to work on him.

Kitty Bo said...

First of all, please tell J that I think the fence lines look amazing, and he did a wonderful job! He needs a gas powered weed trimmer, doesn't he?
Mag is so beautiful. I think that you are a sucker like me for a lovely horse. I just want to get on him and train him!

Khanalee had a problem with scratches. I had my horse bag that I'd take outside every morning at feeding time, and one of the things in was the scratches ointment. It was equal parts triple antibiotic cream,otc hydrocortisone cream, Gyne-lotrimin cream(I guess you could used the athlete's foot cream, but those tubes are smaller), and A&D ointment. I'd just dummp all the tubes together and blend. This seemed to work pretty well, although as Khanalee got older and had cushings, I just couldn't seem to beat them. Hated those damn things. You want so badly to get those scabs off.

That being said, there's a product out now called Banixx, and I must admit if I had a horse with those cursed scratches, I'd try some of that. I wish I could have wrapped his leg up over night with the ointment as I think that would help. Banixx is a spray and I think that would work better than a sticky ointment. Their website is Banixx.com

AareneX said...

Your fenceline is fabulous. I won't put pictures of mine on the internet: "see, here we have an acre of weedy pasture entirely fenced by blackberry brambles...!" Gahhh.

Photosensitivity: can you turn him out only at night?

Soundness and scratches: gahhhh.

lytha said...

KB I think I may be able to get Banixx in Germany, I'm not sure. It looks like an import on Amazon. We do have a gas weed whacker, but it's a minimal model that causes J pain even after he only does one side of our pasture: (

Aarene, I have been doing just that. In the shady paddock/barn area all day, out at night. I pulled blackberries off our fenceline today, they are reaching over from above, hanging down from the trees. I don't wanna take "before pics" of the blackberries, it's too depressing.

From what I read tonight, it may take a year for Mag to be sound again. There is no English Wiki page for it, but in German it's Hohle Wand (hollow walls) - like White Line disease but not? The article I read said, "White Line Disease occurs in America." WTH. Since there is no wiki page for it, and I've never heard of it, I am lost.

Kitty Bo said...

Seems to me when BigButts the appy had white line (because the big idiot would stand in his poop in the pasture), the farrier had me dump Thrush Buster down in there. He called it seedy toe. His wasn't severe. There are also things like CleanTrax or White Lightening. The Thrush Buster seemed to work for me. Reading on Chrono of the Horse, White Lightening gets good reviews. They said not to use bleach, that it kills hoof tissue,which I don't doubt.

You know, there are benefits to living in a semi arid environment. :(

lytha said...

KB, I have no idea how to get those things here. : ( Thanks for helping though, I appreciate it. I keep thinking of Arizona, and then, scorpions and rattlesnakes.....the horses are healthier, until they get bitten!

sahara4d said...

Hi Lytha, you need to try No Thrush, it's a dry thrush treatment that works great on scratches ,thrush and white line. I would leave anything that has been opened on his hooves open to the air, don't pack it with anything. The organisms that cause white line don't like air. Clean Trax and White Lighting are the same thing as is Oxine AH, you might be able to get Oxine over there. You can also clean out his hooves with a water and betadine mix, let dry and them put some No Thrush in the crevasses. You can get No Thrush there, here is a link to their web site for more information and a link to the UK ordering site. http://www.nothrushshop.com/click-here-for-ukeurope.html

Terry said...

No idea if this really works for scratches, but maybe worth looking into.
http://www.soxforhorses.com

The Dancing Donkey said...

Hello Lytha, Sorry I have not seen your blog before, I just can't keep up. I looked through some of your recent posts, I am sorry you are having so much trouble. There were a couple of things that jumped right into my mind, the first is Lyme disease. Your horse shows all the same symptoms I see here in horses with Lyme, including the disintegrating hooves. I know that Lyme is a problem in Germany, but I don't know if your vets are looking for it.

The other is nutrition. Your horse looks to be in good body condition and his hooves do not show the growth rings of horses with sugar problems, but there could be a mineral imbalance. I am not familiar with the soil in your area, but the most common problem is a zinc/copper deficiency. If you would like to find out what is in your grass, you can get it tested. I can help you interpret the results if you would like. Feeding a hay-only diet won't help if all the hay has the same problem. This is not hard to address, but does require some investigation.

You may already know all this, I have not read much of your blog. But if I can help at all, feel free to get in touch....aerissana@gmail.com

Good luck!

lytha said...

Dancing, I am so glad you replied. Lyme is huge here, borelliose. I don't recall ever finding a tick on my horse. My cat, often, and we remove and treat with Frontline.

I'm glad you noticed the condition score, like the vet and farrier did. He arrived here when I bought him with event rings, but as you said they're not at the moment here.

I was advised to test my pasture so I wrote to the agency and they said they do not test for starch or sugar, only minerals.

I recently started my horse on biotin with zinc and copper after spending the day trying to figure out if the zinc and copper levels were OK.

Thank you for helping. I hope to have better news, and you too regarding Ben. Did the vet call it Pododermatitis?