Update: Good Riddance 2012!

It may be the middle of February but I'm still giddy that 2012 is behind me. It was a long, hard year with a lot of ups and downs and Im praying 2013 goes a lot smoother and lot easier on my wallet! I stopped updating in April of last year which is when everything start to go south and the horse poo really hit the fan.

 

In my last blog post, I talked about Ely and how his behavior was showing signs that something was wrong. The chiro finally made it our to my place and poor Ely was out all over. While he acted like he felt better for a few days something was still off. After having my farrier over to help me flex test him, something was going on with his knee. I ended up hauling him to a specialized equine veterinary for x-rays and whatever else it took to see what was going on. I knew he had been used pretty dang hard by his past owners and thought it could possibly arthritis starting flare up but I was a little off. He ended up having a huge bone lesion on his knee (almost like a calcium deposit from an old injury), no idea how or when it happened but most likely from a kick or fall out in pasture. The vet recommended shoes with gel pads for know, bute when needed and flat work to keep his other joints going strong. Needless to say, until I can afford a $6000+ bone surgery at OSU, Ely is semi retired and on light duty for the time being. With the new shoes and gels, he acts like his old self and only gets a little stiff after running around like a mad man on frozen, rock hard ground.  I do plan on getting him into surgery eventually but for the time being, we are financially tapped out.


 

 So I get Ely home, have his new shoes and gels done but within a few days he and Daya start acting a little odd. Not hogging their grain, standing around and acting mopey, and snotty noses. So I bring them in, stall them up and start taking temps... they are both high and then I notice a slight swelling under their jaws! Crap, crap, crap! No one had been on or off the property in months, except Ely's little trip for x-rays. I had brought home strangles from the vet clinic. Both Ely and Daya had been vaccinated but I hadn't had the youngsters done yet, again, crap! At this point I had never dealt with strangles before and had no idea about treatment (or what little there is for it), instead of just calling the vet I rush home and google it! BAD IDEA! lol So of course I panic and THEN decide to call my favorite vet, he calms me down, tells me to call the clinic where I think they picked it up to let them know and told me about the warning signs of bastard strangles. He also tells me that its probably to late to vaccinate the babies because they have all been turned out together. So I tried my best to pamper Ely and Daya with a warm bran mash, soaked hay and prayed this thing runs it coarse quickly. It did and within a week my guys were on the road to recovery.  ***Now, I wanted to add the part about the older horses being vaccinated! because the younger horses who hadn't had their annual shots yet NEVER GOT IT! They had all shared water, turnout, hay ,pasture and stalls. This makes me really question the vaccinations for Strangles and West Nile Virus because there are so many different types a horse can get but the vaccinations only cover one or two of them! What do you guys think about it?

The next few months went a little smoother in regards to the horses, however, my new job wasn't turning out so hot. I had started working at a new vet clinic and what was supposed to be a part time job at quickly turned into a 60hr work week. He had known me longer than the other employees, and due to being really good friends with his wife,  he started taking his stress out on me and would throw huge temper tantrums and really stomped my confidence into the ground.  And if that wasn't bad enough,  I was also boarding and training his untouched 2 yr old stud colt for FREE in return for vet care for my horses... I was exhausted all the time, I felt like a punching bag everyday from the time I clocked in until the time I clocked out. I put up with it for 4 more long months and was an emotional wreck! It was so bad I had my first anxiety attack! I finally hit my breaking point, and well, things didn't end so nicely. My husband saw a major change with me and ended up putting his foot down and told me not to go back, arranged for him to pick up his horse and off they went.   Lesson learned, never again will I work for someone that is a "friend".

 
 Things settled back down until early September when I had the scare of my life. I went to the barn one morning to do my a.m. feeding and my colt Gunner was gone... just gone! The fence wasn't down or off anywhere, he wasn't hiding around the barn or eating in the hay fields. So in a panic I call hubby and fill him in and he rushes to the barn to help me look. He starts off on the 4-wheeler towards the more heavily wooded part of the farm and I take off on foot towards the road. After frantically searching for any sign of him, I start picking up fresh hoof tracks that lead me across the road to the neighbors property. After calling for him a few times he lets out a little whinny and my heart sinks! He is laying down in thick brush on the other side of a 5 ft barbed wire fence!!! Growing up on a cattle farm with barbed wire fencing I knew this wasn't going to be good. I cross over it, get to the colt and start checking him out. I see no cuts on his neck, chest or belly and breath a sigh of relief until he tries to get up. I then notice that his back leg has been cut pretty bad but cant really get a good look because he is laying on it. Once we got him up, my stomach hit the floor. I could see bone right above his fetlock joint. We find the closest gate and Gunner 3 legs it back to the barn. I instantly start cold hosing and hubby had the vet there within 15 minutes. So we clean it up, access the damage and find that the lateral digital extensor tendon has only been ruptured and not severed, and there is no damage to the fetlock joint itself but the area that is open will take a lot of time to heal and rehab. Lots of water therapy, wrapping and antibiotics are in order. So we make him as comfortable as possible and put him on stall rest. 

Now, fast forward 2 weeks. Again I go to do my a.m. feeding and find my colt has gotten himself into another mess. I open his stall door and go to put a halter on him when I see his eyelid is 3/4 of the way torn off... peachy. Called the vet, put colt in cross ties and go over his stall looking for anything he could have got himself caught on. I find nothing. So  a shot of rompun and 7 stitches later the vet helps me check. We almost gave up until my vet looked at the water bucket, there were some tiny spots of blood down the side and one of the protective plastic covers were gone from the handle. 

Since then, all my buckets handle hooks have been wrapped with electrical tape!  

So know 6 months later gunner is finally back to light turnout. Its been a LONG recovery process. He re-injured himself  about 2 months in, re-damaged the tendon and opened the deep wound back up. So we started back from the beginning and had to battle proud flesh. (All I have to say is the Vetericyn Wound and Infection Treatment  is well worth the money and the improvement was amazing after he re-injured himself!! ) That was the worst healing area I have ever dealt with on a horse, let alone a yearling colt who is full of himself from being stalled up.  My husband has nicknamed him Hoover... being a little slow, I asked him why and  he laughed and said "because that little jerk has sucked our wallets dry from all the vet bills!". So fingers crossed this is the last mess I have to deal with for awhile. Gunner has received the "accident prone" award of 2012 with Ely in second place. 

Lootah will be 3 yrs old soon and  is growing like a weed. Full of attitude and orneriness. She is maturing into a mini version of Daya. While I don't think she will come close to hitting the 16hh mark like her momma but she is slowly creeping up to 15hh. You can see the height difference between the two in the picture with shorty Ely hidden in the back ground (you can only see the tips of his ears lol). 

That's all I have for this post other than some pics. I hope I didn't ramble or bore anyone too much. Please excuse any grammar errors, I'm a little rusty.