Thursday, May 07, 2009

vet day

I successfully managed to keep my negative medical procedure energy out of the way for today's vet visit, which I think is pretty good considering I have my own dental cleaning with valium set for tomorrow morning!

The pony had to be sedated to get his ear cleaned out and checked. He was a little booger, but when she got the last bit of gunk out, he lowered his head and leaned into her hand, which seemed to mean it felt good to get that stuff out of there! He got his Coggins' pulled and we didn't do the spring shot, but will do it later in the month. We also discussed the possibility of doing titers on him instead of vaccinating, given his sensitivity to the shots.

Our female vet now has a tech assistant who travels with her, and she was wonderful. She uses tapping to distract the horses from the needles, and although the pony was sedated, he still needed the tapping, which was a wonderful tool to keep him quiet.

His teeth are thankfully fine!

Everyone else got Coggins' pulled, the E/WEE/West Nile/Tetanus combo, which I had originally opted not to do, but the vet didn't have just EEE - so on we went, and had teeth checked. And they all got their homeopathic remedy to help with reactions to the shots.

Salina went next so she wouldn't work up any intensity fretting over the donkeys' getting their stuff done. She was a goddess of composure and it was REALLY good for me to hold her and realize that the two of us together can be calm. (for readers who haven't been here long, we had a sort of debacle with Salina last spring after Rafer's gelding, involving triple sedation, a twitch, knee injections, and me getting bowled over, which we hope never to experience again - and after all that, it was an abscess in her hoof, not her knee at all!)

Vet said Salina looks marvelous and the best she's ever seen her, and her teeth are great. We went over her new diet and discussed Equioxx as a possibility for later years if she becomes less comfortable. For now I use Bute the night before trims and that's it. For now, that is enough.

The donkeys were quite amazing, although Redford decided the clippers were directly from Hell Itself and we decided to pull blood without them. He and Rafer handled everything perfectly and were quite happy when all was done and they were able to rejoin Salina, who of course had watched every moment of the process over the stall door.

Cody needs to gain a little weight, which I'm sure I can facilitate, and we're going to get his teeth floated sometime soon just to keep on top of some ramping on his back teeth. Updated about his PSSM genetic test and the treatment protocol I'm using. Vet said she would NOT do the muscle biopsy if the protocol is so clearly working, so we're on the same page with that.

Keil Bay was his usual kingly self, arching his neck to strike his most handsome pose, but being incredibly easy and quiet about his needles and his teeth. His teeth look great as well, so that was that for today's visit!

The vet and I discussed de-worming protocol and some new info, plus some NC specific info, and we came up with a good plan. I mentioned wanting to learn to do our own fecal counts and she was overjoyed - so starting this month, I'll be doing fecals before and after the de-worming. This will allow me to only worm horses that actually need it, as well as test to see what drugs are working well on our farm and which, if any, are not working due to parasite resistance.

I'm excited, if you can believe it, about the prospect of putting horse manure in baggies, labeling with their names, and using the cool McMasters chambered slides with grids for counting worm eggs.

All I can say is this: I need never worry about running out of things to do and learn when it comes to horsekeeping!

6 comments:

Mikey said...

You are just too cool! I just surfed in from the 7msn and I love it! Your header pic is GORGEOUS.
Love your fecal stuff too, lol. I work as a tech and that's a favorite thing, guess the worms. We have a good time with that.
Now I'm going to have to find those grid slides. That's got to be super handy!
I shall be back, your blog is very cool in my book!

billie said...

Thank you! I've visited your blog many times, and enjoy your tales of horsekeeping and all the great photos!

Hope to see you here again.

Sandy ~~~ said...

Hey Billie......I found you! Wow, what a small, small world, huh? I found Linda at the 7MSN a few months ago through a mutual friend who has Cardigan Welsh Corgis. Then that gal told me Linda lived near our retirement property in Corona, NM. Linda and I will be neighbors...how cool is that?

May I list your blog on mine as a favorite? I do know I will be stopping in often! So will you be in NAT 0509?

billie said...

Sandy - hi!!

Sure, you are welcome to link to my blog. And how exciting that you will be neighbors with Linda and the crew at 7MSN! We have George and Alan's calendar in our tack/feed room, so those cute donkeys oversee all my NRC PLUS orchestrations, LOL!

Yes, I'll be in NAT, and am so excited to continue the learning. I'm really glad these different circles are overlapping - you're right, it is a small world.

Peggy Payne said...

I'm starting to think that a person who keeps horses better not be squeamish. I don't have it in me to count worm eggs.

So does valium work as well as nitrous? It'd be a lot cheaper. Can you drive afterwards?

billie said...

Peggy, the valium is pretty heavy duty - and once they give it, you have to be wheelchaired to the bathroom and out to the car afterward, with not only a driver but someone who stays in the waiting room the entire appt.

My mom came and everything went wonderfully until I got home and stepped in a fire ant mound on my way up the front walk!! But homeopathic ointment and a remedy did a quick fix for that, so all is well.