Teeth Floating

Dr. Neil Ruppel of Lodi Vet came out this week to do some teeth floating.  Many people don't realize that a horse's teeth continue to grow, at a fairly rapid rate, throughout its lifetime. When the teeth grow, they can come in unevenly, and get ground down unevenly when the horse chews. This is really why floating is required. (And it's also my excuse for not seeing my dentist for 5 years-- my teeth don't grow!)

 It was Annie's first time, and I was super nervous because she hates stuff in her mouth. Luckily, sedation took care of everything!

First a check-up, vaccinations and sedation.

"Jaws of Health" keeps the mouth open.

Then a "mouthwash" flush

Head gets hoisted up with a winch and padded halter. Vet probes for sharp points and uneven teeth

Say "ahhh!" At four, Annie just has some sharp points.

Scary-looking "drill" grinds down the sharp or uneven places. Note the vet's headlamp!

Mr. Strut's teeth were worse-- four uneven molars. It took a while to get 'em ground down! It looks and sounds rough, but don't worry, it doesn't hurt, it's just uncomfortable. I told Dr. Ruppel I was surprised vets don't wear masks, with all that tooth dust floating around. He laughed and said he was surprised too.

Drunken horse -- took her 15 minutes to walk veeeeerrry slowly out of the barn.

Soooo sleepy

Dr. Ruppel says that, in this poor economy, more and more people are skipping dental care for their horses. "It's short-sighted," he explained. "They may be saving money now, but they'll probably end up spending more later." A horse that doesn't get dental care for years can't be fixed up overnight-- several sessions are often required to get the teeth back in shape. That means more vet calls, and more money. If the poor horse develops abscesses or sores as a result of bad teeth, that means even more expense. Finally, the teeth can get so bad that a horse becomes thin. When that happens, sedation becomes more dangerous.

So don't forget folks-- get your horse's teeth taken care of!

P.S. Dr. Ruppel looks a little like Neil Patrick Harris.

Stone Bruises: Annie's Accident

I have a theory about horses. It's called The Equine Universal Bi-factor Dissonance Theory, and it states that, at any given time, the health of your horse is inversely proportional to that horse's current level of training/broke-ness. In other words, if a horse ain't lame, it's sassy, and if it ain't sassy, it's lame.

Sometimes they're lame and sassy!

I bring this up because just when Annie and I had been riding out alone fairly often, trying some new things, getting comfortable with the idea of going on a "real" trail ride, she got a stone bruise. Of course she did.

As I've said before, a horse will eventually take advantage of any opportunity to hurt itself-- which is why Annie's accident is actually my fault for allowing her to be around junk. I board on my family's farm, a gorgeous place on a dead end road, with 12 acres of pasture, with a barn and streams, right next to a huge tree plantation the owners allow anyone to ride on. It's fantastic...and totally free. Yeah, I can feel your jealousy burning into my brain across the internet. However, there's one little problem; my father is nearly a hoarder, and a few pieces of his junk have wound up in my horse areas. Nothing super dangerous, just some covered machinery, but still...

Recently, Annie decided to squeeze into a two-foot gap between a parked tractor/compressor and the wooden fence. (No, I don't know why, except that my horse has the survival instincts of a lemming.) Once there, she couldn't or wouldn't back out, found out 1,200 pound car-length critters like her can't turn around in two feet of space, panicked, and bulldozed through the fence. In the process, she got totally scraped up and jammed her hoof onto a nasty metal bit.

Of course this was the morning that my car chose to break down. As a result, the friend I had arranged to go riding with that morning found Annie first, still hung up, scratched to hell. This friend, Squidbunny, heroically freed Annie and called me.

The very least I can do to thank her is to plug her awesome, gorgeous western-steampunk webcomic again. Read it here!

Annie punctured the toe of her sole, not terribly deeply, but enough to cause bleeding. I knew immediately that she would probably get a stone bruise, and that is indeed what happened. I just thank God she didn't hit any major structures. You can see where it happened here, after my farrier got through trimming the hoof and further opening the wound site:

A stone bruise is caused when there's blunt-force trauma to a horse's sole, often from stepping heavily on a sharp rock. Usually there isn't even a puncture. Stone bruises cause lameness for days or even weeks. Worse, they are notorious for becoming abscessed. An abscess is a pocket of pus underneath the skin (or sole), and they'll make a horse even more lame until they burst, drain and heal. Unfortunately, when this happens inside a horse's hoof, it's very hard for the abscess to burst because it's surrounded by such dense, tough material. Often, they burst through the coronet band, heel bulbs or frog. Some horses (like thin-soled TBs) are so prone to these that by the time one heals, another has developed. Many horses develop abscesses if they're usually shod, then are suddenly switched to going barefoot.

The only treatment for stone bruises (and abscesses) is daily soaking, usually in Epsom salts and warm water. Soaking a horse's hoof is usually like trying to put a cranky toddler in a formal outfit; you may get it in there, but it's not going to stay in there for long. Luckily, Annie is as angelic about this as she is for nearly everything else, and I don't even have to stand next to her to keep her leg still.

Soaking the hoof draws out the pus and reduces pain and inflammation. The more you soak, the sooner an abscess will burst and drain. In Annie's case, the puncture already allows any pus to drain, but the soaking removes it faster, reducing the risk of a more serious infection to her coffin bone.

Often, it's a good idea to wrap, boot or otherwise protect a horse's hoof after a stone bruise. Doing so can prevent further injury by protecting the bruised sole from contact with rocks. In Annie's case, it's more about preventing dirt and bacteria from being packed into the wound. I was overjoyed to be able to use one of the expensive boots I had purchased for just this sort of occasion. Of course Annie got it off in 20 minutes. Thank God for vet wrap, the duct tape of the horse world. I also used Ichthammol around the puncture. It's a salve that actually draws infection out of a wound-- good stuff.

That's all for now folks-- tune in next time for daily reports on the Midwest Horse Fair! I just can't wait to tell you all about the seminars with Asia Voight, the animal psychic who charges $150 for half-hour telephone consultations. I also hope to be able to go to some local horse auctions.

Gittin' it Done!! Chores, Drunken Llama + Vet Visit

Today was Do Everything Day!

The vet came out and gave Annie & Mr. Strut all of their vaccinations, new Coggins tests, basic checkups and fecal tests. She gave me an A+ for weight management, and said Mr. Strut was well over his founder and quite capable of being ridden (yay!) but did confirm that he has Equine Metabolic Syndrome (basically, type 2 diabetes for horses). Damn. I'm not really surprised though-- he is a gluttonous, cantankerous old fat man from the south, after all!

The vet recommend dry-lotting him if possible. I'll have to think about that-- I'm really hesitant to lock him in the concrete yard all the time, and also hesitant to destroy any part of the pasture. Strut has mangled two grazing muzzles already, so that's not an option either. The vet said my "short pasture" (the small area I fence off from the big pasture, to reduce how much my horses eat) is fine and all, but while it reduces how much they eat, it's worse for them in terms of what they're eating.

Fly masks and mosquitoes in March-- ugh!

The short, constantly-grazed grass actually increases the sugar in their diets because the tiny grass buds that form new growth are higher in sugar than the long grass on older, un-grazed pasture. *sigh* I can't win! So now what? Any suggestions, faithful readers?

While the vet was there, I had her tranquilize Nash the Uncooperative Rescue Llama, so I could finally clip his shaggy butt. I was afraid that he wouldn't go down, like our last little adventure with tranquilization, but nope-- he fell right over and started snoring, with his tongue sticking out of his mouth!! It was the most hilarious thing ever. My mother came out to help me, and it's a good thing she did, because we were barely finished when he woke up and got to his feet again. He looks much better now, even with the terrible haircut we gave him. I don't have clippers, so we just hacked away at the mats with scissors. In many places, his wool was actually felted from being compressed. After he woke up, he walked around with his tongue hanging out of his mouth, making very pathetic whining noises, but he soon recovered. I let him back out into the yard, which he seemed to appreciate.

Drunken Llama:

Before:

After:

More Drunken Llama:

 

The Giant Pile of Llama Wool (scissors on top for scale):

After all that, I emptied and scrubbed both 100 gallon water tanks and all the feed buckets, and the grain bin. Then I showered and went to work. Then I desperately wished for a nap. Luckily, it rained heavily in the evening, so I didn't have to tackle more chores after work!

How are YOUR spring chores coming? Are your horses shedding badly yet?

Ode to the Vet

Hooray for Veterinarians Everywhere!

Today, we celebrate you, vets.

...because we really, really appreciate not having to do this stuff ourselves.

I think many of us, as children, pick "vet" as a future career because we want to spend lots of time with cuddly animals. Then in our teen years, we read some James Herriot books ("All Creatures Great and Small," etc) and realize that being a vet has more to do with cranky clients and manure than fluffy bunnies. If we make it into an actual vet/vet-tech college program, being a veterinarian looks like 99.9% exhausting work. I had vet-tech room-mates in college. They had to memorize the normal vital statistics (temperature, heart rate, etc) for every animal they would have to treat-- from mice to horses. They had to learn safety knots, metric equivalents, chemistry, anatomy...everything. Think about it: when we humans go to a doctor, we go to specialists, like dentists, pediatricians, gynecologists, anesthesiologists, etc. Vets have to be all those specialists, for multiple species. Sure, there are species specialists, but for the most part they also have to take care of other critters. And in doing so, they're often dealing with unhappy, frightened, bitey or disgustingly sick animals, not cute fluffy bunnies.

"I thought you said 'pony,' not 'pony-sized!'"

To get a better perspective about a vet's life, you can head on over to Funny Vet, a super cute blog complete with cartoons.

Finally, thi is a great vet song (presented here much abridged) from the hilarious farm-woman-written book, "How to Shovel Manure, and Other Life Lessons for the Country Woman," sung to "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" (Glory, Glory Hallelujah):

"My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Vet

He is trampling in the barnyward where the creatures he has met

Have loosed their wrath upon him and this is what he'll get--

Some poop upon his boots.

Chorus--

Glory, glory Veterinarian

Glory, glory Veterinarian

Glory, glory Veterinarian

With poop upon his boots.

He wrassles snorty critters who are sometimes on the fight

He has seen them in the morning and he's seen them in the night

He doctors all the rank ones and he tries with all his might

Not to step in any poop.

Chorus

A horse was full of colic, and his belly hurt him so

Doc hauled him to the clinic where the people usually go

And zapped him with an X-ray quick before the nurse should know

With poop upon his boots.

Chorus

He freezes in the winter and he swelters in the heat

He tackles all the problems and he never does retreat

Oh, he's swift to preg-test bovines and he's quick upon his feet

When standing in the chute."

Horse Costs: Vet Bills & More

On horse forums, Yahoo answers and other internet gathering points, people always ask, "How much money does it take to keep a horse?" They're always shocked at the answer.

Buying the actual horse is dirt cheap-- and that leads people to believe horses in general are cheap. It's an easy assumption to make. As I've pointed out here, you can buy a pretty decent trail horse for $500 these days. Heck, there's one here for just $450-- he's not pretty, but he doesn't have any glaring conformation flaws either. I suspect once he got an owner with some experience (as in, enough experience not to stick a saddle on him that sits directly on his withers) he'd be a fine ride. There's another one here, with color to boot, for only $300! "Puzzle" has two very minor health problems, but sounds extremely steady on the trails.

Yup, horses are cheap to buy-- and expensive as hell to take care of. I'm smarting today because of the big check I just wrote for routine vet care for Annie and Mr. Strut in 2012:

$760.00

Or in other words, $380 per horse, per year. Now actually, that's quite a deal. My vet's office is offering "Wellness Packages" for lower prices if you make an appointment and pay in advance. I've saved about $400 by doing so, rather than calling them out piecemeal. The basic wellness packages I got for both my horsey friends include all their basic shots, teeth floating, fecal exams, Coggins tests and nutritional consult. These things are done in two visits, one in spring and one in fall.

Of course, that doesn't include any incidentals, like lameness exams, supplements, Bute (like for Mr. Strut) or (God forbid) any accidents that require treatment. It also doesn't include worming, which I do myself.

And of course, vet bills are only the start of the costs. There's boarding, farrier visits and feed, just for basics.  I'm extremely fortunate in that I'm able to board for free at my folk's place, and hay is cheap(ish) in my area. I don't think I'd be able to afford a horse, otherwise, much less two!

I think my neighbor down the road pays $220 per month to board her horse in a stall with regular turnout-- and I don't think that includes all the feed, either. That's $2,640 just to keep her horse around!

How much do you spend on YOUR horses per year? Tell us where roughly where you live, so we can compare cost-of-horse-living!