Here we go again.
Tetley is unsound downhill. He is unsound on the flat. And for the first time ever he is unsound up hill too. Not good news obviously, but this is how this darned disease goes, up and down. I dropped the devil’s claw/cider vinegar from his feed recently because I don’t want him on an anti-inflammatory forever and because he was so much better I thought he could manage without it. I will leave this for 5 days, during which time he normally gets better again. But if he is no better by 5 days time, then obviously I will put him back on it.
To make matters worse, Tetley is also feeling the stones in all four feet. He is good on smooth tarmac, but not when there are stones on it. He hasn’t been like this for over a year and I can’t understand this suddenly happening now. There is nothing to be seen in his feet, no explanation at all.
As someone predicted I have finally been able to take some of the length off Caddy’s toe without bringing pink white line to the surface. That has rebalanced his foot to put less weight on the back of the heel and more onto the back half of the foot and he is walking more toe-heel than he has been. At the same time, my own prediction that as his chest widened his toe-out stance would change is also coming true and he is straighter by a long chalk.
I started to change my mind about selling Tia because her personality is so lovely around the stable. She’s so friendly and sweet, and great to look at too. So I took her for a hack up the road and once again confirmed that I really don’t like hacking her out. She feels so small and as if she is going nowhere. She’ll have to go but I’m in no hurry.
I schooled Caddy and he didn’t want to do anything to start with. I had to use a whip to encourage him to go forwards, and after a while he got the idea. When he’s got it, he’s like a cruise liner on a millpond sea, smooth and flowing. He is really getting the idea fast, helped by the fact that his natural headcarriage is down and slightly round. Once you put him in front of your leg, down goes the head on the end of a relaxed arch of neck :- ) Really lovely. No power, but all elegance. He’s a lazy toad though, and really did take some sharp flicks of the whip to get him motivated at times.
In himself, his character is developing now we have had him here over 2 months. He can be obstinate and he can get quietly upset about things. Today I took him over to the tackroom door to rasp his toes. I picked up a front foot and he buckled at the knee. I held the foot and very gently he sunk to his knees on the concrete :-0 I let go of his foot (of course!) and he took ages to work out how to get up without injuring himself. He’s not stupid! He went off up the other end of the yard and I went to get him back but he refused to approach the door. In the end I had to fetch a whip and some cubes. Every time he stood still he got nothing. When he stepped back he got a tap with the whip. When he went forward he got cubes. We finally got back to the door, (not without a load of circling and fuss) and I did his toes for him
He’s also getting character with the others. He has started to muscle his way to the water bucket when they are already drinking from it and generally refusing to be pushed around as badly as he was. As a result, the both seem to respect him a bit more and are actually being nicer to him than they were.
Mole news today 12-nil to the mole and I’m almost out of gas balls. Two hills, each of which I spiked with two balls. When they are all gone I am going to pour whatever noxious household chemicals I have around (bleach comes to mind) into his runs to encourage the creature to live somewhere that smells nicer! I have ten acres of ground. He can have any bit but that particular ¼ acre!
I’m sure I’m not alone in hoping Jean’s horse has come through the colic. Let us know Jean.
C.
posted by cptrayes @ 5:45 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I am heading off to the hospital for a visit. Last night when I got home from the fair...stupid cell phone shut itself off...I had two urgent messages from vets. PJ had relapsed badly and was in horrible pain. They managed to stabilize him, but felt the end was around the corner as he, at 28 with the heart problem, is not a viable candidate for surgery.
At 11 PM, I drove the 30 or so miles to the hospital to potentially say goodbye. He was quiet in the stall, but not entirely comfortable. Just on fluids, no pain meds. The night vet talked to me about how bad he'd been and how whatever was going on might lead to the inevitable decision if there was no way to stop his pain. I agreed and spent a good half hour to 45 minutes in the stall with him.
He was not really relating to me, but was his "stand off" self, one I have come to know well. He wasn't keen on letting me touch him, but was absorbed in his own battle. I know he acknowledged my presence and very clearly let me know he was handling this on his own. When I left, I was almost certain it was the last time I was going to see him.
Fast forward to 4:30-5:00 am. I was in bed restlessly trying to sleep. Suddenly, there was this absolutely overwhelming sense of relief and release washing over me. I was almost certain, but not quite it was PJ letting me know he was better and the pain had gone. I finally fell asleep.
Fast forward to about 8:30 am. The phone rang from the clinic. As my heart thudded, I got the vet report from the other end. Miraculously not only was PJ producing healty manure, but he was bright and trying to convince them he wanted breakfast. All the vets were astonished.
Rectal exams still show something not quite right, but all his other signs were amazingly good. I am just about to drive off for a visit...visitng hours 2-4.
This is the second time for sure I have gotten a message from PJ. I know you are a skeptic, Caroline, but I am totally convinced. I cannot describe that sensation, but I am sure it was PJ letting me know he was OK.
Here's hoping it will be for the long term and not just a temporary thing. Right now, he is a bit of a miracle horse.
Fingers crossed you can give us another positive progress report today Jean.
You mistake my scepticism by the way. I know that people and animals communicate strong feelings. My husband woke at 3.30am the morning his mother died. When his sister rang in the morning she said thier mother had died at 2.30am but we both believed that was wrong. When we saw her later that week, she said it had actually been 3.30. Allan felt the connection break, and it woke him.
The same is true with animals that we are close to. I was asleep in bed one night after buying a new horse. It was in the stable and two others were in the field. I woke up knowing something was wrong, looked on the CCTV and saw that the new horse had broken his stable door down. They were far too far away from my bedroom for me to know any other way than if the horses had "told me" of the upset. I have never woken at night and checked them before that, or since, so it was no fluke.
What I don't believe is that they can pass detailed messages in words like "I was born in a field with a stream running through it", especially not to total strangers, and especially, especially not to a total stranger on the phone to the owner. But I DO believe that some people are extraordinarily receptive to the anxieties of the owner, and can feed those back as if they came from the horse.
Our brains work on the same principles as mobile phones. I see no conflict with human/human or human/animal mental communication where the emotion is high enough to create a signal strong enough to carry, or where the receiver is highly tuned to hear the input that most of us miss in the day to day buzz of life.
Alas I have to wait for more PJ news now until you write it here.
C.
Post a Comment
<< Home