A slight concern

I was just a little bit concerned this morning. Jazz didn't seem quite on form, he was calling to me a bit woefully (that deep voice certainly looks like it's a permanent change). He didn't wolf down his feed, and the wound in his neck seemed to me to be raging hot. It's 48 hours since the antibiotics and the anti-inflammatories stopped, so the timing would be right for things to start showing if they were going to.

I took off his rug and went to fetch the thermometer and took his temperature. (The indignity! What ARE you doing!!) It was normal - 37.8, with normal defined as 38c but acceptable up to 1 lower and 0.5 higher. I felt his ears and they were cool. I felt the wound again and it seemed cooler, so maybe he was just overheated in a thick rug now that the weather has warmed up a bit. The temperament change is probably just because he's bored out of his tiny mind.

I took Zippy for a ride, a bit longer than we have done before. For the first time on a ride of over half an hour, he did not get his soft palate blocking his airway, or have to cough to put it back in place. So it seems that he might be growing out of it, as my research suggested that he would. I'm really pleased about that. Jazz isn't coughing either, which is wonderful.

Here's the hay feeders that SH made me. They are fantastic. Last winter Zippy peed and pood in the haylage when it was laid on the floor. So this year we've stopped the little *^*^*(*&^ . There are two of these. They are sheep hurdles with an extra bar welded across the bottom half. They are mounted on hinges on the wall and tied shut to metal loops. So I can undo them to clear them out. They are loaded from the top. They are working absolutely brilliantly.



And a shot showing his very eccentric clip, all the fashion for this winter for the truly cool horse.



And a close up of the wound with its neat little staples. It's about 3 inches long, and as you can see it seems to be completely healed.