Princess Shoshoni?!

Until we can scoop the snow mound from the babies pen we have Tabasco in the shelter on stall rest so that he doesn't hurt himself. We have a heated water bucket hanging in the corner and have to use a big silver dog food bowl to scoop water from Shoni's trough and walk it over to fill up Tabasco's bucket.

Usually this takes three or four trips.

On one of the trips Shoni followed me from the shelter to the trough. Then she stood over me while I scooped the water . When I lifted it up Shoni stuck her nose in the bowl and proceeded to slurp... I mean sip! the water until the bowl was empty. Keep in mind we are still standing over the trough and she could just as easily drink from the source.

Now I get to lean down and get another scoop while Shoni stands over me and drips water on my head. When I bring the bowl up Shoni again tries to drink from it. I have to inform her that it is for Tabasco and ask her if she thinks she's a princess or something!?

Maybe we should nick name her "Princess Shoshoni"? : )

Vets... the conclusion!

We were planning on picking up Tabasco over the weekend but when I talked to the vet he wanted to wait until Monday so he could be there when we picked him up. I couldn't do it on Monday since I had to work and I didn't want to try and switch my day off for that one due to the short notice, so we picked him up this morning.

We left the house around 8:00 and drove the hour and a half to the vets. It was so beautiful out with the frost on the trees and the sunrise. I am really looking forward to spring and daylight savings time. It feels like I never see the sun any more so today was a treat.

We finally pull into the parking lot at the vets and I went in the office to pay the bill and dad drove around the side of the building to hook up the trailer that we had left there. The vet came out and talked to me and gave me instructions and medication to put on his leg. The vet tech at the front desk told me she would meet me outside and help get Tabasco ready.

By the time I got in the barn with Tabasco's blanket the tech was already in the stall with him brushing him. She asked me a few questions about him being a mustang and I happily answered her questions and told her that if she ever decided to adopt that I would help enable her! She told me that everyone fell in love with Tabasco and that he was a very good boy. She helped me get the 78" blanket on him (the smallest the stores had) and he swims in it. Next came trailer loading. At home Tabasco loaded like he's done it all his life- at the vets? Not so much. I tried, Dad tried, we put a lead rope behind his butt, bribery with oats didn't even work. Then came the vet tech with a broom. She tickled the blanket covering Tabasco's butt with it- his eyes got as wide as dinner plates and in he went.

We drove back home and backed the trailer down the driveway. I got out and stood on the ledge outside of the trailer and talked with Tabasco. The other four horses were standing long necked and perky eared looking at the trailer. Tabasco was eyeballing them for a while then gave out a long shrill whinny, to which he got four similar responses.

Dad got him off of the trailer and lead him to his pen and took off the lead rope. Shoni slowly went over to investigate her "new" pen mate then started harassing him and chasing/following him around the pen. He ended up running up on a snow bank with her behind him and they both sank down in the deep snow. Uffda. Of course once they are excited it's hard to catch them again too. Luckily we had left the halter on and Tabasco is fairly sensible. He let me put the lead rope back on him. Then we locked him the the paneled shelter to relax and let Shoni sniff him through the gate. I'm a little worried about his leg and am going to check with some people for physical therapy exercises that I can do with him. It seemed like it was kind of bothering him after the trailer ride then again after all of that running and both times he rested his leg on the ankle instead of the hoof for a minute or two. He still has the bandage on his leg and I am supposed to take it off in a week to 10 days depending on how yucky it gets. The vet said there is a gash an inch or two thick and about 5 inches long that is open and I will need to put a powder on it once a day until it heals.

It would have been 3 weeks tomorrow since we left Tabasco at the vet and 3 weeks Monday since his surgery. I'm so happy to have my boy back home!!!

vets...update

Sorry for the delay but I finally have the update and pictures of Tabasco! Dad and I went to visit Tabasco at the vets last Thursday. There wasn't anyone at the barn when we got there so we went inside and loved on Tabasco. Eventually a different vet showed up and gave Dad a brush to pamper him with. He looks really good and is getting around great. He seemed happy to see us but after a while he started being a brat and ended up trying to bite the back of my leg and he immediately got swatted for his efforts. Then he went in the corner and pouted and looked at me from the corner of his eye. A minute or two after that he inched over and tried to ham it up- like he was saying sorry. Butthead.



I called the vet on Monday to see how his leg is doing and find out when he can come HOME! The vet said he is a great patient and that he had unwrapped the leg that day. He said the stitches are holding up good and the leg looks great. I asked when he would be able to come home and he thinks maybe this weekend if the weather holds up and his leg is still looking good. I am supposed to call back tomorrow and see what he says. Then I have to try and find a blanket for Tabasco for the trailer ride home, the only problem is that we have been having 40 below weather and all of the horse stores near by are either sold out of blankets or the ones they have are too large. I wouldn't mind getting a bigger blanket for a temporary thing but when he comes home he may have to be blanketed the rest of winter since he has been in a heated barn the last 10 days.

See the excited look on Tabasco's face in the above photo? This is the look he gets when you sit down and he realizes he's bigger than you and is going to pick on you!

On a side note... I went out this afternoon to let dogs out and there was Sweetie. I am still not used to having the horses home and it is a nice surprise to walk outside and have a horse (or two) standing there saying hello.

...and poor Shoni is at the top of the hill in her paneled pen all by her lonesome since she likes to jump fences and her buddy still isn't home yet. This time of year she looks like a black horse instead of a blue roan. I can't wait until spring when they shed their winter coats and everything turns green! I'm sick of looking at all of the snow.

Speaking of Shoni and nice spring like weather this weekend (it's supposed to be in the upper 30's!) I managed to snag myself a surcingle and a cheap breast collar and am hoping to be able to try it on Shoni and get going on a training regiment. Anyone have any fun ground training/saddle starting tips, suggestions, websites to recommend?

Vets... part 3

I called the vet on my morning break at work today and he said Tabasco came through the surgery great and they were just waiting for him to come out of the anaesthesia. He told me that they removed THREE bone chips from his leg.

I called a second time after lunch to make sure he came out of the anaesthesia okay and to see if Mom and I could drive up and visit around 7:00 tonight. The vet said Tabasco was doing great and is behaving himself nicely and that he would leave the barn door unlocked for me.

We drove the hour and a half to the vet and sure enough the door was unlocked and we were able to visit with Tabasco. *Note to self* Next time you plan to visit the vets barn at night find out where the light switch is...

Tabasco was laying down in his stall when we walked in and was craning his neck trying to see who was there without getting up. Once he saw it was us he stood up and came over to say hello. We gave him lots of love and scratches from everyone and told him that we miss him at home and how lost Shoni is.

He was alert and perky and seemed glad to see us.

His leg cast looks like it may have been "nibbled" on (do they make those cone lamp shades for horses?) but he looks really good. I feel relieved after seeing him but I am definitely ready to have him come home!

I'm planning on visiting Tabasco again Thursday during the day since I am off. Hopefully I can get some better pictures. I was able to get a few tonight but it was so dark in the barn that the screen on my digital camera showed all black. Mom and I poked around for a light switch but there were a few different ones and we didn't want to flip the wrong thing on!!!

Vets... part 2

First off I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for your well wishes and positive comments from my last post.

We were finally able to dig out and got Tabasco loaded in the trailer. We drove the hour and a half to the vet and got there around 3:30. The vet had to go on a house call so we had a little bit of a wait. He ended up calling the office when he was about 10 minutes out so the vet techs had us bring Tabasco out of the trailer and into the barn.


This is Tabasco's first time ever being inside of a barn (ours isn't up yet we only have the shelters) and going through an opening the size of my front door. He didn't panic but he definitely did not want anything to do with going inside of that building!!! He stood in the door way and gawked at the horses in their stalls then let out his high pitched Tabasco whinny and got all of the others going. After a minute or two of asking him to step through the door he finally did. Then they had us go into a separate room off the aisle.


The room had mat like flooring and Tabasco was slipping on it a bit. The vet tech followed us in then gave us a bucket of grain. She was asking questions about how he hurt himself and how long it had been. She kind of got my feathers ruffled by the tone she used and the way she said it. Like it is an old injury that we neglected or like we were wasting their time bringing him in. I don't really know how to explain it but I got a vibe and it set me on edge with her.

While we waited in the room for the vet Tabasco took everything in with wide eyes and a pushy nose! He kept trying to play with the rubber floor, a drainage area in the floor, jackets, carts, and a horse painted on the wall. We had to keep distracting him with the bucket of oats.

Finally the vet comes in and takes a look at Tabasco. He doesn't waste much time and sedates him. He shaved the fur on his leg and cut away the skin that was hanging there. He had my dad and I put on Lead jackets for the xrays then I got to play the role of vet tech and hold the slides for the xrays. The slides looked like those paper sized chalkboards and they were awkward to hold on to. The vet took 3 pictures of different angles of Tabasco's leg then he put the slides in a machine and it uploaded the xrays onto his laptop.

In the quite of waiting for the xrays to upload Tabasco starts loudly snoring. He has his head up against dad's side and is completely out of it. I don't think I have ever heard a horse snoring like that! I tried to get video so I could share but I didn't do something right so sorry no cute horse snoring video.





The pictures on the computer come up. The leg looks good and the bone solid- according to me anyway.

The vet went over all of the pictures with a fine tooth comb though and with a zoom tool he went around the edges of the leg. Towards the bottom of the injury the magnifier picked up two bone chips about two inches apart.


Then came "the talk" from this vet. He told us we have two options. One is to do nothing and let the wound heal. This could work out fine or it could cause soundness issues and need to be operated on later in his life. The other option is to operate and remove both bone chips.


We chose option number two.

Tabasco is going in for surgery Monday morning around 8:00am to remove both bone chips in his leg. We had to leave him at the vets office and he will remain there 10 days or longer after the surgery.


Before we left the vet sedated Tabasco again since he was wide eyed and bushy tailed after his nap and put a catheter in his neck for easy distribution of medications that he will need. Then we pushed groggy Tabasco into a stall. I hated leaving him there and since he's been gone both humans and equine have been missing him terribly. I'm planning on visiting him sometime between Monday and Thursday. The vet told me to call before I come and that they would leave the barn door unlocked for me so I could go visit my baby. :)


Please send lots of happy thoughts and well wishes Tabasco's way. I will let you know tomorrow how his surgery went.

Another visit from the vet

Tuesday after work Mom and I went out to feed the horses. Of course it's pitch black by the time we even get home and it's hard to see anything even with a flashlight until your eyes adjust. I was in the babies pen and noticed something was off with Tabasco's walk.

I asked Mom to shine the flashlight on his leg and there was a 6 inch gash on the front of his back right leg. There was a section of fur and skin hanging below the wound. The wound itself was not gushing blood but it did look pretty nasty. We're not sure how he hurt it and can only guess that he some how caught it on a panel or running out of the shelter.

I called the vet that night and made an appointment for the following morning.

The vet got to the house around 8:30 Wednesday morning and took a look at Tabasco. Tabasco stood there like a trooper and let him touch and look at the leg. The vet had to walk back down to his truck to get some ointment and items to wrap his leg. When he came back in the pen Tabasco was a brat and wouldn't let him any where near him or his leg. Long story short the vet gave me the ointment to put on his leg and hid in the shelter until I was done.

Once everything was done he had 'the talk' with me. He said, "I don't know how much you love this horse or what he is worth to you... or if you are planning on riding him but because of where he hit his leg there is a possibility he could have hurt the bone or caused a bone chip." He recommended contacting a vet an hour and a half away and getting an xray of his leg.

I contacted a vet in Elbow Lake and according to people that my mom works with they are the best for horses. I have an appointment later today at 2:00.

Now we just have to dig the horses and the trailer out of the snow.... wish us luck.

A spoon full of sugar...

A spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down.

Well brown sugar and oats help anyway....

On 12/20 Sundance had a swollen sheath so we had the vet come out to see what was going on. He sedated him and did the sheath cleaning. In all the years that we've had horses we have never had to have this done. The vet said that some geldings hardly ever need it while others have to be cleaned at least once every 6 months.

Once the vet was finished he gave us some antibiotics to give him for a week. He suggested crushing the pills and mixing them with water, brown sugar, and oats. We did this and down the hatch they went.

I guess a spoon full of sugar really does help the medicine go down... who knew?