Fair warning… there’s kind of a big ick factor in today’s post 🙂
Long day at work. Twister (Reno, the orphan foal’s foster parent) has been sort of lame off and on for the last few days. We figured it was probably an abcess. But it was getting better, then worse, then better… Today it got really bad. He was three-legged lame by late morning. Poor guy. We brought him and Reno in and soaked the foot in hot water and epsom salts for a while. Then I started poking around the sole with a hoof pick. Found a couple of soft spots and got the hoof rasp. A couple of swipes and oops! there went the abcess. A whole lot of pus and fluid oozed out. Pulsed out, actually. Very yucky. But I bet Twister felt a lot better afterwards. He started walking a little easier right away. I’ve never actually seen a hoof abcess burst in front of me like that before. Gross, but sort of interesting too.
This afternoon, the vet came to geld the two little boys, Freeman and Winchester. Winchester has fairly severe separation anxiety when he’s put in a stall away from Freeman. So we did him first. He careened wildly around the stall, smashing me into the wall a couple of times while the vet, amazingly, managed to get the needle into his jugular. Luckily the stuff works fast, and he subsided into a drugged haze. He stood very well, and didn’t seem alarmed at the procedure at all.
Freeman stood quite well for the needle. But even in a drugged haze, he managed to kick hard and fast at each incision. He’s an unpredictably reactive horse, so we are extremely cautious about everything with him. We told the vet what to expect, and so he was well clear of the kicks. It took quite a while to get the second testicle. Apparently it was small and quite twisted. But eventually the vet managed to get it as well.
So both little boys have now had their brain surgery. Which means that once they’ve had some time for the hormones to subside, they can be turned out with the 2-year olds in the big pasture next to the mares. Should make things a bit easier… at least until this year’s bunch are weaned anyway.
Sky King's Girl 