Dental work

Last Friday, I came home from work late, and my daughter says to me "Hey Mom, Jen has a marshmallow on the side of her face". Greaaatt....... See, Jen is "that" horse. You know, the one in every herd that has some kind of injury or weirdness? She's that one here.

Schlepped out to the barn, and sure enough, a hard lump on the right side of her face. Its not terribly tender or hot, but she clearly doesn't want me messing with it. She was eating normally, so I left her for hte night. it looked better the next day, and I found some serum-y bits on it, so I thought it was a swelling from a tick bite.

No such luck. By Sunday it was bigger again, but still no heat, swelling or problems eating. I called the vet Monday, and she was out Tuesday. The short answer? Jen had a broken tooth. It was cracked in half and sticking out sideways into her cheek. She couldn't get it out, she needed oral surgery.

So on Wednesday morning, I loaded Jen up to head to the vet clinic. She was a good girl considering she hadn't been on a trailer, or even out of hte paddock much, since she got here 3 years ago, leaving her babies behind. It only took about 15 minutes and a handful of treats.

She arrived at the vet clinic definately nervous and upset, in a sweat even though it was only a 30 minute ride on the hightway. I gave Jen a kiss, and told her that she would be home the very next day.

Jen's procedure went well. The clinic removed the #4 premolar due to a grade 3 caries and saggital fracture, and packed the socket with antibiotic packing material. They had to go in through the nasal cavity to punch the root out from above.




When I picked Jen up, she looked quite unhappy. she was tucked up and thin looking from just 24 hours. She looked depressed and miserable. They said she was eating, but not well.

Jen loaded up with no problems, and rode quietly home. I unloaded her in the driveway, and as soon as she recognized where we were, she had a definate pop in her step. We made it up the hill, I brought her into the paddock and all her friends were so happy that she was home! Jen went and had a good roll, then a looooong drink of cold well water, then itched all over on her favorite scratching tree, before settling into some hay.

But, Jen wold not eat her grain with the doxycycline in it. Jen is allergic to SMZ, she had an allergic reaction when she had the stick jammed in her coronary band. She hates doxy. My daughter (and Jen agrees), that it smells like Sharpie marker. So Jen has been refusing her grain. Flat out refusing. I've been adminstering metronadazone rectally, and she is fine with that. But the front end feels like it has to argue with me. Jen has never liked pastes, and she was just dewormed last week, after all, why would I be bugging her with this stuff already?



I tried everything to disguise the doxy, I mixed it with molasses, yogurt, Nutrient Buffer ( a gut buffer), alfalfa pellets and soaked hay cubes. Nada. Now she won't even come at breakfast or dinner time, a horse that used to dig to China because it took me soooooo long to walk 10 feet to her.

Well, I think I finally have the answer. Take 45 doxcycline pills and pulverize them in the blender until they are a fine powder. Now wait a half hour for the dust to settle in the jar before opening the lid and inhaling said doxy dust (don't ask), add a tablespoonful of water, and a teaspoonful of good organic molasses. Suck it in the tube, and adminster, chasing her head up, downback, and forth with her jaw firmly clenched and her sending the daggers of hell out her eyes into your temples. Once that goes into the front end (or on my clothes, or in my hair), next is 60 cc of Nutrient Buffer, which his to help her belly from all the antibiotics and stress. Next will be a dose of yogurt. The a temperature taken rectally to monitor for infection, then a tube syringe full of melted Metronadazole gets adminstered rectally as well.

Did I mention how disgusted Jen is with me? She LOVES me any other time of day, but at feed time, she hates me now. Poor Jen.

Update

I haven't updated Jen's blog in quite some time, mostly due to time-constrains, and I what I feel is nothing exciting that someone would want to take the time to read. But I'll bore you anyway with the "not much" that has been going on here.

Jen is still doing well. She weighs about 850 pounds now, she has gained over 200 pounds since she arrived here back in March of 2007. She does have some significant muscle atrophy to her back, and is backsore, likely from the saddle that I am told used to rub her raw ("extreme" curlies do not lose their hair and skin from a properly fitted saddle!). I will continue to do EquineTouch on her, which I admittedly have not done enough of, only a few sessions over the years.

In attempting to ride Jen, we have found that she is very very anxious about being ridden. she completely freezes up as if she is "waiting for the ball to drop". My daughter has taken it upon herself to spend a lot of time with Jen getting her over her fears. Jen has been a very stressy horse. She stresses over everything, gets anxious and upset over any little change in her life (doing something different during the course of the daily feeding chore, any change in her paddock arrangements, being asked to do anything at all (since it isn't done daily). So Mandy visits with Jen almost every day, it was every day at first, now she has reduced the number of days and increased the amount of time. She would just spend time with Jen at first, haltering her, grooming her all over, picking her feet and talking soothingly to her to let her know that she wasn't going to "do anything to her". The way Jen gets upset is that she stands perfectly still like a statue, with her head held high. She stops blinking, and she clenches her jaw, purses her lips, and her eyes become hard and distant, she just goes away somewhere. So to someone who really doesn't get horse-speak, it appears as though she is allowing.

As Jen relaxed into just the difference in her schedule of being caught and having one-on-one attention, Mandy introduced tack. Jen gets upset and anxious when she sees tack. So Mandy just introduced tack while using t-touch calming circles, which Jen just LOVES. She would just bring the tack out at first and let Jen sniff it, then not do anything with it. Then she progressed to putting it on her, without cinching up the saddle. She put the Bitless Bridle on her and didn't ask anything of it. Jen won't take a bit, period, and there is no way you are getting her to unclench that jaw to allow it in, and its amazing how far back she can invert that neck and have her head backwards.

So once Jen was bored with the tacking process, Mandy started taking her out of the stall while tacked and leading her around. Oh, she also lead her around untacked for awhile too, and then combined the two. At first Jen was upset and didn't want to leave the safety of the barn with tack on. She eventually graduated to leading her away from the barn, and then up in the upper paddock. She progressed to leading her over stones and logs, backing her over them as well, and following trails. Jen has become bored with that process as well, and will readily leave the barn area fully tacked.

we have now progressed to taking Jen outside the paddock to hand-graze her. At first she was upset, as were the others left behind, so we only grazed right outside the gate. Then Mandy started leading Jen further away, and we plan to continue that process over the rest of the summer, eventually getting her out of sight of the other horses, and then do that tacked.

Oh, Jen is actually more worried about having tack removed, and gets really scared when you take the saddle off her. She also gets upset if she is tacked up and you raise your arms over your head, so we've been doing that randomly and she is getting better about it.

Physically, Jen is doing pretty well. She finally finished abscessing in her feet, and is finally starting to grow an upright hoof. It was very flat and pancaked for so long, and once she got rid of that toxic buildup, she's growing a heel and a nice tight little foot. The dentist was out again yesterday, and made the comment "Wow, her mouth is a MESS! If we worked on this mouth every 6 months for 5 years, I don't think we would make any progress".

Poor Jen. I don't know the reason for the problems in her mouth. It could be a combination of factors. Her neglect, the fact that she had a halter on too tight to the point that it grew into her face and appears to have altered her skull structure (by comparing her head size and shape to her full siblings and parents), and/or the fact that she was ridden in a Tom Thumb bit with aggressive riders. I even recall seeing a photo of her with her reins tied over the top rail with her head cranked up, trying to evade the pressure, in a Tom Thumb. Jen is only 14.1H.

Jen is creating muscle, she has shoulder muscles now, and chest muscles. I think her chest has doubled in width! Here are some photos from yesterday.

Not much

Not much has been going on with Jen, or here for that matter. I've been working, working, working, and no time for horses other than feeding, cleaning, trimming, and loving on them. Jen is doing well, is happy in her herd, and still continues to gain weight more than 18 months later. Jen still fancies herself a Southern Belle. She is cold on these chilly New England fall nights, and I found her shivering twice on mornings when the temp. was around 35. She still dissipates heat as if she were a warm-weather gal. So she is getting the benefit of a light blanket on the chilly evenings for now until she grows more of a winter coat.

Here are a couple of not that great photos from today.

Jen has had a couple of more rides this past month. She is very eager for her turn to get to play. Mandy tacked her up with no problems, other than her bracing and getting worried when girthing up. I suspect that will take a good long time to overcome the old "kick in the gut" girthing process. But we went slow, one hole at a time, with a lot of reassurances, and she never moved a foot.

The last time Mandy rode her, she saddled her up and just did a few laps of the paddock. I noticed that when Jen had to reach forward with a front leg to step over a big rock (we have a LOT of rocks in the paddock, big boulders, ledge, etc.) she would get a grumpy face and flip her nose. So I slid my hand under the saddle, and noted that the medium gullet was too tight for her in the Wintec, and that her shoulders were interfering. So the last time we took her out, I remeasured her for the gullet size, and she measured right on the wide side of medium wide, so I decided to put the wide gullet in the Wintec with the thicker fleece pad (I really hate changing that thing, "easy-change" is a misnomer and it takes quite a bit of grunting, slamming, and swearing to get it back together). I looked more objectively at Jen's back, and she has the same conformation as her sister, Lakota, which is not a good thing. She has those huge shoulders that rotate about 4 inches under the saddle, and the same weird long withers, short back and forward girth-groove (sigh). But I was hopeful this would work for her. So after saddling up, Mandy led Jen around a bit to make sure her mind was connected, and they did fine.

Mandy REALLY wanted to bring Jen out of the paddock the last time, so we did. Jen was worried, she is an extremely herdbound horse, so considering that she did quite well. We left the gate in stages, taking breaks, turning back from time to time. I think it helped that the other 3 didn't really care that she left (although they stood at the gate and screamed for Lakota when she was out).

We made it out to the yard, and checked it all out. She was nervous, I could feel it, but she was well-behaved and tried to be brave. The ducks were flapping around, as were chickens, the goats, the goose was playing it up, it was a lot to take in for a horse that hadn't been out of the paddock in a year, and had only been out two or three times in two years. Then I took Jen for a bit, and asked her to move her feet around me, and we meandered her and there and I asked for her attention. Then Mandy laughed this weird laugh that only 12 year olds can manage, which caused Jen to spook and teleport a little, so I knew then that she was quite tense as I had suspected, but was trying to stuff it down and be brave. So I slowed down then, and just spent some time standing and petting her, chatting with Mandy, and relaxing. And then Jen started to drop her head, blow, lick and chew, and relax. Her head was about at my waist level now. I decided that was enough emotional stuff for her today, so we slowly brought her back to the barn, stopping along the way to look at this or that.

Then Mandy hopped on her for a short bit in the paddock. Jen was a bit anxious about that, and she had a real grumpy face as we walked through the paddock. Then we stopped for a photo op. Jen didn't look real happy, and she kept biting at Mandy's foot.

So I decided that the saddle still wasn't fitting well, and asked her to hop off. After untacking and putting our gear away, I decided at the last minute to toss the Barefoot London treeless saddle on her, just to see how it looked. It looked OK on her, so then I asked Mandy to hop on. We went for another short walk, and I was really blown away by the difference in Jen.

The Start of a New Season

Jen has continued to gain weight over the winter and is looking pretty darned good now. She no longer looks like a "rescue", though she does still have quite a bit of muscling to build up.

I have spent a lot of time just loving on her this fall and winter. No expectations other than politeness. She gets lots of rubs, and is told how much we love her. I speak softly to her while stroking her neck. She is much less anxious about life in general these days, though she still does tend to rever to anxiety of something gets her emotions up.

Jen has been begging for some attention lately. She sees how much the other horses enjoy enteraction and one-on-one time with us humans, and Jen wants some, too. She would sit in my lap if I let her, she gets so jealous when the others are "chosen".

Today was Jen's day. Unfortunately, I left the camera in the house, but hopefully I'll remember next time.

We changed out the gullet in my daughters saddle and messed with girths until we got an OK combination. We decided to stay in the paddock to keep her emotions down for the first time we've done anything for about 8 to 10 months. She was only mildly concerned about saddling, but treats took care of that, she sighed and did a lot of licking and chewing. She took the Bitless with no problems at all (you may recall that she refuses to accept a bit, clamping her jaw shut and throwing up her head).

I stood on the ground and we practiced a lot of lateral flexion. Her first reaction to the feeling of any pressure at all from the reins is that her head goes up and she braces. I don't escalate pressure (start where you want to end up), I just take up contact and wait, while she works it out. The head goes up, it goes down, she tries pulling the rein out of my hand, then finally, the neck relaxes and she gives her nose. BINGO! instant release with a click, and then a treat. Yehaaa!!!! Repeat ad naseum.

Jen has a lot of braced default behaviors that is going to take a lot of time and repetition to undo. Did the same thing on the other side. Then hubby came home, so I stopped to talk to him for a bit. Jen fussed, pawed, fidgeted, and was trying everything to figure out how to get another treat. She finally settled down, dropped her head, relaxed, closed her eyes, and then it was time to reward her with more fun.I briefly repeated the lateral flexion on both sides, and she braced at first again, but remembered much quicker this time. I think I'm going to have to use this sort of thing for her for awhile, a lot of repetitions on one thing, then a break and do it again. She tends to forget between sessions, so hopefully a break and repeating it will break that habit. She also needs repetition, or she gets anxious wondering what the next behavior is that she will get rewarded for. She gets fizzy and tries too many things. Lakota, OTOH, gets bored, so we do something until she gives me a good try, or improves, then we move on to something else, and go back to the first thing (maybe). Interesting difference in horsenalities.

So then I had Jen walk along side me, and we practiced backing up a step each time I asked her to whoa. Interestingly, she settled down, relaxed and was very happy to be moving, where she was more tense with the flexion at a standstill. I think she was anxious about the other horses in her space while there was food involved. But she needs to learn to deal with that, too, and she actually was much better than she has been in the past. Then, rather than saying whoa and stopping abruptly for a halt, I decided instead to "breath out" and just "stop riding(walking)", and blow-me-down, but she whoaed beautifully and so relaxed! We practiced that for a bit, and it was fantastic, she was so soft and relaxed, very unlike herself, it was beautiful!

It wasn't in the plan today, but she was doing so well, I asked my daughter to hop on board. Jen is supposed to be her horse, I didn't know she had so many issues when I bought her, but I did figure she wouldn't be as perfect as the seller said she was. She hopped on board, and we walked through the paddock. At first, I did the leading, as we had to walk past the other horses grazing, and Jen can be pretty defensive of her personal space, I wasn't sure if she would act differently while someone was on board. But she was! She did fantastic! At first she braced and her head went up, but we didnt' ask for anything. Just stood there at the rock she mounted from, and scritched her withers while I rubbed her neck and told her what a good girl she was. When she softened and relaxed, we moved off. After a few laps, I gave up the reins to my daughter, although I walked alongside just in case I needed to snatch them. But she did beautifully, and whoaed on a breath out. Gorgeous!

But the BEST part, was we dismounted/untacked on the far end of the paddock away from the barn, and Jen was astounded! She sniffed at the saddle and mouthed it multiple times while my daughter wsa holding it, and I had the bridle hanging in my hand, and she turned toward me and put her nose right into the noseband. Awwwwww....... she wanted to keep riding!!!! Both of us were just so happy to see this, after the tense, anxious little girl last year. This is exactly how I wanted to leave her, wanting more, not thinking "When will this be over with?"

Darn, I wish I had the camera.

Brrrrr

I got up this morning, and put my hands to the glass slider door to thebalcony in the bedroom. I said to my husband "Its around 15F out there". He laughed.

I fed dogs, booted up the computer, then headed out with mush for Whinney the toothless pony, and hay for the rest of the girls. It was 7 am, with 10 inches of fresh snow on the ground, and the wind blowing some more flurries around. I'm still pretty numb at 7 am, especially before coffee.

When I came back in the house and checked the weatherbug, the computer said 23F. It sure felt colder, but it was darned chilly in the house, so thought it was just me.

After coffee and breakfast, I headed back out to grain and muck, and even with a couple of hours of hay in their tummies, Jen acted cold. She wasn't shivering, but she was acting like she was starving, and a little anxious. Everything else seemed fine.

I thought perhaps it was because there was no sun, and the wind was blowing a fine mix of sleet and snow around, even though she had done so well when it was 10 with wind chills down to 1 and 2F, the sun was out and it was clear, so she could soak up the sun. I put her blanket on, and within an hour she settled down.



I headed back in the house, and had to reboot the computer because it was moving like molasses in January (gosh, I need a new computer, this one is older than my 7 year old son!), and when it all booted back up, my weatherbug said it was 14! No wonder she was chilly, with the wind whipping that snow around, and why I couldn't get the house warmer than 60.



Ah well, all snug as a bug in a rug now. I guess she can handle the cold when its nice out, but combine it with precipitation, and its just more than she can handle yet. I'm so thankful for horse blankets! It pays to watch your horse, and know their habits, and how they act all the time. I usually sit for about 15 minutes before leaving the barn after feeding to watch them, make sure everyone settles into their hay and none are feeling off. It is well worth the effort.



Here she is, hiding inside while her sister checks out the neighbor plowing his driveway.

The Horse: Fracture Recovery: A Stem Cell Case Study

Well, that was lame, I could have done that. I sent this article straight from Horse.com to here, hoping it would post the entire article, but it didn't.

In any event, this article is a perfect example of Ana's injury, only Ana's was more severe, with more factures and more pieces separated. It took this 12 year old mare a full year to be comfortable at a walk, and her future is broodmare sound only. She was hospitalized for 102 days and in a cast for another 45 days after that.

This article just reiterates for me that I made the right decision. There is no way an 8 month old baby could have gone through that recovery and stayed sane.

The Horse: Fracture Recovery: A Stem Cell Case Study

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