Spring - vet visit and weather that keeps us guessing

"Spring" in northern Vermont. Since the official day on the calendar, we've had a few single digit mornings. The temperatures rose into the low 40s yesterday after a mix of freezing rain and icing Friday night, so the horses didn't go out yesterday. For sure they're not out today either, as it's raining and the deep snow is becoming a slushy slippery mess. The warming temps are great for the sugarmakers, who have been waiting for the sap to run, but these temps usually mean a period inside for the horses until the paddocks set up again.

Last week was spring visit #1 for the vet. They've been breaking the visits into two separate appointments for a few years, which is something our holistic vet had introduced us to even earlier. Concerns for the massive dump of innoculations into their systems; make sense. I cringe to think back to when we first got Dude and it all got done on one day. Sorry, buddy, we didn't know any better.

So this week's visit featured sheath and teeth cleaning for Dude, teeth cleaning for Bestie and the 5-way vaccine for both of them. Usually there is one of them that will receive the sedation, appear to be totally OUT, but then miraculously snap to as soon as the vet attempt to begin the teeth cleaning.

This time it was Bestie - she had to have a bit additional la-la juice because she kept hurling her head up into the air when Dr. Phil would try to clean her teeth. Which is bad, because it annoys the vet and because our barn ceiling is pretty low. She has a cracked tooth on her back right side, so we've been watching that since it was first spotted a year ago. No problems at all yet. I'm supposed to watch for nasal discharge, or difficulty chewing. She's a vigorous and enthusiastic eater, so I think that any difficulty chewing will be readily apparent.

Dude's visit with the vet was pretty uneventful, except that I guess I was a bad mom and should've had his sheath cleaned last fall. He's now officially on the twice yearly plan. He's all about the anticipation - gets a bit wild eyed when the vet comes in with the sedation, tries to back or lunge forward, but then succumbs to the inevitable. You just can't come in with the needle fully visible announcing your intentions.

I brought up Dude's weight - he seems ribby, and Dr. Phil thought he could stand to put on about 50-75 pounds. He also took blood to check his vitamin E levels, which can impact muscle development and maintenance if low. Dude used to be on a pure E supplement, because a previous vet thought it was needed (although I didn't test at that point). But in an effort to consolidate supplements, I had switched him over to the multi-component senior supplement, and it might not have enough E in it. Waiting for the test to see if it's back to buying the straight E to mix in. Apparently if he's E deficient, he needs to stay on the supplement, which I didn't understand before. Sigh.

The visit was Thursday. They were still a bit dozy when I had to leave about 45 minutes after the appointment ended so barn manager Caitlin fed them later. They were both at the point where they had started wandering the stall picking minute pieces of hay out of the shavings to munch on, but definitely not perky enough for full flake and grain. I went out to the barn on Friday and all was well. In the past they've had some swelling from the 5-way but nothing this time. And I didn't pre-bute, which I've done in the past. Dr. Karen assessment, ha ha - honestly, I think their stress levels at this barn are so low, plus they are outside so much more, that their systems process the shots better.

The next visit for the rest of the shots is in two weeks, but I'll unfortunately need to miss that one.

Horse beauty products

It's that time of year. The sun is out more, so it feels like spring is coming, but the temperatures are still cold and the horses are still in their blankets .. disgusting, dirty, manure-encrusted blankets. And underneath, shedding hair, lots of dander. Bleh. At the barn we all stand in the aisle and groom our ponies, complaining about how gross they are and how we can't wait to give them a bath. In northern Vermont, MAYBE that could happen in April, but it's not likely. Bathtime will be sometime in May, probably.

Dude and Bestie usually look pretty good coat-wise, but this time of year is tough. Maybe because the winter has been colder than normal, their coats seem kind of dry and dull. So I've been eyeballing a few products to try. One girl at the barn uses as Eqyss coat conditioner that smells like tropical fruit, and she really likes its effect on her horse's coat. The scent puts us all in a happy mood when she sprays it; a bonus. So that one's a possibility.

I've also been thinking about the argan oil hair wipes that I put in the girls' stockings for Christmas. Seems like those would work well, too. I just spent a few minutes Googling to be sure that argan was safe for horses, and it turns out that in countries where the trees grow, horses eat the leaves. Learned something new!

Apparently there are more horse owners than me thinking about this, because Googling also led to numerous forum threads with discussions about preferred horse coat conditioning products. Argan, coconut, baby oil - that last one doesn't seem good; too greasy. I'll have to investigate coconut oil, which seemed like a popular choice on the forums. I wonder if it smells strong. At least argan doesn't really have much scent. I see some time at Guy's Farm & Yard reading product labels in my future.

Not a small animal ...

... just a pile of Dude and Bestie's hair after grooming! While our temperatures are still not spring-like, the days have definitely gotten longer in the last few weeks, and the horses have been shedding hair like crazy. Prior to our grooming session, Bestie had rolled in the indoor, and that really seemed to loosen up her hair. I took her out to lunge her and I could tell she wanted to roll because she kept dropping her nose down to the footing while trotting - kind of awkward, to say the least! So I finally slowed her down and she settled down for a leisurely over-over-over-up roll while I stood at her head and tried to keep the lunge line from getting tangled. She looked like a mess afterward with the dust and the little chunks of rubbery arena footing stuck on her. :)

Looking at this photo with the gutter cover pulled back, I have to say that I would find it tough to go back to a barn without gutters! I think back to all the previous years of cleaning out stalls with muck buckets and wheelbarrows - yuck. Cleaning up, whether it's the aisle or the stalls, has never been so easy. I'm totally spoiled.