"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.
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