Sunday

Spent the first half of today over at the barn getting ready for the cold front that will be moving through tonight.  (Upper 70's this weekend, upper 20's tomorrow night!)  I cleaned out everyone's stalls and put in more shavings.  Then I filled enough of the horses' food containers with their feed and supplements to last for the next week and a half. 

I brought home one of Lizzie's turnout halters so I can sew one of those new ear nets onto it for her.  I tried just putting the ear net on her and putting the halter OVER it, but she always manages to rub it off her ears and it ends up hanging under her chin instead!  Yesterday I left her ears bare when I put her out in the pasture, and she proceeded to rub her ears on one of those giant steel electrical towers, so I definately need to figure out how to keep them protected. 

Actually, what I need to do is not only figure out how to keep the ear nets on her, but also some way to stop her ears from itching to begin with.  If they didn't itch, she wouldn't rub against things and then the ear cover thing would stay on.  Hmm.  Have to give that some thought.  Think I'll check with Torri and Janet and see what they might suggest.  I've been putting Banamine and cortisone cream on her ears because they get dry and crusty if I don't keep something on them all the time, but maybe I need to mix those meds into some super heavy duty moisturizing ointment.  I don't know if there is ANYTHING topical that will actually work, though, given that the itching is caused by allergies.  The poor girl's allergies cause her to itch pretty much all over!  She did better after I used that steroid cream rinse on her, but I can't bathe her all the time in the winter.  Maybe once she comes home and we have warm water to bathe her with, we can figure out a way to make her stall warm enough to keep her comfortable after a bath, but that's not going to happen over at Al's.   So I guess a heavy-duty ointment in her ears might be the best thing to try next.  The rest of her is pretty much protected by her incredibly heavy winter coat.  That coat was what first made her vet think she might have Cushings Disease.  When I bought her last fall, her coat was already incredibly long and heavy early in October.  But unlike the typical Cushings horse, she DID shed out very early last spring.  Still, all things considered, we decided to go ahead and put her on Pergolide and she has been doing fine since then, so . . . .  maybe Dr. Chapman was right.  I'll just be relieved if it turns out that she DOES have Cushings and does NOT have ESLD. 

We'll see.