Went in to work early today because Anne Chapman, our horse vet, was scheduled to come check out Shadow at 2 this afternoon so I had to leave work about 1 so I could get home and get Shadow into her stall and ready for her doctor visit.
Well, it was a LOT more involved than I expected. She did get her annual vaccinations and Anne did her "new horse" check up, too. (All was well - EVERYONE loves her!)
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| Here she is lunging Shadow to check out her legs and feet. She said there might possibly be a minor problem with one of her back feet or legs (I couldn't see a thing wrong with her movement, but Anne said she could). But anyway, Zoilo found a sore spot just to the side of her frog on her back foot, so that may well be what's causing it. But anyway, it wasn't nearly serious enough to do anything about right now. Anne will just check on her next time she comes out to see if that has improved. |
But just as she was about to say that Shadow is a perfectly fine horse, she discovered that Shadow had ulcers in her cheeks caused by sharp points/edges on her back teeth. She showed me that if you just pet her face, she will respond if her teeth are scraping against her cheek(s), so that you can tell right away if there's a problem even without forcing her to open her mouth! But when you discover that, of course, then you DO ultimately have to check inside her mouth to see what the problem actually is.
So then Anne got out a light and while holding onto her tongue she checked inside her mouth and found that she REALLY needed her teeth leveled out. The sharp edges were definitely what was causing the lacerations in her cheeks. (And they no doubt also made her bit feel pretty darned bad, as well!)
So I had them put her out at the cross-ties where I give them their baths to work on her teeth.
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| She was perfectly happy to be placed there where the baths take place - she actually LIKES baths - but she obviously didn't realize that she was about to be sedated and her teeth filed down! |
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| Here she is having her mouth rinsed out by our vet. (Those other girls in the aqua shirts are vet students who came along with Anne to learn how to do "horse stuff.") |
It more than TWO hours to get her teeth all filed down, but she should certainly be far less distressed about wearing a bit now! They obviously did a lot of filing!
She was sedated, of course, but when she was taken out of the paddocks, Arthur began throwing a hissy fit just as he did when Lizzie left home and was taken over to LSU. I guess he was afraid Shadow would be leaving forever too, I don't know. But I'm sure Shadow would have been able to close her eyes and relax a lot better if Arthur hadn't been screaming continually!
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| Arthur and Duke stood and watched at first while she was taken out to the cross-ties . . . |
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| and Duke kept staring while they worked on her teeth -- but when they sedated her, Arthur started howling and running back and forth along the paddock gate! He REALLY wanted to be out there with her! |
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| Arthur REALLY wanted to get out and go over to be with Shadow. |
Anyway, now that everything has been checked and been done, Shadow will be well insured. Her Colicare insurance has already gone into effect, and her standard insurance (from Markel -- same as Duke's) will begin once they get the requested info from the vet. Glad that's all taken care of. Horse insurance IS a bit expensive, but on the other hand, if they have to go over to LSU in any emergency, trust me -- it's going to cost thousands. So having the insurance is definitely worth it!
Okay. Time for bed. Got to get up early tomorrow again to be sure all the necessary work gets done before I come home for the weekend. I've tried by phone and by letter to get off of jury duty next week, but I haven't heard a thing back from them so I guess I will have to go over to Plaquemine at least on Monday - if not all week long. Anyway, consequently tomorrow may well be a very loooong day.
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