What a relief!. . . Arthur is getting better - finally!

Thankfully, the LSU vet school vets came by every few days over the last week or two dealing with Arthur's limping feet. And when they come, they bring students with them as well, so it's great that there are several people here who can deal with him without us having to hang onto him! 

What they had US do was to keep him inside his paddock and away from all the grass, and give him meds each day.  

Apparently, toward the end of the summer the grass gets a bit different somehow -- I can't remember what they said about it exactly, but apparently was what had caused Arthur's feet to get sore.  And one of his feet was shown as swollen inside when they x-rayed them.  

Originally, they had put something or other on the bottom of his feet, then wrapped them in fabrics.  But he had managed to quickly kick those off.  So they brought us a couple of really good boots for injured feet.  Those were $250 but they have definitely been well worth it!  

He's had them on for more than a week and he not only hasn't been able to kick them off, but he also seems to be happy walking in them!  He's not even TRYING to take them off. 

 Love those things!

Note that inside HIS paddock there is no grass -- just sand.  He's not allowed
to eat grass until winter comes when the grass is completely gone finally.

Actually, all he ever gets to eat these days is his minimal amount of feed WITH his medicine mixed into it, and a small amount of hay.  That's because he's supposed to be losing weight because having him fatter than normal makes his feet even more of a problem apparently.  

Arthur spends a lot of time standing out there on the walk next to the fences around his paddock watching Duke and Shadow in their paddocks and out in the pasture.  (He's SO disappointed that he's not currently allowed to get out and stay right next to Shadow as he's been doing ever since we got her - well over a year ago!  He LOVES that horse!)

Well anyway, we sure are glad he's not limping anymore over the past couple days! 

We're also extremely happy that we're able to have access to the LSU vets. They have been SO wonderful every time we need help.  We do generally take our dogs to normal vets generally unless there's something really extreme necessary. But the mule and horses . . .   hey -- they get the LSU vets ALL the time.  Excellent!