Re: sore, sore, sore

MA Sandy wrote:

> Ok, something I forgot to include in this long novel above, is that
> every time Reason has lost a shoe in the past, he has abcessed.  That
> was my first thought.  He hasn't been THIS sore with an abcess, but he
> has been pretty painful in the past with them.

All the more reason to check his feet regularly. 

> Then I thought about founder.  He and the school horses have been
> locked inside the "dirt" paddock, and not on the big grass field up
> top of the hill.  The devil ponies have been sneaking out the opening
> in the fence up there only they can fit through (even though there is
> grass for them to eat out there and the "punishment" is being shut in
> on dirt!!!) so they were out Tuesday for about 5 or 6 hours on the
> grass.  So, founder is indeed a possiblity, but that doesn't seem like
> long enough on the grass to have caused that much of a problem.

_Probably_ less at this time of the year (Don't know where you are, but
here the grass is in full bloom), but when you move horses from dirt (or
stable) onto pasture, the advice is to start with fifteen minutes. If
you've been handgrazing the for ten-fifteen minutes a day, you can start
with half an hour. 

And no, it's not always practical, but limiting them to an hour and not
increasing exposure for several days at each level is good horsekeeping
practice. The alternative is to leave them on a field when the spring
grass comes through - they can still come down with stuff, but they're
far less likely to.

And keep them exercised when the grass grows like mad; it helps to keep
the metabolism healthy.  

 
> He was up and eating this morning, and was the first horse to the gate
> to come in for breakfast.  Only other horse I had that had foundered
> showed NO interest in food while in his accute phase of laminitis.

*Have you checked his feet???*. Never mind the appetite - Crumble never
went off *his* food and complained bitterly about the lack of haylage -
if they're off their food, that's a definite sign, but the opposite does
not apply. I've known colicking horses that would keep eating if
allowed.

> So, if he isn't a WHOLE lot better in the morning, I will indeed call
> the vet.

If you're not sure about what to do, calling the vet and talking the
problem over is a good idea. If I suspected laminitis, I'd treat it as
laminitis as a matter of course - it won't hurt a healthy horse, but it
might just stop a borderline one from becoming really ill.

 
> Unfortunately, I am at my vet tech job and just got called in for an
> emergency to remove ****cupine quills from yet another dog.  Thus,
> partially why my boy has been a low priority today.

If you can't do it yourself, fair enough - we all have instances of that
- but you need to find someone else to check on him, to check for heat
in his feet and digital pulse and to talk to the vet about the amount
and type of exercise he should get. You can delegate this, but it needs
to be done. Every day that he gets lush grass and hard feed might
contribute to the problem, and the worse it gets, the harder it will be
to bring him back to full soundness. 

And if you're a vet tech, your employers ought to understand that you
need to give your own horse appropriate care. 


Catja

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