Beau went to the Beauty Parlor this morning. I took the braid out of his tail, brushed him from nose to tail, and just got him gussied up. I noticed that he is also putting his "winter jammies".
Since he came here, I've been feeding him Orchard Grass Hay pellets. (It's a personal preference thing) Anyway, the feed store was out of Orchard grass pellets so I had to choose between alfalfa pellets and timothy grass pellets. I didn't want alfalfa pellets - they are really hard and I didn't want to soak them. So I bought the timothy grass pellets.
O M G !!! They are very soft, you can crumble them with two fingers and a thumb, and will be MUCH easier for Beau to chew! Cathy - I should have listened to you sooner!
Beau's sheath is still swollen, as is his belly. The swelling on his belly is like a very dense memory foam...if I push on it with my finger, it compresses and retains the impression. Exercise will help this BUT Beau's feet are in such bad shape, I don't want to push him too hard. So I'm hand walking three times a day, and while I'm at work next week, my daughter will do it twice a day.
16 comments:
Utterly AMAZING! Great job!
That's incredible, how much better he looks! I hope you get the swelling figured out.
Oh my gosh! He looks amazing! Way to go! I am so glad that Beau is gaining ground so fast! I hope his sheath swelling goes down soon! Those were some horrific beans you got out. I wonder if there are worse ones up there?
I wonder also. We just hand walked three laps around the pasture...as full mosey. He doesn't walk much.
I wonder if I shouldn't slow his weight gain some, due to his feet.
In other words, maintain weight and work on adding/conditioning muscle and exercising by hand. I don't want to get this far, then have his already crappy feet deteriorate more due to his weight.
Thoughts?
The difference is astonishing. Unbelievably great job! Keep up the fantastic work, he's going to look like a million bucks in no time! :) Hope you get the swelling under control.
I am sure you already thought of this but get the advise of your Vet and Farrier - what are their thoughts on conditioning with the feet situation?
Understanding you don't want to take 2 steps backwards after all your hard work.
He looks AMAZING and you should be proud of all you have done! Give Beau a scratch under the jaw for me. :)
Karen Park, FL
WOW!!! Beau is looking fantastic!!
I wish I had advice ohter than to consult your vet and Farrier regarding the sheath/belly/feet situation, but I have no experience with any of those situations.
My farrier was out yesterday and we got to talking about horses being skinny "'cause they're old"...(which we all know is obviously not the case) and apparently one of his clients has an elderly arab taht is very much under weight, I shared the link to your blog with him to pass along to her. What you have done for Beau should be an insparation to all horse owners.
ktibb - Beau has been pretty easy to build back up. He was very weak for the first 3 or 4 days, but then he had more energy.
We bought an older arab mare as our first horse and she had a HORRIBLE topline. We had her teeth done and added 6 pounds of Senior Feed and she actually got fat. It's amazing how just a few little changes will improve an older horse's overall condition.
There are pictures of the SAFE show that shows a 37 yr old appy gelding with NO TEETH that is a little butterball.
It can be done. You just have to care.
If this other client is still care enough to have farrier work done, it's possible that if she looks on here, she can get some ideas on how to improve her horse's overall condition.
Good for you for paying it forward and helping another oldster!
Fan-freaking-tastic!!
*wolf whistle* Not bad for an old man.
Does anyone else ever type in "www.helpingbeau.blogspot.com" on accident? LOL
PS even my horse phobic husband is wowed by the progress you have made and was sickened by his before condition! So even extremely non horsey people get it!
Wow, just wow... Amazing job!
Thanks so much for helping older horse out. After reading your blog i notified my hubby that we would be rescuing horses until the day we could no longer hobble out to the barn, or write a check to a rescue. =)
How is Beau doing? His swelling going down any?
Swelling is down "some" but still there. He is not peeing as much as I think he should but he might be sneaking a whiz out in the pasture. He"s still eating and drinking and the vet isn't concerned' so I try not to fret Thank God i have great vet who tolerates my overprotectiveness! Aside from his topline, he getting to be a little butterball. Pics soon.
Glad to hear the swelling is down! Now that he is getting so much stronger do you think he is strong enough to get his teeth done? Wouldn't it be awesome if he could graze or eat hay again! Poor old guy! I wish I could give him a forever home!
Alee - Yes, I think he's strong enough to have his teeth done. I just need to get the money together for the vet bill. When I take him, I want to do his teeth (around $300 due to the extensive work needed), have blood drawn (what? $35?), and xray his front feet($200 for two views, $35 each view thereafter). So, I'm looking at around $600 for the bill, not including fuel. The vet I want to use is about an hour away from me - former race track vet, super duper power float for teeth and digital xray for the feet.
I figure if he's doing much better on the pellets, I'll continue feeding that until I bank enough money to have everything done.
I work on Friday, so new pics won't be up until tomorrow evening.
Stay tuned...
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