Beau's Jammies

The farrier was out today to trim a couple of the horses. Honey has a crack in the middle of her front hoof that goes almost from the coronet band to the toe and is all the way through the hoof wall. She'll be wearing front shoes for the next year to keep it from splitting.

I had him take a peek at Beau. The shoes are on solid, which is good news, and there was some frog growth, also good news. It's not time to reset the shoes yet, though. There IS a minute amount of thicker, healthy growth at the coronet band, which is GREAT news. We'll continue to monitor his feet every 4 weeks or so, unless he throws a shoe.

While we were working on the horses, I noticed that Beau was shivering. It's about 35 degrees outside with a breeze out of the north. Since the open side of the barn faces north, Beau doesn't really have a way to get away from it. So I dug out a blanket that fit my daughter's old granny arab mare and put it on him.

ROFLMAO!!! Poor guy looks like someone put a gunnysack on cat! He looked embarrassed, but at least it will help keep him warm. He has weight, but FAT insulation. I have another blanket that might fit better, but it doesn't have a front opening - it would have to go on over his head.

How 'bout a little roughage?

I had to work today so I sent the hubby off on errands to buy feed. For whatever reason, some fool has been buying up all the timothy grass pellets at the feed store.

I mean, come on! I've got a special needs case here!

So Mike bought the last bag of pellets, and smart guy that he is, he knew it wouldn't be enough to get Beau through until next weekend. He noticed that they had timothy grass CUBES, so he called and asked if that would work.

I thought to myself "Self...would it work? Would he be able to eat them without choking? He could probably "waller and swaller", but he wouldn't be able to "eat" them like the other horses would. But, perhaps, maybe, it would give him some roughage."

So I told Mike to get a bag and we'd try Beau on it and see how it goes. He gobbled the cubes up without choking. So the "going in" part is ok. We'll see about the "coming out" part later.

I'm thinking that while he can eat the cubes, he won't be able to eat them exclusively. I think that it would be good for roughage, and perhaps change, but he'll still have to eat the pellets for his main source of nutrition.

If you're ever in Pasco, PLEASE! Stop by and see him. He is the cutest, sweetest little dude EVER! I just adore this little guy!

Poor Lil Dude!

I came home tonight and turn the horses out on pasture. Beau followed and when the girls took off at a run, he tried to keep up. Unfortuneately, he tripped and slid in the grass on both front knees. He's got grass stains on both knees and his nose. He seemed to be more embarassed than hurt, but I felt bad for him, falling like that in front of all the girls.

They pretty much ignored him and went straight to eating. Poor guy!

Feet, back, and stuff

I came home tonight and check my blog, then trotted over to the Fugly Blog. Imagine my surprise when I saw a picture of Beau and a shout out from Cathy. For those of you who have never gotten the chance to meet her, she is just as cool in person!!!

Before



After


Close up of the front feet. You can see how mis-shapen that front left is.



Look at this back! Getting closer to "normal". If I could exercise him, it would fill in a LOT faster. BUT - the foot...


Here's a closeup of the "schmag" on his back. The M-T-G loosens it and brings it to the surface, leaving little mudballs. You'll notice there are no more bald spots..


OMG!!! Look at that face! How could anyone not feed that adorable little face!!

The Butt Crack of Dawn...

Occasionally, when Mike lets the dogs out in the morning, they see or hear something and take off in hot pursuit. Since it's 4:30, he doesn't yell at them to come back. Sometimes, they come back right away. Sometimes, we have to go looking.

This morning, we had to go looking.

Mike walked while I drove, and naturally, once we decided they were lost forever, we returned home to find them on the porch. BAD DOGS!!!

Beau - I'm still trying to figure out what is going on with the flaky crud on his back. It just keeps coming, and I want it resolved before it gets cold.

I brushed him out last night and noticed that the hair was mostly grown back, but the dirty flakey crud is still there.

I put two products on him last night. One was the M-T-G. I know that will lift all the gunk out and leave little mudballs on his back. But it doesn't seem to be having a long term effect.

I also put some T-Zone Wound Cream on him. This is the first time I've used it, so we'll see if that does any good.

Honey has a spot just like it under her mane that I've been fighting for almost 2 years. I've tried fungicide, dandruff shampoo, you name it.

I thought that perhaps Gold Bond Medicated cream might work. Maybe Preparation H? Heck at this point, I'd be willing to use axle grease if it'd help. I've been feeding him flax oil on his senior feed to try to get a handle on it from the inside out.

Any thoughts? It's dry, flakey, itchy.

While brushing Beau out last night, I noticed that he's almost totally filled in across his back. His whither still stick up, but his spine is almost completely covered. The Hole at the top of his pelvis is filling in also, and while he's still hasn't recovered across his butt, he doesn't have that "starved" look.

He will get a regular paste dewormer when the rest of the kids come due in a couple weeks.

Someone at work that I was talking to yesterday said that she had a Morgan gelding get laminitis and to give him comfort, she used that pink styrofoam sheet stuff, cut out pieces a little bigger than his feet, then duct taped it on.

The foam compresses over a week or so, but as inactive as Beau is, I think it might help his comfort level. So maybe this weekend, Beau will get new pink "high heels".

I'll try to get some good picture tonight.