farrier needs vet.

The farrier came today and put some more goo pads in Gypsy's front feet. She's still lame in the hind though. So much so that we couldn't do anything with them. So now it's time to get the vet involved again. The farrier seems to think the pain is not in her hoof but some place else. So i called the vet and got the ok to give her 1 gram of bute twice a day for 3 days and then 1 gram once a day for 3 days then give her some time off of it. We will need to get the vet out with the farrier in order for Gypsy to be sedated and blocked so he can do the work on the hind feet in a safe manner. I'm not sure when this will be, no one can give me an answer. It's going to be hard to get both vet and farrier out at the same time and when i have time off from work. It's hard enough to get one out here by themselves, it will be dam near impossable to get them both. There is good news though, Gypsy's front feet are getting better and the white line is getting better. It's a slow road but i think we can pull through.

For now it seems Gypsy will still be on limited outside time and need her hooves to stay clean and dry. I'm hopeing that the hind lameness is just some soreness and will go away. I'm getting kind of tired of dealing with a lame horse that i can't even ride, but it's so wet and cold outside that i wouldn't be able to ride anyways.

I made a small padock in the back yard for Gypsy to hang out in during the day. It's just a little space that she can use to get outside and move around a bit and get some sun and fresh air. She seems to really like it and since she's now in the back yard i can see her, which i couldn't in the big pasture, so that means i can keep a better eye on her and how she's moving. She also seems to like being close by to everyone and eveything and see the goings on by the house.

long time, no post

Gypsy has been going back and forth from lame to not so lame. We had some front shoes put on her on Oct 30th but a week later she had pulled one shoe and not even a week after that she pulled the other. The mud in the pasture is sucking them off. I'm looking forward to the ground freezing at this point. We had put equi-pak, or pads under the shoes, that did stay on, kinda. She's getting better, but not better enough to ride. Oh well, so much for having a horse i can do things with. It's too cold to really get any good rides in awyways and with hunting season going on, i wouldn't even want to try.

Now that it's getting colder i can no longer run outside in my p.j.'s to quickly feed her. I have to bundle up in warm clothes and then chip ice out of the water buckets. I had to thaw out the water line last night to get water to her. Winter in Maine....gotta love it! I still need to buy a heated water bucket. I'm almost thinking i can get away without it since i only have one horse right now and it's fairly easy to get enough water to her but i kinda want one anyways so she'll keep drinking lots and lots of water.

The farrier is coming tomorrow to put the shoes back on and see what else he can do to make her walk a little better. She's doing ok right now though and i'm not sure if it's because the pads fell out or not. I'll try and take some pics tomorrow and get them up here. I have no new pics right now. In fact, i need to charge my batteries.

I've been spending a fair amount of time in the barn cleaning and when Gypsy is in she seems to like my company. I talk to her and tell her stories, i started reading her a book but with how cold it is outside and how little i'm used to it, it's hard to stay out there for long if i'm not moving and doing something. She likes it when i tell her stories though. Her ears come up and she looks relaxed and will just stand and listen, not even munching on hay, just listening and watching me. I can't wait untill the barn it fixed up and the stalls are safe for horses again, i'll be able to get her a friend, maybe even a friend i can ride. Then she'll have some other equine company.

Well, time to get ready for work.

progress

Gypsy seems to be getting better, she's moving around her small area more. I had to cut her pasture into a small padock so she can't move around much. I feel bad that she was used to having so much room to roam and now she's stuck in a small dirt lot.

Giving her the meds has been easier thanks to apple cider and orange juice! She seems to really like the mix i make and sometimes even looks for more! On friday she will be done all of her meds so that will make life easier for me.

I've been sick with a nasty cold so i haven't done much other then feed her and give meds. i need to give her a good grooming, she's covered in mud, but luckily a little mud on her coat for a few days won't hurt her. She looks like a furry mud ball!

I'll post some pics with my next entry, for now I've felt like such poo that i haven't wanted to do much but sleep.

Gyspy has been doing better, though last night i thought she was going to kill herself in her stall. It was raining badly and the thunder and heavy rain on the roof of the barn was freaking her out a bit. i found apple cider mixed with apple sauce makes it easy to give her her meds.

i cut the pasture in half so she can't move around much, she's not happy with me but this is all for her own good so she'll just have to learn.

bad news from the vet today

The vet came out today and didn't have good news for me. Gypsy is in fact in pain, she has laminitis which is a problem with her hooves. http://www.laminitis.org/laminitis.html

i've been told to not ride her for at least a month or untill spring. She needs to be kept in her stall at night, which she hates and she can't be moving around much.

So this is where Gypsy will be spending a lot of her time.

The vet gave me a ton of meds to give her too. i think she is going to hate me by the end of this. i feel bad but i have to cram all sorts of yucky tasting meds into her. She gets 8 pills of one thing twice a day, 9 pills of something else twice a day and 2 little scoops of powder twice a day.

This is all the meds i got today. i'm a bit overwhelmed by it all. i never realized how hard it is to get a horse to take a pill. Since tonight was the first time i've ever given a horse meds like this i think i did ok. i crushed up all the pills and mixed them with apple sauce and used a syringe to get it all into her. She didn't like it. Then for the powder or Bute (which is a horsey pain med), i mixed that into what little feed she can eat. She didn't like that either. i now have to soak her hay for an hour, which is a huge pain in the ass. Tonight i soaked it in a rubber maid tub loose. i learned my lesson about that, it's very hard to get soaking wet hay moved to where i need it to get it. Next time, aka tomorrow morning, i'll be using a hay net to hold the hay in place and THEN soak it.

This is my new hay soaking bin. The round thing holding the hay under water is a press from an apple cider press that we never use and since i kept tripping over it today and found out how heavy it was, i knew it would be perfect for this. The hay needs to be soaked in order to get some of the sugars out of it since sugars can make her condition worse.

So i have a lot of work ahead of me for a while and Gypsy and i will not be happy with each other for a while.

new blog

So i decided to be a dork and blog about my horse Gypsy and her training. i figure i can use it as a way to keep track of our progress (or lack there of) and know what i need to work on more.

Seeing as i worked all day today and didn't get out to work with Gypsy today this won't be much of a post. Tomorrow the vet comes out to do a check up and give her the shots she needs.

That is all for today.