The horses are taken care of for a while. They've been vetted, trimmed and de-wormed. They got the works this month.
Spirit had his teeth floated a couple of weeks ago. He was definitely in need. The vet showed me the points on Spirit's teeth. It's so weird watching the vet do his power dentistry inside my horse's wide open mouth, held that way by a very odd looking mechanism of a halter. The poor horse slightly swayed under the fog of a sedative and Hubby held the rope keeping Spirit's head steady through the procedure. The results, Spirit is eating much calmer now and appears to be enjoying his grain much better than before.
Looks like the unsightly slobbers are over. The fungus, brought on by this summer's high humidity and extended rains, no longer growing on the leaves of the white clover in our field. I'd never experienced the slobbers with my horses in the 6 years I've had them here. The vet said he's seen it all over the county this year. I'm thankful it only lasted with my horses for a few weeks.
My farrier came yesterday and trimmed up their feet. Always glad to hear my farrier tell me how good their feet are, he rarely has to do anything but trim. They've got good strong feet and for that I am uber thankful!
Our cat, Buddy, continues to work through his asthma. It still seems almost comical to talk about my asthmatic cat. I'd just never heard of it before his problem started. He gets a depo injection once a month, sometimes an antibiotic. I decided a while back to try to keep him as comfortable as possible and as long as he still seems content with his life, that's how we'll leave it. Sooner or later the condition will worsen, as it has already but not enough to where he doesn't want to eat or drink his water or head outside to sit on the deck. He'll tell me when he's tired of it all. Considering we found him abandoned in a box with four other kittens, no bigger than the palm of a hand, eyes closed, and hand fed for weeks until he could eat on his own, helping him as much as I can through the end of his life is my goal. He's a wonderful cat and has had a good nine years with us. Nine years he probably wouldn't have had otherwise.
So, right now, my biggest goal is to try to get in some hay when Hubby is on vacation in a few weeks. Hay supplies are low around here from what I'm hearing. Just peachy! I honestly, and I've said this before, never thought about hay being among the problems a horse owner faces because I always thought hay was one of those things you could always find, easily. Live and learn! In the meantime I've been getting them used to Lucerne's Hi Fiber forage which they do seem to like. Not that I want to feed it to them as a complete forage because that would be very expensive, but as a supplement, it's a definite maybe. I was scared off of hay cubes after Spirit's choke incident, unless I soak them. I decided I don't want to spend time each day soaking the hay cubes if I have other alternatives.
Right now I feel I can relax for a bit. The corral is finally free of mud! The horses are up on all their appointments. The cat had his vet visit the other day. The dogs are doing fine. Hubby seems good too after a bout with numerous seed ticks on his legs, which is a topic for another post some time. The mowing is caught up for at least a week. Today I have the feeling of....ahhhhhhh. Enjoy the day!
