Birker2020
Well-Known Member
My fantastic y.o of the retirement yard where Lari is has contacted me to say the farrier has seen to Lari and has discovered deep thrush in his central salcus. He had looked at him last week and said he has very thin soles from the constant wet environment.
Between her and the farrier they have disinfected it and put clay in there and she's advised this will need to be done daily.
We now suspect this is what has made him lame. I consulted over the phone with the vet last week and arranged xrays of his foot and leg again where it was kicked previously as we're not entirely sure where the lameness stems from. Xrays are for this afternoon just to make sure there's nothing else going on there. Vet advised in the meantime two bute a day which he was having in his breakfast until this morning.
Perhaps it's a bit of an overkill having xrays but I have been toying with the idea for the past few weeks of bringing him back 'home' to the yard where my stable is held, for good this time. I don't think he's coping with life in retirement and the fact it's so wet all the time and he's living out 24/7 isn't helping as his feet never have the chance to dry out. If the xrays show what they showed in Baileys foot then we've reached the end of the road and he will be pts and we know we've done everything we could have done.
My partners keen for me to wait until the spring to see if he picks up before we consider bringing him home as we had many wet weather issues last year with abscesses, mud fever, rain scald and weight loss, ripped rugs, a nasty kick but as soon as the weather got better and the sun came up and the fields dried up he recovered really well. It was really bad heavy rain if you remember and the river burst it banks so horses were on very wet grazing in places. Trouble is every winter I will have this problem so leaving him there doesn't help long term.
If he comes back 'home' that will be it. No more retirement. I feel he'd cope better resting on a nice shavings bed at night, keratex on his soles to harden them, having a one to one contact as before. Plenty of hay and low starch/sugar feed, and minimal mud (without 23 horses passing through his field churning it up) like at retirement as although theres a hundred acres with most of it dry, inevitably they wait in the mud to come in to the hardstanding and hay feeders at night. And Lari often takes himself to a particularly marshy area of the field to have a munch on the nice grass there and a good roll.
I don't think he'd miss it, retirement, if I'm honest he'd thrive like he did when I looked after him for the first18 months before he went to retirement.
And being honest, I'd also welcome having a horse to look after again. My life is very mundane and empty in the evenings after work. I still plan buying another horse when a stable becomes available and can afford and have the time for two, but everything I've seen for sale is lame or has issues. I am riding something once a week so won't feel like I did last time either. I need to save as well as I've been eating into my savings and it will take the pressure off me. Eventually I'd like to aim for him and a new one turned out together.
Please no nasty comments.
I'm still having the xrays as they're paid up front for. Would you leave till the spring and assess and let him have a long last summer there before bringing home or bring home now if xrays ok?
Between her and the farrier they have disinfected it and put clay in there and she's advised this will need to be done daily.
We now suspect this is what has made him lame. I consulted over the phone with the vet last week and arranged xrays of his foot and leg again where it was kicked previously as we're not entirely sure where the lameness stems from. Xrays are for this afternoon just to make sure there's nothing else going on there. Vet advised in the meantime two bute a day which he was having in his breakfast until this morning.
Perhaps it's a bit of an overkill having xrays but I have been toying with the idea for the past few weeks of bringing him back 'home' to the yard where my stable is held, for good this time. I don't think he's coping with life in retirement and the fact it's so wet all the time and he's living out 24/7 isn't helping as his feet never have the chance to dry out. If the xrays show what they showed in Baileys foot then we've reached the end of the road and he will be pts and we know we've done everything we could have done.
My partners keen for me to wait until the spring to see if he picks up before we consider bringing him home as we had many wet weather issues last year with abscesses, mud fever, rain scald and weight loss, ripped rugs, a nasty kick but as soon as the weather got better and the sun came up and the fields dried up he recovered really well. It was really bad heavy rain if you remember and the river burst it banks so horses were on very wet grazing in places. Trouble is every winter I will have this problem so leaving him there doesn't help long term.
If he comes back 'home' that will be it. No more retirement. I feel he'd cope better resting on a nice shavings bed at night, keratex on his soles to harden them, having a one to one contact as before. Plenty of hay and low starch/sugar feed, and minimal mud (without 23 horses passing through his field churning it up) like at retirement as although theres a hundred acres with most of it dry, inevitably they wait in the mud to come in to the hardstanding and hay feeders at night. And Lari often takes himself to a particularly marshy area of the field to have a munch on the nice grass there and a good roll.
I don't think he'd miss it, retirement, if I'm honest he'd thrive like he did when I looked after him for the first18 months before he went to retirement.
And being honest, I'd also welcome having a horse to look after again. My life is very mundane and empty in the evenings after work. I still plan buying another horse when a stable becomes available and can afford and have the time for two, but everything I've seen for sale is lame or has issues. I am riding something once a week so won't feel like I did last time either. I need to save as well as I've been eating into my savings and it will take the pressure off me. Eventually I'd like to aim for him and a new one turned out together.
Please no nasty comments.
I'm still having the xrays as they're paid up front for. Would you leave till the spring and assess and let him have a long last summer there before bringing home or bring home now if xrays ok?
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) I'm just telling you what was said at the time, not because I feel like I'm a saint, or a rescuer, or an angel or even a philanthropist or anything else. I'm just me.......