The Ozzy Diaries

This is just brilliant!

I hope you will keep up with the updates.
I said on the original thread that I thought he was a cracking little horse.

The original owner, IMHO, didn't have the right people around her to help and support her. I didn't say that on the op as I didn't want to make her feel worse.

I would have made an offer on Ozzy if I was in the position to. There's just something about him that got to me.

Glad he is getting on well
 
16 July

Ozzy has been doing great since last week. He is very quick to learn and making lots of progress with his groundwork.
Yesterday we tacked him up and led him out for a walk (I was riding AJ, OH was leading Ozzy). He was almost falling asleep when he was tacked up; once out on the lane he was relaxed, calm and extremely well behaved.

Today he had his feet trimmed and we had no idea what he would be like. Turned out that he was better behaved than AJ and Snoopy! No issue at all with the EP - nippers, rasps, no problem. He had to have a fair bit of flare removed and his feet look so much better now!

However...
The bad news is that he may have mild CPL. He has small lumps but it's hard to see very much as he still has quite a lot of feather.
I was wanting to clip the feathers off anyway; we know he is OK to have his body clipped, but not sure about the legs. We will just have to try and see what happens.
Feeling a bit down about it, although I know that lots of people on here have horses with CPL and I've been reading up on management. Have ordered marigold and cleavers too.

So overall things have been going really, really well...he is turning into quite an affectionate little man and he looks very happy and settled. OH will get on board soon (will update once this has happened!)
It's just unfortunate that he seems to have this issue. Vet will be coming out to do a dental for all three boys, hopefully soon. We can then discuss the CPL.

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Rigs had some CPL when he came. He still has it, of course, but it hasn't progressed at all and, as the skin is cleaned and oiled every day, the skin around it isn't as thickened so it doesn't look as bad.

His big breakthrough came when we added a little patio to his stable so he didn't stand in as much. I think the CPL is partly caused by thickened skin and partly by bad lymphatic circulation. Both were addressed and it hasn't been an issue.

His legs are also clipped so I can keep tabs on it.

It all sounds great of Ozzy!!!
 
Red-1 said:
Rigs had some CPL when he came. He still has it, of course, but it hasn't progressed at all and, as the skin is cleaned and oiled every day, the skin around it isn't as thickened so it doesn't look as bad.

His big breakthrough came when we added a little patio to his stable so he didn't stand in as much. I think the CPL is partly caused by thickened skin and partly by bad lymphatic circulation. Both were addressed and it hasn't been an issue.

His legs are also clipped so I can keep tabs on it.

It all sounds great of Ozzy!!!
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Thanks for this, Red, very encouraging. I've applied to join the Facebook CPL group.
Ozzy has 24/7 turnout and does lots of walking! Hopefully, soon we'll be able to ride him out and get more exercise in.
But first we need to get those legs clipped...
 
So many cobs have CPL, once you’ve got the hang of it , it’s not too much hard work to keep on top of. I’ll try and post the before and afters on management but key was only feeding TB food (no added anything) , marigolds and cleavers , certraben moisturiser and good mite treatment for a few weeks (stinky lime sulphur gross but does the job!)
 
motherof2beasts! said:
So many cobs have CPL, once you’ve got the hang of it , it’s not too much hard work to keep on top of. I’ll try and post the before and afters on management but key was only feeding TB food (no added anything) , marigolds and cleavers , certraben moisturiser and good mite treatment for a few weeks (stinky lime sulphur gross but does the job!)
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Thank you! For his bucket feeds he just has soaked grass pellets with Honeychop Lite & Healthy, plus oily herbs & a small amount of linseed.

Your photos are amazing! I've ordered M&C and will be ordering the other bits and pieces.

My immediate concern is whether he'll let us clip his legs. He doesn't seem too badly affected at the moment (literally two small lumps at either side near to the fetlock on each leg) and we haven't actually seen anything, so I'm hoping he is not too sore and will co-operate. He was certainly very co-operative with the EP today, which I'm taking as a good sign.
 
Nancykitt said:
Thank you! For his bucket feeds he just has soaked grass pellets with Honeychop Lite & Healthy, plus oily herbs & a small amount of linseed.

Your photos are amazing! I've ordered M&C and will be ordering the other bits and pieces.

My immediate concern is whether he'll let us clip his legs. He doesn't seem too badly affected at the moment (literally two small lumps at either side near to the fetlock on each leg) and we haven't actually seen anything, so I'm hoping he is not too sore and will co-operate. He was certainly very co-operative with the EP today, which I'm taking as a good sign.
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Rigs also had mallenders and was initially uncooperative for clipping. I believe he was sedated before I had him, and he was still troublesome. I did it every day, just a bit at a time, using positive reinforcement, and he soon cottoned on that clippers meant treats.

For treats it had to be low value stuff as he also had EMS and was recovering from lami!
 
Nancykitt said:
Thank you! For his bucket feeds he just has soaked grass pellets with Honeychop Lite & Healthy, plus oily herbs & a small amount of linseed.

Your photos are amazing! I've ordered M&C and will be ordering the other bits and pieces.

My immediate concern is whether he'll let us clip his legs. He doesn't seem too badly affected at the moment (literally two small lumps at either side near to the fetlock on each leg) and we haven't actually seen anything, so I'm hoping he is not too sore and will co-operate. He was certainly very co-operative with the EP today, which I'm taking as a good sign.
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Fingers crossed he makes minimal fuss. I’ve just ordered the Wahl kmc + cordless clippers for legs, not tried yet but rave reviews for CPL legs .
 
Well, we've just tried to clip Ozzy and it was a total disaster.

We know that Ozzy has had his body clipped in the past, but clearly not his legs.

Thank goodness we were both kitted up with gloves and hats or at least one of us would be looking at a serious injury now. It's not just that he stamps around with his front legs, it's that he brings his hind up with a pretty accurate aim as you're touching his fronts. We've had two horses who didn't like their legs being clipped (both OK now) but none of them were anything like this bad.

He will need to be sedated and I'm not sure we can afford for a vet to come out here (we are a long way from the vet!) every 6-8 weeks. We are waiting for the vet to come up and do a dental on all three but the vets only tend to come up here if they've got enough clients to make it worthwhile.

We're definitely up for managing the CPL but at the moment his feather is horrendous, he almost certainly has mites and there's really nothing we can do about it.

This is really rubbish.
 
Nancykitt said:
Well, we've just tried to clip Ozzy and it was a total disaster.

We know that Ozzy has had his body clipped in the past, but clearly not his legs.

Thank goodness we were both kitted up with gloves and hats or at least one of us would be looking at a serious injury now. It's not just that he stamps around with his front legs, it's that he brings his hind up with a pretty accurate aim as you're touching his fronts. We've had two horses who didn't like their legs being clipped (both OK now) but none of them were anything like this bad.

He will need to be sedated and I'm not sure we can afford for a vet to come out here (we are a long way from the vet!) every 6-8 weeks. We are waiting for the vet to come up and do a dental on all three but the vets only tend to come up here if they've got enough clients to make it worthwhile.

We're definitely up for managing the CPL but at the moment his feather is horrendous, he almost certainly has mites and there's really nothing we can do about it.

This is really rubbish.
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Can you call vets and collect some Sedalin? My vets will authorise over phone , save the call out fee. The mare in the pics was hideous with legs and what we found under was a shock, but she’s good as gold now with having it done so fingers crossed for you x
 
Sorry to hear that you've hit a bump in the road with Ozzy. I bought a cob with thick feather who had bad mud fever (and probably mites) and who I knew needed sedated to be clipped. Like Ozzy he was scarily quick and accurate with his hinds even attempting to clip his front legs. I took his feather off with scissors, it wasn't particularly pretty but it made it possible to see exactly what was going on with his skin and treat accordingly. And after a week it didn't look too bad! I did a lot of desensitising with him, sort of a clicker approach and while it took a long time he became fine to clip although had to be untied and in a large space. He had the worst reaction to clipping I'd ever known, just setting off a small pair of trimmers a reasonable distance from his stable had him standing double barrelling at the stable door!

You are doing such a great job with him.
 
Once they’ve been up to to the teeth (which if they sedate him for them I’d take the opportunity to whip the feathers off at that point) would the vets be happy to prescribe some dormosedan for him?

It tends to be fairly effective (it worked equivalent to IV sedation on my rather challenging Welsh D) and if it works well would give you a way to sedate without actually having the vet out. You do tend to need to leave them to chill for 20-30 minutes whilst it takes effect.

Would expect he’ll improve over time if the reason for him not being happy about it is CPL / mites and if he’s more comfortable once you’re on top of that hopefully you can work on getting him happier about leg clipping
 
He seems like overall a willing chap quick to learn, hopefully with a bit of time and patience you’ll be able to train the clippers.
It could easily be that whatever is lurking under that feather is uncomfortable so once you are on top of it he will be more obliging.
Domosedan gel is you friend.
This is a minor blip not a full scale disaster!
 
I think you could probably let him off the hook for his behaviour today, CPL can be painful and even my kind sweet-natured elderly cob would have had a meltdown if I went in with the clippers.
Start off using scissors, it won't look smart but its will let you see what is going on with his skin and how thickened it is too.

Eta: This stuff is a lifesaver for CPL, itchy feather and mites! https://www.auchengreeclydesdales.com/store/p130/leg-oil-plus.html
 
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I think with mallanders or CPL, it can make them understandably tricky to have their legs clipped. My boy you can clip in the middle of the yard with no head collar on, but even touching his front legs when he first arrived was a big no and was met with nifty cow kicks! I wouldn’t have been able to clip him.

It’s a bit warm at the moment, but I find the pig oil and sulphur works wonders for easing the scabs out of the hair (this might be different if it’s CPL).
 
I did a little bit with scissors last week just so we could get a peek at his hooves ahead of the EP visit. I had to give up after about 20 seconds. Ozzy is very handy with his legs and it was just too dangerous.
He is fine with clippers on the body - we tried this today and there was no problem at all. Also OK at the top of the leg. Get to the knee and he goes pretty hysterical.

He now won’t let me anywhere near him! He is obviously upset about this morning, even though we didn’t chastise him in any way.

We need to get a look at these lumps asap so it looks like some sort of sedation will be required. Once we’ve seen what we’re dealing with, we can come up with a plan going forward.
 
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