It's been a while since I posted about the horses, but they are continuing to recover from their short bout of laminitis. Amongst the daily turmoil of deciding how much food and freedom they could have, Theoden has lost some condition. Their behaviour has been exceptional, quietly accepting any restrictions placed on them and making the most of any extensions to their boring routine. I have absolutely hated it.
We have been following the vet and hoof trimmer's advice to the letter - box rest, restricted turnout, soaked hay, vitamins and minerals, and at last we are now in a position to turn them out for about an hour on some longer grass which has been pre-grazed by Pie and Patsy. Of course I have been worried that those two would also get laminitis from the grass which is still an irridescent green. The cost of all this has been quite high too. Hopefully our last expense will be rubber matting from the paddock gate round to the barn which is an essential hiding place from the sun and insects in the summer.
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| Hardly beyond the gate before heads go down |
To date we have had:
Vet bill £1,000 + - and another visit in October
Shavings £250
Boots £185 (interestingly Theoden's hooves have gone up a size since going barefoot five years ago
Pads £60
Additonal fencing: £200
Additional feed and vitamins: £50
Luckily we had some things in stock, like last year's hay, some sets of boots, fencing materials and so on - and three hours a day to look after them. We have been incredibly fortunate to have Nathalie to do the morning shift and at long last I am strong enough to do everything except the poo-picking.
In the end I have concluded that the biggest contribution to this episode was the effect of stones on what have become thin soles due to the weird grass!
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| Fitting dense pads into their boots |
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| Our 'small' top paddock now divided into Wildebeest pens where the horses will eventually go back and forth once it has been pre-grazed. Hopefully, after that we can go back to a bit of normality for the winter. |
