Oh for goodness' sake.

BO texted me this picture of River yesterday, asking me what is up with my horse.

I'm like, awwww, he's so cuddly!  Then she says no, look at his head!  Oooh, he's got some sort of wound.

WTF?  How?  I'm not worried about it; it's not very big or deep and he's already on antibiotics.  I'm just amazed at how he manages to injure himself.

This is what it looked like this morning...

It apparently bled a bit after the picture yesterday.  Now it's dried and fine, other than it being a wound.  The big idiot.

Oh, and I talked to his vet from Cornell yesterday.  The cultures from his cyst were negative, but that doesn't mean anything.  Since he's responding to antibiotics, we're obviously treating it correctly.  He'll be on antibiotics for while yet...  Vet said she likes to keep them on antibiotics until they're sound and xrays show the cyst is gone.  She also said she misses him and that he's a sweet boy.. which they probably say to everyone, but I'm going to take it to heart because he IS a sweet boy.  If it had been The Mare and someone said they missed her and commented on her lovely personality, I would know they were lying.

Still alive

River is doing fine... nothing notable going on.  He's been on antibiotics for a bit over a month now and he's staying on them for a while yet.  Still waiting to hear back from Cornell on a couple things.

He was laying down last night when I got there to give him his medicine...

Awwwwwwww!

Not much of an update

River is doing well.  He's eating, drinking, and pooping.  He lets me give him his medicine without haltering him.

Couple pictures of him....

Awww, such a handsome pony!

Happy Birthday, Striker!

Today is the old man's birthday...  Striker is 27 years old!  Of course, he thinks he's 3 and still on the track...

Lots of pictures!!

Jumping 3'6" for the first and only time.

5 weeks after I broke my leg, surgeon said I was able to be weight-bearing as tolerated.... so I rode Striker.  Obviously.

Perfectest pony ever <3

So good!

Treat face!

Going strong at 25!

I'd been riding for 9 or 10 months, jumping for probably 5-ish months.

Taking a break during broomstick polo.

Picture is from late 2004/early 2005.... Amazing how not-grey he was!

Compare to about 6 months ago:

 

 Reserve champions in the Bareback Division!  His trot is like a pogo stick, so it's extra impressive.

He loves having his face sprayed!  If you try to hose him, he'll just keep grabbing the nozzle so you spray his face.

After a 6+ hour long judged trail ride.

Showing First Level test 1 about 2 years ago.  This is our not-great trot lengthening.

 

Happy birthday to my best buddy!

River is so darn cute I can't handle it.

Last night I got to the barn around 11:30ish to give Riv his antibiotics.  Go to his stall, awwwww, he's laying down!  So I go cuddle with him, and end up half leaning/half laying over him.  Eventually I had to give him his meds, so I was like, what the heck, I'll try giving it while he's laying down... Success!  It's so easy to give antibiotics when the horse is laying down!  Surprisingly, he didn't get up.  Then I go grab the muck bucket and a pitchfork and scoop up his poop.  He sleeps right on top of his pee spot, so no way to get that.  Take out muck bucket, fill a bucket with water to top of River's water.  Grab some hay and grain, give him that.  He's still laying down, dozing.  And I'm like OMFG you are too darn cute!!!!  He doesn't disturb himself when the help comes in to do some housekeeping, he just goes about his business.  Before I left I had to cuddle him some more.  He is the sweetest darn horse in the world!  I love a horse who loves to cuddle.

Huge thanks to everyone!

I've been terrible about replying to comments and thanking everyone for their thoughts/prayers/well wishes.  I want to really, truly, sincerely thank everyone who has been praying for River.  I can't say how much it helped to know there were other people out there who care and were rooting for him.

He's been home for 2 weeks (well, about 9 hours shy of 2 weeks, but close enough) and seems to be on the mend.

Here's video of him from about a week prior to going to Cornell:

Here's a video of him from last night:

He's not sound, but he's improved!  The discharge instructions said not to expect him to get better overnight, but that he should gradually improve, which he has done.

He's still got at least 2 more weeks of antibiotics, but I'm so glad he's doing better!

Probiotics!!! Warning: Post all about poop!

About a week ago, River's poop was getting pretty soft, like pudding.  Normal poop hits the ground with a thud or a thwack.  His poop hit the ground with a nice juicy splat.  There were no individual poop balls, just a big mushy plop.  Which made stall cleaning really easy, because it all stuck together in one clump; no sifting through bedding looking for escaped poo balls!  But of course killing off all the natural gut flora isn't good..  I groomed him last week and when I touched his belly, he tried to kick me.  He does NOT do that!!  So I got the 5 pound container of Probios.  For an average horse, they say to give 10-15g per day.  One rounded scoop is 5g.  I give 4 level scoops, figuring that the overflow from 3 scoops is probably about one scoop.

He's been on it since Thursday or Friday and his poop has improved!

This is his pre-Probios poop..  Not the best representation of his pudding-poo, but you get the idea.  Mushy, shapeless blob.  Picture is two individual poops, so each time he pooped it was one big clump.

And here's his poop after about 4 days of Probios!!  Still not normal poop, but it's more solid and there are a few chunks per instance of pooping, rather than one big blob.  Pictures don't show too well, but pre-poop was much flatter; Probios poop is taller.

I touched, petted, and rubbed his belly... he was kind of like "uh, whatcha doin'?" but he didn't get angry or try to kick me, so obviously his poor wittle tummy is feeling better.

Yay for probiotics!!!  I have to say, I wasn't sure how much good it would do having him on probiotics and antibiotics, especially since the antibiotics are three times a day, so his body never gets a very long break from them.  Much to my surprise, just a few days have made a noticeable difference!

Happy Birthday!!

Happy 14th birthday, River!!

Awwwww, such a pretty princess!

World's Best Weather App

Weather Whiskers!!!  Free in the app store, $0.99 to get it ad free (and the only ads I've seen are asking if you want to pay $0.99 to get rid of ads).

If you love kitties and lolspeak and lolcats, you'll love this app!!!

It automatically pulls up weather for your location, New York City, and Kathmandu (lol).

Here are a few of my favorites so far...

Note:  I have an iPhone, friend has an android (I think...), and she didn't get all the new pictures, so if you don't have an iPhone, you may be missing out.

Hanging in there

Riv's doing pretty well.  He gave me a good scare on Friday..  He wasn't pooping much, because he wasn't eating much because he didn't eat his bute so he was hurting and miserable.  Friday night I syringed him a healthy dose of bute, and Saturday morning he was eating and pooping!

I had ordered more of his antibiotic on Wednesday before I picked him up.  Thursday at like 6PM the order was showing up as "unacknowledged".  I called the compounding pharmacy and they said there was a problem with the order, so I put the doctor (my dad) on the phone to sort it out.  Apparently the problem is that they have a product on the website they can't actually make *rolls eyes*.  Okay fine, got the order fixed, it'll be here Saturday.  Except I had enough from Cornell for 2 doses Friday, which meant he'd miss two doses.  I called a local compounding pharmacy to see if they could make some, but no.  So then I'm like great, I'm going to have to call the Cornell pharmacy in the morning to see if they can get a couple tubes for me and I'll have to drive up after work to pick them up.

Insert my awesome vet!  She called to check on River and I mentioned the chloramphenicol shortage and how I wasn't looking forward to going up to Cornell again.  She was like, hang on, I think I have some, let me pull over somewhere so I can look in my truck... sure enough, she had a couple bottles of 500mg pills!  So instead of driving to Cornell on Friday, I just drove to her house to pick them up.  Yay!!!  Of course, giving a horse 48 disgusting pills is a pretty unpleasant task, but we got it done...  I would put maybe 8 or 10 pills in a 60cc syringe with the end cut off so it was totally open, add some molasses, shove my arm in his mouth, press the plunger, hold his head up, pick up whatever pills he managed to spit out, and repeat.  But still, better than a 7 hour round trip to Cornell for two tubes of chloramphenicol.

Mother Nature.  WTF.  Saturday I got home around 8PM and it was raining/sleeting.  I meant to go out to the barn around 11PM to give Riv his meds, but I fell asleep and woke up around 2AM.  Go outside... there's 6-8 inches of wet, heavy snow on the ground.  No way in the world is my car going to be able to move, so I borrow the old SUV to drive to the barn on completely unplowed roads.... thank goodness for four wheel drive.

For now I'm basically doing self care... since I'm at the barn three times a day, I'm doing his stall cleaning and all his feeding.  It's much easier to keep an eye on how much he's eating, drinking, pooping, and peeing if I'm doing all his care.

His poop has been getting progressively softer; today we reached pudding consistency.  Which is kind of nice for stall cleaning, since it lands in a cohesive blob and then sets up firm enough to be easily picked out with the pitchfork.  Probably going to start him on a probiotic.

Oh, going back in time a bit... when he got to Cornell, he weighed in at 1160 pounds.  What???  I would have guessed him more like 1250!!  I don't know what he weighs now, but I'm sure he's lost a bit because he's not eating as much.

I tried to get a cute picture of him this morning to post, but he wasn't cooperating: