Filed under: things not going to plan

 Sorry for the radio silence, I had meant to follow up with a Sophie update, but decisions are still not completely formed about next steps and I'm boring even myself with all my waffling and vague thoughts. For now, she's having a continued break and is happy and content while I think on the best path forward.

I've been very distracted elsewhere because poor Buck is having some complications with gelding. That's obviously been very upsetting and taking up most of my thoughts.

He's out in the yard basically 24/7 right now because I feel like otherwise he parks in front of the hay net for too many hours of the day and steady movement can only help. He spends most of his day eating trees and shrubberies and following me around, he's less fussed about grass/grazing

If I'm not mistaken, we're almost two weeks out from the vet visit now. There were a few days immediately after of 'Ugh, I don't feel great about this swelling, but it's within the realm of normal and he's bright and happy and running around like normal' so I tried to just relax and go with the program. After all, he's young and healthy and everything I've ever been told is that it's a pretty minor surgery with minimal chance of complication.

 Then suddenly last Wednesday night it really wasn't OK at all.  Things got nasty fast. Everything swelled up twice what it had been. The drainage that had previously felt like it was in the realm of normal turned into a flow of horrible looking stuff complete with chunks of infected tissue. The poor little guy was really depressed and in a lot of pain. I've normally got a pretty strong stomach, but when it's my horses that goes out the window. Don't even talk to G about it, he was already having some manly sympathy around the whole thing and now it's basically the stuff of guy nightmares.

Here's a picture of some lilacs

and a sunset

We are starting to see improvement with continued antibiotics and bute. It's nowhere near resolved. I'm optimistic the worst is behind us but I'm also still not feeling great about the situation. I trust the vet but I'd feel better if she was local and could come check him out in person because I'm a worrier and read too much. 

Playing wild stallions a few weeks ago

I think I'm going to opt out of gelding procedures in general for the rest of my life. It's been rough. The actual procedure for Reggie didn't go smoothly at all, and now this with Buck isn't giving me the warm fuzzies either. Mares or existing geldings only from now on, please!

The one silver lining in all of this? Buck is an absolute certified angel, like you couldn't ask for a better patient. I know he was G's pick and 'his' horse, but it's a not-so-secret secret around here that there is a conflict of interest and he is my favorite pony while G "has no favorites'' but is quite partial to Sophie ;)

Iz friend

I'm used to mares who choose violence and hold epic grudges if they're even slightly inconvenienced or uncomfortable, so maybe my standards are low. Buck is a star regardless, though. This morning I just walked up in the field with my silver honey spray and fly repellent and jar of swat and antibiotic pills he was like 'ok lady, do what you gotta do'. No halter, no worries. He also just eats his meds right up without me having to get super creative. Easy and low fuss is absolutely unheard of around these parts so you can bet he's being told how wonderful he is multiple times a day.

Happy muddy pony on his first birthday a few weeks ago. He's feeling pretty sad right now and I hate that for him.

Shout out to Reggie too, I thought for sure I was going to need to separate them (and stress poor Buck out further) but he's been very respectful and has put his normal super intense self on hold. No bullying, no trying to roughhouse, not even any generic destruction of objects. He's scaled back his energy level to match Buck and is being a very good and supportive friend. We don't admit Reggie is a good boy out loud around here, though, because compliments go straight to his little rock star head.

Looking very civilized. Good boy, Reggie.

Fingers crossed for some normality soon, I'm going to sleep a lot better once Buck is healing and feeling more like himself. We're not quite there yet, but I feel like we're trending better. The big summer field around the corner is waiting for them, just as soon as Buck is feeling well enough.

Vet Day

 

Pony kindergarten didn't happen last week because I somehow caught pneumonia a couple of weeks ago and have been basically sleeping and feeling sorry for myself. I also missed the clinic I signed up for last weekend, which stinks, I feel like I've been on a roll for a year or two with signing up for clinics only to be unable to attend.

This week pony kindergarten also didn't happen because they got gelded that day instead. Fun times! I've had colts before but it's been a while. I didn't remember it being an overly big deal and wasn't worried about the appointment (I paid for college by being a vet assistant so you'd think I'd be OK) but the experience felt really hard this time around...definitely emotions involved because they're my horses, but also the actual procedure didn't go super smoothly for Tradey. Before you worry, it all turned out fine. But turns out he's just kind of impossible to sedate, so even with draft horse quantities of sedatives he was still randomly waking up and flailing and groaning and it all felt dramatic and gory and took way longer than I would have liked. Then of course he was on his feet way sooner than he needed to be despite everyone's best efforts to keep him quiet, and was quite upset to see his buddy Buck down for the count. 

Grazing quietly last night.

I'm probably making it sound like a nightmare and logically it was fine, the vet team is great and calm and professional - just as the owner it was tough to see him struggling so hard and I think if there is a next time I will opt to take them to the clinic and not be present. Husband G was there to assist with holding recovering ponies (Sophie got her annual teeth and vaccines too so we had three sleepy ponies to keep an eye on) and he was visibly upset which just added to the feelings. You know how you're barely holding it together and then if one person cracks you're done for? I was feeling it. Poor guy didn't sign up for this sh!t. So, current feelings are 0/10 would not recommend, but glad it's done and over with. We're two days out and both boys are doing well, just a little quieter than normal.  Hopefully by this weekend they'll be back to their normal activity levels and pony kindergarten attendance will resume.

Buck practicing for kindergarten last week

Sophie got her check up too, and after the dramatics and worry over the last visit, it was decided she probably strained a muscle in her right hindquarter a few weeks ago. A huge relief. She is barely reactive to it now, and was declared sound, so has the green light to get back to work. I've got a lot of thoughts incoming, but I'll save that for the next post.

Sleeping off the sedatives with her head propped on the hay bag