Hey Lady, Have a Happy New Year!

Volunteer Tina Hillman and I love to visit the herd in the pasture.

Hero welcomed us on this day with open arms (mouth).

Butterscotch was very polite. And King just wanted to find some more hay.

Tina bought us a fantastic Christmas present. Fly Masks! Many of them! brand new! One of our favorite chores during the summer is to take the masks out to the pasture and put them on the horses. They pretty much come over to us one by one and put their heads down to get the masks on. Then they go back to eating and make room for the next horse in line to get masked. Ah summer. I am ready already.

CC the Christmas Cat

Two years ago when my sister came for Christmas, we met Saint Nick, the little horse that was left for dead in the road ditch.

his story is on our website http://www.doublehphorses.org/.

Last year, my sister didn't come for Christmas. But Eli the cat did. I think you can find him in here in a post from last December possibly.

This year, we met CC. Our new Christmas Cat. She just magically appeared in our barn. As friendly as can be. This is how most of my 10 barn cats came to live here. Just magically appeared in the barn one day. I usually wait for a few weeks to make sure they really like it here. Then I take them to the Vet. shots, dewormed, spayed/neutered. I have had the same cat herd here for years. We don't do the kitten thing any more. And other people who live on acreages shouldn't do the kitten thing any more either. It makes me mad when these cats show up here. They aren't my cats. I didn't cause them to be born. If you allow your farm cats to reproduce, do you think your neighbors like it when the cats show up at their houses? especially if your neighbors are responsible like I am and make sure their cats are altered. And if you have enough kittens, I know they get sick and most of them do not live. Why not just get the adults altered? They will stick around, they are fantastic mousers. Mine are anyway. And their food is not really very expensive. A couple of shots a year, deworming from time to time, pretty inexpensive mousers. And when I control their health and population this way, they are quite a healthy bunch.

I agree with Bob Barker. Please have your cats and dogs spayed and neutered! Just becuase we live in the country does not mean we have an excuse to be irresponsible about this.

And while it makes me mad when these animals show up here, I know it is not the animals' fault. I feel sorry for them. And so I will try to give them a home here. No sense burdening the other animal shelters with more unwanted pets.

This is one of my Christmas wishes. That more people who live in the country will come out of the dark ages on this topic and get their cats spayed and neutered! Thank you for listening.

Update on Star's tongue

Star's tongue situation seems to be all better. I gave her her medicine for a week just like the Doctor ordered. After 2 days Star seemed entirely back to normal. No drooling, no sliming, normal eating, no more moping. I have been instructed many many times by the Vet though, to continue the meds. for the entire prescribed time. They will fight off infection etc. I believe the day the Vet came out and flushed the hole in Star's tongue, she must have flushed out whatever was in there causing the problem. It was a bit of an unusual situation, but Dr. Jensen got it right again! Star's temp. was normal throughout this ordeal. She was pooping normal. She was not eating normal though. and the drool and slime certainly was not normal. None of us likes Vet bills. But it's important that we, as horse owners, notice what is Not Normal in our horses. Monitor the situation closely. It never hurts to call the Vet right away and tell them the symptoms. Learn to check temp. and other vitals. And know when the situation really does require a Vet appointment, like this one did. There was no way anyone could have found that hole on the underside of Star's tongue, without the Vet equipment to hold the mouth open and shine the light in there.

Anyway, Star seems back to normal with the herd.

These photos were taken yesterday. It was still plenty cold, but the sunshine warmed things up enough for a romp and sunbath. Before the below zero temps set in again. Then it was back to the barn for supper...and breakfast this morning. All 16 are still in the barn. But it's climbed slightly above zero now, at 11 a.m., so I think we'll do lunch outside. It's a sunny day again!

Below, Star in between Rocky (well, part of his hip anyway) and Hiroki (Hero), 2 rescued horses.

Lovely Lily

Here is an update on Lovely Lily. We rescued Lily last February, not even a year ago. Her friend had already died of starvation. But Lily somehow survived. I thought about her a lot during these below zero temps. I thought about how different this Christmas will be for her, compared to last year. Lily is a super nice horse, beautiful, gentle, she loves people. I cannot believe her owners would just let her and her friend stand out there in the wide open South Dakota Winter with no food and water and shelter. She is registered too! APHA grullo color. Just beautiful. I don't know how these people can sleep at night. If they would just hang a poster up somewhere, someone would want these nice beautiful registered horses. But to just leave them there helpless, suffering, didn't they ever think about them at night, when it was 20 below zero? Didn't they ever think about them? Well, we did what we could. And Law Enforcement in this County, Brookings County (SD), was great. The person who neglected these horses did jail time and actually still owes us $600 and some dollars in restitution. I need to call the County Clerk of Courts and see about that.

These photos were taken today. The snow and trees really did make beautiful background.

updates on Star, Prince & Princess

In a previous post, I think in November, anyway, not so long ago, I said that Princess can't go out in the pasture anymore. But now she can! The snow cover makes the ground softer and she can go out and run and play without getting too sore. (she is navicular. the neurectomy surgery helped some but not as much as we had hoped). So she has limited activity. But as long as the ground is kind of softer, I will let her and her half-brother Prince go out and play during the day and keep them in soft stalls at night, so they can lie down and rest their poor bones & joints. These are not old horses! They are only 6 years old. But they lived in a state of starvation and just deplorable conditions with 100 or so other horses of all ages and sizes, for the first year and a half of their poor little lives. Of course their bones and joints did not develop normally! I don't know if Princess is naviulcar because of that. No one knows that. But Prince, who lived just like her as a baby, has severe arthritis already in his hocks. They are only 6. This is not normal. And what are the chances. I think I would bet on malnourishment.

Anyway, they came to live at DoubleHP when they were about a year and a half old. They were skin and bones and full of worms.

But after a year of rehab, they seemed to be doing great. Especially Princess. She grew a lot. She is a really big horse. Prince didn't grow as much. And his mouth/teeth were slow in developing too. He has his teeth floated approx. twice a year. I can always tell when it's time. He'll be standing there looking kind of mopey when everyone else is enjoying their food. He'll start to drop weight. And then we get his teeth floated and everything's good (in his mouth anyway) for another 6 months or so.

Here is Prince. Looking very handsome yesterday as he always does.

When they were 3 (we waited, because they were so far behind in their growing), they were oh so nice and easy to train as riding horses. Prince even started going to shows! But then, little by little, signs of lameness. on and off. both of them. Princess first and then Prince. Xrays showed us what we feared. Princess is navicular, and Prince has arthritis. Really bad arthritis. We keep them as happy and comfortable as can be, and they will have an excellent home here with us for as long as their quality of life is good. They are just a joy to have around. and oh so beautiful. here they are playing yesterday, right before grain time.

UPDATE ON STAR: Star seems improved. She eats everything at night. She ate some straight alfalfa this morning, which she hasn't wanted to do probably because it is a little coarse and probably irritates the owie on her tongue. Normally of course this would be her first choice. But right now her first choice is something softer, so I am feeding her a grass/alfalfa mix which is really soft. She didn't eat everything in her stall this morning, but she ate enough. and drank and pooped. and I didn't see any drool or slime! So I let her go out with the herd for the afternoon. And I'll put her back in her stall tonight so I can observe her some more. I am not going to call the Vet for tongue Xrays so far. I think she is better, not worse. But we'll do some good observation tonight to be sure.

Star has a hole in her tongue

Let us have an educational type of blog today.

About a week ago I noticed something wasn't quite right with Star. She is not a rescued horse. I owned her before we started DoubleHP Horse Rescue. Anyway, she would nibble on her food, go stand in a corner, and drool. And slimey stuff would come out of her mouth. She would hang around the barn when the others were out. She just wasn't normal. But her temp. was normal. There was nothing coming out of her nose, her breathing sounded good. Just the slimey stuff and a little bit mopey and not eating quite right. I called the Vet. He said maybe she bit her tongue, maybe she had a bad tooth, maybe something lodged in her mouth somewhere, maybe a poke or scrape or scratch. But the fact that she had a normal temp, was eating some, was drinking, was pooping, we didn't figure it was an emergency. I kept her in because I didn't know for sure what we were dealing with. I didn't know if she had something the others could catch. It didn't really seem like that, but you never know. Two days later things were about the same, so I had the Vet come out. It took a while, but they found a hole on the underside of her tongue. Dr. Jensen looked hard for something, because right away she thought her tongue felt "thick" like swelling. The hole was maybe not quite as big around as the tip of my pinky finger. And not real deep. But it was evidently sore. So we still have no idea what happened. But at least we found what is probably the cause of Star's abnormal behavior. My instructions from the Vet: 2 grams of bute daily, and 16 tabs twice daily. Observation, and if things are not improved in 2 days, bring her in to X-ray her tongue. To see if there is something in it. Dr. Jensen flushed the hole in Star's tongue while she was here. But there was no way to know really if there was/is anything stuck in there.

That was yesterday afternoon. I let Star go out with the herd for a while today, and she is in her stall with neighbors tonight. I do think she ate better tonight, and I really didn't notice any slime except for when I gave her her meds. Tomorrow I will observe closely. And if she does not eat well, or if I notice slime, I will call and make an appointment to take her to the Vet to have her tongue X-rayd. The hole is on a place on the tongue where I couldn't have found it myself. The Vet tranqued Star, put that metal device in her mouth to hold it open, rinsed, and shined her light in there. That is the only way the hole would have been found. I encounter horse owners all the time who say something isn't quite right with their horse. They are hard to bridle, or they don't want to do anything but walk or back up or rear up once they do have the bit in, or they seem skinny or sad or they eat real slow or this or that. I always suggest dental checks. People with young horses often think this is crazy. They still think dental checks are only for old horses. Bah! My young horses need dental work more often than my old guys do! I can't remember the exact percentage, something like 80 or 90 some percent. That professional trainers agreed upon. Whenever there was some sort of behavioral issue during training, it is related to a dental/mouth issue 80 or 90 some percent of the time. That's a lot! That's worth having checked out!

Anyway, here is how we try to give horses their meds. here.

We try to work with all of the horses here so they can be handled by their nose/head. I can lead most of them around by their head. Many of them, including Star, would not have to be haltered for this type of activity. Though there is certainly nothing wrong with putting a halter and lead rope on. And it is safer that way, if you or the horse is not used to this type of thing.

But here's how it is with Star:

Here are the pills she has to take, 16 of them, twice a day.

Here, Ralphie demonstrates the size of one pill.

While Newman guards the bottle.

Here's the type of tool that works best for me as a "pill giver." It's just a big syringe with a hole cut out of it. Make sure it slides fairly easy but that it stays in place until you want it to slide/push.

This size seems to work about right for me. It's 35 ml. and you can see about how much warm water I put in it. Looks like about to the 15 mark.

Then you just drop in all 16 tablets (in Star's case it's 16 twice a day, your Vet might prescribe a different amount for your horse.) and as long as the water is warm, they dissolve right away. And it will look like this.

This is the way I like to approach the horse for this activity. Same thing if I am deworming with paste dewormer, or giving bute paste. I am right handed, and this is what works best for me. Although almost everything else I do with the horse's head, like putting the halter and bridle on, etc., I like to do from the left side. It all depends on what my right hand needs to be doing. Of course when you are doing any of this you have to make sure you don't get hit by the horse's head. Or stepped on. You should always have an experienced person help you with any of this stuff the first few times you have to do it.

I like to rub the end of the syringe on the horse's side of nose and corner of mouth. I make sure she is okay with it before I go sticking it in. I really don't want to waste it all just because the horse is afraid of it.

Then I go ahead and insert it in the very corner of her mouth
and as long as she stays calm about it, I slide it back pretty far and gently push the medicine out and into Star's mouth. I might even want to lift her head up just a little, so the medicine doesn't all just fall back out. You want the stuff to stay in the horse.
Once Star has taken her medicine and I know she has swallowed it, I rub her nose a lot or wherever she likes to be scratched and tell her "good girl." I am not a big treat giver, but this might not be a bad time for a little bit of a treat. That medicine tastes icky, and something that tastes good will help them start eating their hay. I have noticed that after I give a horse bute or something that probably tastes pretty bad like that, they don't want to eat right away.

Anyway, here we are petting and saying "good girl."

and I might even rub the "pill giver" on her a little bit more, just so I know for sure she's going to be okay with it the next time we do it too.

Volunteer Tina with Minerva and Princess

For those of you new to our blog: we take journal entries from our website doublehphorses.org and transfer them to this blog. To make room on our website.

journal entry from Nov. 14, 2008

We don't get a lot of regular horse-chore type volunteers at DoubleHP. Especially as Winter approaches. So whenever one lasts for more than a couple of months, we feel extremely thankful. Tina Hillman from Sioux Falls comes once a week, she trudges through the mud and snow and whatever else is here, cleaning up the horse stalls and yards and arenas. And every once in a while she has time to just enjoy the horses. Today Tina, along with Minerva and Princess, helped me practice with my new camera.
Both horses were rescued from starvation.

do you think Minerva likes being brushed?

Princess has one blue eye.

Both Minerva and Princess have some wild looking eyes.

Princess doesn't get to run out in the pasture anymore. She has to stay up in the barn area and not put too much extra stress on her feet. She is navicular. Her surgery did help, but if she plays too hard she gets sore again. She is not cooped up in a stall though. She has a big pen with soft ground and shelter at all times. And always at least one horse friend in an adjacent pen, so she does get some herd-type interaction. I do think she would like to go run in the pasture, but I also think she understands why she can't. She is a very happy, beautiful, well-behaved horse. And we are very happy to have her living here with us.