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.
