3 Legged Lame
It’s been a week and doesn’t seem to be willing to slow down yet.
Sick cows, calves that wont nurse, and just one thing after another. Then I went out to feed this morning and Juniper came limping over to the fence. Just what I needed. It took awhile to see what had happened. Blood and puss were running down the back of her leg. There was an injury up there somewhere but I couldn’t see it clearly. I made a call to the vet. She was in the country but they would send her this way when she got back.
I brought both fillies in and made an effort to catch them for the first time since they’ve been here. They’re skittish still and not sure about us. I offered handfulls of grass, it was more than they could resist. Penny let me catch her first. I fed her and petted her and tied her out of the way so I could mess with June.
June was wonderful about haltering once she decided to stand still. Then calm for me to look at the leg. Mostly I didn’t want to mess with it too much. Just see what was there for sure. I was going to have to let her go until the vet was actually coming and wanted to be able to catch her again. So I looked, got pictures, petted, fed, and turned her loose.
The vet called late in the afternoon to say she would be on her way. The horses did not want caught again. The kids came along and we ran them into a small pen where I convinced June to let me catch her. Penny was still mad about having been tied for a few minutes.
The vet quickly and quietly sedated June then started investigating. Somehow she had gotten a hole in the back side of her right elbow. The vet had her whole finger in there, it was big. No idea how she managed that. It’s a difficult place to get to much less poke a hole. As she was working Penny brushed against her hind end and knocked June down. So we held her down until she just laid there. She stayed flat out while the vet cleaned it out good and generally doctored her.
While she was down I decided to have a quick go at those feet. They were in horrible shape and my first goal has been to get her to a place I could have a farrier out. I’m no farrier but I can’t make them worse than they are. I trimmed. The vet finished what she was doing and came to hold feet up so we could get the other side. She needs to charge more for farrier services. Need to get to the farrier part soon, but hopefully this will help a little i the mean time.
Then she helped wrangle a grouchy cow and poop covered calf into the chute. Got the cow all doctored up and even gave a hand at getting the calf latched on.
Horses are bound to be difficult. Having a good vet makes it easier to deal with them. Now hopefully the would drains good and gets healed up. At least the girls have been caught now. And I don’t think the catching was too bad, not even with the doctoring. Need to do this more often under better circumstances
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