Rusty - update

Rusty is doing ok - no real changes - better or worse. I went out to check on him last night and he seemed a bit less lethargic, but still not himself.

I brought him in to the barn and groomed and fussed over him a bit. It has been raining lately, so he kindly covered himself in mud. His feet are looking good - they were a bit of a wreck when I first got him. At least I don't have to worry about that right now.

The vet thinks he has an ulcer - but the only way to determine that 100% is to do an endoscopy - a tube with a camera down into the stomach. No vets do that here, so he would have to be shipped to a veterinary hospital about 5 hours away. I'm not going to put him through that, since he is older. If I had a young performance horse, I would probably get all of the tests done to make sure there was nothing bad going on.

We are starting treatment for the ulcer today - I rushed to the vet's after work to pick up the medicine. It is in a tube like dewormer, so it should be easy to give. The barn owner will give him his dose today and I'll do it on both weekend days. The vet said that if it is an ulcer, we should see improvement in about 48 hours and then we continue the treatment for 2 weeks.

She thinks there might be a couple of other minor things at play, but we won't worry about those until we try the ulcer treatment. His blood tests were a little off - particularly in the proteins, but the wonky levels could be caused by the ulcer. Poor Rusty - I feel so bad for him - he is such a nice quiet boy. I wish they could talk when they were sick so we could know more.. :-)

The vet also suggested trying to find him a better turnout situation. She said that it would be best for him in the long run to be out in a small herd of nice gentle horses. She is worried that if he stays in his bigger herd, the problems might keep recurring. I've asked my barn owner if there is a way to switch some horses around, but haven't heard back from her yet. I'm hoping there is something she can do, as I don't want to have to move Rusty again. I really like this barn. There is a slight chance we will be moving to the other end of the city next summer, so I may have to move him anyways, but I would prefer to do it once, instead of a bunch of times.

Nothing much else going on in these parts - I'm disappointed that I can't ride, but his health is more important. I think I have my saddle situation sorted out now - I found a used one from a local shop. I have to go out to the tack shop at lunch and buy some new reins to replace the ones I broke last weekend. I only have a set of brown ones at home and my bridle is black. Matching a little bit is very important! Although - I have a dark brown saddle... Does anyone else get all caught up in trying to match their tack? I shouldn't care because it doesn't really matter, but sometimes it gets to me...

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Cdn - I changed my blog colours - I was getting tired of reading white text on a dark background! I think the white/black is a bit easier to read... ;-p