Thursday, April 24, 2008

Meet Polo Man

Poor PLo (Polo) is still sore. Better, but still sore. The vet dug a little on his sole to look for an abscess, but we still can't find anything of the sort. The vet is supposed to do some xrays tonight.
PLo has issues to say the least. He's cranky, back sore, gets a weird fungus on his head every spring/summer, nervous, has really bad scars and terrible about his hind feet being picked up. His attitude and body show what kind of life he has lead. He has a lip tattoo, but no one can read it.
I picked him out :-x (the farm owner and I went in together to buy him as a "guest" horse) He must have felt me coming miles away because he didn't show ANY of the above when I tried him out 3 times. I liked him cuz he was smallish, SMOOTH gaited, seemingly*bombproof* and seemed friendly enough.
The ponies got sha-oozs today:-) I was worried PLo wasn't going to be able to stand for new shoes today, but he did fine. He was actually better than usual, maybe it's cuz I let him go first :-) I pulled his mane a bit and made him look purty. My farrier, Ronnie, agrees with me that he thinks Polo is sore up high and not in the foot. I massaged his glutes a bit with Absorbine Liniment Gel. (Polo's not Ronnie's) He's really tight there and just sore through his whole backend. I gave him some bute too because I think the whole shoeing process can make them sore (it's like having flextion tests done IMO).

I had to return to work with a big green *lipstick* stain on my shirt, courtesy of Mr. Lester:-x Right on my left boob too, but no one has noticed thankfully. Less got the usual treatment: carrots, peppermints, sugar cubes, a brushing, hugs, kisses, bute, Ichon injection (it's marketed as "wound" care, I found the thread on COTH to have the best explanations for it) and I even de-wormed him this time. And of course Lester earned another smiley face.

Well I don't think injecting Lester's fetlock was the end of his right front lameness. I'm sure he feels better in there, but there's probably something going on in his knee as well. BUT since my vet bill is at $508 now and the state of GA says I owe them over $500 as well, I think I will wait on anymore joint injections:-x I lunged him a little last night and he was a lazy butt. It is so hard to lunge or walk him on grass, every few steps there is a *tug* on the leadrope, "Now, can I take a bite, now?" he asks. I can crack the whip right behind his bum and he finally will move forward, but not before taking a huge bite of grass. So it's been a week now since the injection and I haven't ridden him or done anything *work* wise in close to 2 weeks and it does show. He gets a weeee bit obnoxious and mouthy when he's out of work and he trips so much more on the lunge when he's plodding around and not asked to *use* himself. I am fully convinced that Lester has to stay in work in order to be*sound* in both body and mind. To make a long story short (too late) I'd like to try out his *working self* with the injection before injecting anything else.

4 comments:

cdncowgirl said...

Poor Polo, sounds like he had a rough life :( Glad he's got you to love on him now.
I have to say... you may have milder weather but I saw the total on your smiley face bill for Less's shoes :P

Never Say Never Greyhounds said...

Hmmmm... what's up with Polo? I was kind of worried about it being high up also. I wonder how high you can x-ray on a horse with a portable machine. Well, good luck with that.

Jen

Denise- LessIsMore17 said...

cdnCG- LOL that's not even the final total! :-) I LOVE my farrier and he comes from 2+ hours away and I'm his ONLY client in the area as he is so far out, but he is worth it, I tried local farriers and they made Less lame in different ways with hot nails and angels. Yes, Less has always been *special* :-)

Heather said...

While I know weird fungus is so not top priority for Polo, it's still gross and you want to get rid of it. Have you ever tried using Grandpa Soap on it? Clyde has trouble with fungus on his white spots in the spring and it cures it VERY quickly, whatever the fungus is. The stuff the vet gave me for it didn't work well at all. This soap is a whopping $3.50 so it's worth a try. I'm now using it on Seka's corns to see if they will help fight them off too.