Otto and Cassidy were at the vet on Saturday and it's all positive news. Cassidy has his tooth issues sorted out for another year and Otto has gained 100 lbs since September. He has finally reached a near optimal body condition. WOO HOO! So the feed program has worked however, we are reevaluating things a bit based on discussions with the vet about young horses with fast growth rates and the potential OCD risk with higher insulin/higher carb diets. The timing of all this is about perfect because we also have some newly discovered information about the grain I have had Otto on that isn't quite what we thought it was.. that is Controlled or Low Carb. The post came out of Mel's blog recently . If your curious, check it out here (check out the comments too).
In spite of Otto's improved body condition, we still get the reactions of people, including my vet, when they see this long legged monster of mine. His choice of words were... in between chuckles... was "What in the world do we have here??"
*** The last time we had Otto into the vet, we didn't get to see my "regular" vet and instead had to take an appointment with the new associate lady vet at the practice, so this the first time he had seen our latest addition to the herd
Ofcourse our vet also knows that we typically have stocky short Morgans and Barbs so he was a little surprised to see us bringing the spider looking colt in to see him. We all had a good chuckle when he compared him to a teenage girl that hit a growth spurt. Yep.. he's all leg.. The good news is that he was pretty sure his leg length is probably done with growth at this point.
There was other good news too. Remember the the weird scar, possible sarcoid looking thingy on his pastern I posted about here?????
As it turns out , it is just what I suspected and hoped for... old injury that went untreated leaving behind a nasty scar , likely due to proud flesh development. The only thing we have to be careful of is to make sure we keep up on his hoof trimming , especially on the inside wall of the opposite hoof to eliminate any risk of Otto interfering. The interference could cause the area to become re-injured ,which can cause it to become an open wound, which could become a sarcoid in the right environment. I had no idea but apparently, sarcoids can be caused by a certain fly larvae passing from Cattle to horses with open wounds. ( sorry don't have the specific details about this beyond that and didn't jot anything down so it was information that went in and went out)
I actually haven't seen Otto catch himself at all since he has been turned out . My suspicions that the full time turn out will improve his coordination were accurate .. and I don't have a physically challenged baby colt..
On other fronts he does not appear to have any wolf teeth erupting at this time. When we schedule for his castration next spring they will check again and remove if they have erupted. Otto also had his boosters so all things being equal, he is all set until next spring when Otto becomes an IT.
In spite of Otto's improved body condition, we still get the reactions of people, including my vet, when they see this long legged monster of mine. His choice of words were... in between chuckles... was "What in the world do we have here??"
*** The last time we had Otto into the vet, we didn't get to see my "regular" vet and instead had to take an appointment with the new associate lady vet at the practice, so this the first time he had seen our latest addition to the herd
Ofcourse our vet also knows that we typically have stocky short Morgans and Barbs so he was a little surprised to see us bringing the spider looking colt in to see him. We all had a good chuckle when he compared him to a teenage girl that hit a growth spurt. Yep.. he's all leg.. The good news is that he was pretty sure his leg length is probably done with growth at this point.
There was other good news too. Remember the the weird scar, possible sarcoid looking thingy on his pastern I posted about here?????
As it turns out , it is just what I suspected and hoped for... old injury that went untreated leaving behind a nasty scar , likely due to proud flesh development. The only thing we have to be careful of is to make sure we keep up on his hoof trimming , especially on the inside wall of the opposite hoof to eliminate any risk of Otto interfering. The interference could cause the area to become re-injured ,which can cause it to become an open wound, which could become a sarcoid in the right environment. I had no idea but apparently, sarcoids can be caused by a certain fly larvae passing from Cattle to horses with open wounds. ( sorry don't have the specific details about this beyond that and didn't jot anything down so it was information that went in and went out)
I actually haven't seen Otto catch himself at all since he has been turned out . My suspicions that the full time turn out will improve his coordination were accurate .. and I don't have a physically challenged baby colt..
On other fronts he does not appear to have any wolf teeth erupting at this time. When we schedule for his castration next spring they will check again and remove if they have erupted. Otto also had his boosters so all things being equal, he is all set until next spring when Otto becomes an IT.
Going to the vet also provided a great day of learning opportunities for the young lad. He had to load and unload twice, go somewhere new, get messed with by strangers, stand around and wait for Cassidy to finish his dental while drills were going and making all kinds of noise, and watch other people and horses coming and going. We even took advantage of the tie rings attached to the very safe cement wall at the clinic and did a session on standing tied. He did really good. He would get to the end of his line, hesitate for a second, and then step forward or sideways to release the pressure. That left me feeling much better about his progress with standing tied. I was quite proud of my little spider horse.
Our footing has degraded to slippery slushy ice so not much happening with ground work at this time. Cassidy is showing a marked improvement in his attitude with his teeth done and was actually playing with Otto, even playing with the ball with Otto, (which is no longer a ball but a pancake) Cassidy playing is acutally kind of remarkable.. if you knew Cassidy. Playing is below his royal highness!
 |
| Otto sizing his buddy up |
 |
| The not so stealthy attach move, easily thwarted by the Cass Man |
No comments:
Post a Comment