Day 25

Thursday, July 23, 2009

25 days boarded
16 days training

Unfortunately, Shane hasn't been worked again since the 18th. The swelling on his jaw didn't get any larger or appear any worse, but he became increasingly more sensitive there and I didn't think it was fair to make him work while in pain, even if that in itself wouldn't affect his movement.. I did worry that bending and having the bridle rub would make things a lot worse for him.

We had a vet appointment on Tuesday but the weather, plus a dead car battery worked against us, so we had to reschedule. We did talk to the vet however, and he seemed pretty sure that it was just an abscess.. no real rush to get him in. He said it was best to let it break open on its own.

Tuesday afternoon/night something looking like a boil appeared on the swelling. By the next morning it had burst open. Definitely an abscess.

So, our rescheduled vet appointment is for this morning. Time to go get that thing flushed out and get him started on a round of antibiotics. Now that it is broke I anticipate that it will start healing quickly and Shane will be fine to start working again in a day or two!

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Last night we did some trailer loading practice since I anticipated issues when it was time to trailer out. As expected, Shane locked up and refused to get in the trailer. I had my husband help me by being a big scary object around the side of the trailer, to keep Shane from trying to run around the corner.. he reared, he pulled back, he fought. We had to do lots of circles, and finally I had to get the lunge whip out.

I was certainly never hard on it. It was an extension of my hand to tap his hind end to encourage forward motion. He kicked out, and got a harder slap, but it still wasn't working. So, I had my husband try with the lunge whip while I tried to pull him in. Still nothing. So finally I had Nick go inside of the trailer, and I did the outside pushing. I didn't end up having to use the whip, aside from a loud crack behind him.. but it took a lot of clucking and arm waving to encourage forward.

After he jumped on the first time, everything just clicked. I loaded him two more times, and called it quits for the night.

Today was our vet appointment and he hopped on the trailer with zero hesitation. I'm so proud of him!

As far as the appointment went. It was definitely an abscess. The vet helped to drain it and clean it. He also gave a tetanus shot and antibiotics to go on the feed. The swelling has gone down considerably now that its clearing out.. he'll be back in training tomorrow!