REALLY.......??? RAIN.............!!!!!

A rather weird time of year for rain, it's about a month early.  It spit and spat all day, I doubt that we got much accumulation, it was just enough to be nasty.  Of course we had to go out in it to take Penny for her dental appointment with Dr. Debra this afternoon.  Besides a little rain it was chilly and windy all day too.  Notice I said we, rather than one or the other, like we thought we'd have to do.  Our early appointment got changed to 12:30, which is almost a perfect time for us. 

We decided to just do her in the trailer, at least it was relatively dry and cut down on the wind whistling around our heads.  John was outside the trailer and finally got behind it to get out of the wind.  

Dr. Debra tried to do Penny without a happy shot, but finally gave up.  She had some hooks that needed to be ground down left over from when she got a tooth pulled a couple of months ago.  By the time the tooth got pulled everyone was ready to quit and wait until later for a check-up, which was today.  Her mouth smells nasty, somewhat like chicken manure.  Where her jaw has been broke there are two teeth lined up front and back, with a space of about 1/4 inch between them, that is collecting mush when she eats.  I guess it just sits in there and rots until it falls out or she takes in enough water in her mouth to rinse it out.  If she was easier to work with I could probably go in there every day with a small screwdriver, or maybe even a tooth pick and pick it out.  But I don't think that's going to happen with her. 

I doubt that Penny will ever be easy to work with, she is just too suspicious of people.  When we first got her she would use her front feet as weapons, now she just uses her head and of course being evasive.  

We didn't take Coquette this time, and when we got home, Penny flew out of the trailer and started running around braying.  Coquette was off someplace and came running as fast as she could to their reunion.  It's wonderful when they are bonded like that, but it can be traumatic when they get separated too.

Before we left this morning, John came in and said Pepper was choked.........sigh....!!!  All he gets is a mush, but somehow he managed to plug up his esophagus, and it was farther down than the throat.  I worked with him for awhile and although he didn't seem stressed he was still choked when we left.  I gave him a shot of banamine before I left and he was laying down looking around.  I told Dr. Debra I had given him banamine, so she gave me a couple of shots of xylazine, which is the next step up I guess,  in case he was still having trouble when we got home.

Thankfully he was up and chewing on mesquite leaves knocked down by the wind, when we got home.  I asked John how he was doing during round up for feeding and John said he was trying to knock him down with his head, so I guess he's back to normal.

 
We've been putting a blanket on him in the morning when it's 25-30 degrees right before the sun comes up.  Within an hour or so it's warming up and we take it off.  He will stand real still for you to adjust it, so I think he appreciates it.  I have a regular equine blanket for him, but if I put it on him at night, he'd have to stay in his pen, and believe me THAT would NOT work.  He has his routine and it does NOT include staying in his pen any longer than eating takes.