The Aftermath

Damage assessment complete, post-strangles epidemic of 2009.

Given I haven't posted any pics of the kids in a while, I decided to go ahead and share the aftermath. Fair warning, it's not pretty.

This is Paula's chin, post-strangles and almost all healed up. Not too bad...not too bad at all....

Here's how she looks. She's gained most her weight back over the last week, thankfully. She's not looking too bad at all, except for being filthy, but she's still fabulous :)

Get it? That's her name....Filthy N Fabulous. Eh, to heck with ya all then. If you don't laugh at my jokes, then I'll just laugh at them myself.

LOL.

There.

Anywho, here's Laramie. I'm so sad. She's completely lost her bloom. She was just starting to look pretty good. I upped her grain tonight in an effort to start pushing her a bit again and she didn't snarf it down. Yet.

Laramie, please snarf. Please?

OK, here's where it gets gross. Are you ready?

Yeah, that's a HOLE. That's what was waiting for me when I cleaned up her jaw this evening, underneath a scab the water washed off. I won't describe what followed out that hole, but I will say that while I've held it together really well through some pretty gross stuff in my life, this made me gag. I mean really gag. Ew.

The good news is that sucker ought to heal up really well now. It was the size of a tennis ball, I kid you not. I lanced it twice and nothing. I guess it wanted to go out with a bang.

OK, the following is just plain sad. Heartbreaking, actually. Ready?

Yes, that's JJ. Oh God, poor JJ. He looks like complete crap. Why would I show him on my blog then? Because I have nothing to hide. He's not thin from a lack of care. He had a week-long fever and while he ate better than most horses with a fever it still took it all out of him, poor kid. I finally gave up dosing him with bantamine in an attempt to break the fever, so I finally just let it spike naturally, keeping a super-close eye on his temperature of course, and once it rose and broke naturally at about 105 it killed off what it was supposed to and we haven't had any issues since. What a mess. Thankfully HE finished his grain tonight. Along with that, the alfalfa and grazing I think he'll bounce back really well. It's just so disappointing to see him like this.

Speaking of grazing, the pasture grass is looking so good.....

The sky was gorgeous out tonight, so I got this cute picture of Paula and Bambi eating supper. I guess Paula is trying to cross her legs like a lady at the dinner table?

While JJ looks very rough, Fabian had it by far the worst of any of the kids. This poor guy, he even had a node 'splode on his head!

It's healing, though, and his jaw is back to a normal shape, he's eating well and gaining his weight back. He fought this stuff for a full 3 weeks though. I'm so glad he's better!

Bad picture but he's not in terrible shape. Could be a lot better, but he's coming along.

Last but not least is Bambi. Her nodes are healing up great, too. She seems to be just behind Paula on her recovery.

Here's a side shot. Bambi never did get thin, but she's such an easy keeper. Of course over this past week she's really gained, too, now that she's better. I'm pretty happy with how she looks, although she definitely needs some good grooming!!

So overall, out of 5 horses, 3 need weight and 2 are almost fully recovered in all aspects. I think I see the light....