Yesterday I had to have the vet out. We have slowly been allowing him access to the pasture because he easily founders on the spring grass. Founder or laminitis is a condition that caused the hooves to swell. Its complicated and has to due with eating too much lush grass or grain. Anyway, Hawk is prone to foundering. And he was doing fine on the grass until he got out in the night. 24 hours of access to grass did it. He was sore footed the next morning and the vet had to be called.
This is a new horse vet for us. Our old one retired and we had to switch to the vet we use for the dogs and cats. I wasn’t sure how it would go. It actually went fine. I have a lot in common with this vet. More than I realized so it was good. He felt his feet for heat, took his temperature (this is done rectally and I am sure Hawk wondered if he needed electronic cigarettes after the ordeal!) and looked at his teeth. A shot of cortisone and some bute paste will take care of his swelling and sore feet. However, Hawk needed his teeth floated. Horses chew in a sideways, grinding motion. This causes the outside edges of their teeth to eventually get sharp edges making it painful to chew. So the vet filed the sharp edges off. Hawk had never had this done and he did great.
So, the vet trip was a success. Hawk is on the mend and will slowly return to pasture in a week or so. I will have to get the shoer called today so he can trim Hawk’s feet. That is part of the recovery process, the trimming of the feet. Horses are such a joy to me but, oh boy, are they hard on the wallet sometimes!
