Never got a single picture of my sweet boy and vet together, so you will just need to look at one of my favorites from Christmas 🙂

I love this picture as it has my two geldings and the hubby in the back.. they are so sweet with each other..

So for those that want baking and recipes, I will do a blog post  for you very soon, promise 🙂

My regular vet C was booked solid for the whole week, so I got a new vet to me, a tiny young gal, Vet T, English is her second lang, with French clearly the first.. so we did struggle a tiny touch with lang, as I am English only..

But Caleb loved her.. I was so pleased to see that.. While its not as important if your sheep or goats like their vet, I find it makes a massive help if the pigs, dogs, cats and horses do..

He very nicely limped for her and we found the one single bit of bare ground in the drive way that was not covered in a sheet of ice and went over a number of things.  She was most impressed at how well he did his checks and stretches, I gave credit where do.. we had been taught to do these at the Equine First Aid Clinic I took and it paid off big time as he didn’t blink an eye to the many things she did.

So she said, I don’t think it’s the shoulder, I think its the foot, and I went.. hmm and she said, lets block it, and my head went.. huh.. in means freeze the foot like at you would at the dental.. so she said, is he good with needles and so far to date, he had been so she tried him and he was so perfect, and she froze his foot up..

Sure enough.. limp gone..  so we needed to move him at a walk, and then she asked me to trot him, and dang if just the slightest bit when I switched sides on the circle, did he not show a tiny bit of an off” movement on the other side..

So while we will do x-rays (I did have the power cord ready in case we needed to do so yesterday) in the spring when the ground is dry for a baseline inside view of both front feet.

His legs, their angles and his hooves all look good, good shape, well cared for.. but the final vet review was low-grade starting of Navicular in his front feet. The slip made is show faster and stronger but as she said, it would have come on more slowly and off and on.

So be it, so he is going on meds for 30 days and then we will review, they are strongly recommending shoes for his front feet. I have never done shoes, but I will do what is needed for him, and already have the call in to my Ferrier to talk about it.

The vet did give me the choice of no shoes with meds and to try it and see but she is very clear that she believes I will need to shoe him on the front if I want to be able to manage it so he is not in pain.. which of course is the goal.

The good news is that with meds and shoes, there is no reason that I can not continue to do our normal light trail riding with him.

The even better news.. he is a doll about it all.. he will take his med in an apple slice, he will let you do the massage on him, he will give his foot to the treated and looked at and for the farrier etc.

Plus when the vet says not always but normally with this type, we ask to do x-ray’s every five years to see where things are.. clearly it can’t typically move that fast.. knock on wood.

I can’t say that I am happy about it, but no point in getting upset really either, It is what it is, and lets face it.. to me at least..

My horse’s are not just livestock, I mean they are, I own them.. but they fall very much into that dogs, cat pet range.. Which means if he needs meds daily, he gets meds..

When it comes to “hard core” livestock, we would do the pro and cons on many different things..

Thankfully, as my awesome riding horse, my ground working buddy and so forth.. no question needs to be asked at this point.. it’s just yup.. let’s get it done!