Another milestone

Yesterday, my daughter turned 17. Man, time is going by way too fast! She has been getting letters from universities for months now and she has been gathering up Sr. 2013 items for years now, but I guess I have been just turning a blind eye to how soon my daughter will be leaving the nest. It is really starting to sink in and I gotta admit that I am beginning to feel a little sick. I know, that is what they do. They grow up and live their lives. It kills me though to know that I won't be able to see her everyday, to talk to her, to be there when she needs me with a hug, kiss or a swift kick in the butt. She is an awesome kid and I know that she is going to be successful in whatever she decides to do. As a matter of fact, she got notice yesterday that she is going to have an opportunity to act as a State Sentate page for a week. She is estatic and so am I. Opportunitys just keep coming her way and she is confident enough in herself to seize them.

Well, it has been decided that Jazz has ulcers. That is the cause for the mild episodes of colic that resolve themselves. So she is now off a grain products and on to a diet of grass hay, alfalfa hay and grass (lots of grass). She will be starting treatment with Omeprazole as soon as I can get it ordered.
I am happy that the mystery has been solved, but I am still shaking my head as to why she developed the ulcers. She lives a lifestyle that is not known for causing ulcers. 24/7 turnout, herd living, unlimited hay or grass, low stress training, no hauling/showing, 3 years old. The only thing that I can think of is the pellet supplement that she was receiving. She had been on the same feed routine for two years with no problems and then Boom.

Meeting Time!

Last night was 4H EquiSpirit's monthly meeting. We have changed formats in the meeting recently and I have put the kid's in charge of the meetings. So far this is working out great. I just have to remember to sit back and be quiet! We made plans for riding practices to help get the kids ready for show season and are going to team up with a local FFA club. They need experience judging horses and our kids need show experience so we are going to hold mock shows. FH kids show and FFA kids judge. Win - Win!

I feel extremely guilty about something I did last night though. My daughter was presenting the whole idea on the 4H-FFA team up. I brought up her old horse Cash. Cash died a couple of months ago and she is still really hurting. She broke down and I broke down. I knew it was too early for her, but I spoke before thinking. Again, I need to learn to sit down and shut up! The picture is of R and Cash.

We had a new girl show up for the meeting. I hope she decides to come back and become a part of the club.

They shoot horses don't they?

Yesterday, I took my son back to the doctor to get his leg re-checked. He broke it back in November and for the last 13 weeks he has been 2 weeks in a full leg splint, 4 weeks in an over the knee cast, 4 weeks in a below the knee cast, 5 weeks in a walking boot. We get good news from the Doc and J is now bootless! The bad news is that he now has to be extra, extra careful because the bone is still very fragile and his leg is weak. He still has to sit out a month from sports and can't run or jump at all. This is torture for a very hyper-active 13 year old boy that is a basketball nut. He has been able to play basketball for the last couple of weeks while wearing the boot, but has to sit out of the noon time game and is also going to miss the first four weeks of baseball season. J was adamant that he was fine and asked the Doc to rethink his plan of action.

The Doc finally got through to J by showing J the x-ray of his leg from the day he broke it (pre-set). Now neither of us had seen this x-ray before but Doc felt that maybe if J understood how badly the leg was broken he might understand the reason for the caution. Upon seeing the xray J quiped, "Wow, if I was a horse you would have shot me!". The Doc looked at him and said, "Well yes, I would have." J now understands.

What a weekend!

Last Thursday the family attended our school's Regional Basketball Tournament. Both teams went in in the loser's bracket but we were expecting great outcomes. Sadly neither team made it through... so now the focus shifts to baseball/softball seasons. My daughter had received a concussion in practice two days prior to the tournament and had to sit out from the game and cheerleading. She was upset but what upset her more was when the boys lost their game. Her best friends are on that team and as seniors it was their last HS game. She is beginning to realize that there are going to be a lot of first lasts to come in the next couple of months.

After the tournament disapointment, I got to enjoy a wonderful three-day weekend. The weather started out lousy with lots of cold and wind then turned beautiful on Sunday. I didn't get much done in the training department, but got a good start on spring cleaning around the barn, worked on my arena fencing and clearing the pastures.

Jazz had another "eposide" on Saturday but it resolved itself within 10 minutes. I am now really getting worried and she has an appointment with the vet on Wednesday. I have now taken her off all concentrates, started her monthly SandClear treatment, and increased her roughage intake with increased hay, longer time being hand grazed on the longer yard grass and supplementing her with soaked alfalfa cubes. I think that I am going to add some rice bran to her diet but am going to wait until we see the vet.

Jazz has been having colicy episodes and I am racking my brain to figure them out. The first episode was a month ago during our first real cold spell. Friday evening she was fine when I fed her. By the time I came around with her hay (10 min max) I find her flat out on her side. At first I think she is injured because she is just laying there motionless. I get to her and she just looks at me. I get her up and began to check for an injury, find none but during my inspection she tries to lay down again. COLIC! I take her to the barn and assess vitals (CRT - normal, Pulse - slightly elevated, Resp. - elevated, Gut sounds - slow but there). I administer Banamine and watch her. She doesn't seem to be in much pain, just uncomfortable. 20 minutes later all vitals were normal and she had pooped. Put her up under the shed for the night and checked her hourly.

She was fine until the 7:00 check. She began to act uncomfortable again. I noticed that she had not drank much if any water overnight and that she had not pooped since the evening before. We were waiting at the vet when his doors opened. She had pooped in the trailer and was acting totally fine. I had the vet tube her with some warm water and check her teeth. I was thinking that her episode might be due to lack of water intake. Sure enough she had a damaged front tooth. The vet felt that it wasn't causing any problems, but I wasn't so sure.

We made it home and she had pooped twice more in the trailer. (Ahhh, the healing properties of a trailer). Watched her the rest of the weekend but she never showed any signs of colic again.

Fast forward two weeks. Another cold evening and again she is fine when I feed but by the time I come around with hay she is layed out. Oh no, not again! This time I am really scared. Two weeks ago was a warning that I didn't heed. I get her up and give her some banamine and send my SO to get the trailer. As we are walking her to the trailer she stops and poops. I check her over and her vitals are all normal. I decide to wait and see. She never acts off again.

By now, I am in full panic mode. I see this as going to be a recurrent thing that is going to need surgical intervention. (Yes, I sometimes go directly to the worst case scenario) I take a long look at her habits, schedule and diet. Both episodes coincided with cold spells. Both episodes began at feeding time. When I would see her drink she would only take a few gulps at a time. Hummmmmmm.

New plan of action!

Can't do anything about the cold because it is after all winter, but I can make sure that the tank heater is always working.

Water intake - I began soaking her feed with warm water. She eats a pelleted feed and that by itself draws water out of her system to digest, but I don't want to change feeds and risk causing her digestive upset. I also began adding a tbl. of salt to her feed.

I had been only feeding once a day so I began feeding twice a day and being diligent to stick to a 12 hour schedule (6am & 6pm). She is already on free choice hay and 24/7 turnout.

I also added a 15-20 minutes a day hand grazing in the yard on the green winter grasses.

Well has this worked? Well so far so good. Except for the grumpy looks at 6 am when I wake her for her breakfast this seems to be working. I will keep you updated.

A new chapter

Times they are a changin'! Well actually they changed a long time ago. I am just now deciding to blog about them. Much to my husband's chagrin, I decided to no longer accept outside horses for training. I also cut back on the number of students that I give lessons to. I made this decision because I wasn't able to devote the time I needed to the horses or riders to give them the best chance at success. I was doing them a grave disservice and making myself crazy trying to do everything for everyone. Something had to give. Simply, my family came first.

Since making that decision and sticking with it, I have been much happier. I don't always feel like I am letting someone down or like I should be somewhere else. I am still involved with the 4H club as one of the leaders, but I have changed the dynamics of the club to put more responsibility on the members. I guess I am slowly weaning myself off of that as well.

So I guess this blog is going to evolve into the story of a women trying to be everything to her family while opening a new chapter in her equine life.