Tuesday, January 20, 2009

A No Wind Day

Wow...we got a day with almost no wind!! Will wonders never cease. And it was 58 degrees...I was sweating my butt off while trimming feet.

Yes...I finally managed to convince my mother that today was as good as it was gonna get in the middle of January and if she wanted horses trimmed...she better get with the program. I'm such a meanie-LOL.

Sorry Andrea...I took the camera with me and meant to get pictures of your favorite Blue horse. Now every time I see him, I think of you!! Too bad I can't convince my mom to let me ship him to you. He dearly loves attention and kids. I don't think we have ever raised a gentler horse. Unfortunately, that is what makes him a keeper. We can pull him out of the pasture if only a couple times a year and he rides right off. Those are so hard to come by these days. But I promise I will get pictures tomorrow.

I got four horses trimmed today, including all four feet on Boon, the little black mare we bought last August. She is pretty decent on three feet, but that right hind is a beeee-ooootch! I can only imagine the fight they had getting a shoe on that foot...Hmmmm...I'm guessing her compliance with shoeing was ace induced.

I rushed home to get some riding time in on Moon. I did, I did!! Not much though-I threw a halter on him and just walked around the pasture for a bit. I started working on his stifle exercises. Last spring Mrs Mom gave me some good tips to build up Moon's stifles after he pulled them the year before. This year, I am cheating and going to do them while I'm on his back. Little circles, while making him bend into them. He hates it! I was just happy to be horseback. I couldn't resist pulling his halter off and working him with just the leadrope around his neck. He don't care. He is really good at backing though, so we walked a little circle, straightened out, stopped and backed several times. I'll start doing that for about 15 minutes, twice a day to get him built back up.

So while I was riding Moon, I tossed little Shooter-butt in the corral with Megan's paint gelding. Those two played like idiots. Shooter definitely needs the one on one time with another horse besides his momma. The nice thing about Strawberry is that he will play with Shooter, but he will also discipline him. Shooter didn't know what to think about that.

As I was starting to do chores, I stop to watch the big roan horse and thought...Hmmm, something don't look right. So I walk over to him and look under his belly and this is what I see...
A very swollen sheath. Awwww man!! I sure did not notice that this morning. It's hard and it is hot. I started him on VitaMix as an antibiotic and will have to wait for the swelling to go down before I can get in there to clean that out. If it doesn't go down in a day or two, I will have to haul him to a vet. I've never seen anything like this. I mean some geldings get dirtier than others, but this feels like a big tumor hanging there. That is all just the skin from under his sheath-his hole is above the swelling. Anyone ever seen anything like this??

12 comments:

Melanie said...

Hmmmm...my gelding once had a sheath like that, and he ended up having a stick up there. Sometimes a nasty bug bite will do that too, but I doubt that bugs are a problem for you guys right now...lol!!!

About the pic below...did YOU draw/paint that??? I had no idea that you were also an artist! I feel so untalented. :)

About the buffalo vs. Mustang debate...are these horses replacing buffalo on a reservation??? I know that several reservations raise buffalo in order to return the praires to their normal ecosystem. What good are wild horses?? (You don't have to answer that...it is just rhetorical)

cdncowgirl said...

First of all Yay for no wind! I had my fingers crossed for you :) Glad you had a productive AND enjoyable day.

About the sheath... I'm no expert but I would think there is something stuck in there or it is possibly a tumor :( Hopefully it ends up being something minor, my mind tends to jump to extremes.

(really Mel, a stick?!)

Leah Fry said...

Eww. Do let us know what that is, and what you will do to fix it. Does he tolerate you cleaning his sheath well? Poco doesn't mind, but Jaz sucks that thing up to the point you think it might pop out under his tail. He's so goosey.

kdwhorses said...

Yes our old gelding had that happen last year. It was just something got in there and irriated it, when the swelling went down, cleaned him out and that was it. It sure freaked me out, I just knew it was something else! It is strange that 2 of our geldings I hardly ever have to clean out and the other 2 I have to stay alert too and keep clean. Fingers crossed it is just irriated, keep us posted!

Ya I didn't realize Chris had been here that long! Woo Hoo, great for you all!

Saddle time~ya! I need some! I'm hoping today the winds aren't so bad and we are going to rope!

TTYL! :)

Andrea said...

Hooray, no wind and warmer weather!! And a little riding time! That is great! Sniff sniff, I will only cry for a little bit about not being able to see my Blue boy. Okay, I am better now. He really is a pretty boy. And any time you do get tired of him being so good, you can ship him down here! :)

And that sheath?? Hmmmmmm....I have no clue. But I do hope it gets better soon. I am sure it's really uncomfortable. Poor guy.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Looks like maybe an infected bean to me.

This is so totally icky to most people - but you know its just fascinating information for cowgirls.

A bean is a firm lump of smegma that has collected and hardened inside the urethra. The urethra is under a lip/hood of skin at the head of the penis. A bean can cause serious pain to either gelding or stallion, as it can become so large that the horse can no longer pee. Beans have been known to accumulate to the size of a golf ball and can look like a kidney bean. When infected they can cause the whole area to swell and of course get hot.

Is he peeing ok? Urinating may (but not always) seem forced or they may stop and go.

Is there any smell around the area? Beans usually - (but not always) stink to high heaven.

If this sounds like him - you need to call the vet - or ACE him up real GOOD because the sheath cleaning required to remove the bean - which will sit just inside the urethra - will hurt like a son-of-a-gun to get it out.

I've only had one gelding that was sweet enough to let me clean his sheath without ACE or a twitch. 2 only a vet could clean cause even with ACE I'd get the crap kicked out me.

And you know - maybe I am wrong maybe he's just got some dirt up there - once a gelding of mine had a chunk of wood stuck up in his sheath - HAVE NO CLUE how that got there - but it swelled all up like that too...

gtyyup said...

When the bugs are real bad, I've seen bug bites that will cause the sheath to look like that. But, I'm sure it's not bug season yet.

I'm thinking he's needing cleaning. Was he real tender there?

Trailboss said...

I was thinking an infected bean too. I would also suspect something has worked it's way up there. It looks painful. Can't say I have ever seen one that bad before.

Callie said...

EeeeGads, I dread to think what pain he might be in! Yikes! Hope he can pee! I never had a sheath issue with my gelding. He loved baths and , well, loved that thing cleaned. Dirty boy! LOL Good luck, I hope it's nothing more than a bunch of dirt that you can easily get to and relieve his obvious discomfort! Poor boy!

Mrs. Mom said...

Yep, big man got a bean in there or a foregin body of sorts. This *might* help, and it *might not*... but you could warm some mineral oil or baby oil and squirt it all up in there. MAYBE that would loosen enough of the gunk up to allow it to slough off, when he drops to pee?

I have to clean Sonny Bunz too. Somehow, I am betting this could be a bit of an interesting time to say the least....

Diogenes said...

Hi cowgirl-It's a few weeks later. Did you call a vet? Clean his sheath? It went away on its own? What happened?

My gelding looks like that today. I haven't cleaned his sheath since the end of summer. So how's your guy doing now?