IT'S BACK, Bigger and Badder

All year we have been dealing with a growth on Rosemary's eye lid. After a biopsy determined it was a sarcoid, we having been consulting with our holistic vet, Joyce Harman to treat her with various remedies. So far none have made a definitive difference. Unfortunately the sarcoid is huge now and surgery is almost inevitable.

So big now

Our last hope of a noninvasive solution is a Chinese remedy. It is pricey, but cheaper than surgery.

Rosemary will get 3 tablespoons of this twice a day. I would tell you what is in it if I could read Chinese. I can tell you it is very aromatic. In addition to this formula, she will get a teaspoon of Chrysanthemum. It serves a supportive role.

Now the only problem is getting her to eat. The first meal, no problem. Then for her second dose we soaked some alfalfa cubes to mix it in and so we could share some with Dottie. Our horses only get one meal a day, so this is a treat. Well Rosemary decided she was not hungry enough to overlook the taste. Mom and I ended up mixing the remedy in a dosing syringe and shooting in her mouth. The cube mix went in the fridge to try again.
Today I put the cube mix in her stall and she grudgingly ate about 95%. She did not eat it well enough to try again for her second dose. Unlike like mom, I did not get the remedy mixed perfectly in the syringe. First attempt, I lost most of it when I though the plunger was in far enough and turned it over :{ Second  and third attempt, the mix clogged at the end of the syringe. Fourth attempt, I used my fingers to push the clogged bit into her mouth. After all that I had a small amount left that I rubbed into a sweet feed treat and finally she had gotten the whole dose. Whew, there has to be an easier way.
I think tomorrow I am going to mix the remedy with water before putting it in the syringe. If all else fails, I guess we could buy sweet feed, which we normally avoid, and hope that is enough to get her to eat the remedy. Oh the lengths we go to for our horses.

And for those of you interested in how Comrade's brother did at the Royal Winter Fair, he placed second to his travel mate, a 12yr old Sec C stallion. He did really well in the crowded barn and around all the people. Pretty great for his first show. Here are a couple pictures his breeder sent to me:

Sick Baby

Today was my first day of vacation, which I really needed. Unfortunately Roscoe has had a snotty nose and cough the last couple days. Plus he looked like he had loose manure too.Yesterday I immediately went to a little reference book given to us by Joyce Harman, a holistic vet, to see what remedies he needed. For respiratory, there were two remedies listed:
Aconite Napellus is something to use if the horse pops a temperature over 101 degrees. It can help ward off further illness.
Pulsatilla is used for when the horse has nasal discharge and maybe a dry cough.

The second best described what Roscoe was displaying. And of course in our holistic supply we have the Aconite, but not the Pulsatilla. So once I got to work I called my sister to see if she was going out at all, but she was staying home. I checked the Vitamin Shop's hours and they closed at 9pm. Getting off at 830 would make it nearly impossible to get to the store. I ended up taking a shorter lunch in order to leave early. Success, I made it just in time to buy the Pulsatilla.

Roscoe started his remedy today and will continue for the next 3 days. I am going to keep track of his temperature to make sure he does not get worse. His temp was 100.2 F  in the warm afternoon and maybe after jumping around.

To help him, I rinsed and soaked the hay for the boys. The water takes away the dust factor and softens the hay. Plus for fat boy Winston, it rinses out some of the sugars in the hay making it diet food. Roscoe thought it was fun to play in the rinse water and DaVinci actually drank some, silly boys.

The girls were not impressed with the rinsed hay and got to have dry stuff. All of them were not too happy with the warm day combined with their already fuzzy coats. I am going to have to do trace clips sooner rather than later.

Hopefully it is cooler tomorrow and the baby feels better.

Typical sick little boy, he is still playing and getting into things. Here is what he thinks grazing muzzles are for :)

Holistic Advice

Surprisingly my mom was able to get a phone consult with our holistic vet, Joyce Harman yesterday. The main conversation point was about Rosemary's eyelid. Because of the location she does not recommend using any healing ointments. So instead we will only treat her by feeding Thuja. Luckily this can be found at the Vitamin Shoppe. We have used Thuja before for a sarcoid and had good results. If the tumor does not reappear in a couple months, Rosemary may be good to go. Only time will tell. Now we wait to make sure the biopsy does not come back with anything crazy.
Mom also talked to her about Roscoe. Basically about overall foal care. She gave us tips for when we geld him, like don't do it on a full moon. They will bleed more. She has a way of putting things that makes you go "Duh." Roscoe has been getting two feeding a day of Legends Mare and Foal food. All our other horses live on air and were only fed once a day before Roscoe came. When mom asked about feeding Roscoe, Joyce put it like this: In the wild mares have foals and those foals do not magically get to eat better or more than the other horses in the herd, so why do it in a domestic situation. See what I mean? Especially since Roscoe is a pony breed, he will be okay with only a vitamin supplement and the forage we feed once a day. We will probably finish the food we have and then reevaluate feeding for all the horses.
Next she told Joyce about Winston's carcinoma on his face. This tumor would pop up in late summer and then fade in the winter. It got really big last year and we had it biopsied. We ended up treating it with a cancer treatment cream. Now only the surgery scar is left. Joyce said she had dealt with a seasonal tumor before, so if his reoccurs she can help. Holistic treatments can take longer but be less invasive.
Finally she talked about DaVinci. The end of September DaVinci got loose and tripped and fell on his knees.

The next day he was so swollen and nearly three legged. My poor boy was miserable. A long wait for the vet revealed that it could be a possible puncture to the joint. Later we had to trailer him to the vet's for evaluation. He did have an infected joint. My lacking finances only allowed for a standing lavage, basically they stuck 12 gauge needles in his knee joint and pumped 3 liters of saline through the joint. Then they injected the knee with antibiotics. He ended up spending the night at the vets, which completely stressed him out. After we took him home he would not settle or eat. Our vet had to tube him and put in electrolytes. Ace became our friend and we reworked the aisle way so that he had a whole end of the barn for his "stall" rest. Two months later we survived and DaVinci can be ridden. The only problem is DaVinci is not quite back to normal. He has moments of hyper vigilance and gets tense. This is one of those times I am glad for my lack of finances. If I had the money he could have spent nearly 10 days at the vets. I can only imagine what his mind frame would be after that. So Joyce is sending us a Chinese herb remedy to try and help him find balance again. She also recommended that we keep Hepar Sulphur (I think this is right) on hand for future puncture wounds to help ward off infection. I would feel really bad since I think we have this in our holistic kit, but she said since it was his knee nothing would have helped.
It was an expensive call, but worth every minute. Afterwards Mom took a few pictures of the boys playing. Now I know why DaVinci comes in tired.

Mom was spotted by Roscoe

Hmm, Can you find Roscoe?

Trouble

Roscoe and DaVinci

Boy whats he going to do when Roscoe is bigger?



DaVinci keeps him in line