The Ice Chronicles: A Lover and a Fighter

Photo copyright Wings, 2014; all rights reserved.

Yes, he's both.

Twenty minutes after this was taken, he managed to get both of us but good while we were trying to medicate him.

After another 15 or 20 minutes of fighting with him, we finally got him doped. And by "doped," I mean orally syringed with a combination of Powdered psyllium and powdered flaxseed and powdered probiotics and aloe juice and a dash of molasses to make it go down more easily. 

But for a horse who's been injured and abused around the mouth area, it's a battle, and it takes some strategy. And by "strategy," I mean that we feed a lunge line with a loop end through the chin band of his halter, wrap both ends around the hitching post and feed the leather end through the loop, make damn sure it's his right side next to the post, so as not to rip out his IV cath, and then I crank on the lunge line with every ounce of strength I have. [It's showing in the biceps and triceps, by the way.] Then Wings grabs his snout, jams the syringe into his mouth, and pushes the plunger.  Then we release the lunge line and get the hell out of the way.

Some days it works better than others.

And five minutes after that mess, here he is:

Photo copyright Wings, 2014; all rights reserved.

I'll do my best to carve out time for a real update tomorrow. For now, suffice to say that we think his prognosis is good, we think he'll make it, and we also now think that this has actually been a lifelong problem for him — basically, his ordinary state of existence, which might explain why he's still here and going strong when any other horse would've been dead almost two weeks ago.

He's on his third round of IV fluids (4 bags), and otherwise, we're just going to be managing him the way we have been. The only difference is that now, we're looking at this as a management plan spanning a period of months, not days.

Also got a great compliment from the horse vet today. Out of the clear blue, she said to me, "And you make a great 'vet tech.' If I could afford it, I'd hire you in a minute."

Not bad, for a non-pro at all this stuff, huh?