#IHateSpring, V. EleventyBillion

Photo copyright Wings, 2015; all rights reserved.

Half an hour ago, I stuck She-Wolf with a needle. Twice. For the second time today. She gets the small jab in the lip with a lancet at least twice daily, plus the larger one in the fleshy folds over her withers with the syringe. Every day for nearly a year and a half now.

She's beat the projections on blindness for at least 15 months. And she understands that the sharp quick pain is a small price to pay for feeling normal again. She makes it easy, except on my knees.

The two above? Notsomuch. It's not their fault, of course; half-ton animals whose feet bear their weight nearly constantly present their own set of problems, albeit honestly and somewhat organically.

But these two have gone past that point now.

It's Spring, which is the absolute worst season for horse health, period. It's colic season, which has thus far been thankfully mostly absent [knocks on wood superstitiously]. But for laminitic horses, it's also flare season, and it's unbelievably brutal, especially here. The temperature can easily fluctuate fifty degrees over the course of a day; hell, it can drop twenty or thirty degrees in a matter of minutes when the wind rises against the thunderheads. And colic issues and laminitis are also intertwined, as are Cushing's and diabetes and a whole host of inflammatory conditions and disorders.

Cree is having an extremely difficult time. 

It's not the first, nor the worst, but it's rough. On all of us. Now Shade is having difficulties, too. Not, frankly, a huge surprise; she turns 13 next month, and she has her mother's genes. But it's one more worrisome problem, and one more collection of laborious tasks. Wings spent a good chunk of today working on their feet (this time with admittedly minimal help from me, since I had to be doing other things). But it's a long-haul process at the best of times, and right now, there's no end in sight.

It's not the burden on us that's at issue. Let's just be clear on that. Yeah, it's tough, and tiring. Okay, exhausting, if I'm being honest. But we've handled it before, and we'll handle it again. No, the issue is their pain.

So, whatever ya got? Our big girls need it.

Thanks.






All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2015; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.