Foxsun is ill.

I pretty sure our 22 year old Morgan, the magnificent Apple Pi Foxsun Bay, has got the dreaded lurgy, Pigeon Fever. He has lost a lot of weight lately and looks awful. At first I thought it was maybe his teeth, but he seems to be eating OK. Brad thought is was poor quality pasture, which puzzled me because his old cow wife is very fat. Anyway I got him in to fatten him up with extra feed. I started giving him the John Lyons's Senior Horse feed, that I normally only give him in the colder months.

I gave him a nice 'all over' massage because he looked like he needed one. I was rubbing his chest, where his itchy spot is, and I felt a sore and some swelling about 3 inches wide and about 5 inches long. I just thought the flies were really bothering it, so I put fly spray on it.


The next day I noticed he was walking a little stiff in the front, not too bad, but it got my attention. When he turned I saw the swelling on his chest was much bigger and I thought 'Pigeon Fever'!



I decided the first thing I should do was to get him away from the Mustangs. I grabbed Echo's old halter and asked Brad to walk him to the horse barn. I rode my bike over there to try sort thing's out before they got there. Foxsun hasn't used the area for ages and it's become run down. I plan to fixed it up for the Mustangs because it's a great place for horses. There's a nice old horse house and trees. Here's Foxsun tied up for the first time in years. You can see he's very thin.





You can see the swelling behind his elbow (girth area) in the bottom picture. It's not so bad on the other side.

He didn't want to be left over there and stuck to me like glue. He called for his old cow wife and got a far off reply from Wildairo in the cattle corrals. (Little Echo has a very deep voice). Poor Foxsun. I left him with some good grub.

I went home to read up on Pigeon fever.

http://www.equestmagazine.com/v1s3/article12-3.htm

Today the swelling looks about the same. There doesn't seem much I can do except wait for the abscess to get big enough to drain and flush out. Horses do recover once the abscess's are drained. But if there's an internal abscess it's harder to treat and there's about a 40% chance the horse will die. The flies spread it. I'm not sure if isolating Foxsun will help much. I dread to think how I could treat those naughty Mustangs if they got it. We'd have to run them in the cattle chute. Wildairo has been mad at me for days just for spraying him with fly spray.

Foxsun is as gentle as a kitten and trust us as much as we trust him. I hope one day the mustangs will be like that.

Here are some pictures of poor old Foxsun today alone in the horse house and corrals.







He's getting good hay, senior horse feed, carrots, apples and a lot of love. Tomorrow I shall try to talk to people who have had horses with this ailment and our vet.

On a good note; Echo is not freaking out so much anymore when I touch him with the bamboo pole. I rubbed his hocks and he only lifted his hoof a couple of times at first. I found a itchy spot on his shoulder and he enjoyed me touching him there with the pole. I haven't ventured under his barrel because he was really bothered before when I did. I'll get him more relaxed with the pole before I try there again.




I'm so glad I have the Mustangs to distract me from worrying so much about Foxsun. Fox has been with us so long now he's part of our family and I dread loosing him.

Echo relaxes and Wildairo learns a lesson.

When I hold a carrot tight Echo has to eat it like this. Sometimes I hold the carrot right up to my face and blow in his nose as he eats it. He's fine as long as I don't try to touch him.



Today I just sat and talked to Echo feeding him some grain and carrots. He was very relaxed and happy.



I finally trained Wildairo not to kick and bite the gate. Every time he did it I threw a small rock at his legs, hopefully hitting the gate and making a noise as I yelled, "NO"! After awhile all I had to do was say no and he'd stop. I noticed later on he almost bit the fence and remembered just in time and he'd give me a quick look to see if I noticed what he almost did. He's very likable.

Wildairo and Foxsun must have had a fight the other night. I noticed they were getting along really well the day before, they'd eat out the same bucket even. Then in the morning Brad noticed Foxsun was eating out of the bucket and Wildairo was too scared to go near it. Later that day I saw Fox chasing Wildairo, so I turned Foxsun back out with the cattle. I noticed some scrapes on Wildairo hind end and face. Nothing at all serious. It seems old Foxsun had to take the young lad to the wood shed. I wonder what Wildairo did to deserve that?

The taming of Echo.

Last night I moved Echo to the smaller pen. He followed me very willingly. We had removed the Mustang proof panels to uncover the wing gate used to sort cattle before putting them in the chute.



The wing gate swings out to place a cow in a narrow area to hold while other cattle are being worked in chute or the head gate. Because Echo will not let me near him, unless it's to take a treat out of hand, I thought I could hold him there to submit to a good gentling back rub. I held him almost there for awhile and it was obvious he was terrified and could hardly contain himself and I hadn't even opened the gate all the way. I tried talking to him but he was oblivious to any kind of comforting. Suddenly his fear got the better of him and he burst forth. I'm not sure what he did because I had my eyes closed but I did manage to pull back the wing gate to protect myself. I opened my eyes to see a cloud of dust and Brad asking 'He's OK, are you OK?' Brad pointed out that Echo didn't try to challenge the gate to try to escape so he was pleased about that.

We moved to plan B. After tying the wing gate closed with a bit of twine I got a long PVC pipe. I put it on his back and all hell broke loose. He bucked once but spent most of his time trying to find away out of the pen. He was trying to go under the fence not over it for some reason. Anyway, I was scared out of my wits but kept that pipe on his back the best I could till he calmed down and excepted having a PVC pipe as his first rider. All the cows came running to the pen to see what the ruckus was about. I heard Brad say that even the bull had shown enough concern to show up. Echo did get a little gash on his face from the fence.

The pipe was awkward to manage but I rubbed it over his back and crest. He kicked when I went too far back with it. He kicked about 30 times and every time Brad managed to come with a new joke like, "He must be a very friendly horse because he wants to shake hands". I had to change to my shorter bamboo pole because he kicked the pipe up against the fence and shattered it. I got him to let me rub the pole down his legs by going down a little bit at a time. Soon as he looked uncomfortable, I'd move the pole back up to his back. After many of these little retreats back up his leg, he let me touch his hock (with the pole) without kicking. He will not be touched under his barrel and has come close to breaking the bamboo pole by kicking at it. I called it a night when he was OK with the pole on his hocks.

Today I'm a little bit disappointed because although he let me put the pole on his back he was very upset still. He even almost lost his composure again. I decided to not try anymore till I have have someone there with me. Here are some photos I took today. You can see he is still very nervous about the pole.





He's still scared of the pole even after all the progress I made last night. I can't help but keep thinking how easier Wildairo was.

Spring in September.

My long awaited Rhode Island Red pullet (girl) chicks arrived Friday from Murray McMurry hatchery in Iowa. I enjoy have my own laying hens roaming the place because not only do they provided good eggs but keep the snakes away for some reason.

Bobby inspected her new charges carefully. Her job is to scare away hawks, eagles and low flying planes because you never know when a hen can look like a tasty treat to some big bird or the local crop duster.



Bobby approves. Mmmm, new chick smell.



Bobby is wet because she's just been given a bath by William using my 'good' shampoo.

The hatchery includes a free rare exotic chick with the order. I was trying to figure out what kind of a bird it is and William said he thought it was an owl! I laughed at first but then I got to thinking, it would really bring them a lot of return business if they sent an owl out with the chicks. Ha ha. I'm going to miss William when he returns to CWU tomorrow.

Here is the mystery chick. We call her 'Jet Lag' because it took her while to recover from her flight from Iowa.



I had to get 25 chicks because that was the minimum order. I only want ten so Brad is going to give some away on Monday.

Echo's halterless days are numbered.

I've had enough of Echo just letting me touch his face.



I'm about to put my foot down with him and put a halter back on him. I really want to cuddle him and brush him. We have come a long way though considering. He comes when I call him, follows me and is really good at lunging, albeit in one direction. I think he's an incredible horse and I cannot wait to see what else he can do.