A Week of Firsts

Where do I begin? So much has happened since the last post! Well, I guess I will start with the bad news. David and I decided to take a little holiday trip to Fort Davis for Easter. We left on Friday afternoon and our friend Steven volunteered to care for Bailey while we were away. The past week had been hectic for Miss Bailey with all the construction at our place, the other horses being moved back to Mom and Dad's due to the construction, the heat, our being gone, etc., etc., etc. Oh, and before I go on, let me add that Steven did a great job of taking care of her for us. We returned home on Sunday evening to find Bailey looking pretty normal, but having NOT finished her grain...which is highly unusual for her. She loves her food! So, I took the rest of the grain out of her corral and left her a flake of hay. I checked back in with her in another hour or so and noticed some (....READERS BEWARE....) runny poo, which is not normal for horses and usually indicates some sort of problem. She also kept laying down, occasionally looking at her belly, and she had a bit of a high heartrate...which can indicate pain. So, of course, I almost have a stroke thinking she is colicking. However, she was still acting normally...drinking water, having "movements", etc. So, we decided to leave her with a small flake of hay and check on her early in the morning. I went out around 7am and she was laying down and had not touched her hay from the night before. When she saw me, she got up and came to greet me. I went back a few minutes later and she was down again. I also noticed she had another (...READERS BEWARE...) runny poo bout. Well, that was it for me. I immediately called Dr. Vaden (the only horse vet in the area) over in Uvalde to see if he could see her and his assistant told me to bring her on over as quickly as I could. To make a long story a bit shorter, Dr. Vaden agreed with me that more than likely the source of Bailey's problem was an ulcer, not colic. Whew! I can deal with an ulcer. She had to spend the night at the hospital and has to have some wonderful oral medication for the next 2 weeks. The good news is that the medication will help heal the current ulcer(s) and prevent future ones. All in all, it was quite the ordeal for the poor little girl. Also, I had to bring Scout back to Del Rio to be her buddy which will hopefully cut down on her stress level. I snapped some pictures of her being "really stressed out" on Tuesday. She is soooo much happier with Scout home.

Now on to the exciting news! The fence in the front is just about finished!! We have completed the two long sides and closed off the remaining gap with some panels, so the horses were officially turned out Wednesday afternoon. They LOVED it!! Bailey was so glad to eat some real grass and stretch her legs. I actually managed to catch one of her BIG romps on video. It was hilarious. I got to see just how athletic she is...which was VERY exciting! The funny part of the video is that Scout was just standing there in the middle of all of Bailey's craziness as if he was wondering what all the fuss was about! (I am having trouble uploading the video, so you will have to check back to see it...argh!...technology!)  However, sometime during one of her romps, she apparently got her first boo-boo. She somehow managed to cut her muzzle above her lip on her right side. Luckily it was nothing too terrible and I was able to doctor it without her giving me too much grief. Horses! They will ALWAYS find that one tiny piece of wire sticking out! Gotta love 'em!