Badger's Home!

Well, as of last Friday, the vet has decided Badger pulled through well enough to be sent back home. It's a relief to see him actually open his eye again, instead of it being swelled shut like a big prune. Still not quite all the way, and we still have to put medication in his eye three times a day (in fact, I was sent home with a rather sizable grocery bag of ointments and pills) but as far as I'm concerned it's a big weight off my shoulders. Sure wish I could have taken Brownie home too, though. Always cute to see them standing next to each other on either side of the bars.

Badger still has to wear the eye mask for now, though, since we don't want him to rub his eye and start the process all over again.

Bringing him home on Friday, there was a new neighbor between him and Rey. The previously empty stall now houses a new grey mare named Alicia. She was formerly stalled across the way from them, but with the recent rains, her pen flooded and so she got moved over to the empty stall between the boys. Rey, not being a fan of most horses getting in 'his' space, had had an empty stall between him and the other horses for quite a while...but she wasn't having any of his attitude (I think she's gotta be at least a hand or two taller than him) so by the time Badger arrived back at home everyone was pretty peacefully hanging out. I don't think she'll be quite the buddy that Brownie was, but he was definitely happy to see Tio again (a couple small nickers to him) and he was pretty much settled in.

Not...quite pals yet...

According to the vet, he is now 1200 pounds! I kinda wish I had had some kind of a gauge on where he was when we picked him up originally, but that seems like fine progress and 'average' horse weight.

Spring is coming and Badger's already starting to get rid of his winter coat. In fact, when we went back to the ranch, there was a fine blanketing of shed fur all over the ground...carpet's steadily getting thicker each time I go out.

Again, very thankful he is so nice. He's definitely not a fan of eye medication and I'm sure he's tired of the weird people putting fingers and such in his eye, but I'm sure a horse's reaction could be way worse than squinching his eye shut when he sees the finger coming close.

Today was particularly happy because Badger's actively taking an interest in going out now; when I approach he'll actually come to the door and wait for me to open it. Of course, since he has the eye cup on right now, he can't be turned out in the bigger area...don't want him to get excited and run into something on his blind side, after all. However, he has made it pretty clear that the round pen is not nearly as fun: I'll put him in there and he'll roll, same as always, but instead of going over to the fence and hanging out with the other horses he beelines back to the gate and pokes at it rather pointedly. "I'm done. Can we go?"

Since I know he still wants to run around, I've been jogging with him back and forth across the riding area. Still not quite the same as getting to buck and gallop full tilt down the long stretch of the turnout area, but he seems to prefer it to being left alone in the round pen. Also, since the rains have made everything thoroughly wet, they've also caused an unusual amount of lush grass and what looks like wild celery to grow. Snacks EVERYWHERE. He only gets a few mouthfuls as we walk around, though. Don't want him to get sick on too much different food.

Too bad his new neighbor isn't as friendly as Brownie, though...he still tries to nicker at Alicia when I put him back in his stall, but she just pins her ears at him. I think she can deal with Rey easier since he's smaller than her, but Badger's a pretty hefty, tall guy. Poor Badger, he just wants to be a ladies' man! <:)

It's surprising how much fur can come off a horse without him looking bald...these photos were taken AFTER I brushed him, and he's still so scruffy-looking. Monday is his next vet visit (actually, she's coming to the ranch) so we're going to see how his eye is doing at that point. Keeping fingers crossed!

Photos for previous post

1/27: Trotting in hand since turnout area was too muddy. Whee! I think it's cute that Badger keeps looking over at my friend Gideon who's filming this bit.


1/27: Standard update pics. My friend Gideon helped with the video, you can just sort of see him in the second pic...

2/1: The vet put a green stain (dye) into Badger's eye so the problems can be seen a little more clearly. His keratitis shows up as that little green patch on the left side of his eye in this photo.

2/3: Can't let you rub that eye, Badger! The braids in his hair are there to help hold the eye tubing in place.

(Badger's girlfriend doesn't seem to mind his cyborg-ish look any, though. Can you say "Awwww!"? Also, she's in her early 20s, just a hair younger than Badger. ;) According to the vet assistant, they hit it off almost immediately.)

A new year, another month (weeks 14-18)

Due to some craziness in the schedule (my fiance's health has been a little quite rocky lately) updates to this blog will be slow. In addition, since Badger's been mostly stable and weight gain is slower and steadier, I'm going to attempt reporting only every other week.

The weather out at the ranch has been rather...well, muddy; and in this area, muddy = awful. Where I grew up, the ground was pretty porous, so even though the rain came pretty frequently the ground would drain pretty fast. At the ranch, when it gets muddy, the ground gets slippery and the water pools and grows mold. Ugh.

Over the course of January, Badger mostly took things in stride, and when the sun came out he (and the other horses) were noticeably perkier. Except for the turnout area being too soggy to safely let him loose, he was practically bursting out of his skin to run to the round pen so he could roll and bounce around in there. I ran up and down the open riding area with him as well, so he could at least let off some steam via trotting. (Again, very thankful for him being so considerate of the tiny human running alongside.)

On Sunday the 31st, I'd gone to the ranch with some concern, as there was a message on the answering machine saying there was something wrong with Badger's eye. Not sure why I missed the call or when it'd come in (possibly a day or two earlier?), except that I think it must have come in while we'd taken my fiance to the hospital...so I went out there to check on him, and yep, his eyelids of his right eye were all puffy and swollen, and a trickle of goo was leaking out of the corner and down his muzzle. On the other hand, he acted completely fine, and still pushed his nose against the gate of his pen to say "I wanna go!" so out we went, trotting in high spirits and out to the round pen so he could roll and then say hello to the neighboring horses.

As I understand it, ALL animals get sick on the weekends so as to cause the most worry to their owners because the vets are unreachable. :)

On Monday, the vet came out to the ranch to check him, and it unfortunately wasn't an easy fix. Some sort of injury to his eye has since been made worse because he's been rubbing it. According to the vet, the injury probably happened somewhere around January 20-22 because small blood vessels have already grown far enough into his eye to start healing the scrape there, but him being calm and polite and uncomplaining meant that nobody really noticed anything until he'd scratched at it enough to make his eye swell up. ARGH.

Rather than make the attempt to medicate him three times a day at the ranch, the vet offered another option: several days of care at the vet's office, with a drip system installed directly into his eye to deliver the medication in a constant trickle. This method keeps pressure off the eye and stress off the animal, so I opted for that treatment instead, at least for the immediate future (the ranch owner has very generously offered to take care of medicating him as well, so when he gets back home he'll still be getting great regular treatment). So, for at least this week, I'll be visiting Badger in the horsey hospital instead of at the ranch.

Yesterday they called to tell me he was doing alright, and had met a new girlfriend, which was really cute. :) Today when I visited, I got to see the drip system in place (the tubing is braided into his mane so it stays where it needs to go). He's got a mask with a big plastic dome over his eye so he can't rub it, either. Reports from the vet assistants all mention how polite he is as well, which I'm really relieved at. What a good-natured guy. :) (I was told not all of the current patients are, apparently, quite such a joy to handle.) When I visited he wasn't quite eating his hay as diligently as he does at the ranch, but as soon as he heard the snap of a carrot, the ears perked up and his nose was immediately in my face. He even ate a handful of hay in between his carrots.

I got to meet his girlfriend too...her name is Brownie and she's very cute. Can't be more than 14.2 hands, didn't even look that tall. I'm sure she's even cuter when not so banged-up...I was told she had a nasty tangle with some pig wire while her owners were out of town (of course) so she'd already been in there for almost a week. Lesson to horse owners: WIRE = DANGER.

The end of this week will mark his 18th week with me. Hopefully I'll have more to report soon. :) I definitely have a lot of photos to upload!