Rescue Journal

just a quickie cuz i gotta get to bed, am switching to dayshift tomorrow

Carol  ·  Oct. 22, 2014

gosh...katy had a terrible time today. i met the vets at the stable before my afternoon shift began. her mouth was pretty horrible, our vet said it was the worst he has ever seen...raven used to hold that not enviable title...now it is katy. he likened her teeth to poor old pop's never trimmed feet. her mouth is full of overgrown, worn down peaks and valleys, she has holes in her cheeks from the spiked edges of her teeth and she has 6 or 8 nasty abcessed teeth (i can't remember which he actually said.)
anyway..she had 2 of the worst rotting ones out today and the rest filed down to try to smooth out the valleys and peaks at least as a start. she is going to need several more dental surgeries but that was all she could handle in one day. i went back to check her on my dinner break and she just looked so horribly miserable...mouth and face all swollen..so very sore. the staff there have pain meds for her and had just given her a dose but her sad little face has stayed on my mind for the rest of the night. i called tina as she was doing the 9 pm stable check and she said she got katy to at least eat a little bit tonight. she said the swelling was going down and katy looked like she was handling it alright.
poor babe.

the vet said that at least with feet and hooves, folks can see that an animal is really in need of care. but so many folks just do not understand about horses mouths and teeth and how critical regular dental care is to how well or not they feel...poor katy is in for a tough time as we work to repair the ravages of time on a very old horse who really does need a relatively healthy and pain free mouth to be able to eat without agony.

all i can keep thinking is i am so sorry katy that fixing you up is making you feel so crappy...this just totally sucks but it has to be done. the stable will feed her wet mash three times a day..the vet said that she can have well soaked and soppy hay cubes but no actual hay.

i bet she is pretty damn mad at me...freaking busy body rescuing do gooders, messing around with her sore mouth and teeth.

so sorry katy.

Comments

Bridget

i've learnt a lot about horse care from just reading about SAINTs. i had no idea.

Fiona

So many people neglect this part of horse care or they get out someone who is not qualified to do dental. Always makes me cringe when I hear some people they use. It's such a large part of keeping horses healthy.

Bridget

when she turns the corner, and it'll be soon, she's begin to feel much better quickly.