Sorry it has taken so long to get these posted.. BUT.. here is Chance as of the end of October. Like Irecently told everyone up north.. Chance is like having a Christmas present every day.. He is just a surprise all the time.. and SOOOO loving..

Here I was goign to see how far he would let me get witha saddle. Well just look and you will see..and this was taken after we walked and lunged.. took to it like a duck to water..

I will try to get some updated pictures of him in his winter coat and get them up here soon.

well I do not have any new picutres of Chance jsut yet but things are going very well for him.

His skin condition is almost completely cleared up and his coat is growing back in nice and thick. Of course we are getting to that time of year too so I am certain it will continue to thicken up as we get colder weather.

Still only has the one testy dropped but that is ok too.

He still has a slight cough when he is exercised but that is progressively getting better too.

I will get some pictures this weekend and get them posted for everyone to see.

He is such a sweetheart and looks so much better now.

All in all Chance is progressing fantastically. He has been in with both sets of horses and everyone has gotten along famously. No snorting, ear pinning, or screaming. Everyone has gotten along great. He is in with the new mustangs, Harley and Conager, now. He was in with the other three and it seems like he has been a part of our place for a long time. He just fits in!!!

I am planning on starting to round pen him this coming week and see just how much training he has had before I got him. I also will be starting on more basic things with Lilly. I will update our training logs so everyone can see how we are doing.

Of course this is the infamous rump shot. as you can see his rump really is rounding out and getting fuller..

eventually it will be as round as the one on the right (Lilly)

Even though he is a year older then her, Chance is still smaller then Lilly. I am not sure how much more height he will gain so he may stay smaller then her... but look how much thinner he is!!.. And this is better then when we started. No worries though.. I will get him there

These are some updated pics of the little man. I knwo it looks like it is going so slowly but it is better to slowly bring his wieght back on and allow his body to get use

d to it then to just slam it on him with fats and not give his body time to adjust to it.

Either way.. he is looking better.

Combining the horses

Well it has been almost a month since I updated about Chance. He is doing great. He is gaining wieght, he has a spark in his eye, he play's with Lilly running and cutting up.

Just wanted to update on Chance. He is doing great.. he is starting to get some spunk and it is awesome!.. He has started to run and cut up in the pasture now and man is he a pretty boy when he is running. :D

With all the rain we are having here it is kind of hard to keep him dry so that the skin condition will clear all the way up but it is still progressing. :(
Everywhere he had troubles with the the skin and the scally build up has new hair growth in it and the skin looks much better. Of course we are battling all the mosquitos now because of the rain but we are dealing with that as best as possible.

I have a new "issue" with him now. As I said earlier in this thread, He is a cryptorchid (testies not dropped) and that there is no evidence of a scrotum. Ok... not to be graphic now but one of his testies has dropped. BUT......it has dropped into his sheath. I went to the vet yesterday and told him what has happened ( after a few bouts of phone tag) and he recommended that I give the other one a chance to drop and then bring him to an equine hospital to have him gelded as the testies were not where they were supposed to be. He said that he was not qualified to do anything with a situation like that. SO I will be calling two of them tomorrow to see what they think I should do or possible troubles that can occur and the signs..
there is no evidence of pain or swelling.. just in the WRONG place.
It is weird to be excited that they are dropping and then still be concerned because it just isn't normal and worry about what could be wrong. The vet said that I don't need to panic as it does not seem to cause him any troubles and that he agrees that his wieght is more of an issue then this. I need to still work on getting him more healthy before pressing about any type of surgeryif that is what is recommended.
But all in all he is doing fantastic and I figured I would update you guys.

I gave Chance a bath today with tea tree shampoo the progress in the test area is so encouraging. Then I took him for a walk down the street a little ways. ( country roads.. no traffic ) I asked him to trot next to me for a short distance and he did. Then I had him stop and was going to turn him around to come back and he trotted a full circle around me.
Surprise!!..
So I "Lunged" him on a lead line twice in each direction. Then we came back home. I know he is a registered horse and he has never had any troubles with leading or having blankets put on him. Which I was very thankful for. Up until now I had put little to no thought inot waht kind of training he has had in the past. I was just concerned with his skin, his wwieght, and then the strangles. Training or what he could do was the least of my worries.
I figured I would take him for walks outside the pasture and at a steady pace twice a week. Gradually adding distance as he progresses so that he will rebuild muscle and tone up as he is gaining wieght. he was so perky after our little trip today. It was very cool. I am still going to wait to update pics of him for a couple of weeks so everyone can see the big difference.. but he is still gaining and his coat is starting to look more healthy and he has a spark in his eye that was missing when he came here.. He looks forward to his people time and loves his feed time. His spirit is starting to show..

Well today the abcess is draining so he is out of the woods for the worse part. Now we have to make certain that he does not get a secondary infection. As long as I keep the site cleaned and keep up with the penicillan going we should be ok. I will update as he progresses.

S T R A N G L E S !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been so excited about how well Chance it responding to treatment. He is looking loat better. I have a light weight cotton sheet on him during the day to help keep the sun and the bugs off him.

I went out to feed and check on him this morning and he was fine but i noticed that he did not eat very much of his night feed. but when I went in he went straight to his bowl and started to eat.

I went out around lunch time to check on him again and to give him his afternoon feed. He has a HUGE lump under his jaw on his off side. and he feels warm to the touch. It came out of nowhere.. I swear it was not there this morning.

HOLY CRAP!!! talk about scareing the bee jeezes out of me!!..

I called the vet on call and he was not going to be available until 5 PM!!! His wife said to call back if it got any bigger.

Well it DID.. it is the size of a baseball... and it goes almost across his whole throat. I paged the vet.. Still no response.

By this time I am positive that he has Strangles..

I finally get ahold of the vet and he tells me to give him penicillan 25 to 30 cc's every other day and that bute might help to. If it is bigger in the morning or if I have more troubles with it tonight he would lance it. He doesn't like lancing them but it would be better the putting in a trech!!!

So he got his penicillan and some bute with applesauce and tonight it is more localized and not spread out as far. ((Gross part)) it looks like it is coming to a head and has started to drain a very little on its own..

Wish us Luck!

After two baths you can see more of his skin because

of all the hair that came off during the baths. Today he got covered with a product called MTG that will help condition his skin and keep the flies off.. I am hoping to see progress with his skin in a week or so.

It is slow going and you can hardly tell but he is gaining a little bit of wieght.

In this picture you can kind of see that his hips aren't quite as pointy and they are starting to round out a little. It has only been five days and I do not expect miracles but he is showing improvement.

After about three days he finally figured out that he really likes his grain too :)

Day 1

Today Chance got his first bath. he has such a sweet personality. I knwo that he will perk up after he gains his weight and feels better but I truly do not think that his personality will change.

He was not too fond of the hose at first and he flinched while I was genlty scrubbing him, but only on some parts. By the time I was done scrubbing him with an iodine and shampoo solution he stood stock still for the rinse off.

I then took over an hour to comb out his mane. I was worried that I was going to have to roach his mane because of how tangled it was. I did not want to do that because I was afraid that the skin under it would be too exposed. It looks great now.

Then I tackled his tail.. Surpirsingly it was not as bad as his mane. It did take some effort.. but not that bad at all. As long as he could graze while I was combing he was fine. I know that along th eline I will want him to pick up his head for grooming.. but it is more important for him to eat..

Then back in the pasture with him for some grub! He is in a seperate pasture from the rest of the horses sothat I can get him better and not spread the mange that I think he has.

He is still not too sure what to think of the grain that I feed my horses and will not gorge on it at all.. He nibbles at it.
I mixed up a warm mash for him with beet pulp and my grain with some mineral supplement added.

He was really interested in it and even stuck his head in the bucket I used to bring it to the pasture. I then walked him up to his feed pan and he took a few more nibbles and then went back to grazing the long grass. It might take him some time to get used to eating the grain mixture that I feed. I figure that as long as he has it available and knows where it is at then he can nibble all he wants to.

Here I will be updating his progress and what I have done to help him get better.

Stop by from time to time to see how it is going.

His sweet sweet face.

Here are some close ups of his face. He has a solid blue eye on his off side and a partial blue eye on the near side. These pictures are not the best to show that but it is a start.

The whole package

Here is a full body picture of him from the off side.

He is so beautiful... Once you look past the skin and bones.. and the bad skin condition..

Too Thin

As you saw in the last post, Chance is seriously underweight. here are some pics that show how bad it is.

There is

ABSOLUTELY

no reason

for a horse

to look like this!!

Bad skin (Mange)

Here are some pictures the day after I brought him home. He is a red roan and white Tobiano/ Overo paint. This is how he is listed on his papers.

He has a skin condition that is causing him to lose his hair and have sores on him.

I think he has a bad case of mange/scabies. I am treating him with iodine shampoos and dewormer for now. I will be giving him Pro-Biotics after an intense treatment of dewormer .

This is what he looked like when I brought him home.

This is all over his body.. and he is covered in ticks.

This will not be the way he looks when I am done..

Meet Chance..

I found this little boy at a place that trades and sells horses, donkeys, saddles, etc... The person who runs this place has 40+ head of horses and tries to take good care of them all. He takes in hard luck cases as well and tries to "fix em up" and find homes for them.

Here is one that he found. This is a regiserted stud colt. He is three years old.

I did not purchase this little guy strictly for stud purposes..

I feel that was very important to say so that those who read this blog do not think I had dollar signs in my eyes when I brougth him home. I MAY breed this little guy if I can.. but NOT until he is healthy...and I know it is safe for him to breed.. as you read about him you will find out that there may be troubles that cause me to geld him.. and that is OK with me..