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..