Jan. 11, 2003 ~ Boys and horses
A letter arrived from Soldier Boy today! Whoo, boy, we have really hit the jackpot! Yesterday he mentioned that he'd only written two letters (this one was mailed 20 days ago), so we are now in possession of everything he has written thus far. Which means that even if he wrote a letter yesterday, it would be a good two or three weeks before it made it here. So we don't need to worry so much about "Will this be the day that a letter arrives?"
He wrote that a couple of celebrities had been to visit them recently, and a bunch of the guys had gotten autographs, but he hadn't bothered with that. I'm the same way. The two or three times I have gotten autographs, I've felt kind of dumb. Son later wondered if the celebrities' autographs might have been worth something. Who knows. But it is a weird, goofy feeling to walk up to someone and ask for their autograph.
Son used some terms I'm not familiar with with, soldier slang, I suppose, and some words relate to local customs or people. All in all it was a nice, long letter, and I'm sure we'll read it many more times in the weeks to come.
Dakotah has gotten very good about soaking his foot, and the swelling in his leg has gone down considerably. It apprears to be about 75 percent better. We cut back on his dose of anti-inflammatories, and will see how he does at the lower, safer dose. These things cause the same problems in horses that they do in humans, namely, there is the potential for gastrointestinal bleeding. So a smaller dose is preferable to a large one. He's still taking his antibiotics. Those are fun. In the past, we had to give the horses big old shots of antibiotics in their hips or necks. Deep in the muscle, and it obviously hurt them. I hate to give those big shots. But Doc goes to a compounding pharmacy and has them make up oral preparations for him. Each dose is individually packaged and apple-flavored. It's powder, and a lot of it. We're to sprinkle it on the horse's food, and they supposedly like it. We've not had great luck with giving oral meds to large animals in the past. The pellets or powders must taste funny, and they just won't eat them.
The first time he tried it, Dakotah didn't like the medicine. But he's getting better about it, and I mix a little sweet feed (molasses flavored) with it, and he eventually gets it down. Most of it. Some of it gets blown into the air when he breathes on it, but surely Doc takes that into account when calculating the dose.
So the pony and I stand there while he soaks his hoof, just passing time together. He only gets the medicine once a day, so if he's not eating, he gets a little bored. He puts his head on my shoulder, or under my arm. He sighs. He nibbles. He nibbles everything in sight! He doesn't bite, he just "lips" things, especially me. He kind of moves his lips over things like he's trying to taste them. He does it to my hands, my ears, my face, my coat, my shirt. Just checking everything out. I am the slightest bit nervous about him putting his lips on my face, because he has those great big horsey teeth. Every vet I know has gotten bitten, at least once, by an animal that has never bitten anyone before. So there is always a first time. He wiggles. He rocks from side to side. He obviously would like to take his hoof out of the bucket. Have you ever had to just stand perfectly still for twenty minutes?
Years ago I used to pose for an artist friend. He taught classes and needed live models. YES, fully clothed! As I recall, there were only two requirements for the job. 1) You could not be hideously unattractive, and 2) You had to be able to sit or stand still for 15 or 20 minutes at a stretch. It sounds easy enough, right? But it's hard. Standing is especially hard. Dakotah doesn't have it quite that rough, since he is allowed to move, shift his head, change his expression, and even snort or neigh if he feels so inclined... he just can't take his foot out of the bucket. Today he pivoted about 90 degrees, shifting his whole body around, but he still kept his bucket foot where it belonged. Don't know how he managed that. But he was really antsy this morning. Maybe that means he is feeling better. Hope so.
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