Open Wide and say "Ahhhh"

After the last ride, Hank had a little bit of fluid at the bottom of his tendon sheath on his left front leg. Not lame or sore, but it was time to have some teeth worked on with the others, so I decided to load three horses in to the trailer, and head down to the vet at the race track, where Hanks surgery was done. I'd rather have the leg looked at BEFORE he want lame, and maybe prevent something that could be starting. This vet does a huge amount of work with the race horses, and has all the latest equipmet right there in the facility.

We started with Flags teeth. He has been having trouble holding weight, and I knew he needed his teeth done. He had hooks on both the top and bottom teeth, and the vet got everything taken care of, and I hope to see him gaining some weight soon. He was such a good boy. When done, we stood him over along a wall near the door, where he stood perfectly still, looking drunk from his drugs. No one had a hold of him. He just stood there. If you are old enough to remember the movie Cat Ballou from the 60's, where the horse leans against the wall drunk, that is sort of what Flag was looking like. Next was Toby for his teeth. His weight is good, but he has been dropping food, and having trouble chewing some. He is getting close to 20 years old. The vet found a few teeth that were worn low, and she working on those around the troubled teeth, and on the ones that met up with them when chewing to help things match up so he can chew well.

Now it was Hanks turn. We did some soundness checking, with the vet watching him trot, and doing flexing of legs etc, then went inside and got out the ultrasound machine. He got his leg shaved, and then they checked things out with the ultrasound. I am amazed at technology, and how far things have come. Hank just stood there like a good boy, fairly bored with the whole process.


The vet was seeing something a tad "odd", but not really glaring that showed an issue. So we did the other front leg, to compare. He saw a slight difference in the legs, so we are going to do some leg sweats, and then he will come back in a couple / few weeks for a recheck, and compare ultrasounds. If no change, then it is nothing. If a change from the sweats, then we will discuss what, if anything is going on. Again, not sore or lame, but he has something a tad out of sorts, or we would not have fluid showing up.

Last, we checked Hanks mouth, and he too needed his teeth done. He had hooks way, way in the back, and they also clipped off his canines. (they used hoof nippers!)

Hank shared his opinion about having his teeth done, and stood there and groaned. I should have video taped it. It was actually amusing to me, as only Hank would express himself in such a way.

And I shot a few videos when we had storms blow through the other day, so I will add one here, of the horses coming up the driveway, and getting to a puddle that is not normally there.