Hank has strange friends

Hank seems to like his mineral block. He has this odd routine, where he would eat his Purina Strategy, then walk over to the salt block, then go drink water. Did not matter if I only fed him a handful of feed, he would always do this. With the colic issues, I was wanting them to drink more, and be sure to have salt available at all times. I got this cool tub that will hang on a fence rail, or over the outside edge of our metal water trough, so the horses can stand and lick the salt, and then drink, without having to move. I drilled a couple holes in the bottom, to let it drain in the rain (if we ever have any again) , then dropped one of the large salt blocks in it. The cool thing is, I can move it to where I want it. Right now, it is in Hanks stall. Oh, and normally he does not wear the halter in the stall.

This morning it was time to change Hanks bandage. Earlier I had him in the yard grazing some. So as I was leading him back into his stall, I saw he had a visitor. We have these tortoises around the property, and have actually given them names. We have Chip (pictured) as he has a chip missing form his shell. Scooter, who is pretty fast, with some pigmentation gone on his shell, and Dale, Chips friend, who looks pretty normal. Anyway, Chip was cruising through the stall, so I tossed him a bite of carrot, which he thought was very yummy. He then moved on to where ever they hang out, when not stopping to visit Hank.

The last time I changed the bandage, I did not remove all the wrap. I just cut it low along his sides, and re-wrapped over the top, so I was limiting how many times I pulled the sticky stuff off his side, thus removing a bunch of hair along with it. But today, it was time to change the whole thing, as he had been itchy under it. You can see in the photo how much hair it yanked out upon removal. Poor baby. Thankfully, he is shedding his summer coat, as his winter coat is starting to come in. I guess I am glad we are not dealing with this with a full winter coat, as THAT would hurt to pull off the hair. He also has a sticky residue left behind, but I'm sure it will be gone after the rest of the summer coat sheds. The incision looked good, with a couple tiny spots of proud flesh. But no infection. He goes in Thursday for the vet to remove the staples. I am not about to get my head down under there to pull those out! I am also feeling bad for Hank with his weight loss. I have never seen the ribs on this horse. I'll be glad when he can start eating enough to gain some weight!