Setbacks

Vet visit today and it turns out that poor ol' Seamus is using so much of his nutritional intake on building weight that his hooves are suffering. His soles are very soft right now and in order to give them time to harden back up without having too much weight on them, we've had to put him up on rubber wedge pads for the time being. Fun stuff... I've got to unwrap the whole deal every other day to air out his soles and apply Keratex to them and then do it all up again *sigh* At least I have experience with wrapping these things up, Belle had a go on them a few years ago with a bad case of laminitis.

At least it turns out that Seamus is not laminitic, but this of course is not good, either. Hopefully it will turn out to be a temporary problem and as he continues to gain weight, his body will start shunting nutrients to his hooves again. So for now, Seamus is stall-bound for at least a month. Mary will put him in clean stall every morning for me and give him breakfast as usual and I will be in in the evenings to put him in a clean stall, clean the dirty stalls, feed him dinner, and check his feet. And for the millionth time, I wish I had my own place so I could be there any time of the day or night I needed to be...

We also had Seamus' teeth done, vaccinations, took a fecal sample, and drew some blood to check all his levels. Hopefully the clinic will give me some sort of break on the cost for all this, Dr. McVey said he would ask his boss and let me know something tomorrow so everyone cross fingers! At least Seamus was a perfect gentleman for all this work, often standing there in the barn aisle with the lead rope around his neck and no one holding on to him and the vet there with Seamus' foot up on his knee- what a good boy :)

Oh yes, and how could I forget a visit with Trainer Chuck... Chuck came by to take care of his yearlings when I was finishing cleaning stalls and asked how Seamus was doing and I told him what was going on. Chuck then asks what the vet bills are costing me and I told him that I wasn't sure yet, that I might get a break on it from the clinic. So he tells me that if I want, I can give him the horse back and he'll pay for the bills, that he knows someone else who wants the horse. I say "No thanks, I've got it covered" (thinking something more along the lines of "No stinkin' way in H*LL I'd give him back to you!"). He sorta started pressuring me, telling me he'd pay for it, just let him have the horse back and I wouldn't have to worry about it anymore cause he knew someone who wanted him. I just kept telling him that I was okay the way it was and that Seamus would be just fine when it was all done and I wasn't worried about it. Finally he left, thank goodness! He didn't make me feel threatened or anything, he just really wanted Seamus back for some reason. I am guessing he got a cash offer on Seamus and is now regretting giving him to me and would like to take him back and make some money off him. Only thing it could be really, because he sure didn't give a sh*t enough to give Seamus any care before when he needed it. I refrained from showing my temper (you all who know me should be very proud of me!), but if he tries to get Seamus from me again, there will be words...