A Visit from the Vet

Today I worked from 8 to 3:30 so I could be home for the vet to make her annual visit to give the horses their vaccinations and check whether they need dental work. As usual she made a big fuss over Hap: she likes Thoroughbreds and thinks he is a fine example thereof. As usual, I didn’t argue with her. (More to the point, she also thinks he is in great shape for a 23 year old Thoroughbred.)

She also did the yearly ritual of sedating Rags so she can float his teeth and check a lesion on his sheath. He has had the lesion for years now, without any changes, and the yearly sedation ensures that it isn’t doing anything nasty where we can’t see. As usual, Rags made a pretty good attempt at cow-kicking her despite heavy sedation while she cleaned his sheath. She also said his eyes look good. Since he is the most common breed (Appaloosa) in the most common state (Colorado) for getting sun caused cancers, and won’t wear a fly mask, this was good news.

Magic, the mare I board, was well-behaved and the vet commented on how fat she is for a 28 year old mare. I couldn’t believe she was 28 when I started to do the mental math, but a group of us who were around when her owner bought her agreed that she was close to 12 when she was bought 16 or 17 years ago.

The visit from the vet also led to my yearly ritual of checking my horse medications. I suppose it is a good thing that they expire before I use them, since it means the horses are doing well, but I still have a bit of a twinge when I have to discard them. Despite the cost, I always try to keep the two most commonly used pain-killers on hand.

Tower

June 03, 2008 – Click on image for higher resolution version.

Colorado Springs has many old Victorian buildings downtown, most of them subdivided into multiple living spaces now. Many of them are wood frame houses, but there are some like this one in brick.