Yesterday morning, when I went out to feed the horses, I noticed that Hap had some sort of drainage coming out of his jaw. My friend brought her clippers over and we found an impressive abscess underneath all the hair. I thought he had somehow managed to catch strangles, a highly infectious disease which is usually self-limiting in healthy horses. His vet came out, examined him, didn’t think it was strangles, and really, really wanted to take x-rays, to rule out nasty causes of the abscess like an infection in the bone, or a chip off the jaw.
I hauled Hap to the clinic this morning. My friend came along to provide moral support if it turned out to be something particularly nasty, and practical assistance if Hap decided to be a butthead. Fortunately, Hap’s evil twin did not show up, and the x-rays indicated the jaw bone was healthy. However, his teeth badly needed floating, and there was a possible fracture of one tooth. This was that tooth, which popped out as the vet started to float that side. She is quite confident that this fractured tooth was causing the abscess, and is glad that she got it out before it caused even more problems. As it is, I have to figure out how to get SMZ down him for a month. SMZ is a sulfa drug much used as a horse antibiotic. Horses don’t like the taste, so one spends a lot of mental energy trying to come up with novel ways to disguise it.
I was so euphoric as I drove back that I drove onto an icy patch on a hill before I realized it and got stuck. Even four wheel drive didn’t seem to be help. While I was assessing the situation, and trying to figure out a solution that did not involve Jack, a man in a truck stopped to help me. He had two shovels, and it took about five minutes to shovel enough sand over the ice that the truck was able to pull out the trailer using the lowest gear of the 4WD. Hap stood quietly in the trailer the whole time.
I bet I can’t get anything close to what this tooth cost from the Tooth Fairy.
