Nice people thread part 7 - a thread in its prime

lostinrates

BertieUK wrote: »

Long shot but could they not take an x-ray of her mouth to determine the offending tooth? poor girl:(

Yes we could, here at home too. it still leaves the basic issue that the tooth is not rotten enough to just pull out with her standing or under local, so it would be a different nature of operation, probably going in from the outside. (and crucially for how we understand her 'emotional' needs, the support she gets from the herd here, it would mean her going into hospital. That's just not going to be in her best interests at her stage of life.....being with her friends is her everything.

Her heart and lungs are superb, she could probably take a general, the recouperation however would be a different matter.

The context is she is the equivalent of a person of about 105 and has another health issue which has some impact ...she has fits or seizures. She also has stiff joints and scuffs her feet, tbh, we have thought it would be her feet that forced a decision because of the nature of the horses foot, one day the feet will not cope with the scuffing. But then she also canters around when the hunt come past. A huge operation if we knew it would give her, say, a year or two, might be worth it, but......it's very unlikely. And the recovery would be a considerable percentage of life left to her I think.

lostinrates

GDB2222 wrote: »

My experience with antibiotics is that you know within a few hours whether it's beginning to work. So, perhaps it won't be so bad.

Poor Old Horse. I hope that by 'think about things' you don't mean what I think you mean?

Usually the vet tells me it will be a week. Her infection is not causing her other distress, her heart sounds fine, her respiration rate is fine, her temp is only mildly raised. But, she is old, and has not much meat on her.

BertieUK

lostinrates wrote: »

(and crucially for how we understand her 'emotional' needs, the support she gets from the herd here, it would mean her going into hospital. That's just not going to be in her best interests at her stage of life.....being with her friends is her everything.

.

We are all sending group prayers to her hoping that it will help her feel more comfortable and take away the stress she is having and make her better.

All together...

lostinrates

Thank you bertie.

My dream for her, is that she died out in the field, running maybe. She is not a kissy or cuddly horse, she had a hard start on another continent, a hard but successful career. She is wary of people often, and her trust is very hard to win, but she loved to play...when she retired from her sport she played by herself in the field......we threw apples for her often to watch her chase after them with joy, outsmarting the other horses whop had never aged that game. She liked going out, and misses hacking lots too....we sometimes take her for a short walk, and she never wants to turn around and come back...where as most horses love to come home...laziness is not a feature of her personality.

Oh well, we'll see.

aliasojo

Joining in with the group prayers lir. x

vivatifosi

Oh lir, poor special girl. Could a long term course of painkillers be another solution? Even if they are life-limiting, would that not be better than the trauma? Hopefully the infection will be acute rather than chronic and clear with the antibiotics.

vivatifosi

Oh, by the way, Barbara Streisand fan here too. As is DH. But we wouldn't pay to see her in concert as she's too expensive and spends too much time talking.

lostinrates

vivatifosi wrote: »

Oh lir, poor special girl. Could a long term course of painkillers be another solution? Even if they are life-limiting, would that not be better than the trauma? Hopefully the infection will be acute rather than chronic and clear with the antibiotics.

Confusingly she dopesn't seem to be in any significant pain relating to this. She is perky, eating well, interacting, etc. ( if she is I have painkillers here for here, thats not the issue)

Horse teeth are funny. The adult teeth are not like rodent teeth that keep growing' yet the phrase 'long in the tooth' and of course the gift uorse's mouth comes from horses because we identify specific age landmarks by their teeth, this os because whilst they do not grow they 'descend'. The problem is essentially that this natural process is happening and causing an abcess/ root infection behind which ever tooth it it, and this is erupting as an abcess into her sinuses. ( essentially pus is coming out of one nostril). So if we cannot realistically and fairly remove the infection source it's just going to keep recurring, over and over.


Long term antibiotic use is not good for us, it's even more of an issue in horses, who use gut flora instead of multiple 'stomachs' like cows to digest the same diet which is otherwise of low digestibility. Putting her on long term antibiotics is not really viable. I didn't even discuss it with the vet. We could probably do a few cycles if this one is really effective. We have taken a swab to see if perhaps a different antibiotic might be more suitable but this is the one he thought would be our best chance of it without knowing exactly which yukkies are in there.

GDB2222

Another thing I've learnt today! I had always assumed that 'long in the tooth' meant the teeth stayed the same but the gums receded with age. So, it's interesting to hear that's completely wrong.

chewmylegoff

zagubov wrote: »

Gay marriage. Not my concern. Only really of the concern of the people who seek it and IMHO nobody else's business at all. Can't see why it's anybody's business to object to it

Pretty much where I am on the issue. Although as usual I am confused about where I stand on the religious opt out issue. Whilst I don't like anything beig rammed down people's throats, I don't understand why religion should get an opt out from certain parts of equality legislation. I don't think a church would get away with not marrying black people, for instance.