I've never had to have a horse castrated before, I've never had a horse so young. All the male horses in my life have come to me as geldings and I never gave it much thought to when they were castrated and the personalities they had as colts. I felt awful having the UBF done, although of course I knew it was necessary. I felt terrible he had to go through another operation in the short time he has been with me, more pain, more drugs and more washing of places that are sore.
He was a fabulous patient. He allowed me to wash the wound between his legs. Twice a day I lead him around the farm to keep him moving so that the wound would stay open and could drain. He learnt to have fly spray on him and was gracious enough to let me massage oils into his skin to aid the healing. I was still cleaning the wound on his jaw which was taking a long time to heal. Everyday I loaded his breakfast and dinner with antibiotics and painkillers which he struggled to eat even when heavily disguised with apple juice. So many things to worry about.
I took pictures of his willy daily and sent them to the vet to let her know how swollen it was. I worried the flies would cause an infection. I worried he wasn't moving enough. I worried he spilt most of his food containing the drugs he needed. I worried he saw me as a negative thing in his life - with all the aftercare I was imposing on him.
But all that worry was unfounded, as it usually is. The UBF recovered like a champ.
And everyone breathed a little sigh of relief that there was no longer a stallion on the yard.
No comments:
Post a Comment