The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread NINE

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[Duchess47]

I love this picture.

[HairOfTheDog]

I figured out what that looks like. Does she have any other scrapes like it? It looks like she went down hard on gravel. It looks like a skinned knee.

[MissTargets]

Good Morning all,

Just a quick note, I will be training today.

[CindyDawg]

That's all of it and she's been in the pasture. Dirt, hay, a few trees and horses. It does look like that though.

[CindyDawg]

No probably about it. She KNOWS what is in it. That's the plan:')

[HairOfTheDog]

Horses can figure out very strange ways to hurt themselves :~D

If not gravel, it also looks like a fungus, or even a bunch of insect bites, who knows. I'd have probably hit it with a few different topicals that covers all those, and call a vet if it grows.

[HairOfTheDog]

But that means you're 3 hours behind us....I'm confused:)

I think the issue is it's on at a different time at your place... started at 8 here?

It was a great, fast packed episode... The end was such a downer though. And... I might add... They sure seemed to get him on a ship and out to sea in about 5 minutes :~D

[FrogInABlender]

My oldest horse, Tennessee, used to get something similar on the sides of his thighs back when he was young. They were hard bumps, with a scab that you could pick off like rainrot, but were in an unusual place for rainrot. They left pink areas like in your picture when you picked them off though. She may have been rubbing them on a tree or something and that may be what caused the cuts. I'm just guessing here, but your course of treatment sounds like it ought to take care of it, no matter what it is.

[HairOfTheDog]

New drama: The store next door called me yesterday and said ~this~ had wandered in.

She's just a kitten, smaller than our two, and.... she's very thin, and very pregnant.

This things always seem to end up at my door :~D

Jeepers though, she needs help. She's too young, and too thin. Other than her belly, she's a skeleton. I'm gonna take to the vet tomorrow morning... see what the best course is, see how far along she is. She probably has worms, they'll probably do shots... She's eating well, and her poo looks OK. I'm gonna pick up some higher power food, canned kitten food or something, today.

She's back in the back bedroom, seperated for now from the others. I think the spare bedroom is about to become a nursery for awhile :~\

[AnAmericanMother]

Hey, she's a beauty. Her eyes look bright and her ears look clean - could be worse.

Guaranteed worms of all kinds, but if they use a wormer that isn't dangerous to the kits she should be right as rain shortly.

Wonder how many she has?

Another star in your crown, Hair . . . but you're going to wind up being "that crazy lady with the 30 cats" if you're not careful . . .

[HairOfTheDog]

Wonder how many she has? Another star in your crown, Hair . . . but you're going to wind up being "that crazy lady with the 30 cats" if you're not careful . . .

That's the question, isn't it? She's too little... and too thin... I don't want to overdo it too fast, but these kittens are gonna drag her down. What about giving ~her~ milk replacer, or something highly nutritious like that beginning even before she births... and certainly after, to help supplement for the kittens as well.

[ecurbh]

but you're going to wind up being "that crazy lady with the 30 cats" if you're not careful . . .

[HairOfTheDog]

I can't take her to the pound, I'm sure they're inundated with spring kittens. I don't even want to look.

[AnAmericanMother]

They make dietary supplements for queens . . . I used to feed them to mine. Just a good standard nourishing adult cat diet, with supplements added, should do the trick (I would be careful about kitten food because it has a high percentage of fat and it may upset her stomach, esp. if she's been starved. Start her easy and work her up gradually, she'll lose ground if you stuff her and she gets sick.)

The vet should have some dietary supplements for queening cats on hand when you take her in. If she needs a lot of calories quick without upsetting her stomach, Nutra-Cal is my old standby. It's a high-calorie gel with malt and cod liver oil in it, very tasty apparently, in a squeeze tube or a pump bottle. It's packed with vitamins too and that should help.

I wouldn't think KMR would be a good thing for her necessarily, because it goes through her digestive system before it gets to the kits, so you'd be paying a premium for kitten milk. I'd certainly have some on hand to supplement the kittens' diet, because as thin as she is her milk may not come in quickly or at all.

[ecurbh]

I can't take her to the pound

Agreed.

[AnAmericanMother]

[HairOfTheDog]

OK - will do. I'll pick up whatever the vet says is the right thing tomorrow. Understood about not trying to stuff her with groceries too fast.

She's not bagged up at all... and I just read that bagging up usually means 24 hours to go, so I think I've got time :~D

[AnAmericanMother]

Her temperature will drop noticeably within 24 hours of delivery -- but she may object to having you take her temp! She'll get restless and probably meow a lot, and start looking for a nice hidey hole to have the kittens.

She doesn't look like she's ready to drop to me, but doggone it, you just never know. They can fool you.

I've had a queen present me with kittens IN my bed at 4 a.m. without any signs the previous evening that she was ready to deliver.

[ShakeNJake]

She is just lovely! And seems very friendly too.

[HairOfTheDog]

She is very friendly. Wherever she came from, she was well socialized. I thought about putting up a sign that she was found, but she's either been lost awhile, or at least underfed. I'll ~look~ for lost signs, but I don't have a lot of confidence she had a good home before.

They said she ran IN the door of the store yesterday, it's raining here, maybe she was seeking a safe place to be.