The Bad News Horse

Tue May 30, 2006

What a helluva year for my poor lil' guy. Gets his tail broken in February (it wa'rnt no "contusion", that thing was broke and now it's bent funny, dammit!), gets holes chewed in his chest, gets his ear nearly skinned a couple of weeks ago (though most the big chunky scabs and bits of skin and hair have fallen off and there's a fine white fuzz growing back)...this evening he now has TWO swollen eyes! Don't ask me why, don't ask me how, I have NO idea!!!

He looks like the Northlight Mule for God's sake!!

The eyeball itself is fine, nothing swollen or red or inflamed or protruding...just the "eyebrows" are puffy and huge!!! Nothing oozing or runny...it doesn't hurt for me touch them, so that rules out him getting kicked in the head...all I can figure is the hot/wet weather all weekend has brought out the mold in the pasture and he's allergic to it! He wasn't in that shape this morning when I stopped out on my way to work!!
Maybe he got stung by a bee!

*sigh*

Always some damned thing!!! See how he is in the morning after spending the night in his clean, dry, non-moldy, bee-free stall!

Well, this morning the left eye is back to normal, but the right is still swollen. Might have been a nasty bitey fly bite. There's some tiny black flie that, when it bites me (usually around the eye or ear), the bite area swells HUGE...once my eye swelled shut...maybe it was the same fly, who knows.

He was sure full of P&V this morning, LOL...been working with him in the morning trying to remind him of good ground manners re: being unhaltered. He did pretty good today, and only galloped off like a loon once I opened the gate to the pasture...awaaaayyyy he went!

Rained over night, which means more bity bugs, hoorah!

(Aain't naught like the smell of an old horse barn w/tom cats on a humid morning, hooohah!)