I am that person + Amber update

I discovered, when dropping Amber off at the vet Wednesday, that I have become THAT person.

Let me explain. For most of my horsey life until a few years ago, whenever the horses stayed at the vet or were having something done, we used a disposable halter and never really brought anything else. No boots, no special food, no nothing. Also, I thought it was a bit stupid. Okay, so the horse is staying at the vet’s for a few days. Big deal. Why do these horse owners have to bring EVERYTHING for their horses that will be very well cared for?

I had felt pretty good when I’d show up, hand the horse over and leave and be an “easy customer.”

Haha. Ha ha. Ha.

I say this all in good fun at myself by the way lol. But I have become that person that I thought was silly. Not only did I bring Amber for the stay, but I brought her grain – complete with her joint medicine because I hope it’ll help through the surgery – I brought her fly mask, fly boots, fly sheet and neck cover and a healthy dose of not wanting to let go lol. Of course, all the ladies at the vet were just great about everything and bearing with my overbearing-ness lol. Yes, maybe I brought too much stuff – my vet jokingly told me that I brought the kitchen sink – but they understand how much we love our animals.

I brought all of that tho because she will grind her teeth at the flies buzzing around her because they won’t leave her alone. If the sheet and boots help her to have an easier recovery, well then I wanted to help that. Necessary? Eh, probably not. Silly? Yeah probably. But as I said before, they all understand how much we love our horses, and it is totally great to be THAT person that cares about their animals and maybe brings a little bit too much rather than too little. Because we do care. These may not be 4* horses or Derby winners or futurity champions or the next WEG champions, but they’re the world to us small-time people who love our horses. So I fully embrace becoming THAT person lol.

Also, as a quick aside, where did spring go?! It went from rainy and 60 on Monday to freakin 103 on Wednesday. WTF Vegas. I’m not ready for it to be so hot yet.

As far as how Amber is doing? She’s just fine. The vet texted me (with a picture; they are awesome) that she was up and standing and doing well. Apparently she was also ridiculously hungry since she didn’t get fed in the morning lol. Even when I visited her she was all about that food. She was still a bit out of it when I came by, and sweetest of mares she walked up to me as I opened her stall door even though her legs were obviously hurting her. I just love this girl.

She wasn’t into scratches at first so she was really in some pain, but after a few minutes she finally started to get into it. She was definitely in pain tho, and leaned into me when I held her head. She then proceeded to (very slowly so it was kind of funny) try to keep me away from the other mares around her – even one with a foal lol. Apparently I’m hers lol. Because then when I left she was fine haha. She still adored the babies tho, and has gotten used to the donkey that she was next to before. She’ll have to stay until at least Sunday, and poor Whisper keeps staring off into the distance waiting for Amber to show up. She really misses her.

Unfortunately, the bone chip wasn’t removed from her knee. From what I can remember Dr W saying (and we’ll talk more on it this weekend) the chip was in the joint capsule or enclosed by the other bones of the joint or something and he would’ve torn up a lot more than if he just left it. Which, I kind of figured as much, but was still hoping it would come out. Oh well. Her stifle looked okay – some damaged cartilage in there, an old, very small meniscus tear (with no scar tissue thank goodness but I’m wondering if that’s what happened when she suddenly was lame March of last year), and just a bit of bone roughness. He cleaned it up, said other than that it looked pretty good, but still a bit concerned that the cartilage seemed soft. She seems to be a good candidate for IRAP (taking blood, spin down the plasma, insert plasma into joint and it helps inhibit inflammation), and I want to try that but we may wait a little bit before doing it.

While we don’t have solid news on future potential, I’m still relieved everything looked pretty good, we have a few steps forward now with more knowledge, and we’ll see how she responds to this surgery clean up. So glad that’s over!