Hank update...doing much better

Jessey

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Dec 20, 2004
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Bless his cottons, he's full of beans and even escaped his pen last night :rolleyes: I moved one side of the pen inwards to then move the other out onto new grass and before I could he hopped where the fence was hanging down lower :p so he obviously isn't feeling too awful.

I have poked and prodded him head to toe and sent videos to my vet, she didn't feel it necessary to come out as she thinks it very unlikely he's got a fracture in his leg because of how bright and keen to bounce he is, she does think he may have cracked a rib behind his shoulder blade though as we think he was kicked in the shoulder but isn't tender over it. So he is on rest and controlled exercise once he's a bit sounder :)
 
Oh poor cool dude Hank, I saw this earlier and hadn't a clue what was going on so I had to go and search for your other post!! Jess was a naughty girl but she does usually tolerate a lot from the cheeky wee man. I am sure getting the extra feeds to get the bute into him more than makes up for him feeling sorry for himself ;)
 
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Ditto OBC - thats what I was wondering? How painful would a cracked rib be to a horse? on a scale of say 1-10............?
No idea :) cracked ribs in people can vary, I know when I did mine it hurt but it didn't stop me doing anything apart from pulling a Tshirt/jumper over my head. Vet did say that cracked ribs often don't make them lame but can do. I guess those ones under the scapular are moved with every step.
When I said he hopped the downed fence it was literally that, about 8" from the floor not a full size fence obviously!
 
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Poor Hank.

As for the ribs part, I don't know if mine had any. I only really get to feel them sporadically. Wasnt the a nr member on here with a ribless Connie?
Seriously though I don't know how effected they would be.
 
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The perfect pony act couldn't last forever ;) I wanted to try taking Jess out of the field last night to see if Hank was going to stay quiet enough for me to ride her, I didn't even take her rug off with an idea this wouldn't go so well, but I didn't expect quite what we got. Hank is normally very good with electric fence, even if its not on, first he started pen walking, then trotting (very lame on a tight circle) and then proceeded to bite the fence and try dragging it down and then thought he would walk straight through it, but he just dragged the pen with him rather than breaking it o_O and all this was before I even got to the gate :rolleyes:

So I grabbed my energizer off my perimeter fence and tried again, he went straight to biting the fence, boy did he regret that! I shouldn't laugh but he wasn't just nibbling at the fence, he full mouth grabbed it (like bit position). Strangely enough after that he decided standing and calling was a much better option even when I took jess up the road :)

The challenge was then that I need that energizer for the perimeter fence (to keep the kids out) and Hanks pen is in the middle of the field as I didn't want him near the front edge as that's where the kids came in. So I just happened to have a spare battery and energizer in my car (that's why my car resembles a skip!) so pulled those out and the energizer wouldn't bloody work at all :( so at dusk I had to move Hanks pen, I put him in a little bit of the track while I shifted it, then led him across and guess who came flying over striking out at him, I have no idea why they have fallen out so badly but Jess is really upset with him over something :( he is in a slightly more sheltered bit now, pretty near the hedge, but he has no grass in there. Poor little sod.
 
I have no idea, she and Hank were fine on sunday morning, its probably not even him she's mad at. She does just get like this from time to time, it could be hormones or because the kids coming in upset the equilibrium, though she has been really funny about eating this new bale of hay. The last bale they would eat 2 slices a day (about 8kg a slice), this one it suddenly dropped to just over a slice a day, then late last week they all but stopped eating it, I've only been putting a slice out every 2-3 days so she could just be Hangry, I might have to give up and open another bale and see if that helps but it could also be that the grass had started to sprout last week as it was so warm and she wants more of that!
 
Oh Hank! Your halo has clattered to the floor......o_O:oops:
Hmm. As you say, it's maybe not even Hank she is mad at. My Storm is mad at the world atm. She's in season:rolleyes:hungry all the time and snitty with Chloe. But she is equally cross with Zio_Owho really can't work it all out.......
How frustrating for you - I hope he settles into his pen and you get to ride Jess without any more trouble.
 
Oh dear, poor Hank to be in the bad books with Jess,but Marley is a horrible person when he is hungry. It's always around this time of the year when there is no grass and what grass there is has very little nutrition in it that he gets really horrible, he takes it out on poor wee Rummy and I have to keep the sheep separate in the other field as I seriously think he would harm one of them, but come the spring grass and he is fine again.:rolleyes:
 
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Hank is now being a very good boy, now the fence is powered he's not fussed it again :p he's being all sweet and cuddly. He's still lame, I stopped his bute yesterday but I'd say there's still improvement from when I took the video, so Im happy its going in the right direction. I'll give him a bit longer in the pen then look at putting him in a bigger patch when he's improved enough, no idea what enough is but hopefully I'll know when we get there :)
 
I think hanky poo poo is sound :D it was a little tough to be sure on my own, it was a bit like trying to fly a kite while running backwards down a rutted field ;) I've doubled the size of his pen, will see how it holds up with a bit more movement and start hand walking him :)
 
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