Buttons and Honey

So Buttons and Honey have their own blog to document their daily adventures, Honeys recovery and managing laminitis.  Honey had her visit from the vet yesterday for her flu and tetanus vaccination.  It is thought that she has never been vaccinated so she is starting from scratch.  She will get another booster in 6 weeks time and again in 6 months.  Following that she will just need the annual booster like the other two.  She was terrified of the vet.  Her whole body was trembling, but it was over quickly.  With her not carrying much body condition it must have been uncomfortable with the needle going in.    The farrier also came.  He was very good and spent a lot of time with her and in return she was good with him.  She is warey of you picking up her feet but she managed well.  My farrier said that her back feet must have been horrendously overgrown as they are so deformed and contracted.  He said that he would be surprised if she had even been able to walk much at all before being taken into the centre.  He is hopeful though that with long term corrective trimming and the correct diet we will be able to get them into decent shape.  He just gave them a little tidy up and tried to balance them as best he could for the moment.  She had a lot taken from her soles during the first trims she had at the centre, so it's a case of taking it slowly and keeping her comfortable and reshaping, balancing and bringing the hoof back over time. Buttons had his feet trimmed as well, and the farrier was very pleased with the way his feet were looking and said there were virtually no traces of the laminitis in them now.  I'm very pleased.  He is happy for both ponies to be trimmed every 6 weeks now.  I've taken some photographs of Honeys feet.  They aren't great pictures, but you can see just how bad are feet are with the hind feet being worse.

Off Fore

Near Fore

Front feet

Back feet

Near Hind

Off Hind

She is on her heels at the back and you can see her rocking back when she turns instead of lifting her feet. I was going to take photographs of Buttons feet to compare, but my camera battery died, but I will get some.

Honey

She enjoys having doors that she can see over

Buttons

Nosey neighbour

This was taken on Monday.  They now graze right next to each other.

Honey was trimmed first.  I put her back in the stable and led Buttons out to get his trim.  The farrier was working at the front of the stable so Honey would be able to see Buttons, but she obviously thought at first that we were taking him away.  She started cantering around the stable like a little whirl wind screaming.  Once she realised she could still see him she settled and stood at the door quietly watching.  I knew there was a large chance that they would become pair bonded and maybe Honey will settle more with time when she gains her confidence and trust again, but it doesn't really matter if they can't be separated.  Where one goes, the other will go anyway, their needs are exactly the same so it really doesn't matter and Honey needs Buttons more than anything right now.

Zoe hasn't met Honey yet, but she is desperate to come up and meet her.  She will have two little ponies to love and dote on.  Now that Zoe's writing is getting better and she's a whizz on the computer (better than me), she could maybe write the odd post on her times with the ponies.

Buttons wearing his halo.  I took some photographs before Christmas for making cards.  He didn't like the reindeer antlers, but thought the halo suited him!