Ignorance really is bliss

The ponies were blood tested.  Buttons was fine.  The vet only managed to get a tiny amount of blood from Honey before her legs buckled and we just managed to catch her head before she ended up in a heap on the ground.  Very, very traumatic for her.  It was enough to be tested though.  Buttons results came back unremarkable.  Honey has elevated GGT levels.  This is common in horses who have suffered ragwort poisoning but can also occur when liver fluke get into the bilary tract.  Going by Honey's history of years of extreme neglect and abuse, it wouldn't surprise me if she had been exposed to ragwort in the past.  However, we do know that there is fluke exposure in the fields, so it could also be fluke damage.  Honey could probably function quite well in her daily life with a degree of liver damage, however, it is imperative that she does not suffer further damage.  Fluke can't live a full life cycle in the horse and the horse is not its preferred host.  However, if the horse has an underlying condition or a compromised immune system, the fluke does seem to be able to take hold.   Honey was given the drencher  that cattle and sheep get for fluke.  It's not licensed in horses and very little is known about its 'safety' in horses.  There has also been resistance in cattle in our area who have been treated with it.  She showed mild colic symptoms following the drencher but it passed uneventfully.  She seems absolutely fine, the best she has ever looked since I got her.  If the flukes had not been discovered during the horse that passed aways autopsy, I would never have thought for a second at the moment that there was anything wrong with her.  Appearances can be deceptive.  She will be re-blood tested at the beginning of March.  I am praying that the GGT level has reduced or at least remained the same.  If it has elevated further we are looking at investigating further and having a liver scan and biopsy carried out.  This would involve taking her to the vet school.  For a pony who gets so stressed having her blood taken, I don't know if this is an option.  They have said that she would be in and out in the same day, she would be sedated and it's not a long or really invasive procedure .  Buttons would also have to go with her, just for moral support, as she loses the plot if he goes out of her sight.  I need to wait and see what the next set of bloods tell us, speak with the vet school and take it from there.  The senior vet in equine medicine at the vet school has confirmed that the fluke contamination of the pasture will have came from neighbouring sheep who get through the fence and graze our fields.  As long as the intermediate host is present (the sheep) the fluke will remain in the grazing.  It seems fairly simple to me, tell the farmer to take his sheep back and secure his fence so they can't get through.  This doesn't appear to be the case though.  He did come and take them all away on Wednesday, but on Thursday there were a few back on our grazing and yesterday there were even more.  I find this really frustrating.  One sheep or eighty sheep, if they are infected with fluke, they need to be kept off the horses grazing.

Snow ponies

The ponies are being blood tested today.  Buttons will be fine and more interested in whether the Vet has brought him a treat (he usually does) and Honey will probably collapse in a heap on the floor.  I feel rotten, but it has to be done.

I bought the ponies a salt lick.  Easy to use, as demonstrated by Buttons.

However, I looked up and Honey was standing at the back of the stable shaking and wouldn't come near it.  So I have had to remove the dangerous, pony eating salt lick from the stable.

The ponies are both doing well.  I restrict their turnout when it is frosty and I micro manage them along with the weather conditions and so far (fingers crossed) it is working.  They are not liking the frozen rutted ground at the moment, but neither are the shod horses.  They both had a good trim with the farrier last week and Honey is now landing and loading her front feet fairly balanced.  She now has a pair of functioning front feet, her backs still have a way to go, I'm not sure if the twist will ever right but the farrier thinks we have made and are making good progress.  I suppose I see them every day so the changes are not all that evident to me.    I still need to post the pictures of her feet from her first few trims when she arrived and then from her most recent trim and hopefully see the improvements.  She is walking really well and has such a long ground covering stride for such a wee pony.  She would make a cracking driving pony.  Hopefully this summer I will manage to get them both in the harness.  They are such great wee friends now.

Yesterday, Honey wore her first ever saddle!  She was a very good girl.  I have had her for 1 year and 1 week.  This time last year I would never have thought that this would have been possible for her and there have been times where I have thought that maybe a life with as little human handling as possible would be the kindest thing for her.  She is still very warey of people she doesn't know, but she now actively joins me and Buttons and no longer is always on the outside.  She likes to be told what a good girl she is.  Hopefully, I can start long reining them both soon as they too need to exercise.      

The ponies got lovely little fleece rugs for their Christmas.  They only really ever wear turnouts, but handy to have to dry them off.  They are very cute.

  

Christmas seems to agree with them and they have both been in very good spirits recently.  Someone mentioned to me yesterday that it's hard to believe that Honey is the same pony that arrived 11 months ago.  Not just in that she looks better, but also her behaviour and confidence.  Obviously I see changes, but as I see her every day, it's nice that other people also notice.  One of my biggest concerns with her was as her feet were so horrific, she still leaned back and rocked on her feet.  It's not a problem really as she is not a ridden animal and will never be asked to do much work, but I worried about how this affected her joints.  I have noticed recently that she is much straighter in her stance and she is actually picking her feet up to turn instead of just swivelling around.  The changes we have made to her feet have been very gradual.  She had developed a way of standing and even moving if she could to compensate for her big curly elf feet.  It's now her bones and muscles are slowly adapting to a new way of moving.  She still doesn't land straight and there is still a long way to go with them and she may never have perfect feet but we will continue to do our best and as long as she is comfortable.  It's always interesting to see her feet being trimmed due to the growth pattern and weight bearing differences.  She has been very settled recently and is very much part of our family now and over the last few months, I have felt a shift in her attitude towards me in that she wants to be part of our family.

Wee Pals

Happiness is a warm dry stable, a wee drop hay and a friend to share with, it doesn't take much.

I was watching a you tube video of an American miniature who had been taught to match up objects.  For example the trainer would hold up a blue ball, the pony would then walk over to a table where there were various objects laid out and he would select the blue ball by nudging it.  The ponies get snack balls at night time, Honey has a pink one and Buttons' is blue.  I give them each a ball before I leave, but they do end up playing with either.  However, if I put the two balls down in front of Honey, she always selects the pink one. It got me to thinking to how they see colour.  It also really interests me as to how they learn.  Buttons gets through life by being very cute, friendly and just utterly adorable.  He is the class clown, and hey why not, it works, he has absolutely everyone he meets wrapped around his little hoof in minutes.  Honey and him are like night and day though.  Honey is a thinker but she is also very clever.  She works things out.  Buttons does things without thinking of the repurcussions.  He seems to have no spacial awareness and will try and squeeze through spaces he can't possibly fit.  Like Ying and Yang.  I am going to try and teach them to match up objects just to see exactly how they both learn as individuals.

Don't put the cart before the horse

Little Honey comes in from the field herself now.  I bring the ponies and G in together.  As it's a really stoney track they have to come down, I tie Honey's rope up and just let her come down at her own pace, letting her pick her own route. 

Nose to tail

If she gets distracted, you just shout her name and she comes.

Look who else is wearing the roller! honey wears her first piece of tack.  A few months ago, I wouldn't have been able to even take the roller into the stable without her trying to bolt off.  She has seen buttons wearing it and yesterday she wore it for the first time, tightened up, without batting an eye lid. 

The ponies have a set of harness and a tiny little pony trap.  I got a real bargain on Gumtree.  Buttons has been long reining and pulling a tyre, he really loves just being busy.  Honey usually just ponies along beside us.  Yesterday, I tried the harness on Buttons as it needs a few holes punched and a few adjustments.  I need to get a little roller pad, but hopefully soon, he'll be harnessed up.  

Shetland Ponies are good for the soul

It is amazing that something so simple as running around a field with a couple of Shetland Ponies can bring so much joy.  Two dinky little ponies who were abandoned, not even worthy to some people of even being dumped on the scrap heap, just forgotten, can bring such happiness by doing nothing more than being themselves.   

All ponies deserve at least once in their lives, to be loved by a little girl