Is it 9 am yet?

[Gem's Mom]

Is it 9 yet? I worked overnight milking cows and now I'm showered and clean but not going to bed yet. The lady with the draft horse is supposed to bring it by at 9 so we can see if he'll be a good fit for us. If you missed the thread, he's a 20 yr old Percheron retired carriage horse. He's dapple grey and a total cutie based on the pics I saw. The owner said he's bombproof and good with anyone riding. I've been looking for a horse to join us as a 90% pasture pet, 10% kid/non rider horse. I have lots of friends who don't ride and I'd love to be able to take them out on a trial on a trustworthy horse. Both of my current horses are good with me and my husband but I just can't trust them with kids or total beginners yet. So I've got about 2 hrs to kill before she gets here. Not long enough to get any sleep... guess I'll peruse the forums :-)

[WashingtonBay]

How exciting! Take pictures :D

[Gypsy Rose]

Sounds neat! Like WB said, don't forget the pics!

[Diane of Buck's Hollow]

Yep, that would be great to be able to take your friends out with you. I just love dappled greys!!! They are beautiful! I hope it works out just the way you want it to.

[Gem's Mom]

One more hour... jeans in the dryer, other than that all dressed. Hubby's alarm just went off, so he'll be rolling out any time now. Just put the camera battery on the charger, thanks for reminding me! I don't think there's much else I can do to get "ready". Our horses are easy to catch and will probably come up to the gate to investigate when they show up. The house/barns are kind of messy but we just moved (in march? is it still ok to use that excuse lol?) so that should be ok... I know the dogs are going to bark and be annoying, I've tried to get them to knock it off but I'm kind of at a loss with them. They mostly calm down but still like to bark aggressive like at the horses when they graze by the yard. The horses don't give a rats ass that the dogs are being snots, but it bugs me :-/ They got used to the "anti bark beeper" pretty quick, maybe if I move it over by the pasture the change of direction might startle some silence into them?

A friend is coming out around 11 to meet the horse too. I'm not sure how long the lady is planning this to take, but if she's willing the trail we've been taking lately is about an hour ride plus saying hi to neighbors lol. I know we want him to fit in the trailer but if he doesn't and we still love him we can overlook that problem... excuse to find another trailer, bigger truck? lol

hurry up 9am!

[Gem's Mom]

Sigh, still not here yet. She has my # but I don't have hers :-/

[WashingtonBay]

~drums fingers on desk~

[Gem's Mom]

still not here... guess I'll settle down and read a book. I'm too wound up to wash dishes, I'd probably break something. I've already sat out on the porch, cleaned the litter box and brushed the dogs...

[WashingtonBay]

Dang... that's really late now... I'm sorry! I hope everything is OK with them.

[FatSpottedAppy]

The suspense must be killing you.. I can't wait to hear about how it goes.

[Gem's Mom]

Well I finally googled the lady's name and turns out she has a petting zoo/carriage ride place. So I found her phone number and called. I left a message and she just got back to me. Turns out their camels got out this morning. LOL Good reason to not show up I guess. And now she has stuff going on this afternoon and can't make it out. I'm off tomorrow again so I'm going to drive down to meet the horse. The horse's name is Prince and here's some pics I found of him on their website.
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_53YAnhL9yaw/SjUp6MOCQSI/AAAAAAAAEEM/GFpXVGIWW1w/s512/prince%20and%20the%20littlest%20bride.jpg
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_53YAnhL9yaw/SjUp7EtN6XI/AAAAAAAAEEQ/DHoBbafUt4E/trolley%20wedding.jpg
If meeting him tomorrow goes well we'll then figure out how to get him to my house. Like I said, not sure if he'll fit in the trailer... plus we're dropping that off today to get some welding done on it.

[XshadowfoxX]

=o Wow. Some SERIOUS welding is going to have to be done to ANY trailer to haul that hunk of muscle. Big, cute, sexy, hunk of draft muscle. =P

[Jump The Moon]

That's one CUTE horsey!
I can't wait to hear more... :D

[Gem's Mom]

I need to go run some errands then start the 2 hr drive down to meet Prince. I'm super excited! I won't forget my camera :-)

[Gem's Mom]

I just got back a bit ago from meeting Prince. I had to take a nap lol.

He seems like a super sweet horse but he's got some stuff going on. As in he dropped a bunch of weight this winter and they're not sure why. She's going to send over all the vet work and test results for me to send to my vet. I'd like to know what he thinks. Other than that I think he'd be fine for us.

He's big and kinda pushy but not in a dangerous way, more like "hey I wanna go over there and you're too little to stop me" way. Perhaps a giant rope halter could help him out in that respect. He's barn/herd sour. That's not terrible since we'll probably have our other two horses out on the ride with him, no one to want to stay at the barn with. And if we take him out alone, it'll probably be just around the driveway with kids. If we get adventurous and start driving him then we'll work with the barn sour issue. So on our ride he just didn't want to leave the barn. We walked backwards a lot until we were out of sight of home then he walked along just fine. On the way home he wanted to trot but wasn't trying to run away with me or anything. He has an amazingly springy trot for being such a big guy. For how thin he is he's got a lot of spunk. She also said because of the health issues that they can't figure out he'd be free and they'll deliver.

He likes to roll in the mud but doesn't mind being hosed off.
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_53YAnhL9yaw/SjbdXfobkhI/AAAAAAAAEFE/66LEIEcDb0o/s512/CIMG2217.JPG

Saddle didn't quite fit right because of those high withers, might fit better if he puts some weight back on.
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_53YAnhL9yaw/SjbdeGEvVlI/AAAAAAAAEFI/81VZ7t2H7oE/s512/CIMG2221.JPG

What do you guys think?

[FatSpottedAppy]

I like him a lot... Just be sure to find out what health issues he does have.. Is he pastured with other horses?

[Gem's Mom]

He's pastured with their little guys (minis, ponies, etc) and their new big draft. Whatever's wrong with him is not contagious. She said he was back to normal stool and then relapsed this morning to the runs. He also got into some alfalfa (ate it straight out of the loft) so diet change may be the issue now. Kaopectate (spelling?) seems to help, and he took 60cc of it like it was candy while I was there.

[WashingtonBay]

I think I'd investigate what the veterinary issues are, but he's cute as a guy can be when he's that big and lanky.

[livaward]

Maybe Steve can shed some light to.....

[Petra]

Whatever the issues are I hope it's nothing serious. He is very pretty. Hope you'll get to keep him.

[Gem's Mom]

Here's the vet work results she sent me.

First, These are from April 4th:
The serum portion of the blood work shows:
low Total Protein = 3.8 (Normal is 5.6 to 8.0),
low Albumin = 1.1 (Normal is 2.2 to 3.9),
low Creatinine = 0.8 (Normal is 1.2 to 2.0),
low Phosphorus = 1.8 (Normal is 2.0 to 5.6),
low Calcium = 9.7 (Normal is 10.0 to 13.7),
and a low Cholesterol = 52 (Normal is 70 to 150).

All of the above abnormal values can be the result of chronic diarrhea. None of the other serum values are abnormal, ...so the liver, and kidney enzymes look good, as well as the the other electolytes. I am somewhat surprised that especially his Sodium and Chloride are normal given his diarrhea, but he may have already recovered in those areas by the time I saw him.

The CBC portion of his blood work is also pretty good.
His WBC and RBC counts are both normal, as well as the RBC morphology and differential on the WBC's. His platelet count is also normal. Additionally, his Fibrinogen is
normal.
The two values that are off on the CBC are:
low Hemoglobin = 10.7 (Normal is 11.0 to 19.0),
and low Hematocrit = 31 (Normal is 35 to 52).

All of the above information on the CBC, I find to be encouraging. The normal WBC count rules out sepsis (bacterial infection) as part of his diarrhea. His RBC numbers are good, indicating no loss of RBC's (and thus anemia) with the diarrhea. The fibrinogen being normal means that there is currently not a large amount of inflammation going on in his colon. I was expecting the Hematocrit to be high, which would typically occur in dehydration, but instead his was a little low.

The fecal flotation, and direct smear, that we ran in house, revealed no intestinal parasites or protozoal organisms. The rest of the fecal workup was sent to the
lab. I requested a "Complete Stool Workup". From that combination of tests, was performed:

Salmonella Only Culture: Negative after 48 hours

Fecal Culture: Normal Mixed Gastrointesinal Flora Isolates, with no Salmonella, no Shigella, no Yersinia isolated.

Clostidium Perfringens Enterotoxin Test: Negative

Campylobacter: Negative after 72 hours.

Still pending is the Rotavirus Antigen test.

Also:
I wanted to let you know that I received a final report on the culture of the rectal biopsy samples that I sent in on Prince. There were three primary organisms isolated. The first organism was an abundant growth of E. Coli (not unusual). The second was a moderate growth of Strep. equiss zooepidemicus (also not overly unusual, but of note). The third organism was a light growth of Salmonella Species. The Salmonella, though only a light growth, may possibly be contributing to Prince's diarrhea. It could be the primarycause, or it may be an incidental finding. Horses can be carriers of Salmonella without any clinical signs. When clinical signs are present, (diarrhea) then Salmonella's part of the condition should more strongly be considered.
All three organisms are sensitive to Naxcel (ceftiofur), should you want to put him through a treatment.

She also said: the Naxcel and Gentamicin were both effective on the sensitivity screen for the salmonella- price determined the Gent. course, which- as I mentioned was 50 ml in split injections daily (25 ml per site ). We had previously treated Prince prior to switching to Dr. Clinebell with terramycin, coccidiosis treatment for cattle, and as I mentioned, probiotics, red cell blood building supplement, rice bran pellets, electrolytes, weight builder supplement, ivermectin, fenbendazole (wormers). Dr. Clinebell floated his teeth, sent all the labs- treated with metranidazole and gent

Soooo after all that I'm not sure what's up with his actual health, but I've decided to take him on anyway. In hind sight this may not be my best idea ever, but at the moment it feels right. He won't be coming out until next week at the earliest. Till then I need to find out what feed he's on and how the diarhea is going (crossing fingers that it cleared up again). Then I need to figure out how to put some weight back on this guy :-) Any ideas greatly apreciated!

[Equine_Woman]

Looks to me like he might have hit 20 and his old age hard keeper stage has hit. Mine have all hit that wall now (except the 6 year old) and I had to start shoveling the food at them to keep them fat and sassy. . . I would worry about his barn sourness, and be sure he's not overly buddy sour. If you were to take both your current horses away, Percherons are EXTREMELY hard on fences. They don't mean to knock them over, they just do. So if he were to panic on his own you'd have to have incredibly strong fences to keep him in!

He is a cutie and I'd love to see him when he gets fat again!

[farmers_wife]

He is cute. I have been fighting with my Dolly with loose stools for a long time. When I gave her 2nd crop hay this winter her stools were fine. When I switched to first crop hay, she had loose stools. I have been letting her graze on grass and her stools have been excellent. I do think with her it is the 1st crop hay. Not sure if it has too much fiber or what. Here is some stuff that I gave my older gelding to put weight on. It is called Health E oil. http://www.challengerfeeds.com/ I also give my guy progressive feed with oats.
Good luck and he looks real sweet.