Thursday, November 20
Nov. 21st, 2025 12:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
I was able to sleep, and the site of the incision didn't bother me too much.
Being ready for the farrier when she arrived.
The hoof trimming went fairly smoothly. I'm not sure that Wonder was even awake for it today.
It's nice to see the farrier again, she's a very gentle and compassionate person to the animals, and I appreciate her patience.
I drove over to the mechanic's place down the road to pay him for recent services rendered.
I spoke with Sister E for a while.
I feel like lately, I've been maybe...a bit pushy with her? I often seem to get on her case a bit for one thing or another, and I'm not sure where that's coming from.
Today she was talking about how getting her horse's teeth floated turned into kind of an ordeal. The first time the vet came, the vet's grinding tool was broken, so even though the horses (my sister's and her friend's) were all sedated and standing there, they couldn't proceed to float the teeth.
Then, it seemed to take a while to get another appointment, because the tool was still not working.
Something else happened in between that resulted in a cancelled appointment, can't recall what that was now.
Then, when the vets finally came yesterday, they were FOUR HOURS LATE and it sounds like by the time they got to the horses, they were close to the end of the day and I feel like they rushed the job.
My sister said they floated three horses' teeth in an hour and a half, which to me is WAY too fast and probably means they did a rushed, probably not very thorough job.
They also started floating one horses' teeth, and decided right then and there to pull a tooth, but because the sedation was wearing off, they gave the horse a bump up to keep going.
Well, I've never had a vet just go "hey, we need to pull this tooth today". No. They say "this tooth needs pulling, but we'll have to make that another appointment because that takes longer, so we'll just do a good job of floating today, and come back to do the pulling.
Then, that business of "bumping" the sedation is not a best practice. When you give a horse sedation at the beginning, the dosage is based on previous visits, the horses' weight, how long it was effective other times, and so on.
When you have to "bump" it, the vet has no idea really, how much sedative is still in the horse's blood stream. It's guess work. So it's much more possible to over sedate the horse, which CAN be fatal.
I kind of feel like the vets aren't really...maybe the best vets out there? I mean, you're running a business, it is a known thing in the industry that a lot of people get horses' teeth floated in the fall, but your grinder breaks down and you don't have a spare back at the clinic?
The other side of that, is I understand that often vets feel a lot of pressure to "get it DONE" by the client, so maybe the vets felt that they kind of HAD to come that day, even if they were late, even if it might have been rushed, because they already had screwed up the other appointments. Maybe they felt like they HAD to bump up that horse's sedative and go ahead and pull the tooth to save the client from yet another appointment.
So I said to my sister that maybe she and her friend need to book appointments for the floating earlier in the fall, so that it isn't the last possible day, so that if something goes wrong, there's no stress about needing to reschedule, so that the vets in turn feel less pressure.
I also feel, mostly from the stories that Sister E has told about this friend where she keeps her horse, that the friend seems disorganized and maybe...too distracted to make good choices? Sister E had told me several stories of horrible calamity befalling this woman, and after a while, it can't just be bad fortune.
So I encouraged my sister to be more proactive and assertive about making appointments for her horse, whether or not her friend is prepared for them, and to not feel like she HAS to use the vet her friend uses, and to ask the vet about best and safest practices, not just about the fastest or cheapest ones.
My sister was just saying "yeah, but my friend has a lot going on" and "the vets were likely trying to make things work even though they were disorganized because they are opening another clinic", and so on.
I'm like, "okay, but this is about your horse's life and well-being, why would you let other people's problems interfere?".
Well, I feel a bit like I was being hard on my sister, but also maybe frustrated that my sister seemed to be lacking a spine when it comes to standing up for herself and her horse.
I did let our own animals into their bigger pastures, and was walking around while I talked with my sister.
Then I came in and my husband came home soon after, we made supper, and watched two more episodes of "The White Lotus", which is very intriguing, and would still have been intriguing without all the gratuitous sex scenes (HBO, sigh).
The incision site isn't bothering me much. I'm aware of it, but it's not very painful. I was able to do regular chores and such without having to compensate a lot.
I was able to sleep, and the site of the incision didn't bother me too much.
Being ready for the farrier when she arrived.
The hoof trimming went fairly smoothly. I'm not sure that Wonder was even awake for it today.
It's nice to see the farrier again, she's a very gentle and compassionate person to the animals, and I appreciate her patience.
I drove over to the mechanic's place down the road to pay him for recent services rendered.
I spoke with Sister E for a while.
I feel like lately, I've been maybe...a bit pushy with her? I often seem to get on her case a bit for one thing or another, and I'm not sure where that's coming from.
Today she was talking about how getting her horse's teeth floated turned into kind of an ordeal. The first time the vet came, the vet's grinding tool was broken, so even though the horses (my sister's and her friend's) were all sedated and standing there, they couldn't proceed to float the teeth.
Then, it seemed to take a while to get another appointment, because the tool was still not working.
Something else happened in between that resulted in a cancelled appointment, can't recall what that was now.
Then, when the vets finally came yesterday, they were FOUR HOURS LATE and it sounds like by the time they got to the horses, they were close to the end of the day and I feel like they rushed the job.
My sister said they floated three horses' teeth in an hour and a half, which to me is WAY too fast and probably means they did a rushed, probably not very thorough job.
They also started floating one horses' teeth, and decided right then and there to pull a tooth, but because the sedation was wearing off, they gave the horse a bump up to keep going.
Well, I've never had a vet just go "hey, we need to pull this tooth today". No. They say "this tooth needs pulling, but we'll have to make that another appointment because that takes longer, so we'll just do a good job of floating today, and come back to do the pulling.
Then, that business of "bumping" the sedation is not a best practice. When you give a horse sedation at the beginning, the dosage is based on previous visits, the horses' weight, how long it was effective other times, and so on.
When you have to "bump" it, the vet has no idea really, how much sedative is still in the horse's blood stream. It's guess work. So it's much more possible to over sedate the horse, which CAN be fatal.
I kind of feel like the vets aren't really...maybe the best vets out there? I mean, you're running a business, it is a known thing in the industry that a lot of people get horses' teeth floated in the fall, but your grinder breaks down and you don't have a spare back at the clinic?
The other side of that, is I understand that often vets feel a lot of pressure to "get it DONE" by the client, so maybe the vets felt that they kind of HAD to come that day, even if they were late, even if it might have been rushed, because they already had screwed up the other appointments. Maybe they felt like they HAD to bump up that horse's sedative and go ahead and pull the tooth to save the client from yet another appointment.
So I said to my sister that maybe she and her friend need to book appointments for the floating earlier in the fall, so that it isn't the last possible day, so that if something goes wrong, there's no stress about needing to reschedule, so that the vets in turn feel less pressure.
I also feel, mostly from the stories that Sister E has told about this friend where she keeps her horse, that the friend seems disorganized and maybe...too distracted to make good choices? Sister E had told me several stories of horrible calamity befalling this woman, and after a while, it can't just be bad fortune.
So I encouraged my sister to be more proactive and assertive about making appointments for her horse, whether or not her friend is prepared for them, and to not feel like she HAS to use the vet her friend uses, and to ask the vet about best and safest practices, not just about the fastest or cheapest ones.
My sister was just saying "yeah, but my friend has a lot going on" and "the vets were likely trying to make things work even though they were disorganized because they are opening another clinic", and so on.
I'm like, "okay, but this is about your horse's life and well-being, why would you let other people's problems interfere?".
Well, I feel a bit like I was being hard on my sister, but also maybe frustrated that my sister seemed to be lacking a spine when it comes to standing up for herself and her horse.
I did let our own animals into their bigger pastures, and was walking around while I talked with my sister.
Then I came in and my husband came home soon after, we made supper, and watched two more episodes of "The White Lotus", which is very intriguing, and would still have been intriguing without all the gratuitous sex scenes (HBO, sigh).
The incision site isn't bothering me much. I'm aware of it, but it's not very painful. I was able to do regular chores and such without having to compensate a lot.
no subject
Date: 2025-11-21 08:05 am (UTC)