Cuna's Big Adventure

Cuna is a super tough 17 year old horse, but he's still 17. I've been ramping up his workload for the past month, and it became obvious that while he wanted to do the work, he really needed some help. I  finagled my way into a truck and trailer for a day and made an appointment to go see the vet. Because this is how life goes at a barn, there was no one going to the vet for the past couple of months when I kept asking to get him a ride, but as soon as I make an appointment, I have a full trailer.

Funny how that works.

We made it! 

Anyways. The trailer I borrowed is a bumper pull, which is a style I haven't worked with in a couple of years. I managed to get it hooked up with some help from a friend, then had the BO check me. I'd only overlooked one tiny detail. Yay!

This was a joint injections trip, which is great. Horses that need joint injections are seasoned campaigners who have loaded in trailers roughly 1,678,876 times and are not going to make a fuss about it. We hopped in and were on the road.

Ears even somewhat pricked! 

The trip there was without incident. I pulled in a few minutes early and got Cuna off the trailer to have a look around.

He was wild.

Although I could barely hold him, I entertained myself by taking cute headshots of him until the vet came out to meet us.

Flexion time

Things went pretty quickly after that. The vet watched Cuna trot in a circle on a hard surface both directions. He then flexed his hocks and had him trot again. He commented on how good Cuna looks and asked about his workload. After checking his files, he identified a plan of action.

Chilling in radiology

I hoped to just sort of meander into the hospital area behind them and ask incessant questions and generally make myself annoying without getting kicked out. After all, good horse owners are supposed to have relationships with their vets, and I barely know the guy because I can't ever get out here. Fortunately, they actually wanted me to help with the horses since I had two with me.

Because he is a total pro, Cuna bravely lead the way into the hospital and was perfectly happy to hang out with me.

Happy... time... 

Next it was time to scrub his hocks thoroughly and give Cuna a sedative. I know they work around all different horses all the time and have to be careful, but I'd bet a small amount of money that they could have done the entire procedure with Cuna wide awake. Even so. Why deprive the old guy of a happy drug trip?

He started falling asleep immediately while the intern scrubbed away. Good thing I was there to restrain the wild beastie!

Proof I wore this goofy thing

On to xrays! It is important to know EXACTLY where to inject, particularly when $400 of my dollars are going straight into his legs. Digital rays make this whole process quick and painless.

Of course, there are all kinds of safety regulations for people. They made me (and everyone else in radiology) wear these crazy lead vests. I didn't tell them that I had roughly 150 xrays of various body parts last summer, and if there is any damage to be done, it's already happened.

Yeah, I'm pretty much a tourist

Just like that, it was injection time. I got to hand Cuna off to the helpful intern and watch them put the first needle in. Poor Cuna--when they put the needle in, fluid dripped out, which means his hocks were inflamed. :-( I knew I shouldn't have let him go full bore up the hill last night, but he really, really wanted to.

Anyways. Cuna didn't move a muscle as they injected both sides of both of his hocks. He's a model patient, really.

Where is the food in this dump?

Once he was done, I led him very slowly out the back down to the holding barn so the drugs could wear off. Cuna was ready to go in minutes, but the other horse took quite a while to come back around.

I let them hang out while I went and paid my (appallingly expensive) bill. I also got Cuna his own tub of powdered bute so we can quit mooching and some magic shampoo to hopefully clean up the gunk on his oh-so-sensitive back legs.


I then loaded them back up and hauled home. Cuna is all set for three days of stall rest and apple-flavored bute. According to our vet, he can go immediately back to full work on Monday. I'm thinking we'll maybe take an easy day or two and see how he feels, but we should be (manageably) rip-roaring around XC next Sunday!