October Update!

As life has truly been moving forward, there hasn't been a whole lot to report!  All the horses are doing well - sound and hearty and will be moving home soon!  

Both Dixie and Brody's wounds are healed and both are sound!  

Harringtons' house is getting closer to ready and the barn is going up.....Huntleys' house is framed, the barn is in place and the fencing is getting put up.  The horses should be home by Thanksgiving!

Thank you again to one and all for all the support and love!  Check back occasionally and we will share when the 'children' go home and keep everyone posted!

Nicky's New Pony!

Apollo, coming to us from California, is a huge success!

Harringtons' new house is dropped in place!

MAGGOTS!

Ugh!  Imagine Steph's 'surprise' when cleaning the hold in Dixie's chin....to see a lot of movement within!  Full of maggots....how revolting!  After 40 minutes with tweezers (poor Dixie), some water therapy and iodine later, they are mostly gone.  So, now it is to work with SWAT and preventative measures to keep the flies away!  Unfortunately her fly mask irritates the wound, but we have several different varieties to try, so hopefully we will find one that will fit.   Today it is cool, gloomy and wet, so at least the flies won't be the irritant they have been!

Poor Dixie, poor Stephanie!

Dixie gets checked over at the vet school!

Finally gaining weight, but that chin still wasn't healing; time to take action!  The proudflesh seemed to have gone down, but her chin just stayed 'nasty' however many times we cleaned it!  Obviously uncomfortable, it was time to see how we could make her more comfortable.

Lori and I took her to ISU Monday evening...and lo and behold, we were called Tuesday with the news that Dixie had a broken jaw on one side and bone chips.  Poor thing!  The jaw wasn't as much of an issue as it sounds because it was only on one side and the other side had kept it stable.  The jaw was mending, but it was the bone chips in her chin that were causing the continued infection and stopping the healing!  Thanks to a 'local', they took out all the chips and hopefully poor Dixie will be feeling a lot happier soon!  While there, they are also going to do a 'total check', just in case we missed something else!

Poor Dixie!

WELCOME APOLLO!

Welcome to 23 year old Apollo! Newest addition to the SBPC family and hopefully a pony for Nicky! Nicky will be joining our club this next year and his hopes of getting 'his' pony had been severely delayed by the tornado. Thank you to Mikki Hobart whose friend David brought Apollo all the way from California! Apollo was a hard working lesson horse who has earned semi-retirement with a small beginner rider!
All continues to go well. Dixie is going to ISU next week for a 'check up' and to see if they can find what is causing the continued 'mess' on her chin - maybe there is a bone chip in there? It just stays 'nasty' and full of puss....not very pleasant to look at and neither she nor I enjoy the daily cleaning much!
All the others are doing well. The new horses are already part of the family - Herbie is in training as he is just too strong for Ashley, but hopefully a month or two of that will put him straight!
Thank you as always for your thoughts and prayers....

Horse update!

The visible injuries are improving daily. Dixie now has her leg unwrapped and the swelling is minimal! We have some worries with Brody; think that there might be a mis-alignment or some skeletal damage in there as he is having some issues.....time for the chiropractor or physical therapist!
Patches, Michael's pony, who avoided the tornado thanks to his sleepover at the Bryson barn is now adding to the 'trouble' since renewed lameness had us taking him to the vet for X-rays...sure enough, his coffin bone is rotated and we don't have a lot of room before the bone reaches the sole. So now we are onto the world of special shoeing and even more care for the 'one who made it through'. Poor Michael! Not the lucky one any more.
But it is still all postive moving forward at Silver Bits! A super camp and a 'regular' schedule on the books for the Fall!