Moving On...

Romeo is showing the end stages which Sadie showed in her last few years. He is not nearly as crippled as she was. He just has a locking stifle which stiffens up every once in a while...mostly preceding weather changes and on days when i don't have a chance to let him out of the yard.

Sadie had such a terrible time getting up certain times of the year...it usually started in November. One time she was down for 18 hours...that is, she usually lay down at midnight for two hours, then got up and stayed up...but in these cases, she would still be down when I got up in the morning.

I would run to the vet to get a shot of Kenilog/Vetalog. Although, normally, it only took 20 minutes to 2 hours to take effect, this one time she didn't get up until 6 pm. I fed the other horses at 5 pm and put her shallow bucket by her head, where she would swipe some pellets and chew and eat while she lay on her side. The vet told me it might take as long as 24 hours to help her. She finally lurched to her feet just before the sun set, and was fine for 2 more months.

Romeo is not having a problem getting up, but if he stands around too much, he walks very stiffly and tries not to put any weight on his right hind leg.

I think it is the whitening of his face and head and neck which reminds me of his advancing age the most. To see a shiny blacker-than-black face turn gray over a few years is shocking and saddening.

I made a little slide show of the horses going up the street for grass after our first few rains. We have been in a drought for over 3 years. They were all so happy to find something to graze on, I just had to capture it for posterity.

I hope you enjoy it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d4MjoIhmho