Gus Gets the Works

I've been negligent on Gus updates.  Mostly because I've been negligent on Gus visits (gulp).

cuteness.

But never fear, the steady old man is doing well.  Our vet was out for shots last week and I told her to "book some extra time" since I was pretty sure we'd need to address teeth, or bodywork, or something since it's been a while.

Turns out poor Gus got the proverbial book thrown at him.  The good news is that the Vet thought that he is looking really good in terms of movement (a big thank you to The Boy for joining me and agreeing to jog Gus instead of watching a waddling, lumbering pregnant lady scamper around).

The only "decline" of note is that Gus has been dropping weight pretty steadily since he moved to his new barn.  I recently boosted his hay and added Rice Bran back to the mix - but we also decided to deploy a Panacur Power Pack since it's been a while and he's been grazing across some very old, very used (by multiple horses) pastures.

Of course, when we checked his teeth there were some good hooks to take care of, so Gus got a cocktail and we got ready to do teeth.

When we took him over last year, he had recently had his teeth done (by another good Samaritan) so they've never been done on my watch... which means I had no idea how good of a sport he would, or wouldn't be.  My only contextual clue is that Gus likes pretty much anything and everything, except for clippers.  He hates the noise, the cord, the vibration - all of it.

Gus doesn't do clippers.

And frankly I haven't had the interest or the inclination to spend time working on that issue with him... though I started to feel badly that I've been ignoring that hole in his education when he instantly transformed from sleepy-falling-over-drugged Gus to HOLY HELL ALL OF THE EVIL IN THE WORLD IS IN THAT TOOTH DRILL THING.  Come to think of it maybe he doesn't mind clippers themselves.. just that they remind him of the scary tooth drilly thing...

(ugh).

So Gus got a second cocktail (we all like more than one, don't we?) and that got us enough sedation to get some work done.

He was still a pig (and I don't blame him) but at least we took care of his teeth and got him back to a good eating surface.  I did feel badly that his eyeball was still broadcasting total terror even when his body was unable to react.  He was not a happy camper.

Of course, why waste perfectly good drugs and willingness, so while he was still suggestible we also decided it was sheath cleaning time.  Poor guy got it from all sides, but 2 hours later all his spa services were done and he was a happy, healthy guy all tuned up and ready for summer!

I'm hoping that between the teeth, extra food and Power Pack I'll see some of the missing lbs come back.  Usually this horse gets fat on air... so this is the first time I've ever even had to think about him needing some extra pounds.  Some of it can probably be attributed to a reduced workload (ha! reduced from.. "barely" to "nothing" is still reduced I guess) and also his paddock doesn't offer any real grazing.. so he's missing the extra pasture calories too.

Either way, we'll keep a close eye on the big guy and supplement with plenty of carrots :)