So Many Vet Visits...

I don't even want to look at my vet bill from this past month. Or well, I have looked at it, the first half anyway... we're just not going to talk about it. I've been for breedings, preg checks, heartbeat checks, an eye ulcer... ah well, you do what you have to do!

I'm disappointed to report that that P is not pregnant. I didn't think she was - Dylan has been hanging around a lot near the corner of the fence and talking to her these past few days, so I felt that she was probably about to come back into heat. I wasn't wrong. We checked her on Monday for a 13 day preg check, and found a cyst that we thought could possibly be a pregnancy. We checked her again today, and found nothing to report except a follicle that is approaching breedable size. I left her at the vet again for the weekend ($$$$), and we will try again. 

O, being a younger mare with fresh semen from a stallion right at hand was easy to get pregnant. P, not so much. We have a lot of factors working against us this year. She turns 20 this month. She has a lot of new cysts in her uterus. And we are using frozen, which has a limited supply and not fantastic motility. It's decent enough, for frozen, but it's not very good. The motility of good frozen is probably about 30-35% and we definitely don't even have that. When we bred her with fresh, we had about 95% motility. She took so easily and carried with no issues whatsoever, so I figured the frozen was worth a shot. But there is a very real possibility that we will not get her pregnant this year. We have a few more breeding doses left, I can't remember what Dr. H said but it's a few. But, a few is not a lot. We are working against the clock too, as I don't want her to be bred too late in the year and have to suffer miserably into the heat of summer with a pregnancy, not to mention a neonate in the 100 degree weather. Should we not get her pregnant with the frozen, as per our contract I do have a live foal guarantee to the farm's other active stallion. He's a decent enough stallion but he's just not what I want. 

If anybody can get her pregnant, my vets can. But there's a very real possibility that it can't be done at all. Time will tell.

Sigh.

Ah well, at least today when I took P back to the vet, I took Sriracha along too to check her ulcer. She has completely impressed everyone with her behavior, myself included. She led right out of her paddock, loaded right onto the trailer with no fuss at all, walked off like a lady and stood tied alone while P was getting checked, went into the foal stocks fine, let the vet poke around, and stood fine for it all. The eye has done great all week, and I could no longer see any kind of blemish. When we stained the eye, there was nothing in there whatsoever. Hooray! No more 2x daily eye meds and no more tiny pen. She was ready to go out with the others. 

Naturally, the mules and Pax went bananas over this tiny new friend out loose with them, even though they have all met her and spent time with her. None of the others cared, but the littles and Pax all went rampaging around together for quite a long time. 

Uma and Pax... new team? 

Taken yesterday - I had her up to work on handling. The other mules were super excited about this

Pax looking mighty fine and grown up

Mules on the rampage!! Pax is an honorary mule due to her giant ears. 

If you're wondering if my filly can move - yes, yes she can. 

And so can my moole!!

As usual, it always amazes me how dull looking the coats of new equines are when they come to my farm. Not to brag, but I'm pretty good at making my critters all shiny and glossy. Even Uma, who is the last to shed, is this incredibly rich red underneath her wooly winter wear. (I did try to bodyclip her when I bodyclipped Lendri, but there was a lot of rearing and flailing and eventually I just said nevermind!) Sriracha will be glossy soon enough though. 

I left the drag rope on her for a few hours, just to make sure I could still catch her. She came right to me when I went in there, and I switched her out from the drag rope to a short catch rope about 4-5" long. It's actually a sheep lead that I cut - they are a loop, so I cut them to knock out the risk of catching a leg, and then put a few turns of duct tape or vetwrap around them to close the ends back together again. I stuck one on Uma too, because sometimes when you go to catch her, she freaks. I do leave halters on my little mules, put on tight enough that nothing can snag them. I would not ever do that with a horse, save for Dylan who wears a breakaway leather halter for both his safety and for the safety of anyone that has to handle him. But mules are kind of on a completely different level! I do a lot of things for them that I would not do with my horses, and vice versa. 

So, at least we had one bit of good news today at the vet. Now if only we could get the other pregnant...