Vet checkups

Today was our annual dental, vaccinations, exam appt.  It started in the middle of a snow storm!  We were able to use the barn, the last stall on the right and a few tie spots for sleepy horses to wake up.  Sky was first, he was shaking...all the horses had spooked at something and he was not sure about this idea.  He did stand still only moving once during his exam.  His melanomas were fine...not growing.  He had some kind of bug bites...possibly ticks on his stomach that Dr Morgan wasn't worried about.  His weight was fine 912lbs.  The opaque spots on his eyes hadn't changed....no vision problems.  His teeth just needed a normal dental, and he didn't need to be re-sedated.   Zoe was next and she was spooky too, a bit shakey.  Both Sky and Zoe's sedation lasted for the appt. but they woke up pretty fast afterwards....must have blown thru it pretty fast.  Anyway, Zoe is 970lbs and needs to loose about 50 lbs.  The itchy spots on her belly are just something to keep an eye on.  Dr. Morgan was okay with my idea to try ivermectin every month this spring and summer to try to avoid the super itchiness that makes her rub out her mane during 2 weeks in July.  Otherwise I could try Doxepin.  I may do that or decide to just try to keep her comfortable and roach her mane in the summer.  Next year I may decide that issue.  Her teeth were fine- just 1 small infundibuli, like a cavity to us.  Only 3mm deep, something to keep an eye on.  Skippy was last...and she needs to loose about 50 lbs too, she weighed about 1010 lbs.   Good thing Zoe and Skippy live together and I can manage their diet pretty well.  Skippy has an opaque spot on her eye too, but it isn't growing...nothing to worry about.  She was her usual opinionated self when it came to the cold stethoscope listening to her belly....she squealed, but that was it.  Her teeth are another matter.  She has a total of 8 infundibuli in her upper teeth.  Last year she had small ones, but they have grown now.  The vet could stick a 2 cm probe into them...all the way.  Food can pack in them, ferment and cause infections and affect the roots, maybe causing a tooth to die.  But their teeth grow all the time too so it doesn't mean that the holes will always go to infections.  In a younger horse these things have time to grow and cause a problem, but in an older horse, Skippy is considered older at 17, these things may not be a problem because by the time they are a problem the horse won't be around.  The only thing I need to consider is the very back teeth...and 2 of these are in tooth # 9.  #9, #10, #11 are the very back teeth.  These teeth have roots that grow into the sinus areas and an infection in one of those teeth can cause a sinus infection.  Treating a sinus infection in a horse can be simple or complicated.  I might have to bring her to the clinic and have Dr. Carlson take xrays to figure out how deep these holes are and figure out a plan.   So that was our vet check up.  I think I will try out my weight tape on the horses....see if I come up with the same measurements.   All in all the horses did pretty well.  I know this blog is about me and Zoe, but if I don't write this one down I may forget.  So today was about all 3 horses.