Maizie's feet

Back when I first rescued Maizie in January, 2015, immediately after she unloaded her from the trailer, the breeder who delivered her warned me that she'd gone lame a couple months earlier. "We brought her in. Thought it was an abscess but couldn't find one. Put her on stall rest for a couple weeks and then she seemed fine."

A week or so later, just days before the first in a series of blizzards was to hit, I found her down in the pasture. It was a stroke or luck as up until that day she hadn't let me lay a hand on her, running past full tilt, running me down if I tried to block her. Now, I was able to get hold of her, drag her into the barn and close her in just in time. It turned out it was an abscess. It blew, I found it, cleaned it, packed it in ichthammol, bandaged it with a diaper and duct tape. Everything healed up fine. Around April or May, the dead tissue started to slough off, leaving half her sole like a syrian pocket. And then all traces were gone.

But this post isn't really about the abscess. The thing is, when you rescue a horse or any other critter, you never know what you are getting until it's there. There is a lot of luck involved. Aside from the warning about lameness, what I noticed first about Maizie's feet was the rough texture of the hoof wall. It had been a dozen or so years since I studied hoof care and trimming, so a long time since I'd seen or worked on any horse's feet other than my own. So it was a few days before I realized that I was looking at feet that were covered with stress rings from top to bottom.

 Stress rings are protrusions in the hoof wall that circle the hoof horizontally. Like fingernails and toenails, hoofs develop stress rings for a number of reasons, from fungus to nutritional deficiencies. I didn't know what the cause was in Maizie's case, whether she just had not great genes for hoof proteins or if it was something else.

I trimmed her feet as best I could during the abscess period. The first thing I found on trimming was that her left front foot was a full inch longer than the right, abscessed front. The left rear was also longer than the right, although not as long as the left front. This was likely due to the pain from the abscess. Pressure on the hoof stimulates growth. She had probably been putting most of her wait on her left front and rear to relieve the pain in her right front, and this had probably been going on for some time. I evened her feet up, as well as re-balancing them.

A month later, the same thing. The month after that they weren't as uneven as before, maybe 3/4s inch off. And then, as the abscess healed, her hoof growth increasingly was even. By midsummer, the wear and growth on all four was even, indicating even loading on all four feet, and has remained so ever since.

By then, I also noticed that the new hoof coming down from the coronet band was smooth.  The top ring was more prominent on the right front than the others. It takes about a year for new hoof to grow from the coronet band where it emerges to the ground. When I trimmed her feet at the beginning of August, the top ring was about halfway down her hoof so probably developed about 6 months earlier, consistent with when the abscess blew. I took a picture of the right front to document the change.

 A couple weeks ago when I trimmed her feet, the last stress ring finally was trimmed out. Her hoofs have grown in smooth and strong. Once again, I lucked out!

I'm guessing that in Maizie's case, the stress rings were caused by nutritional deficiencies, and specifically mineral deficiencies  On the other hand, the abscess may have been recurring and not really healing. But from the day she arrived I found her repeatedly eating dirt. I had put out a dish of "minamix," which is a free choice, flavored mineral powder for horses living on pasture or hay alone. Dahli had tried a mouthful once and never touched it again. Maizie didn't seem to notice it in the corner feeder. So I tried putting some in the floor pan feeder that held their 25 pound mineral salt block. Next thing you know, Maizie was eating it by the mouthful. Every day I'd put in a 6 ounce cupful. The next day, it would be gone. Dahli noticed Maizie eating it, and investigated. The two of them were at it. After a couple months their hunger for the powder died down. Over the summer and into the fall, I could count on Maizie to eat a cupful each time she worked up a sweat, but other than that barely touched it. In the meantime, the dirt-eating had finally stopped. The minimix hunger ended over the winter, so it seems like her body has finally caught up to its needs!

The bunnies' new digs!

After looking at the cost of bunny hutch kits (hundreds of dollars with poor reviews for safety or longevity!), I decided to build my own. So this winter I built them a mobile home. I was a little worried that the cart wouldn't be stable enough to hold them safely, so held my breath yesterday when I put them in for the first time. It's working fine! I made it from combination of scrap wood, 2 new pieces of 8x6, 1 2x5 1/2" hardware cloth, steel grids that I made them a quick indoor pen from over the winter and necessary hardware, on a garden cart.  All for a little over $100.

The overall hutch is 24x48 divided in half by 2 steel grids so the bunnies are separated but can see each other, sniff noses and snuggle in the winter. The roof isn't waterproof, but I have extra tarps most of the year, so can cover the hutch and pen as needed. Winters they'll stay warm and dry in a spare stall in the barn. The top opens in 2 pieces, so I can get hold of them easily from above. The front doors drop down and I will ultimately make them a ramp to allow access into a puppy pen divided in half by left over grids. I've determined it's cheaper to buy the puppy pen than build one. All told, they'll have 12 feet of living space each all for under $150!  Free choice access to grass in spring, summer and fall, with mobile quarters and a pen that I can drag around the yard will hopefully free me forever from the bulk of my lawn mowing!

We weren't blessed with much snow this past winter. But the girls and boys sure enjoyed what we did have!

Welcome 2 new members to the Magical Thyme family!

Last September I was enchanted by the angora bunnies at the Bunny Barn exhibit at the Common Ground Fair. Visions of me raising bunnies, spinning, knitting, and crocheting danced through my head. It was all I could do to keep from buying one or two of the fancy show bunnies! The steep price tag certainly helped stop me!

A couple months later I was perusing Uncle Henry's and lo and behold, a pair of French angoras were offered for free, cages included. Never one to pass up a bargain, I headed out for a 2 hour journey and brought home a 5 year old black boy and a 10 month old chestnut agouti girl. Their owner had purchased them the prior spring, but life got overwhelming. They were in dire need of grooming, I had only ordinary rabbit cages to keep them in, not suitable for outside. So they spent the winter in my spare room. Their names are now Oreo and Snickerdoodles.