An exhausting day

Today was one of those stay outside all day and work days. I'm exhausted.

I wanted to answer a question Mikael had posed to me in comments from yesterday's post.

Did the vets have a preference about which way to go? And if so, what was it? The reason I ask is that I have some experience with club feet (not my breeding but friends who have dealt with it) and I know there are degrees in them. The more severe the club foot the less likely it can be fixed without surgical intervention.

I've also been told the sooner the surgery is done the better it is for the horse.

The vets both agreed that he was definitely club footed but not severe enough to immediately have surgery. The farrier looked at the radio graphs and felt he could fix it through shoeing. The vets said either way would be fine, and if I was just fed up with waiting, we could go the more aggressive treatment. They said waiting the two weeks to see if the shoeing helps would not be detrimental to Emmett.

If at any point I felt he was going back up, or he was worsening in anyway I should call and they would schedule him for surgery right away.

As of tonight, he is still better than he was without the shoes. He definitely needs to keep exercise to a limit.

One of the things the vet had suggested was to start to wean him. So, tonight I took Classy away for an hour and the little colt protested. He was not at all pleased. After about 45 minutes I put her back with him and I could see that he had stressed his front legs. He was still better than where he had been, but not as nice as he had been earlier in the day. So weaning is out of the question until we get this situation settled.

The thought on weaning was to slow his growth down. He weighed in at 295 lbs on Thursday and was about 6-1/2 weeks old.

So, that's the update for today. They are unhappily settled in their new digs. Classy really hates stalls, especially if she can't see the other horses, and with this set up she can't. Emmett seems to be following in her footsteps.