Remi's Foe

There's been a little excitement around the ranchette the last week or so and it hasn't been a whole lot of fun. It seems like even when Remington doesn't go looking for trouble, it comes looking for him.

We had four days of rain where the horses had to stay inside, which as you have seen from previous posts, is not any fun for them or for us. The rain let up in the morning on the fourth day so later in the afternoon, we decided to let them out into the back pasture where there is grass and little chance of them slipping and sliding in the mud. Big mistake, huge, really, really big uh oh! :O

Remington didn't come out bucking and kicking up his hind legs like he usually does, so I couldn't get those pictures that I said I would take. I had the camera all ready to go, but no, Mr. I'm not going to do it for you just wandered slowly out to the back pasture to munch on grass and play tug of war with the weeds.

He wasn't out there very long when he came flying out of the pasture at a pretty good pace and started stomping around. It seems he got himself into a pretty good size mound of fire ants and by the time we got over to him to check him out they were gone, but they had already bitten him in several places. Now, I'm sure the horses have all encountered fire ants before, but have been able to shake them off and go about their business, but this time he wasn't so lucky.

He didn't show any signs of distress except for a stomp here and there and we couldn't see anything on him, so we didn't really know that there was a problem. Overnight, the venom from the ants must have really gotten to him and he started biting at his legs and causing some bad sores to develop. It's kind of like us scratching at a mosquito bite and aggravating it, except he did much more damage, which we discovered the next morning.

We still didn't know what was going on so we called his vet. He recommended a couple of things to help heal the sores, so I immediately went to town and picked up what we needed, and we started his treatment. After a couple of days everything started to look better. But then, he started biting himself again, so we asked the vet to come out and take a look and he said it looked like Remi was having an allergic reaction to the ant bites.

On top of the treatments, trainer mom had to give him a nice bath with ivory soap to help soothe his itching and help make him stop biting at himself. Of course we didn't want to get his feathers wet since there was medicine on his legs, so trainer mom took some plastic and made him some little rain slickers to keep them dry. Aren't they cute. They look like spats over his shoes :)

Since he still has a few places that need to heal, he got another bath yesterday and I took a picture to share with you all. He doesn't looked thrilled, does he? It's like he's saying "Hay, can't a guy have a little privacy in the shower?" The baths are helping him to feel better and with continued treatments, his bites should be cleared up real soon.

Yesterday, while I was walking him back to his stall, I didn't turn him wide enough and once again, my foot ended up under his. OUCH!!! Fortunately, I was able to pull it out before his full weight came down on top of it, but I still have a very sore foot today. And, yep, it's the same foot that he stepped on several years back. I am now wearing the orthopedic boot, which looks real funny with shorts, but it helps to keep pressure off of it. If it's not better by Monday, over to the doctor I will go and have x-rays taken. Oy vey, if it's not one thing, it's another! But, it is my fault for not paying close attention, so MY BAD :(

So, between the fire ants and my foot, we have had such a wonderful week and a half...NOT! But, that's life around the ole ranchette with Remipup. We're taking good care of him so not to worry. We'll be telling you about more of his antics soon.

Stay tuned, stay happy and stay with us.