I think that Dee is beginning to love me, and I'm very happy about this. The last few days, she has been very snuggly. I mean, she still protests about the curry comb, but she's not as nasty about it anymore. Yesterday, she even let me give her a great big bear hug... HUGE progress!
That said, I'm anxiously awaiting a return call from the dentist, because I think she is in dire need of some mouth attention. She's a slow eater. Painfully slow. She takes about a million years to finish her grain and every other bite is followed by a huge gulp of water. Pellets fall out while she eats. Add all that to the fact that despite a good quality grain, rice bran, APF and now Mushroom Matrix, she STILL appears to be LOSING weight, and I think we've got a tooth issue. I can't think of another explanation. She's getting enough calories and nutrients in her grain and hay to feed a horse twice her size, but she looks terrible. She's been wormed and is on a daily wormer. She shows no signs of being ill... coat looks great, she's bright and chipper, no obvious signs of distress and seemingly no abnormalities. I just can't think of any explanation beyond her teeth. Unless it's ulcers. I mean, she had been INCREDIBLY sensitive when I curry her belly lately (more so than usual). I actually thought she might have some sort of cut or scrape under there today because she was SO reactive. However, running my hands all over her belly and putting pressure on it didn't reveal any cuts and didn't provoke ANY reaction... she could care less that I was poking and prodding her, but the curry comb? HATED IT. Now, she'll usually make snarky faces at me while I curry her belly, but today she was kicking at me and backing away from me like I was hurting her. I actually stopped grooming her because she seemed so uncomfortable. However, other than that, she really doesn't strike me as being ulcery. She's not a nervous type... in fact, she generally seems to be incredibly laid back 90% of the time. Then again, she WAS a racehorse, and it's very common for track horses to be ulcery. However, she came off the track in August last year... I would think the ulcers would have presented themselves by now. Plus, from what I saw, it looked like she was living the life at the farm I bought her from. Turn out all night, easy work 3 days a week... i'm not sure what could be stressful about that. And now? She's basically just been hanging out in a field with her best buds for the past few months and eating boat loads of grain and all the hay she could stuff into her face.
I'm just feeling a little lost and very upset. I'm hoping an appointment to the dentist will fix this issue, because I feel AWFUL right now. I cant stand being able to see her ribs as much as I can, and I'm doing everything in my power food-wise to fix it with NO results. None. It's incredibly frustrating. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this problem will be fixed soon... whether it will be fixed with a dentist visit, gastroguard or some yet-unknown remedy to a yet-unknown ailment is beyond me, but I WILL sort her out. I want my baby fat and happy.
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