I’ve been quiet on the blog this week because Raven, my best friend’s horse, has been sick with a mystery ailment. It’s been very stressful and frustrating to deal with, made even more frustrating by the fact that we still don’t know what happened.
We first really noticed something was wrong on Sunday when we were brushing the horses and getting ready to work them. Raven’s lower front leg had some swelling on it and she seemed very dull. She had a fever. We attributed the swelling to stomping on flies and the dullness to it being so god-awful hot. Raven didn’t get worked on Sunday, just hosed down for the feven. We hitched Glory to the cart instead and let Raven out into the field to eat while we rode around.
Later on, we started realizing that Raven’s “dullness” had been present for a few days. She hadn’t wanted to leave the barn after dinner or breakfast, despite normally rushing out of her stall. At the time we’d also thought this was because of the heat and flies.
By Sunday night, Raven’s back legs were swollen and she had an even higher fever. We made arrangements for the vet to come the next day. Monday was the hottest day we’ve had in PA so far this year, with a high of 97. We had the horses in their stalls all day with fans on them, but Raven’s temperature was still over 104F. The vet came and did an exam, took blood, and then gave her a dose of antibiotics. They were pretty sure we were looking at a tick-borne illness.
We’ve continued with antibiotics and rest for the past five days. The blood test didn’t reveal a tick-borne illness so we still aren’t sure what illness Raven had. She has been responding to the antibiotics and an Iron supplement and is almost back to her normal self at this point. But dealing with this mystery illness in the middle of a heat wave has not been good for productivity. Hopefully by next week I’ll be back on track. Raven has been improving every day. We’ve been monitoring both horses because if Glory starts exhibiting the same symptoms we need to have the vet back out immediately.
So yeah, that’s only some of the crazy stuff that’s been going on this week. Hope you guys don’t mind the more personal blog post this time. And I hope you all are safe and healthy out there!
