How do we manage to get into these situations? Collected another "Slightly Damaged Stray"...

[mississippifarmboy]

OMG... munchies....

so THAT'S why Gus was so hungry today.....

 

[EmtheFishLady]

Oh hush! A girl can't swallow a little horse medicine in privacy...

Gus is doing MUCH better today. His swelling has gone down considerably. He's in a better mood, and being his sweet self again. He let me pick up his feet, and took his medicine like a good boy without any fuss.

 

[gryeyes]

Remove my 'junk' and then spray me - uh underneath - with a hose.

That made even me twitch a bit, and I don't have boy 'junk.'

I am ever so lucky in not owning a horse trailer, else I'd be in as much trouble after seeing a horse neglected so!

You guys are absolutely great.

 

[EmtheFishLady]

Linda, he's such a good horse. We're the lucky ones.

 

[EmtheFishLady]

Well Gus was being a butt this morning. I fed him, and went back out to get his medicine...and he kept turning his butt so that I couldn't get back in the stall.

(Not that I blame him mind you...that stuff tastes horrible.)

 

[2DogsFarm]

First off, Bless you & MFB for saving this guy from a lousy situation.
As for his costs: would your vet take payments?
I paid off an $1800 colic surgery back in the 90s in installments - it was the only way I could afford it (never regretted it either)

I've read through all 11 pages ofthis thread and I have to ask if your vet has suggested a worming program for Gus.
The prominent ribs/hipbones along with the not-so-small belly point to a worm load.

And as bunnylady said:
This is not a wild(feral) horse, just one unhandled by people and left to develop his testosterone-loaded stud self for ~5 years.
Gelding may not totally change this, and it can take months for the testosterone to totally leave his system.
Also as Gus gains weight and energy he may show you his true personality - which may or may not be as gentle as you've seen so far.
Malnourished and underweight horses can be Jekyll & Hyde once they reach full weight & muscle up.

I'm glad you have a trainer involved as even experienced horsepeople need an extra set of eyes and another couple hands to work around untrained horses.

Good Luck with your project - he has a kind eye & that says Good Things.

Sorry for the runon sentence look of this post - for some reason I can't get the text to separate into paragraphs as I type it...

 

[EmtheFishLady]

I don't worry about Gus's personality. As Sparky said "There isn't a mean bone in that horse's body." He does have worms, but that wasn't his only issue. He's got a long way to go, but he's on his way.

 

[verity]

Hooray for you! 'Gus' will re-pay you a thousand times over ---

 

[mississippifarmboy]

2DogsFarm, Yes, Gus is very wormy, we will be worming him tomorrow. The vet wanted to give him a week after his surgery to rest up and heal a bit due to the severity of the surgery, wanted to stress him as little as possible. As far as the cost; the vet we used gave us a break in the price because Gus is a rescue, the surgery would have been $1,500 or more anywhere else. So far we are very pleased with the care our vet has given Gus. Also, we have the donation site set up for his vet bills and training, hopefully it will start getting some hits soon. (anyone can pm me or Em for a link to the "Second Chance For Gus" site to donate or to post the link on their Facebook pages) For right now we just had to use our bill money to cover what has come due so far.
So far everything is going good with him. The swelling is going down and the surgical area is healing up nicely. He's got his appetite back and is eating, drinking and walking fine. We had two young turkeys we couldn't find last night when we went to close up the critters and this morning I found them in the barn lot. They had been in and out of the stable and Gus was just ignoring them. So far he's been very calm around all the small stock. I figure he must have been around other animals in the past at some point.

Anyway, everything is going good with Mr. Gus today.

 

[NHN]

Bless your heart for what you're doing!!