Can't catch pony since he went to the vets :(

[calekio]

Well i can.. just not easily!

Fudge is 5.. normally very friendly etc but he's had a lot of eye problems and it became normal to have daily eye drops and then we started with tear duct flushing... that wasn't so pleasent... and began to resent the stable... especially if the vet came!!
Tuesday he went into the vets for tests, he was petrified.. and i've never felt guilty or worried leaving a pony at the vets!! He was shaking to load but we calm and quietly loaded him without fuss... i left him nervous and trembling in the vets stable he had xrays and eyes flushing whilst having xrays.. and basically.. instead of tube up tear duct from nose end... he had tube down tear duct.. down by the eye.. (sedated and local) and when i picked him up he was very worried & nervous and refused to load, we between 3 of us gently got him to go in and he travelled home and i bedded him into the stable for the night as he was still a bit shell shocked/groggy..
He got sent home with more eyedrops... but.. since tuesday.. apparently i'm not longer his friend and he won't come near me Its come to having to spent 20 minutes walking after him to catch him twice a day to do his eyedrops Once i've got him.. he is fine... but very much depressed me now that he seems to hate me
Tomorrow i'm going to just try and spend some time with him.. catching.. feeding (i don't normally do handfed treats as encourages mugging but with him i will.. then deal with the after effects once we are friends again)

But.. any ideas?? He's gone from perfect to catch and normal for me to be able to clean and put his eye drops in twice a day without even needing a head collar on him... to.. can't get near him.. pretty much since he came back from the vets on tuesday...

[gwenoakes]

Aww, bless him. I think the idea of spending time with him and doing nothing but nice things should help.

Jack, Clares Shire went into the vets for a gastroscope, they didnt give him enough sedation, twitched him and when it was finished would he heck as like let the vet nurse who twitched him anywhere near him and was a s*d to load to go home, when normally he is only too willing to get onto the transport. He did get over it though, but it took some time.

[ladynowak]

I'd bribe him, so just get him to come up to you, put the treat on the floor once he comes up, let him take the treat and go again. Do that a few times, before having to catch him and carry on. To be honest, you'll probably have issues until you don't have to do the eye drops any more. Can't say I blame him!

[cookie]

It is depressing, my boys behaviour went backwards when he fractured his elbow, all that treatment and poking and prodding. Thought I had a different horse.

Be patient, I would make some allowances, like treats, while the drops are going in, but I'm sure you'll have him back to trusting you again in no time.

They don't forget tho, three years on my boy still wouldn't let the vet on 'that' side when she came to do vacs the other wk. With anyone else there is never now a problem.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using proboards

[calekio]

Problem is... This could be a long term thing with eyedrops currently looking at long term eyedrops and flushing the tear ducts... Or looking into a possible surgical option but my vet is off exploring that one as not something they could do..

He was more willing yesterday... Especially since in the morning they got hay put out with breakfast so he'd had a few minutes munching on hay before I got him rather than hay out stright before I try to catch him... And evening I already had hold of him for rug change..

[jennymajor]

I'm afraid it sounds like you are just going to need some time and patience. poor lad has had a negative experience and learnt that occassionally humans do strange and uncomfortable things to you, and the best way to avoid this is to avoid humans!!! Don't take it personally- he's just doing what he thinks he needs to do to keep safe. I would work on catching him, using advance and retreat and then bring him in give him a small handful of food in a bucket, or an apple, or if he enjoys it a nice stroke or groom. Then put him straight back out. Repeat as often as possible. You could try some desensitisation work around his eyes. Try and put lots of good associations into his memory to counterbalance the negative ones he remembers from the vets. This will be a long term project- keep at it!!! Load him, give him a small handful of feed from a bucket in the lorry, unload him again... anything you can think of to build a positive association with all those scary things!

[ladyndibs]

When I have problems catching Lady (an hour wasn't unusual) I made a point of not catching her, I kept pony nuts in my pocket and to have something to build on if she let me touch her she'd get a scratch a rub a pony nut, sometimes all three sometimes just one until I was fairly certain I could get near her whenever I wanted.
Sometimes days I would do it a dozen times, a great distraction when your poo picking or digging ragwort. Once she was ok with this I introduced the lead rope with the aim of her seeing it this gradually changed to her sniffing it or rubbing her shoulder with it. When I started taking the head collar in the field all I asked of her was that she saw it and didn't panic. After a while I would ask her to put her nose in then take it off then she's got her treat.
It did take a long while and lots of effort but she is so easy now, she turns her nose most times so that it's easier to slip on. It will take patience and perseverance but I'm sure you'll get there.

[calekio]

Well he is 50% allowing me to go near him now... depending on what is going on.. just for cuddles and fuss, no head collar, no eye drops.. however... i have to get him in tomorrow/friday and sedalin him and try and flush his tear ducts again... :/ And it be that weekly-ish reguar thing to flush the tear ducts...

[ladyndibs]

How do you give the Sedalin?
I know it is best given straight into the mouth but when I had Dibs on it for a while I mixed it in with a bit of food, I needed to use more but trying to put it in his mouth got him really uptight so then it wouldn't work at all.

[calekio]

Well so far... we haven't tried it yet.. but he is a good boy to worm.. so.. kinda hoping.. act the same! lol But i remember one of mine.. i found it work better if fed on an empty stomach and then given with a small feed afterwards.

[ladyndibs]

I could be wrong but I seem to remember Sedalin is most effective when absorbed through the gums etc directly into the blood stream, I've heard of people being told to put in under the horses tongue I suppose it's more difficult to spit out.
That was why Dibs needed more in a feed as what ever made it to his stomach had no effect.

[lisap]

What would be the consequences of Fudge not having any more fiddling about with his eyes?

If he has continuous infection and soreness, then the vet should be looking for the cause rather than treating the symptoms.

If he has a blocked tear duct, and has a running, sticky eye, wouldn't it be better to just gently bathe it daily with cotton wool and warm water?

I'm hearing far too many similar stories of vets performing very stressful procedures and the horses are suffering considerable anxiety, pain and fear in the process. It's a worry to me as I think that any animal physician should always be considering the welfare of the whole horse, and not just the problem they have been brought into treat. I've recently started to look at using a Homeopathic vet for that very reason.

[calekio]

I know the other sedate gel they say to put it under the tongue... :/ maybe i'll ask! lol

Re treatment. Basically his tear ducts block up which then causes infection. The tear ducts block quickly (currently apparently with mud!!) because they narrow in certain places. but currently we are finding if we can keep unblocking them and keep bathing his eyes we are keeping infection away.. which when it took over a month to get rid of the infection! (at one point for 2 weeks vet was coming out every other day to flush his tear ducts!)

We are still looking at options but at the moment its keep unblocking his tear ducts by flushing them (as much as he'll allow) and she is off finding out about a possibly surgical procedure i think to widen the tear ducts.. but he'd have to be refered somewhere as not something my vets are that clued up on (hence why she is off finding out about who does it, how successful it is etc etc)

The most annoying thing though.. is that he didn't have this problem until he went on loan! Yes he'd had a little weepy eye from flies in summer.. clean it, fly mask, end of problem, never even needed to see a vet. She did mention that maybe in his loan home (amoung other things they sent me back a very over weight, lame pony, with laminitis who then got wld!!) he got an infection and it wasn't treated and this could have caused the narrowing.. something his loan home have admitted to! (head.. table! Apparently they didn't believe in vets! Even to do his tetanus booster!!)