inflectionpoint

River is the name of the horse we suspected of having pigeon fever.  The vet came yesterday and carefully took some fluid from the swelling on her chest. To everyone's surprise the fluid she removed was not puss but fluid indicating hematoma. The vet thinks she got a really hard kick exactly where pigeon fever abscesses usually occur.  There has been much relief at the news.

A stroll in the garden.
( Pics )

We think that one of the horses at the Iris Barn has Pigeon Fever.  This is a bacterial infection that causes abscesses.  The abscess can be external, internal or in the throat. This looks like it is only an external one, which is the easiest to deal with. The disease is highly contagious, spread by flies and really messy when the abscess drains.  It remains in the soil for months. It looks to me as if temperatures above 108F will kill it, even in the soil.  This may explain why we have had little issue with the disease in the past, our summers tend to be really hot.  This year we have only had a day or two that got to a high of 101 or 102F.   In any case, fly control is essential, as is isolating the infected horse.  The vet recommended moving the herd away from the  pasture it was in since the soil may be infected.  She recommended it be done ASAP. 
At 7am Marika showed up.  She and I moved a water trough out to Clover Flats (the new/old pasture that was part of Big Tank Pasture).  Clover Flats is named for an open place that used to have good clover on it. In recent years the clover has diminished, but it is still a good name.  With proper grazing it may reestablish   The old fence that was around this pasture had lots of problems and was abandoned and removed years ago.    This winter Mark O. and I built a new fence  that runs up the hill to the top of Tank Hill.  This makes a nice sized pasture with lots of shade in it.  It reduces the size of Big Tank Pasture which was way too big to graze properly.  The big issue with Clover Flats is that its entrance is far, far away from the barn. During the summer this is slightly annoying, but in the winter with short days, it isn't practical to use it.  It is no fun to try and get horses out of and back into a pasture in the dark!