Bo's Vet Visit

Last Friday I took Bo to the vet. He’d finally gained enough weight that I figured he could handle just about anything that the vet needed to do to him. Should I have taken him sooner? Yes but I needed to make time with my paying job and ensure there was money to cover any additional expenses.

I always thought Bo was excited to be near a trailer. Nope. He gets nervous, nervous, nervous. I thought I would load him without many problems. I ended up loading Chaos first thinking that he could just go for a ride as a buddy. Poor Chaos took the brunt of Bo’s fright. I loaded Chaos and then worked on getting Bo loaded. There was no way the two big horses were going to fit into the front of the trailer. Chaos got banged around a little but luckily he’s a big guy and took the brunt of it with resignation in his eyes.

I unloaded Bo and loaded Skippy. He has a skin issue I wanted the vet to look at. I wasn’t sure how loading Chaos and Skippy in the front part of the trailer would work but neither seemed to really care much. Skippy was upset that Tommy wasn’t going with.

Then it was time to load Bo. It took a bit of coaxing and we did a bit of loading the front feet and then backing out. We took our time and he finally loaded. I figured I’d better not dilly dally around and we hit the road. I stopped at the gas station to see how he was doing. Complete lather. I figure that the last time Bo was loaded was when we took him home. And who knows any of the prior times he was in a trailer.

At the vets, we unloaded and Bo was very cautious but we walked in to the stocks with only a slight hesitation. I talked with the vet while the tranquilizer kicked in. Bo does not like his head handled. Not sure if that is a personal preference of if it’s from his past. The vet floated his teeth although he said they weren’t as bad as he thought they might be after hearing the condition he was in when we brought Bo home. Apparently Bo has a high tolerance for tranquilizer. He wasn’t dopy through the entire dental work. He would blow loudly through his nose at the vet. I’d bust out laughing every time. That Bo cracks me up.

There weren’t really many sharp points. The only reason Bo was thin was that he was starved. His teeth weren’t the issue it was the lack of food. He’ll always be a high metabolism type horse but that’s no different than a hard keeper. I expect that when Bo gets older, he’ll become a hard keeper but the only reason for his condition when we brought him home was lack of food.

After I took Bo back out to the trailer, I brought Skippy in. He’s been rubbing his hair off and I’ve been really worried. Every year it gets worse. The vet figures it allergies so we are trying some meds. It’s a little tricky to get the meds into Skippy with Tommy always around. I have to be better about giving Skippy his meds.

When the vet was all done with us, I loaded Skippy back up (Chaos stayed in the trailer much to his delight). I then tried loaded Bo. We did the two front feet only loading for a good five minutes. I figured there wasn’t any need to rush him. Rushing would only make the issue harder. About the time the vet came out to help load, Bo loaded. I’m sure that once Bo realizes that loading into the trailer isn’t bad, he’ll load like a pro. I’m sure there are bad memories in loading into a trailer. We’ll change that!

I was afraid that Bo would freak out having to hang out in the trailer afterwards. Nope. He stood like a champ the entire time. I may have to do some trailer loading practice with him to reassure him that trailers mean fun! He’s smart so I’m betting he’ll catch on quickly.