It’s taken some time, in fact close to 15 years, for us to strike a right balance in the realm of our horsey health care professionals. This is my main reason for not wanting to move. I suspect that reinventing the wheel would take an equally long time and I am not up for this. And I don’t think that my animals would be too appreciative either. I can go with a fly-by-night hairdresser, but I can’t go with fly by night horsey health care.

What brought this to mind was our veterinarian Zach Kaiser’s latest visit. He is a very busy man – he has a growing practice in the Mat-Su Valley – he inherited many patients from Dr. Wellington, who partially inherited patients from Dr. Farris - both were our veterinarians in the past. Dr. Wellington retired and Dr. Farris moved away. We were happy with them both.

Of the three, Dr. Kaiser is the most into educating his clients. And I don’t, as I did with Dr. Wellington and Dr. Farris, feel intimidated about asking him questions. And he and Sarah, his assistant, seem to like being here.

Today, the order of business was doing EIAs on Raudi, Hrimmi, and Tinni; floating Hrimmi’s teeth; taking a look at the scruff on Stormy the goat’s back; and determining what to do about Tinni’s long-time problem, an inverted eyelid. The

Zach doing Hrimmi's Dental

Hrimmi's Mouth

horses were their usual patient selves throughout, which because we weren’t focused on keeping them in line, allowed for side-talk. Hrimmi nearly fell asleep in the yard even before she got her anesthetic. Dr. Kaiser said that she was a featherweight, meaning that she didn’t need much sedation at all. The same was true of Tinni, who allowed us to poke repeatedly at his eyelid.

I got a front row view of the inside of Hrimmi’s mouth when Dr. Kaiser was floating her teeth. The attached photo shows what I saw.

Dr. Kaiser decided to wait on doing an eyelid tuck on Tinni until the swelling goes down – in the meantime, we are going to give him eye ointment three times a day. He’ll have the surgery in two weeks.

None of the horses minded the blood draws. And Stormy bounced around happily as it was determined that she needs to get some mineral supplements.

I was pleased with all this, and also pleased with the fact that Dr. Kaiser showed me how he does a physical – going from front to back on the left side, then going from back to right on the right side. And I now know how to auscultate the lungs, which was something that I did not know previously.

Embarrassing – I had never before distinguish between the terms pulse and heart rate. I now know where to take both.

He also was kind enough to give us an address and containers, so that we can get the results of fecal samples directly. We are going to get all the horses tested for parasites.

After, Pete and I took Tinni and Raudi for rides on what was a warm, sunny late afternoon. Next week, Josh comes and puts shoes on Raudi. The visit will be equally informative. I am hoping that Raudi’s slow going is due to the fact that her feet are tender.

Next: 128. 5/9//18: Tally Ho