News Update

Overall, Linus is doing really, really well. To start, he has gained about 30 pounds since he arrived here 14 days ago. The weight he has put on is noticeable even to me, and I see him every day. The lice are gone. His wounds are scabbing over and healing.

My favorite thing about this guy is his absolutely adorable personality. He must be the friendliest horse that I've ever worked with before. His personality is amazing and I love spending time with him. He is very well socialized, loves attention and is very gentle. Plus, he'll do anything to get his butt rubbed. He's a big fan of that. :-)

Farrier Visit

Brad Erickson came out last week to trim Linus. Linus could have been a bit better, but was distracted by one of our farm critters here. You see, we have a pig at our farm and "Charlotte" temporarily lives in one of the horse stalls. I would like to take a moment here now to say that I am by no means a pig farmer. She was given to me by a student so she didn't end up on someone's dinner plate - I'll explain in more detail in a quite humorous post some day!

Well, it's quite apparent that Linus has never seen or heard a big snort before and he freaked out about 90 seconds after being in the aisle. He backed down the aisle a hundred miles an hour and I thought for a second that his eyes were going to pop right out of his little skinny head! I eventually got him under control, but he kept his eyes glued to the stall for the rest of his time in the barn, his muscles flexed and his veins popping out of his skin. Silly thoroughbreds... :-)

Besides the porkroast-induced heart attack Linus suffered, he was eventually OK and Brad got the job done. We are leaving him barefoot for now, but his prior owners told us that when they used him for lessons they had him shod all around with pads on his front hooves. If and when we ever get to the point of riding him, I will have Brad evaluate him and if he thinks that shoes are a neccessity we will have them put on.

Linus's Guy Issues

Linus's "organ" hasn't made any improvements despite the many treatments our veterinarians have given him. It is still infected, with parts of skin continuing to slough off, even after receiving a 4-day run of Naxcel. Due to the fact that we do not want any infections to spread, we have finalized plans to have a penile amputation completed. He is scheduled to be admitted for surgery on June 29th at the Myhre Equine Clinic, with surgery on June 30th with Dr. Grant Myhre.

I have spoken with Dr. Myhre on the phone a few times over the past week and he has been absolutely wonderful about answering my questions and making me feel at ease with the procedure. Also, since Linus is a rescue, he has kindly offered to do Linus's surgery for us at a reduced rate. Thanks so much Dr. Myhre!

You can read all about the clinic by going to http://www.myhreequine.com/MECHome.htm and all about Linus's surgeon, Dr. Grant Myhre, at http://www.myhreequine.com/DrMyhreBio.htm.


.