Wednesday, September 02, 2015

Lameness Training

Luc's lameness is just getting worse, and I have finally saved enough pennies to get started with a lameness exam, so I called to schedule it yesterday. I'm going to take him to the WSU vet hospital even though I hate the place, because they have the best diagnostic equipment and some darn good lameness vets. The price quote was $300 to $600. That's a pretty big range. I get it - they don't know if we'll be doing radiographs, ultrasound, nerve blocks, etc., so I guess they can't narrow it down. But still, I can't spend as much as they might want me to. WSU is notorious for wanting to do EVERYTHING, and not realizing people have limits.

I have a couple weeks to prepare, so we will be working on mastering the things we need to know to actually do the lameness exam. Trotting off from a standstill, trailer loading, very limited round pen work. How the heck do you train them to keep their foot down once you've trained them really well to pick it up? I think I need two very separate, very distinct cues. That will probably be our hardest task. And I will poke him like they will when doing nerve blocks, although not with a needle of course. I suppose I should introduce him to clippers too, and ask him to stand still with his hoof on a block.

Can you think of anything else he needs to know?

I think I'll spend today going through my unwanted tack and other junk. Maybe I can raise some more funds for him. :)

Oh, and Bob still loves his Chaffhaye!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad the Chaffhaye is working so well for Bob!

You'll have to stick to your guns on costs and discuss the order of things before you start so they don't get carried away. My vet hospital is notorious for being expensive - guess they deal with a lot of folks who are price-insensitive - but they're also good about staging things and only doing what I want done.

The only other things I can think about for training would be:

1. Weird equipment with lots of cables and such.

2. Having crowds of people swarming around him.

3. Standing still for extended periods of time as a default rather than having to be held there.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Andrea -Mustang Saga said...

Thanks! Excellent ideas. Not sure how I'll arrange a crowd, but I plan to try. Tonka and Bella have always been rock stars at WSU, but Luc is a little higher energy than them, so we'll see.

Andrea -Mustang Saga said...

Thanks! Excellent ideas. Not sure how I'll arrange a crowd, but I plan to try. Tonka and Bella have always been rock stars at WSU, but Luc is a little higher energy than them, so we'll see.

Andrea -Mustang Saga said...

Thanks! Excellent ideas. Not sure how I'll arrange a crowd, but I plan to try. Tonka and Bella have always been rock stars at WSU, but Luc is a little higher energy than them, so we'll see.