Another Grand Day(Jim)

[Riley♠]

Riley paced slowly eyeing the mare in the roundpen again. She was nervous. The mare was beautiful. She'd been sorry to take the mare out of the wild but looking at her injuries made her feel a little better about her descision. The mare stood panting her neck marred with sweat it'd been a stressful day for the poor mare. Riley ran a hand through her hair and rested her foot on the bottom rail of the round pen gate. "What have i got myself into." Lowered her head resting it on one of the upper bars. "Only a few more minutes girl and help would be hear." she heard the faint crunch of tires on the driveway and looked up to see weither it was just a boarder or the vet.

[wildthing]

The crunching tires belonged to Dr. Jim Castle, who happened to be both a vet and a boarder. His red Chevy slowed and then pulled around the barn to stop near the round pen. After two weeks of boarding Baldy here, Jim was fairly well acquainted with the layout of the barns. He had even used the round pen a couple times for some schooling. The horse standing inside the pen now in no way resembled his laid back old gelding. The chestnut was sweating like she'd just finished a race and everything about her screamed of fear. The mare had startled at the appearance of the truck and she moved with an obvious limp. There was a woman leaning on the railing and Jim assumed that this was the owner. He grabbed his back of basics from the passenger seat and headed over. "Ms. Carlson? Jim Castle." He offered his hand. He was hoping she had a good explanation for the condition of this horse because the mare wasn't looking too good and abuse was something Jim wouldn't hesitate to report he. He would give her the benefit of the doubt for the moment because in his time as a boarder, he'd seen nothing but pampered, well treated animals.

[Riley♠]

Riley watched as the truck approached. She sighed again. She always hated seeing the vet. It wasn't like she didn't like them she just knew it wasn't a good thing to have them around. She approached slowly as the gentleman got out of the truck he looked slightly familiar. She smiled warmly. "Yes, It's nice to meet you Dr. Castle." she breathed deeply. "well the mare before you is umm.." she cleared her throat. "A wild mare i recently caught." she pulled a paper from her pocket and extended her hand toward him. It was her liscense for the mare. "Well i went out to see what was out there and i stumbled upon this mare. She was already lathered in sweat and had the wound." she looked away shyly. "and i couldn't just leave her out there with that." she let her eyes wander to the mares leg. She sighed "me and my stupid bleeding heart." she said under her breath. She looked back toward the vet. She studied him for a second she'd seen him before but she couldn't recall where.

[wildthing]

Jim was only a couple years out of vet school and just on the other side of thirty. The woman was a little younger than he'd expected as this owner of this rather impressive facility but he wasn't here to socialize. And a wild horse would explain it. Tangles in the mane and tail, signs of malnutrition, and the distrustful actions all pointed to a horse who wasn't used to fences and good feed. He glanced at the papers and nodded. "Well in that case, I'd better go ahead and pop her with a couple vaccines if that's okay with you. I'm gonna have to sedate her to get close to that leg and she might as well get the work up while we can get hands on her." His voice was gruff, deep with the drawl of his Southern roots and roughened a little by whiskey.

[Riley♠]

Riley nodded. "Do what ever you need to get her up to date on everything and to the point where i can start getting her on good feed and looking a little better." she glanced over the guy again. He really did look familiar. She laughed as she realized why he looked familiar. "You own the cute little quarter horse that came in a few weeks ago don't you?" she knew the horse she admired him. He was nice looking his big bald face really drawing her eye. She hated not knowing all the borders but between training and running this place she didn't have time to socialize with everyone. She looked over her shoulder as the sound of a loud neigh hit her ears she smiled and watched as a grey pony went galloping across his pasture with a large chestnut gelding following after him closely. "You'll never settle down will you razz. Crazy little pony." she smiled. She loved her animals and had a much better bond with them then she did most people. She understood them people she didn't understand very well.

[wildthing]

Jim took a few steps to the back of the truck and opened one of the cubbies in the custom designed tool box. There was no way he was going to get close enough to inject the sedative and the mare was too stressed out to eat anything laced with sedative. A dart was never his first option, but with this animal, it was probably his best one. He double checked the dosage the dosage and loaded the pistol, listening to Riley as he worked. Life had given him more frown than laugh lines and he was by nature pretty serious anyway, but he did smile at the mention of his gelding. Yeah, Baldy's mine. I recognized your name after we got off the phone, but I don't think we've really met before." He opened his portable fridge and pulled out several small bottles and then grabbed a handful of syringes. As a previously unhandled wild horse, there were many vaccines she would need to catch up on. He didn't want to flood her system with them, but she definitely needed a Rabies, West Nile, and especially Tetanus with that leg. He took a few minutes to go a head and pull up the vaccines and then grabbed the pistol. He took advantage of the mare standing still while she focused on the running horses and the red tip of a dart appeared in her shoulder. "It's intramuscular, so it'll take a few minutes for that to start to work. I'm gonna go with Rabies, West Nile, and Tetanus today. When her system has settled down a little in a couple weeks, she should get the rest of the recommended vaccines too."

[Riley♠]

Riley smiled weakly. "Well now you have. If you ever need anything just come find me and i'll make sure it gets done." she smiled warmly. She was always friendly it was her nature even though her life had left her broken more then once she always was smiling and happy. She was an odd one and hard to figure out. she nodded as he mentioned the vaccines that he'd be giving her. "that sounds good hopefully in a few weeks you can atleast get a hand on her." she sounded slightly unsure of herself. She loved horses and loved working with them but this would be the first truely wild horse she'd messed with. She was used to the beautiful shiny thoroughbreds she had grown up with and her small palomino mare that didn't really fit in with her towering thoroughbreds. "After you finish up with the leg i'd like to get your opinion on her diet and such." she wasn't one to hold back on asking for help. She was very independent but her horses meant everything and if it was thier health she wasn't sure about she'd easily ask without thinking twice.

The mares shoulder twitched lightly as she felt herself becoming more sleepy. Her breathing eased and her head began to drop. she twitched her shoulder where the dart stuck and swished her tail slightly irritated.

[wildthing]

While they waited for the sedative to take effect, Jim rummaged around in his truck. He gathered what he would need for the leg based on what he could see from this distance. He wouldn't know for sure until he got a better look. On a horse like this, it would be best if the wound didn't have to be bandaged because it would be really hard to change wrappings on her. "You've got a nice place out here. I haven't gotten to ride as much as I would like, but Baldy seems happy." Not that it took much to keep the gelding happy. He spent most of his time out in the pasture as long as the weather was decent. In the past couple years, Jim had done his fair share of work with feral horses and he had quickly learned to treat each case as an individual. Some of them settled right down and others never really took to captivity. The sedative was obviously beginning to take effect, but Jim wanted to give it a few more minutes. "I don't mind going over that with you. And we'll definitely go ahead and deworm her now. No matter you decide to do with her, she really should be in quarantine for a month minimum." It wasn't until the mare began to look a little unsteady on her feet that Jim grabbed his bag and slipped between the railing. "Alright, let's do this. Wanna slip that halter on for me? She should be pretty out of it now, but approach slowly and keep your wits about ya." Dosage with these things was never exact.

[Riley♠]

Riley nodded as he spoke bitting her lip lightly. She wasn't entirely sure what her plans were with the mare but until then she'd have a home here in the round pen. It was away from everyone else and she'd have more space then in the one quarantine stall she had. "Yeah i planned on leaving her here away from everyone. For atleast a month." she hoped that was the right plan she'd been around horses that needed to be quarantined but none were wild. She watched as the mares nose almost touched the ground. She seemed rather out of it now. Riley grabbed the halter she placed on the gate latch and slipped through the rails after jim. She approached slowly watching the mare carefully. The mares eyes dropped and her lips hung. she smiled a little the poor mare had no idea what was going on. She walked up to her slowly being silent. she watched as the mares head jerked a little but not much. She slipped the noseband over her nose and fastened the crown piece. She looked over at jim and nodded. She glanced down at the leg it look pretty bad from here worse then it did from a distance.

[wildthing]

Jim made sure she had had the halter secure and then went to work. He went ahead and administered the vaccines first. Rabies in the right should, West Nile in the left, and Tetanus in the neck. The mare was dehydrated, but not badly enough to require an IV drip. "She's pretty dehydrated. You can try putting some electrolyte mix in her water." It would probably take a day or two for her to settle down enough to start eating and drinking like she should. Heartbeat was a little slow due to the sedation, but within normal parameters. Temperature was a little high, but not infection high. Teeth looked okay. "I'd say she's probably 4 or 5 years old. Not older than 7." Routine stuff out of the way, it was time to deal with the leg. It was a nasty business. It started at the front of the knee and ran nearly all the way down to the hoof. It was still bleeding sluggishly from where her pacing had reopened it. The wound was probably a good three or four days old. It was a ragged laceration and was going to require some debriding to remove dead tissue that could easily become infected. He rinsed the area with hydrogen peroxide and went to work with a scalpel. He scraped away dried blood and flaps of tissue until the wound looked a little more neat and he could better see what he was dealing with. Only time would tell whether the mare's tendons had been damaged, but due to the depth and placement of the wound, Jim didn't think so. The ragged edges of the wound meant he wouldn't be able to suture it closed. This was one of those wounds that was left primarily up to mother nature. "Well it's not good, but it could be a helluva lot worse. Too early to tell if she's nicked tendons and ligaments, but I don't think so. It's too ragged to stitch. Infection is gonna be your biggest worry." He doused the site in iodine and lay a heavy piece of gauze over the wound. That was secured in place by a roll of gauze, then a roll of vet wrap, and lastly a polo bandage. "It's gonna be a pain, but that really needs to stay on. I think you should keep her lightly sedated for the next two or three days so she doesn't make it worse. If you can keep her quiet and that doesn't get infected, I don't see any reason she shouldn't be fine. It's gonna scar though."

[Riley♠]

She listened to the vet as he talked her hand holding the rope attached the the mares halter. She'd leave it after they were done so she wouldn't have to worry about battling to get her halter. "Yeah i agree keeping her sedated is probably the best bet so she doesn't just rip it open again and i'm fine with that." she didn't mind she knew it wasn't best for the mare health wise but the good out wayed the bad in this case. She sighed with relief as long as scarring is the only outcome she's fine with that idea. "good i'm glad to hear that." she reached forward toward the mares neck but stopped herself as the mare jerked her head up a little. she pulled her hand back again. "Thanks again for coming out." she couldn't express her gratitude for him making a trip out her to tend to the mare before her.

*note: I'm sorry it's so short i just was having a little writers block.

[wildthing]

"If you want, I can go ahead and deworm her now." Most stables had their own deworming program, but the mare was going to need a shot of it all to start with. "What I gave her should last for another hour or so. I can either leave a couple doses of sedative with your or I can do it when I visit Baldy. I really don't mind." He checked his watch. He was on call this afternoon, but didn't have to be at the clinic. When he was done with the mare, he'd probably try and get a trail ride in. "Just doing my job. You mentioned questions about feed. Start her with hay. Slowly add in something simple, like rolled oats or barley. Nothing high energy. Her weight is pretty good, so you're not shooting for weight gain. You won't need to do anything fancy until she's settled down some and you actually put her into work. And with that leg, you're looking at a good couple months for her to be completely sound."

[Riley♠]

She nodded. "Yeah go ahead and worm her." she had her own worming plan for the horses but this mare needed a little bit different one and that was fine with her. she shrugged. "I'm fine with sedating her so i don't have to tie you up." she glanced back at the mare and smiled. She was quite a looker under the dirt and briars. She listened to him talk about her diet and nodded. "Okay i think i can handle that." she glanced down at her own watch and saw the time she still had to get atleast one ride in before the day was over. "Well i'm in no hurry i've got plenty aroudn here i need to ride and hopefully a few that will find new homes as well." she sighed she hated selling horses but it was business she needed the money and they needed homes that could cater to them individually. "So she's got about another hour or so right?' she had honestly been kind of zoning when he'd mentioned it and she just wanted to check if she could get a short ride in before she had to be resedated.

[wildthing]

Jim slipped back through the rails to get what he needed from the truck. He got out a bottle of universal dewormer and drew up a syringe full, pulling out a little more than he needed. They never actually ended up getting all of it down. He slipped back in and moved to the mare's head. He whispered a lot of soothing nonsense in that gruff Southern voice as he he pried open her mouth and shot the liquid to the back of her throat. She tossed her head and took a few stumbling steps back, but took the dewormer. "Alright. I'm all done with her then." He gathered his bag and headed back to the truck. He pulled out another bottle of clear liquid and several syringes. He filled five syringes and put them in a bag with a note for instructions. "These are intravenous in the neck. Give about every 12 hours. And don't hesitate to call if you have questions." When he had everything packed back up, he leaned against his truck. "Yeah I think I'm gonna try and sneak in a trail ride real quick. I'm thinking about getting a youngster to start workin' with, but Baldy's still got a lot of good years in him and I want to get a little more settled in first." He glanced at the mare and then at his watch. "Yeah. It varies from horse to horse, but she should be about this quiet for another hour or so."

[Riley♠]

She watched him shoot the dewormer in the mares mouth and went went with her as she took a few stumbling steps backwards. She unclipped the lead rope and slipped through the rails behind him. She approached his truck and took the bag of syringes. "shouldn't be much of a problem but i'll feel free to give you a call if something comes up." she stood for a second and watched the mare as he packed everything up. She smiled a little he was a rather attractive vet. She shook her head and blushed a little how stupid of her. She was supposed to be business like. She glanced back over at him as he began to speak again. "Yeah i was just going to head out on a trail ride myself. My mare needs some time out of the arena." She spoke of the big buckskin thoroughbred she owned. the mare had become slightly ring sour so riley had been trail riding her recently to try to get her to calm down and feel free to bring in anymore you'd like we've always got room here." she looked out toward the pasture it was a beautiful day she would almost hate to waste the rest of it in the arena after a short trail ride.