Days 11 and 13 (Day 12 was a day off)
I have to write this blog before I get to lazy to write about what happened today. It was pretty interesting and different.
Saw my first live and up-close castration, and I didn’t get sick at all. Well, I think I may have gotten sick just a smidgy little bit, but it only happened when people mentioned getting queasy and was hardly noticeable. Some of my pictures and videos are kind of disturbing, so when I put that bit in my final video for Kelly, I’ll have to put a disclaimer in there.
First, I want to insert what I had written for Saturday.
“We got a new horse in last night. Brittney named her Addison (her name has to start with the letter A because she’s out first new horse of the year), and she’s somewhere between a 1 and a 2 on the BCS scale. From what I heard from the Animal Control people, she was not intentionally neglected, but had an owner that has a severe, chronic illness and couldn’t take care of her horse anymore. Her daughter looked after the horse for a while, but when taking care of her mother became a full-time job, the horse sort of fell by the wayside. When the woman saw pictures of what had become of her horse, she was extremely upset and signed her over immediately.
We stayed afterhours to wait for the veterinarian to come in and examine her. She was due in at 4 but didn’t get there until almost 6. I got two videos of her work (the lighting wasn’t ideal, though) and several pictures. I’m not allowed to post the pictures until she officially gets signed over to DEFHR, but since I haven’t been posting pictures anyway, that’s probably not a problem.
Today Brittney let the residential interns sleep in and we didn’t have to be at work until noon. The weather was positively absolutely unbelievably BEAUTIFUL all day long. The temperature was hovering around 60, and when the day ended at 5 it was just starting to get chilly enough for me to put my hoodie on.”
That was Saturday’s post. Now… on to the castration!
Javier was supposed to be here at 11:30 to start Emmett’s castration, but he ended up not getting there til after 12, and didn’t actually sedate Emmett until after 12:30.
I’m not sure what to say about the castration itself. There was a lot of gushing blood, a lot of surgical instruments being clamped to scrotal skin (it was like Saw for horse people), and a lot of people crowding around for pictures and videos. Apparently one of Sabrina’s professors was really excited about her getting a video of the procedure. At one point I almost stepped on a piece of scrotum that Javier had tossed to the side after making his first incision. Emmett was extremely wobbly during the procedure, so much that Brittney warned us to watch where we were standing/kneeling, in case he completely lost his balance and toppled over.
Javier explained what he was doing every step of the way, although I couldn’t repeat it here if I tried, mostly because of Javier’s accent, but also because I want to finish this blog soon and I can’t remember everything I did catch through said accent.
After he had them both out – they were unusually large, according to the more experienced bystanders – he cut one of them open to show us the insides, and many of us had pictures taken of us holding them. It was really inappropriate how excited some of the interns were, and Hayley said (and had been saying) that, as a woman, there is something rather empowering about watching a castration.
After the castration was over and he was hosed off, Elise reminded Brittney that she’d wanted to have his teeth floated. Javier agreed to do it, so while Emmett was still drowsy (he ended up getting another dose of sedative because he started to wake up while Javier had his hands in his mouth). Javier had us all put on gloves again so that we could feel the hooks on Emmett’s teeth. He was badly in need of a float, and Javier had an electric float that, when he turned it on, hurt the teeth to listen to.
*ASIDE FOR NON-HORSE PEOPLE*
In their natural environment, horses are of course adapted to take care of themselves naturally. They don’t need regular dentist or farrier visits, as their diets and home turf do a fine job of wearing down their teeth and hooves as needed. However, when subjected to the conditions we provide for them (living in a stall, working on soft, firm footing, eating soft grass, pelleted concentrates and hay, etc), the wear on their hooves and teeth is inadequate for self-preservation. This fact is the basis for careers in farriery and equine dentistry.
Horses that develop hooks:
http://www.pro-equinedentistry.com/images/hook_side_view.jpg
or ramps:
http://docmarx.com/wave.jpg
or break or lose their teeth, find themselves in need of dental work to keep their top teeth meeting their bottom teeth appropriately and functioning normally, and to prevent any injury to the tongue or lips. This is where floating comes in. The term “floating” is misleading, and I’ll bet you’re picturing what I pictured when I first heard the word. It would be more simple to call it “filing”, because that is essentially what it is. The dentist/vet uses a file (float), strikingly similar to the one the farrier uses on hooves, to file the teeth so that, as mentioned, they meet normally and comfortably in the mouth.
*END OF ASIDE FOR NON-HORSE PEOPLE*
Emmet’s adventures with Javier were by far the most interesting thing that happened today, so that pretty much everything else kind of passed in a blur.
Have to get to bed. Very tired. *yawn*

♥
SM