Saturday, March 3, 2012

Poor Donnie

"Donnie"

A little over a week ago it was noticed that Donnie didn’t have a normal wet spot in his stall for a few days.  Since he wasn’t acting differently and didn’t have a fever, we assumed maybe he was urinating before he came in but determined to watch him anyway for signs to make sure he was alright.  The lessening amount of wet in his stall continued for a few more days and we decided to have the vet come out and take a look to make sure he was okay.  In the meantime, we thought maybe it would be a good idea to check his sheath to see if he needed a cleaning or maybe had a bean. 
The night before the vet was due to come, my daughter thought she’d go ahead and do a sheath cleaning and perhaps live up to her nickname “The Queen of Beans!” (Just kidding ;-)  After donning a glove and upon further examination, she concluded there were no beans and every thing else seemed okay, too.  There was a minor exception:  Donnie seemed to be swollen just inside and when she was cleaning around that particular area Donnie went into “dog-being-scratched-behind-the-ear” mode.  He actually lifted his back leg up practically over his head and was very happy to have an area he couldn’t reach scratched.  At least we know he’s very flexible in the future for longe or riding work.  This poor guy was so happy someone finally figured out what was bothering him, he started trying to "groom" the wall of his stall. 
When the vet came and donned the long glove, Donnie looked slightly worried but was a good boy during the examination.  During the exam he was very technical and mentioned things like "more corrugated," "irritation," "swelling," etc.  We’re standing there basically thinking in laymen’s terms that I won’t go into here for censorship purposes.  He took a culture, which we haven’t gotten the results back from yet.
In the meantime he suggested we treat it as a yeast infection and go to the drug store and pick up jock itch medicine.  Now this stuff comes in a spray, though applying that inside a sheath could be tricky, so the cream option seemed best.  This medicine doesn’t come in a big tube, so many tubes are needed.  My daughter had to try and explain this to a pharmacist:  “Um, you see we have a horse with a yeast infection that requires this medication.”  Then there's the down his nose look.  And you really just want to promise:  “No really, it’s for our horse, not the football team.”  But instead you pay for it and, glancing around hugging the bag close, slink out of the store in shame.
Donnie is feeling much better with his medication.  So much so that whenever my daughter enters the barn he starts nickering and can’t wait for his treatment.  Not quite the reaction to the meds she was hoping for, but as long as he's on the mend, I guess....  Amazing the odd things we’ll do for our horses isn’t it?
Until next time
Quote for Today
You never get the pleasure of owning a horse; you only have the pleasure of being its slave.

35 comments:

  1. LOL Poor Donnie! Sucks that he's feeling bad but its good that he likes his treatment, think how bad it could be!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Glad he's feeling better - poor boy! Hope things (ahem) are better soon!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm glad that it is something that works and he will be fine soon. He sure was cooperative.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh that's funny! About the pharmacist, not Donnie's personal problem. Very nice of you to scratch that itch for him, the poor guy. I hope he is better soon, although he may just fake it to prolong his "treatment".

    ReplyDelete
  5. It's terrible when a guy gets itches in his "area". Hope the cream does the trick for him. Sounds like he's tolerating his treatment. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  6. LOL! I can so visualize explaining to the pharmacist what all the mediation was for. So glad that Donnie is feeling better. It's awful when you have an itch that can't be scratched.

    ReplyDelete
  7. poor donnie. luckily he is a good patient. horses make for the most awkward trips to the pharmacy and hardware store (though usually not at the same time ;-) i'm always explaining to someone how i'm either healing or building something bizarre around the barn, so i guess i should be used to the odd looks by now :-\ this one was especially embarrassing though because the brand the vet recommended was labelled for 'athlete's foot' so, just to be sure, i had to go get the pharmacist, get walked over to the aisle where all the stuff is kept and get a big lecture on fungal infections of the nether regions. it was, um, educational :-\

    ReplyDelete
  8. Glad the eagle eyes spotted the lack of wet spots in Donnie's stall--good sleuthing!
    Great solution, even if the pharmacist seems concerned--hey, he will have a story to tell for the next cocktail party & in the meantime, Donnie will be more comfortable.

    ReplyDelete
  9. My first impulse, upon opening the pot and looking at the photo of him lounging in that shambles of a stall, was:
    "Ah. Poor Donnie, indeed."
    But I stifled that thought, thinking I was being callous--perhaps he was truly ill.
    But the image of Donnie with his hoof to his ear was priceless! (RT does that, too.) (Heck, Maddie does it too, when I clean between her teats.)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Donnie must be singing, "Oh what a relief it is". :-) Hope his troubles are soon gone.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I know it's not funny...but it is!!! lol!

    So glad Donnie's on the mend!

    ~Lisa

    ReplyDelete
  12. Poor Donnie. I hope he continues to feel better.

    I can remember once going to the pharmacy with a vet's prescription for an antibiotic for one of my horses. The dosage was something like 15 pills twice a day and I needed them for something like 10 days. After some pretty askance looks from the pharmacist--to whom I had to repeated explain it was not a mistake and the "patient" was a 1200 lb horse, not a person, he managed to fill about half the prescription before the pill supply ran out. They had to order more for me to pick up a few days later.

    I really wanted to see if I could pay for it on my prescription plan, but alas, I had no dependents listed on my policy. *G*

    ReplyDelete
  13. Oh that is way to funny that he is enjoying his treatment! Poor guy must have been awful itchy!

    ReplyDelete
  14. This is funny - Keil Bay had a similar thing two years ago and has just had a similar recurrence. I have used Banixx with great success but did think that the antifungal cream in the drug store (which I usually have on hand if I need to treat thrush) would work too. But those tubes are so little and the area so... much larger than the human's!

    Here's to relief from a very unwieldy itch for Donnie!!

    And I think I will not forget the Queen of Beans anytime soon. :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Poor bloke! At least he's a cooperative patient, though. One of my geldings loves to be cleaned and quite readily "volunteers" himself. The other gelding sucks up and gives me the "Bad touch! Bad touch!" face the whole time. Oh, the things we do for these beasts! And the conversation we have....

    ReplyDelete
  16. Oh goodness. I did giggle about this, but I feel badly for Donnie,too. He is lucky to have such vigilant and non-squeamish owners!

    I helped a gelding who was suffering from a tick lodged in an unmentionable area. I have never seen a horse stand quite the way he did when I discovered the problem. They are such communicative creatures.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Poor Donnie! Can only imagine his relief when your daughter ... (hmm, no matter how I word it, it doesn't sound very good at all so shan't finish that sentence!) Glad the meds are helping.

    LOL your daughter trying to explain to the pharmacist!! But way to go -- I'd have either crawled out without getting the meds or sent someone else to get them ;o)

    ReplyDelete
  18. Oh you made me laugh. Football team. Uhuh.
    Poor Donnie. Although his treatment seems to give him pleasure ;-)

    (Have I ever told you the story about my vet friend who had a dog- patient with an infected penis and she advised his owner to rub the dog's penis a couple of times a day with perhaps the same cream as you're using for Donnie. Anyway, a couple of days later she was driving around, doing her visits, when she spotted the guy and his dog walking along the same road, going in the same direction as her. She slowed down the car and when she reached them, opened the window and asked: "So... how's the penis?" The guy turned to look at her, and it wasn't the same guy. It wasn't even the same dog. LOL)

    ReplyDelete
  19. very funny posts and comments too! My daughter's horse is prone to irritation & dermatitis up his sheath too, and stands like an angel to be cleaned and treated. They know what's good for them (sometimes!)

    ReplyDelete
  20. btw, i meant to talk to you about this 'queen of bean' thing! it makes it sound like a job title (or worse) from a very questionable ad in the back of a horsey magazine or something :-/
    "sheath cleaning and more! servicing all of your horseman's needs since 2001. references available."
    remind me not to ever put that on my resume :-/

    ReplyDelete
  21. LOL - jme - you are too funny! :)

    ReplyDelete
  22. Well I am sorry that Donnie isn't feeling 100%, but I must say I really needed a laugh and that story certainly delivered!! Hope he feels better soon.

    ReplyDelete
  23. I've heard it all now! I bet he IS darn happy when hears her coming to the barn.

    ReplyDelete
  24. I am really laughing out loud now! Poor Donnie, actually, I think going to the store would have to be the worst. "stocking up are we?" oh man, funny stuff. Great post!
    I really am glad it's just a minor issue.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Ha!! I had a similar experience about a year ago with my dog. Nothing quite like leaving the pharmacy with a variety of jock itch and yeast control products! Hope you are well! =)

    ReplyDelete
  26. Poor guy. But, at least it was something easily treatable (except for the mortification factor, that is ;o)

    ReplyDelete
  27. I hope he's feeling better now. Is it wrong that I really wish you'd gotten a picture of him holding his leg way up in the air?

    ReplyDelete
  28. Pretty funny story. Except from Donnie's point of view.

    ReplyDelete
  29. UGH how dreadfully uncomfortable, a place he can't scratch!! Oh how I'd like to see the store cameras for the reaction on the pharmacist's face
    : )
    - The Equestrian Vagabond

    ReplyDelete
  30. Yep, poor Donnie!! What an experience at the pharmacy and I love all the comments too.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Dare I say, he sounds like my husband! lol

    Seriously, I think maybe I should try some yeast cream for Lowdown. He's also itchy down there and responds like you described. He also gets black "goop" on his inner thighs. I've had the vet out three times in the past year to clean him because I thought maybe I wasn't doing a good enough job. She said he was clean and didn't find anything. But didn't suggest yeast medication. Might be worth a try.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Makes me glad that I have mares! It's a good thing that Donnie is a good patient, but if the Queen of Beans is his nurse, how could he misbehave? I love that!

    ReplyDelete
  33. I smiled reading that.

    ReplyDelete
  34. So what med did you end up using? I have one who is the same way...vet thought it was an allergic reaction...but treating it as such hasn't helped...
    Tara

    ReplyDelete
  35. Hi Tara,
    We ended up using Tinactin. He seems to like it and I think it's helping.

    Thanks everyone for your wonderful comments. Donnie thanks you for all caring about him and he'd like you all to know that he's feeling much better.

    ReplyDelete

It's so nice of you to take the time to visit. I appreciate your stopping by and commenting on what I've written. Even though I sometimes don't have the time to reply to each comment, I do enjoy reading them.