DAY 52, 53, 54 & 55 - Warm Days and Tick Bites

Wednesday, October 15 was "day 52" - I do not remember all of the details, but I took Possum out for a nice little ride and he was wonderful. I took one photo and a couple of short videos, posted here:

Thursday, it rained. I had stuff to do, and by the time I could have gotten going with Possum, the rain was falling hard, so I gave him the day off. He was cranky about that - he likes to have a job to do - but he survived! We spent a lot of time with him in the barn at night, while the rain was coming down and he was hanging out in his stall, munching hay. He was a bit ornery, but not nearly as tough as he was last year. There is so much more trust and friendship this year.

Friday, I took him into the stall to give him a good grooming before tacking up to ride. He had gotten pretty muddy and roughed up from the long night of rain. That is when I discovered a tick bump on the inside of his near upper stifle area. The bump was about the size of a pea, and I was able to extract the tiny (deer, I think) tick with a pair of tweezers. Then, I discovered another bump, but this one was much more swollen, about the size of my fist, way up inside his off side stifle.. just behind the shaft. This was a bit more alarming, and I was able to feel what I thought was the tick, but I was not able to extract that one. I wiped both spots down with Beneydrine Lotion, and decided I would still tack up anyway but just keep it chill with him.

We walked up to the Dodge barn, and caught up with Donna leading Big Mack down the road to meet up with her daughter getting off at the school bus. Her older boy and Luanne's boy were walking down, too, and her youngest boy was riding down in a toy electric Jeep.. so there was a lot of commotion, plus it was windy! Possum got pretty worked up seeing all of that, and became especially anxious when I asked him to walk away from the gang after Donna and I talked for a few minutes (talked about the ticks! She had found one on Mack the day before, too, and his was oozing and really bothering him.) With a little bit of encouragement, we moved away from the commotion, and I was amazed at how well he took it.

Then we continued all the way down the hill to Dr. Doyle's old place, and picked up a nice easy trot back to the pipe, and walked up the hill again to home. I kept it short, only a half hour. I found a third tick and bump after the ride, in the same location on the other side! I got that tick out, and later sent Ryan a text asking about suggestions on how to treat the ticks and swelling. Meanwhile, it didn't seem to be bothering him.

Saturday morning started out bright and mild, but by mid-day, the clouds came and it looked like it could rain. I had spoken with Ryan on the phone and she suggested placing a hot compress on the areas. Her main concern was the bites developing into cellulitis, which he has had once before. I looked that up on the web, and it can get very nasty! Possum stood very still while I reached up under there and soaked the tick bites with wash cloth dunked in hot water. So good!! Then, after a little break, I tacked him up and took him out for a 50 minute walk, including up and down the hill, a stroll through the field across the street from Lenny's house, and a visit with Big Mack. We also trotted a little bit in the Dodge field, and Possum was very good. It's like he's a little ranch pony!

Swelling from a tick bite.

From today's walk

Later in the afternoon, I tied him up in the stall and applied the hot water wash cloth to the tick bumps again, and I think the swelling has gone down. Keeping an eye on it. He's seems to be a very happy pony.