Lusi's nails need clipping. She needs what I call a "zoo routine"! Years ago, on a trip to the zoo with the children the animal keeper had explained how they maintain a regular daily training exercise of handling all the large animals. Touching all the body parts; inspect ears, open mouth, lift paws and so on! Well, we are a little remiss in our zoo routine at the moment. It wasn't that Lusi was afraid of the vet office; on the contrary, she bounded in like a jack-in -the -box, the ever wagging tail swishing across the small space between the chairs. What she didn't like was her paws being held very firmly and the fact that the vet tech would not let go of them until the job was done. I do hold her feet at the door for wiping when she comes in from outside but that is scarcely up to what we needed here for nail clipping. So one more routine to add to the daily list, the "zoo routine"!
Her weight is now 48 lbs, and Lusi is 71/2 months old.
We had a faecal test done at the end of November which was negative. I wanted to check how frequently we should be doing this since Lusi was going to be back down at the barn again, now that Dande had recovered from his injury and I was recovered from my foot injury and the several other ailments were now all behind us finally. Our vet recommended that we repeat the faecal tests every two months until the age of I year old, at which time a regular program of worming every 4 months could be established.
I had trained Lusi when she was first going down to the barn to "leave it" when she picked up horse poop up in her mouth and ran around with it, or worse still ate it. But a recent visit to the barn, as we maintain Lusi's equine socialization with our Morgan horse, showed that she had forgotten some of her earlier lessons! There she was ferreting through the shavings and hay in the stable to find pieces of poop. I have to admit I didn't realize what she was doing at first! I also caught her stealing a frozen dog "poopsicle" on our walk last week.
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