Moving on from News.............Into Updates

While I'm on the subject of news, I might as well throw in some updates. It has been a month since Solidare's foal got his last shot of antibiotics. With the potency of that shot giving him seven days of protection from the virus, that leaves us three weeks his system has been without the protection of the injection into his tendon sheath.

To know if the infection was gone or not, all we could really do was wait. If the infection was not cleared up by the antibiotic we would only know when the symptoms reappeared. How long that might take usually depends on how much of the bacteria had survived the doses of antibiotics. It could be almost immediately and it could take days or even weeks.

Well, we're at the three week point and Solidare's foal is still doing great. There have been a couple of scares along the way that turned out to be our nerves and not his physical health but things are looking good. It's safe to say at this time, the bacterial infection in the horse's tendon is NOT going to kill him. We're definitely out of the woods on that.

The only real question left is "Will the horse be sound?" He looks sound most of the time. It's only if he really exerts excess pressure on that hock that there are any signs of lameness. What consititues "excess pressure?" Oh, things like sliding stops and even roll backs cause the colt to do an ouchy jump through them. Other than that, normal walking, trotting and cantering, even a casual gallop seem to be good.

Long term prognosis??? The jury is still out. Until the swelling goes away in that tendon, we're just not going to know if there is any residual damage. It's fair to assume the ouchiness now is directly related to the excess pressure on the joint caused by the swelling. We'll only know how he's really affected when the leg is back to normal and we can see if he still has problems then. If the ouchiness leaves with the swelling. We'll be home free. If is doesn't, I guess we'll figure that out then.

While we're on the subject of Solidare's foal, the poor creature is no longer nameless. Well, at least I think he's not. The registry has not confirmed my request by sending a kit for genetic testing but I can't imagine that it will be denied.

His application for registration was submitted on the sixth month anniversary of his birth. At that time I found out the name I had really wanted had too many letters so I had to resort to one that had been knocking around some in my head.

Of course, since his birth, we've "tried on" several names. None of them have stuck until now. Once the papers are done, the name is about as stuck as you can get so I guess it's safe to tell you what I chose. Although I have to say this name has been very difficult for me.

There has been more than the usual emotion investment in this colt. I so wanted his name to honor his mother, her legacy and what it took for her and us to get to this point. For me that included her name, the tradition that had come to be surrounding the naming of her foals and the struggle we've gone through to have and keep this colt.

For me, Solidares Last Tango says it all.

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