Episode 17: All About A Vet Visit

Hello! Welcome to Flip N Tails: a tiny podcast for BIG horse lovers! I’m a horse girl who loves to ride and each week I’ll share about what I learn and love about horses. Today is episode seventeen and it’s all about a fun filled Flip N Tails trip to the vet.

Where is this trip?

This trip is to an animal vet who works with big animals including horses.

Have you ever wanted to be a vet?

I still play with vet stuff. I do surgeries on my stuffed animals and sometimes even my dog plays along.

Why would you need to go to a vet?

Well sometimes you need medicine for cuts, or a hurt hoof or a bug bite that spread a virus or something like that.

What are some good tips?

Be gentle with the animals, and be willing to learn.

What are some good things to do and not to do?

Well some things to do are ask a lot of questions. I wouldn’t expect to do it again. If there are horses there be careful not to be too rough. Which basically just means don’t pat them too hard or make a lot of noise, just be gentle. Imagine walking through a hospital with people, you’d want to be quiet and gentle and respectful.

A walking tour

Imagine you’re on a trip and you get into the car and you see all these windmills on the drive by and then you pull up the dirt road and what looks like a farm also has an extra outbuilding. And you walk up and there’s a sign that says it’s a vet and that’s how I knew it was different than a vet you take your dog or cat to. Because when you have bigger animals you can’t fit it on a table in a small room. You have to do it in bigger places like a barn.

Inside the vet

So I walked in the door and that’s where I met Dr. Nancy, and she had a big counter and it had pens and some paperwork. She also had a big wall with different slots and they each had different medicine things. I think they were for different horses too. And one wall, it was like a display case at like a museum. And on that case were basically stories from all of the things that she did that she used to help teach other people.

A lesson from the vet

It’s important to not let your horse eat sand. Because when your horse eats sand, one grain of sand rolls into a rock, and then a bigger rock and eventually it gets to the size of a bowling ball or a basketball. And that’s when the vet has to come in and help. And when we were there we saw one of those bowling ball shaped things. It was on her shelf so that she could share with other horse owners to make sure that they didn’t have their horses eat sand.

Into the vet barn

And we walked down the hall, and there’s different doors to other offices and things. And through the door straight in front of your face, it has a barn, and there’s maybe 3-4 stalls on each side. And in the back left corner, we were very very surprised, was a Norwegian Fjord mare that had just foaled.

Meeting a foal

This was the first foal I had ever seen in my entire life. She was so nice to let us in and see them, and pet them. But she also had rules to make sure we were safe around them. It was important to keep the mare and the baby safe because babies are so vulnerable and you need to do everything you can to make sure they’re okay.

The Norwegian Fjord and her Foal

I’m going to put all of the pictures on my Instagram page, but for now I can describe it for you. The mare was very beautiful. Norwegian Fjords usually have a dun color with is like palomino or like a creamy color. And they have a really cool dorsal stripe down their back. To learn more about Norwegian Fjords, listen to Episode 11: All about Norwegian Fjords. The top of the foal’s head was about as high as the mom’s shoulders. So the mare had a really smooth coat, but the foal was really curly. The mare had a dorsal stripe that was very dark, and the foal still had a dorsal stripe but it was a lot lighter than the mare. If you’ve ever touched a lamb, the foal’s mane was like that. Like kind of curly and fuzzy, it wasn’t long and flowing like the mare yet. While I was there, I got to pet it and learn that the foal wasn’t really able to stand on its front hooves so Dr. Nancy put like a type of purple tape on it.

A vet’s job

Can you imagine that her job was to help foals have a good day? Since before I can remember, or at least preschool, I’ve wanted to be a vet. And this day I really wanted to be a vet. I mean come on! Who doesn’t want to be with baby horses? So naturally I asked a lot of questions. And I learned that sometimes there are good days and sometimes there are hard days. And the hard days can be really hard, like when you lose a horse. But there are a lot of days of saving horses too.

Dr. Nancy’s horses

And then after we got to see the foal and the mare, she brought us to her own barn with her own horses. Dr. Nancy has horses of her very own too. The first set we saw was Zelda and Penny. Penny was a yearling, and Zelda had foaled about a year ago. There were also a couple of horses that were also really nice and sweet too.

Advice from a vet

As we said goodbye, Dr. Nancy had some advice for us. Dr. Nancy’s advice was to make sure you really really want this. Because there’s lots of years of school, and you might work for other vets too. And even then you have harder days like when a horse dies or you get kicked or bit or hurt. It’s hard, like farming. So make sure your heart is really in it to save animals otherwise it won’t be worth it. So she said make sure you really really want to do it. Fun Fact! I still really really want to do it.

Grateful for vets

Believe it or not I heard that it’s become more rare and rare for there to be vets. It’s actually really lucky that we have helpers that can step in and help. So let’s give them a high five and a handshake to all the vets out there. And if you have a horse or a vet, let’s give them a thanks too.

So that’s it! Now you know a tiny bit more about this special visit with a vet. Join us next time and subscribe for another episode of Flip N Tails: a tiny podcast for BIG horse lovers!