Praying for a good outcome.

Marilyn...could he have gotten a husk or piece of hay stuck up his nose? I had a dog who got a fox tail stuck in his nose and "we" went through the same thing you're experiencing with Val. No heavy bleeding. Just enough to scare the daylights out of me. Off to the vet and he found the fox tail lodged up his nostril. Once removed...no more bleeding. The dog lived to a ripe old age...for dogs.

You always have my good thoughts.

Bless you for what you're doing for Val.

I'm sure some days must feel exasperating and others full of hope and possibilities.

Praying for strength for you and Val.

Hoping for the best Marilyn. You are a saint for your animals.

Hoping the best for Val. Poor thing has been through so much. So glad he has you Marilyn. You really are the patron saint of animals.

Well Marilyn, we are all in this together with you. We all have fallen in love with Val. So we are all hoping for a good out come.

I googled it. Hopefully it's something simple and easy to cure.....my fingers are crossed for you Marilyn.

Marilyn, I think this is teriffic your saving this horse. Wish I would win the lottery so I could help you.

Thank you for the good thoughts.

Anne, I thought about that. Since he has been here, he has had very fine hay....not stemmy at all but at the place he came from, they fed them literal trash. He hasn't been out in the pasture. We did move the round pen so he could be out and not be in mud. One of the causes can be a blow to the head. He did have a very bad scrape the length of his face...which has "haired" over now, but you can see where he had it a couple of months ago. Probably when they hauled him from the auction to the kill pen and stuck him in a trailer with some other horses that may have tried to kick him, causing him to set back and then bang his head. I will mention it all to the vet. I should have waited to worm him when Jody was here to help me. My right hand is so messed up, it is hard to spread my fingers enough to handle the plunger. I trick my other horses by taking a little piece of cinnamon bread and putting a little dab of wormer in the center of a slice, fold it over and make a little sandwich, and they eat it right down. He won't eat any treats...obvious that no one ever gave him a carrot or a cookie or any kind of treat. I cut up a carrot and put it in his feed bucket and he very carefully ate around it and left every slice.

We put down my horse, Lonesome, awhile back because he had cancer....so naturally, I tend to think (or worry about) something like that. Lonesome was 35 years old though. Val has some age, but not anywhere near that old.

Well, I am going to take the rascal some more hay. I filled his hay net at 4 pm and it is after 8 now, so I know it is empty again.

I've never owned a horse...but I know that "worry" that you're feeling. The worst of it is that we tend to always imagine the most terrible things when we start that worry process. I'm praying that it's something simple and that you'll both be OK. The very thought of him suffering a head shot is enough to bring tears to my eyes. I simply can't bear to have an animal hurt. And...I'm not too pleased to learn your hand is such a mess. Finding that we have a lot in common...I hesitate to say..."Take it easy."...because I doubt it will do much good. It never does with me. Once I have a bug up my butt to do something...it gets done come 'ell or high water. But please do rest and wait for Jody to help.

You're in my prayers.

Oh Marilyn, this horse has been a waiting game since day one, now it's wait for the vet. Hopefully this is just something minor that will resolve itself. You said bad teeth, I know they keep growing, is this neglect that can be corrected? They usually file them don't they?

It's a shame he's not tempted by treats, that's my 'go to' for just about any animal. Maybe you'll discover something special that he just can't resist when he's been home longer...You're going to get there, this is all still pretty fresh for him. Makes me wonder what he may even have endured on his way to auction before bought there, how he ended up at auction to begin with.

Don't wear yourself out. We'll count the days with you until his appointment, but in the meantime you need to take care of yourself ....((((hugs))))

My hand is okay....I have been this way since I was 4 years old. I can use it, I have to use it. I went out and gave him some hay and checked to see if he needed his blanket. I do love the old horse. I just always have in the back of my mind....why did he end up where he did. He was a good horse for someone. Maybe they let him down. I won't let him down. I am so surprised that he didn't get sick in the kill pen. Bane was sick for about two months. All I can figure is someone cared enough for Val....wherever he came from, that he was vaccinated. I always wish I knew something about Bane and Val. I thought if I put Bane's picture all over the internet and on Craig's List in many cities....someone would recognize him because he is uniquely marked, but haven't found out anything. Val is just a sorrel, blaze faced horse with one stocking....like thousands of others. I will never find out his past. I have hopes for his future. I love to take a skinny horse and make it pretty again. He has a lot of potential. I can't help but worry some though, because he isn't a young horse.

Morz, I think the way his teeth are is called shear mouth. On one side they don't match up and sort of go off to the side. I have seen worse. I will get it taken care of as soon as I can get another appointment. Sometimes when a horse has really bad teeth, they do it in more than one session. Will see what the vet says. I don't plan to ride him with a bit, which could also cause problems when they have bad teeth. I put my bridle on him....the bridle I ride Mariah with....which is a bitless bridle. It is a simple leather nose band that crosses under the chin and the reins attach to it. He is used to wearing a bit because when I put it on him, he opened his mouth for the bit, and when I took it off, again he opened his mouth for me to take the bit out. Old horses do get long teeth, but his are shorter than normal for a horse his age. I wet his feed and always will. He doesn't care....he likes it....licks the feed bucket until he gets every tiny bit. Mariah and Tue Lo don't like it when I wet their feed, and neither does Bane. Val was just so glad to get something to eat, he didn't care that it was wet. I wet it to ensure he gets enough water, because I am feeding him a lot of hay. He drinks a lot of water too, but I will keep on wetting his feed...especially since he doesn't know it any other way. ;)

This is Mariah wearing the bridle. It was made at night, so made her eye look funny.

I found a picture. His teeth look very much like this but slightly more so how they are out of alignment on the side.

Good thoughts for a simple explanation of the nosebleed.

Marilyn - In my opinion you are a remarkable person. You have been on an emotional roller coaster and you continue on with such a positive attitude.

I think this sums you up.

why did he end up where he did.

I am hoping that it was not a medical issue, and that the nosebleeds are not a symptom of some more serious issue.

My very best thoughts are with you.

Wishing the best for you and Val.

Sue

Praying that all will be fine with Val.

I don't know much about horses. I hope this is an easy fix and you can get Val in good shape again.

Interesting. What cause the teeth to get like that? Or is it like people, sometimes they are just crooked?

I wonder as well if maybe he has something stuck up there, maybe even in his sinuses. Poor thing! A friends cat had nose bleeds like that for a year. Since it was being sedated for a teeth cleaning, she had them check and lo and behold...pine needle up the nose! Waaaaay up.

Dances.

Fingers crossed it is something minor and easily fixed!

Good wishes to both Val and you, Marilyn.

What I can't get over is how he, with eyes where they are being unable to get a good view of what he's eating, was able to eat all around the piece of carrot, but leaving it. Paying close attention to what he was feeling in his mouth, I guess. And, especially being as hungry as he is.

Suspicious that you're trying to put one over on him, huh? Or ... in him, that is.

He'll become more trusting ... after while ... and progressively.

ole joyful

Dances, I don't know much about horses' teeth. I would imagine they started out a little out on align and got progressively worse over time. Perhaps he is missing a tooth or two and that caused them to grow all wonky. I will ask the vet. One of my FB friends bought a kill pen horse and his teeth are the same but much more so. I know she had the vet work on them twice (called floating) but I don't know how much it changed their appearance. He turned out to be a very well trained dressage horse and she is thrilled with him.

Joyful, a horse doesn't have to see something in his feed bucket in order to not eat it. They can do things with their noses that we can't do with our hands. Shell used to make a wormer called Equiguard. It was little blue pellets that you put in horses' feed. The horse was supposed to eat them and they would pass through the horse and kill worms along the way...especially bots. My horses could eat the feed and leave all the little blue pellets still in the feed bucket.

Jasdip, Val was probably sold due to his age and because old horses usually need extra care. I don't think the nose bleed thing was the cause. I hope not. I guess I will find out if it continues and I have to have him scoped.

You can only do what you can do...and you are doing that!

Now we are all going to be waiting to see what's causing these little bleeds.

DH and still laugh if we are having butter pecan ice cream, remembering how our first Westie licked the last of my dish -- and left all the pecan pieces in the bottom. (*Foreign Matter*, no doubt.)

I try to put rice In Lilys(dog) boiled chicken she doesn't eat so much as a grain of it but eats all the chicken.

Your animal stories are delightful! Such a real-life mix of joy and sorrow blended with humor and grit! Thank you for your dedication and kindness to all creatures, great and small.

Hoping for some very good news and a positive outcome for Val!