It will soon be three weeks since Tivar got back to NC, from Florida. He's living in a smallish pasture (4-5 acres maybe) with three other geldings. All the fence for this pasture is electric, so there is nothing for him to rub on, except for the rim of the water Rubbermaid water tank. They don't have a shelter, but there is a huge pecan tree just outside the fence that provides them some shade...but they rarely seem to use it. This pasture is on top of a small hill, so if there's any breeze in the area, you feel it there.
I haven't used a flysheet on him since the second day he was here. He does wear his flymask every day. So far, I've been using just a little bit of Flygone spray once a day. I put some Swat on his ventral line - I left off the Swat for a couple of days, and he got a tiny sore - not bad, but I started back using the Swat. And, I'm using EquiSpot on him...I'll probably reapply it about every 10 days, but I'm not quite sure about the frequency yet. I also have some Poridon on hand - I'll probably switch over and try it before long, once I see how this is going. He doesn't have any sores. The hair has pretty much grown back in on the spots on his back and hips. The flakey-dandruff stuff is almost completely gone from his mane, but of course, it will take the rubbed spots in the mane a while to grow back. I bring him into the stall every night to give him a little supplement (a handful of Triple Crown Senior, some Wheat Germ Oil, and some garlic) and to spray him. He doesn't rush to rub on the stall partitions or door, but if I leave him in the stall for more than 10-15 minutes, he will try to rub - I don't leave him in very long so I don't know how long he'd rub if I'd let him. I rarely see him rub on the water tank rim. He seems to swish his tail and stomp his feet no more often than the other geldings in the herd. This is better than I expected, and is very, very manageable so far. I sure hope this continues. Karen Thomas, NC
