Medical treatments 2

I had another little session with Percy and the syringe yesterday afternoon. I took some warm water out and sucked some up into the syringe. Then I let him bite the end of it a couple times for a Click/Treat and then when he took it the next time, I squirted some of the water in his mouth. It did surprise him but I C/T'd and tried again. He wasn't too sure but did it again with the same response. hmmmm. I need to work on that part even more slowly. I stopped there so I could spend some time coming up with more baby steps.

This morning, I wore a different coat to the barn so I didn't have the syringe in my pocket. This was probably a good thing because I wasn't sure if he'd want to try it again and it prevented me from trying it! I went hunting in the tack room for a suitable substitute (I wanted a pen with a cap but had removed them all in early winter so they didn't freeze and break). I did find a little plastic "pin" for an electric fence gate that was about the same diameter as the tip of the syringe. I thought it would be a good imitation since it was plastic and a little pokey.

I think the term for what I am doing here is called generalization. I don't want him to think that this "game" is about standing in a particular place, using a particular tool, or inserting something in his mouth in a particular way. And animals do look at things that way. A willingness to walk into one horse trailer does not necessarily carry over to comfort walking into a different trailer. So while I am avoiding touching his wound so that I don't hurt or discourage him, I do want to put various things in his mouth, in various ways (different parts of his lips) and with different results. I hope this will make him less hesitant in the future for any necessary procedures involving his mouth: worming, checking teeth, bits, etc.

He was game to give the little plastic pin a try and pretty soon was happily grabbing hold of it with his front teeth for C/Ts. Somehow I needed to get the ability to stick something in the side of his mouth. I went back to steadying his nose with one hand and then began brushing the corner of his lips with the pin. That was OK too. Then I thought I should see if I could get him to target the corner of his mouth to the pin. This would put the action in his hands, rather than just asking him to tolerate my actions. I held the pin right next to the corner of his mouth so his smallest movement had his lips bump the pin. I did this several more times until I thought he really might be doing it on purpose rather than just bumping it accidentally and then I gave him a jackpot of a handful of pellets and stopped there.

Medical treatments

So now I have a chance to work on something I have read a lot about- teaching Percy to accept/enjoy having a syringe put in his mouth! The vet jokingly said as he left that it would be ideal if I could rinse the wound inside his mouth regularly to try to keep food from getting in it. I know a lot of people who have taught their horses to take wormer tubes in their mouth so this will be the same idea, but at least my goal only includes a water rinse!

I began this afternoon by introducing him to a 15 cc syringe. I let him touch it with his nose, C/T many times as I tried to see if he would touch it with various parts of his nose as well as let me brush it against his lips while he held still. I was careful not to touch the area around his wound as I didn't want anything to hurt and discourage him. Luckily, I think the best bet will be to put the syringe in the opposite side of his mouth and shoot the water in from that side....although I'm not sure if his tongue will get in the way. Since the vet didn't think it was possible at all, I figure anything I do will be better than nothing and it will be a good general experience for him and may carry over to future wormings!

After several C/Ts for the syringe touching his lips, he offered to bite the end of it- yea! I gave him a lot more hay stretcher pellets than usual- he is learning to like mints as a jackpot, but I wasn't too sure if the sugar would be at all problematic with the wound (it might actually help as I know they use sugar to contract tissues for prolapse replacements?!) I also told him how wonderful he was and gave him a good scratching on his shedding itchy neck. I wanted him to get the idea that was the best of all! He did this a few more times since it had been so successful before and then I tried poking it between his lips at the corner of his mouth. He did not like that- whether it was because it was me doing it rather than him, or because the syringe was a little pokey or memories of getting bute paste when he was castrated, I'm not sure. The important thing was that it was too big a step and I needed to figure out how to break it down smaller into steps that we could be successful with.

I put the syringe in my pocket and started touching all over his nose with my finger for several more C/Ts. No problem with that! Then I stopped to really think about how I would approach the actual rinsing and realized that I would probably want to steady his head with my left hand. Not to prevent him from pulling away because that was not the point. Instead it was more to steady myself. So I rested my left hand on the lower part of his nose, CT, slid my hand over the bridge of his nose, C/T. Again, I didn't want to really touch the opposite side of his face where the wound was, so I figured the bridge of his nose would work. When he was happy with this, I started touching the corner of his mouth with my finger tip. Each time he held still, I C/T'd and the next time would stick my finger just a tiny bit further in his mouth. This caused no concern whatsoever and soon I could easily stick my finger in his mouth up to halfway between my 1st and 2nd knuckles. I decided that was enough for that session.