Bedded in and ready for Surgery!

My husband and I have been working hard all week to get a stall ready for Prevost, that is suitable for stall rest. We hung and mounted rubber mats to cover the cement base of the shelter and also had to build and mount a door. The door was tricky since there is an ice mount in front of the entry way that could not be removed. We had to make the door a lot shorter than I would have liked to accommodate the ice, but we were able to attach some mats off the bottom to make up the difference and still allow the door to open. Hopefully this will prevent any legs from going through if he happened to roll up beside it.

Surgery is scheduled for this Tuesday at McKinley and Peters Equine Hospital in Spokane. Prevost will arrive the day before on Monday and I will stay overnight with the company of a good friend and watch the surgery Tuesday morning. I was told the soonest he can come home would be Friday, so fingers crossed every thing goes as smooth as it should.

Right now I am planing on locking Prevost into his stall the last two nights he is home to hopefully wean him onto the idea. Not a lot of time and I'm not sure it will really make any difference or not, so maybe I am just doing it for my own piece of mind.

I have been in touch with my local vet trying to come up with some ideas to keep Prevost calm while on rest for the next 6 months. I am worried that confinement will trigger his self mutilation behavior, which could cause him to possibly injure himself. So far it seems the only substance that should work and fit the pocket book, would be Acepromazine, but the sedation will only last a few hours and he would need doses possibly several times a day. I have also heard of Perfect Prep Training Day supplement that looks promising, its all natural from what I can see, but not sure if that would be enough or if Prevost will just blow through it. I have also added a few pounds of alfalfa to his diet, along with Aloe Vera juice and added magnesium. I am hoping this will help curb any ulcers from occurring! Vet seemed to agree this was a good idea, so I'm going with it! Other option would be Ulcerguard, but we know with Lacy's case, this is very expensive and something I don't think I will dip into at this point.

So it will be a wait and see. I have got lots of boredom buster ideas lined up to hopefully curb his behavior. Hopefully it won't take too long to find a good combination. Fingers crossed and double crossed!