Well I never got around to introducing Rodney, my 23yr old qh gelding. I owned Rod several years ago and sold him while I was in Texas working for Mike as I had too much trouble finding him a ride to Texas. The girl I sold him to let him get down to a body score of about a high 1/low 2 and handed him over to a rescue group. Thankfully the woman who runs the rescue is a friend of mine and knew I wanted him back. Well Rodney never bounced back very well. He couldn't tolerate warm weather at ALL and it was getting worse. When i got him back he quickly rebounded and put on enough weight to just be considered underweight, then the heat of the summer started coming on and he dropped it all back off. We fought all last summer trying to get and keep weight on him. We tried different diets and different amounts with no luck. He would put on a little then it would be hot for a few days and he would immediately sweat it all back off. Thankfully all summer there was no sign of founder, something which had plaqued us the first time I owned him.
With fall came cooler weather and he started doing better, put on a little weight. I started working him a little, trying to build muscle but even the slightest work caused him to overheat and rather than build muscle it just melted the weight off. So i left him alone and over the winter he came to look almost normal, almost back up to his best weight last April when he was just a little underweight. Almost.
Longer days prompted the boys to start shedding and I was dismayed to see that he had more hair than I thought and he wasn't quite as filled out as I thought. I was concerned as I thought we were coming out of winter in decent shape and though I had been struggling with the decision of what to do this summer, I was optimistic that at least we were starting with a decent base and had finally found a diet that seemed to be doing well. He wasn't bad but still not as heavy as I wanted him to be.
As we started getting warmer days I saw his telltale signs of overheating. He had one spot on his right shoulder that was the last to hair up in the fall and the first to shed out in the spring and when he would get warm that was the first spot to start sweating. It was slick and I was noticing more and more days that it was damp with sweat. The weight started melting off of him already and I started thinking more and more that maybe it would be best to put him down. I knew I couldn't let him yo-yo up and down like he did last year. Then the worst thing happened and he started showing signs of founder again. I knew then that it was time.
I called the vet and made the appointment and last Thursday, 4/16/09, she came out and we put my old man down. It hurt like hell but it was fast and peaceful and I know it was the right thing to do. For him. Now he is grazing peacefully and is fat and healthy like he hadn't been for years. Goodby my old man, I loved you dearly and wish we had had many more years together.
