Heat Wave 2

When I went out to feed this morning, I noticed the the Louie's left cheekbone looked different. It was protruding. Enough to be noticeable. And his left eye was tearing like crazy. I looked him over and poked around on his face. There was no puffiness type of swelling, but for sure his right cheekbone looked like it was just protruding out more. I looked at his eye to but didn't see any trouble there. nothing obvious anyway other then the profuse tearing. I fed the horse and mules and cleaned stalls and picked the pasture. Then I checked Louie again. The tearing had stopped. And he didn't care at all about me poking around his face. He was eating normally also. Unfortunately, normally for him means he drops a lot of grain. Something that's bothered me since I've had him. I've had his teeth floated and then had the dentist back to recheck him as the floating did not slow down the food dropping at all. But, the dentist said that Louie's teeth looked fine. Anyway, I called the vet just to see if they thought this was something I should be worrying about. Actually, too late, I was already worrying about it.

The vet called me back around noon time. I described the symptoms and told her about his grain dropping. She said the only thing that came to mind that fit the symptoms was possibly a nasal cyst. She said that could cause the protuberance and the grain dropping but and would not likely cause him much pain. She said if it was any type of infection, there would be a nasal discharge. Louie would have to have his head radiographed to determine this. It was decided to just watch him for now to see if anything changed for the worse.

Today I had a lesson scheduled with Wendy Gray. Louie seemed to be feeling no discomfort so I didn't see any reason not to go. Other then the 90+ degree temperatures. I didn't know if it would be hotter or cooler in Wendy's indoor arena so I headed over to see. Louie loaded up real well though he did his usual pawing once he was in there. I got to Wendy's and Louie unloaded very politely. I led him into the arena and it was even hotter in there then outside. No way I was going to ride Louie in that kind of heat. Wendy was down in the paddock's filling water buckets. She had tried to call me but didn't have my current phone number. It was good I went over though as Louie was quite bug eyed about the arena. I led him around and let him look at everything. He behaved quite well other then not wanting to stand still. And, he left numerous piles of loose mule patties around. He loaded back into the trailer quite well again and also was very good unloading at home. GOOD BOY!

I will likely call the vet back again tomorrow and make an appointment for them to look at Louie. The grain dropping has been bothering me anyway. I'm quite sure there is something causing it.