Qantas had a little trip out to the vets this week. He’s had a sarcoid under the girth area since I bought him and over the last year I’ve taken pictures and monitored the size, it hasn’t changed or caused him any issues but I decided I wanted it removed.
I didn’t want to do it in the summer because of all the flies and autumn winter the fields are super muddy and wet, which I didn’t want him to be splattering mud into wounds all the times, so we decided on now. The fields are dry(ish) the flies are at a minimum and although it does distrupt training for an early season, in the current climate of rides never quite being assured I don’t really mind a later start to his competitions.
This also gave me a concrete excuse to not start Qantas and Azid’s pre-season training at the same time which allows me a bit of a breather as they’ll be at different levels at different stages now. Azid will be 8 weeks ahead of Qantas, Q will be doing the slower work with plenty of schooling, whilst Azid will be doing the longer stuff. Which gives me more variation and a bit more time as opposed to them doing the same thing.
Qantas had his sarcoid lasered off at Pool House Equine Clinic under standing sedation and he also had a melanoma lasered off near his bum, which is odd for his age and colour. The reason we know exactly what each lump was is because we sent the tissue off to be sampled, one to confirm the diagnosis and two so that they know if they’ve removed the whole tissue and not left anything behind.
Q was in and out in about an hour and a half, and this is a shocker, was absolutely beautifully behaved!!!!! The aftercare is minimal as they want him turned out for maximal movement to reduce swelling and ensure any scar tissue is as mobile as possible, and they also didn’t want me to clean the wound (unless it got something disgusting in it obviously). We were sent home with oral antibiotics and bute and off we went.
Even though the vets said I could put a fluffy girth over the hole to ride, Qantas is so sensitive I’m just going to wait until it’s healed to start riding and then we shall see if I can get him to a Novice ride this year!
Beth Endurance 