Growl!

Last night I said some very bad words. I had been giving Izzy her evening scratches, the ones where she takes her bum, neck and head and contorts her body for optimal enjoyment. The ones where I rub her withers to have her reach around and rub her muzzle on my free hand. I had noticed there was one particular spot that she really enjoyed getting her rubs.

Suddenly stopping a gut clenching thought occurred to me. What if there's a reason she loves those scratches so much? Surprise!!! Izzy has lice. I've had horses for close to 30 years now. I had never had an occurrence of lice until two years ago. Since then I've had to douse my horses three times. THREE!! What's up with that?

Izzy came home to a farm where there are no other horses and has in fact been horse free for two months. Where do lice come from? What makes them suddenly appear? And why now? Nothing else has changed in my horsey world, so why am I seeing lice on my stock now? I'm feeling a wee bit frustrated with the situation. I don't like them. They gross me out and are a royal pain in the arse. When one animals shows lice, I treat ALL animals as if they are infested. Unfortunately, Reba is bred, and bred dogs cannot be treated for lice. Sigh. So I'll do my best to stop this now.

Oh, have I mentioned I'm leaving for holidays. Today. With everything except Reba treated there's nothing I can do at this point but wait until I get back and retreat the horse.