That's Not Hay in My Hair by Juliette Turner

Author:Juliette Turner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Zonderkidz
Published: 2016-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

“Does she have any history with founder?” Dr. Shilo asked as he listened to Maggie’s heartbeat. He stood somewhat hunched, holding a stethoscope to Maggie’s slightly heaving chest, his red hair rubbing up against Maggie’s coat. Maggie convulsed her skin to shake off a fly, or what she thought was a fly but was actually Dr. Shilo’s hand.

The fluorescent lights buzzed incessantly above us, interrupted only by the clink of beetles as they slammed into the lightbulbs. I flicked a beetle off my shirt, trying to very quickly overcome my irrational phobia of June bugs.

“Yes, she often goes lame when she is shod,” Mom said as she nervously stroked Maggie’s flank. Suddenly Mom’s entire face changed. “Oh no. The farrier was just out here a few days ago. He has always known how delicate Maggie’s hooves are, but this last time he cut her back so far. I told him not to, but he did it anyway. Oh no. That farrier did this . . .”

“Her lungs and heart sound fine,” Dr. Shilo said, ignoring Mom’s spiel on the farrier. “Let’s look at her hooves here.” He squeezed Maggie from the shoulder down, as if looking for something in the deep crevices of Maggie’s muscular legs.

He picked up her front left hoof by pressing on the joint above the heel of her hoof, then pressed a big, pliers-like contraption onto Maggie’s sole. To my relief, she didn’t appear to be extremely bothered by the pressure; she only wanted to put her foot back on the ground.

“She isn’t that tender, which makes me wonder if this is just a severe stone bruise,” Dr. Shilo said.

“I don’t think a stone bruise would cause her this much pain,” Mom said.

“If it was a founder, her sole would be much tenderer than it is right now.”

A long silence ensued.

“What do we do to treat a stone bruise?” Mom asked, shooting me a look that told me she was not convinced of the vet’s diagnosis.

“You will just soak her foot for ten minutes a day with Epsom salts,” he said as he placed his hoof testers in his messy vet bag. It overflowed with bottles labeled with smeared Sharpie, long, grimy tubes that coiled like snakes, and empty shot syringes.

“You’re not going to like that, now, are you, Maggie?” I whispered into her ear. Standing right by her face, I saw the look of concern in her intelligent eyes. She nudged me in the side with her nose, sending me falling back slightly. “Yeah. It’s not that bad. We are going to make you feel better,” I said as I stroked her face. I swirled my finger around the tiny silver spot at the very tip of her nose.

Mom continued to ask Dr. Shilo questions, but my ears drowned out their competing voices from my mind, blocking everything but my ability to see Maggie. I just concentrated on the beautiful creature before me. Maggie appeared to be trying to tell me something, though I couldn’t decipher what it was.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.