Prisoner Y Has a Problem

When I was out feeding yesterday, I noticed that Prisoner Y was cranking his head around. He had been fine while scarfing down his slop, but when he got to the alfalfa, he paused and wallered his jaw around. Sheesh. I sat and watched him for about half an hour, and he stopped wallering and ate hay, so I figured whatever it was had come unstuck and all was right with the world.

Fast forward to this morning. Of course, it is still dark when I feed, so I had to sit and wait a bit for enough light to see him eat. Sure enough, he is twisting his head around and wallering again. He is not real enthusiastic about eating, and he let me scratch his jaws, which he usually won't allow while he is eating. He was in fact, all lovey-dovey instead of giving me "the look", and wishing I would just leave. So I have made an appointment with the vet for tomorrow morning. I am sure he either has a cap or two coming off, or needs floating. He was fine the last time we checked, but it has been a few months. My one real concern is that I just got a bunch of new hay, and it is possible there there are some foxtails in it. I didn't see any, but tht doesn't mean anything. If there are 10 foxtails in 15 bales of hay, I would trust the Prisoner to search them out and try to eat them. It's just how he operates.

At any rate, it is a long way from his heart, and he is still eating and drinking, so I will wait for the vet to come see what's up. Gawd i sure don't like this kind of thing. Whatever it is, I can't do anything about it without some help and some sedation, so I am not even going to try as it would just piss him off, and I couldn't do anything anyway. Frustrating.