* Self Diagnosis ^

                                                      SELF DIAGNOSIS

Recently my pony August, who is really getting on in age has been hobbling around.  His back right leg is swollen between the hoof and his fetlock and it has been somewhat worrisome for me.  Yesterday on the way in to town, my mum and I stopped at our vet to speak to him about it.  I explained what the problem was and then asked him if it could be as a result of a couple of things I had ‘Googled’.  He doubted very much it was any of those things and rather that he had probably twisted his leg as a result of stepping into a hole or something….that was what my mum had thought all along, but hey you never know do you.  After buying some medication to help with the swelling and pain and being given some handy advise to place his leg in warm saline water for 15 minutes a day, we made our way into town.  Along the way, my mum said to me that our vet is probably smiling to himself about my self diagnosis, but this is what we do…right?

 

 

 

Since Google came along, that is what we do…don’t we!!!!!  At the slightest symptom we show these days we reach first for ‘Google’ and then when we have realized the worst case scenario, we drag ourselves off to the doctor to have our suspicions confirmed.  Gone are the days of going to the doctor and he/she giving us a diagnosis…no we have be smarter and cleverer than the doctors.  It doesn’t end there though with some people.  Have you ever noticed that once the doctor has diagnosed the problem and prescribed medication to help ease the symptoms and/or cure the ailment, that the medications are ‘Googled’ to find all the side effects…lol

When I was in Grade 7 – before we had ‘Google’, I developed chicken pox in the third term of the year.  I remember it was a Sunday morning and I woke to find these weird and itchy spots on my tummy.  There were only a couple and my mum and dad weren’t sure, but thought it might be chicken pox.  Matthew had chicken pox when he was in pre-primary school and apparently had it so mildly that you could hardly tell – were it not for the diagnosis of our GP.  Mark, never had chicken pox…in fact he didn’t have any of the childhood diseases…lucky fish.  Anyway, we duly went to church that morning and my mum showed a friend of hers my spots, who agreed with her that it did in fact look like chicken pox.  The next day I had plenty more and was really itchy, so my mum made an appointment for me to go to our GP.  YES, DEFINITELY, NO DOUBT ABOUT IT, it was as everyone thought, so I was packed off home to wait out the time until all the scabs had fallen off before returning to school.  This was one time that I R-E-A-L-L-Y didn’t want to stay at home as it was athletics season and I was pretty darn good at athletics…not the long distances, but the sprints…then there was high Jump and with my long gangly legs I was able to jump over that beam with ease compared to some of my peers.  Then what about the hurdles too – yes I loved athletics and all the practising that went along with, sometimes even during the school day we went outside to practise and that was the best. Hehe.  Well it was just my luck that I was so very ill, with high temperatures and spots on my entire body…I was literally covered from top to toe and even had them inside my mouth and down my throat, that I ended up being at home for more than 3 weeks!!!!  I missed athletics day and that was the worst for me.

 

 

So will I continue to self-diagnose my horses’ ailments? Probably,…but I will leave it up to our vet to let me know and hey one day I may even get it right.

 

So for tonight,I am fabulous and fighting….   J <3 <3