I work 7 days a week for a small private yard. Only 6 horses. 4 permanents and 2 from Ireland in at a time for training and selling.
At present our 2 most recent irish horses are ill. One arrived a couple of weeks ago and has some sort of infection. The other arrived just over a week ago and erupted 2 days after arrival with abscesses and has now been confirmed as strangles.
I'm the only groom and treat each horse as an individual and as though they are my own.
At present with the strangles boy and another horse now having it plus the other irish one also being ill I'm the only one allowed to handle the sick ones and am taking all the precautions in after I've done everyone else only then touching ill ones disinfecting everything etc etc. I'm having to work more hours as I'm flushing abscesses cleaning wounds checking for symptoms in others etc aswell as looking after the healthy ones.
I'm doing this around my 4 year old daughter, my own horse and running a house.
In finding I'm starting to get exhausted as I'm constantly worrying about the work horses and I'm finding it hard to switch off at night. How does everyone else switch off? Like I say i treat them like my own and the new boy with strangles where he's needing lots of attention and nursing I'm building a huge bond with him and as a result I'm wearing myself out constantly worrying ad thinking of what I can do and constantly researching etc. Bit of a pointless thread but just wondered how others who work closely with a small amount of horses switch off when one is ill and it's time to go home?
At present our 2 most recent irish horses are ill. One arrived a couple of weeks ago and has some sort of infection. The other arrived just over a week ago and erupted 2 days after arrival with abscesses and has now been confirmed as strangles.
I'm the only groom and treat each horse as an individual and as though they are my own.
At present with the strangles boy and another horse now having it plus the other irish one also being ill I'm the only one allowed to handle the sick ones and am taking all the precautions in after I've done everyone else only then touching ill ones disinfecting everything etc etc. I'm having to work more hours as I'm flushing abscesses cleaning wounds checking for symptoms in others etc aswell as looking after the healthy ones.
I'm doing this around my 4 year old daughter, my own horse and running a house.
In finding I'm starting to get exhausted as I'm constantly worrying about the work horses and I'm finding it hard to switch off at night. How does everyone else switch off? Like I say i treat them like my own and the new boy with strangles where he's needing lots of attention and nursing I'm building a huge bond with him and as a result I'm wearing myself out constantly worrying ad thinking of what I can do and constantly researching etc. Bit of a pointless thread but just wondered how others who work closely with a small amount of horses switch off when one is ill and it's time to go home?