Dibby's visit to the vet

This morning we were again put out to graze early. Both Dads came back at noon and attended to our stables. They then brought Dibby in, leaving me in the field with Cricket. I thought this was unusual and stood by the gate watching what was going on and waiting for him to come back. I then saw them start up the lorry, bring Dibby out in his thermotex rug, tail guard and travelling boots and drive off with him.

I stood there for ages until Kate brought Cricket and me in.

I neighed when I heard the lorry pull into the yard at about 4.00. When they brought Dibby in they stopped him outside my stable and we breathed up each others noses and I could see everything was OK.

Dibby told me he had been taken back to the vets. He had to stand in the big green metal frame and had a sedative injection and had his hocks X-rayed and scanned. The X-ray hadn't shown any really material deterioration in his arthritic changes, which was something of a relief. After that he was shaved a little, given some local anaesthetic and had another big injection in his hock. His hock was bandaged. When he felt a little more awake he came back to the yard in the lorry. He was quite warm and was put in my thermotex rug for a few hours until he had dried off and was a little cooler. We both had our tea with extra carrots and apples and some minties.

Later in the evening Other Dad came back to check Dibby, change his rug and skip us out. Dibby's bandage hadn't slipped. We were both happy eating our haylage. I had worried about Dibby in the afternoon. The people who say we don't have feelings and concerns about each other don't know what they're talking about; cobs are great worriers, but don't shout about it.