It's fall on the farm and other stuff

Halloween is coming up soon and fall is here. Ladybug has just come back from the vet and she's doing well. She had a uterine infection and needed an infusion of antibiotics. The vet suspects that's the reason she didn't become in foal earlier this year. This is also a little bit of a lesson in vets. A vet might be good as several things, but maybe not every thing. In this particular case, I had Ladybug checked at the beginning of the breeding season this year. I had requested a culture on her even though she'd never had a foal before. The culture came back negative. Then I had her bred and she was ultra sounded three more times over the course of the summer. The first vet didn't know why she might not have gotten pregnant.

When I took her to the equine reproduction specialist, he knew almost immediately from the ultra sound that she had fluid in her uterus. I'm not saying the first vet did a bad job, but it just goes to show that experience in a particular aspect is important.

So Ladybug is now hopefully cleared up. She's gotten her antibiotics and hopefully she'll be ready to breed in the spring.

Dream is still lame and I've been riding Topper instead. Topper is coming along well despite being pretty green. Hopefully the miles on her will help settle her down.

And as a special treat I've created a 50% off coupon for a copy of the e book for The Horse That Haunts Dreams over at smashwords

Promotional price: $1.50
Coupon Code: AT29K
Expires: November 30, 2015

Trip to the Vet

Ladybug has been having some weird muscle twitching on her face. Mostly her left side muzzle and around her eye.  We noticed it a week ago on Sunday, and decided to keep an eye on it for a few days before going to the vet.  The twitching continued occasionally, but not all the time. Then last Saturday, Keith noticed a big swelling over her left eye socket. The twitching had stopped, but the swelling was new. So I called and made a non-emergency appointment for the vet because other than the muscle spasms, Bud didn't seem to be in any distress. She's been eating and drinking well and she doesn't have any lameness or coordination problems or anything that would suggest serious neurological issues.

So we just came back from the vet and Bug must have bumped her head or something. Vet says no riding her for 2 weeks to see if the swelling and facial twitching will go down. I'll have her on some bute for the swelling, antibiotics just in case it's an infection and we are waiting for the blood test results to rule out mineral/chemical imbalance in the body.  Dream is good though. Wanted to start riding Topper again also, but looks like she cut herself AGAIN on a hind leg. And the mules too fat to get a saddle on. So looks like we won't be riding for a couple weeks. I can ride I guess, but Keith doesn't have a critter to ride at the moment. 

So we'll give her a couple weeks rest and see what happens.

Catching up

Finally it was nice enough to saddle up a horse and go for a ride. The ground is still a bit slick and we still have snow and ice in some places. We had to take the ride slow because of the conditions, but Dream did good. We rode 4 miles and practiced a bunch of obstacles including a walk over the tarp and the bridge, the pin wheel, open gates and we even literally went and picked up the mail.  We are getting ready for more ACTHA rides this year. There are two planned for February, two planned in March, two planned in April and a single day ride in June so far. Dream is currently the only Appaloosa in the state that is in the top 10 horses and I hope to keep her in the top 10 for the ride year. 

Topper is fighting off hoof abcesses in both front feet. She's been in the 'sick' pen for almost a month now. She's getting better slowly and soon she'll be back in the main pasture with the rest of them. 

Ladybug and Booger Butt are doing fine. I'm thinking of taking BB on some of the up coming ACTHA rides to get him used to being tied to the horse trailer and get him around other horses. I've also decided that maybe I'll be selling Booger Butt. He's such a cute guy, but if I'm going to be breeding Appaloosas, I can't keep all of them. I want to breed Topper this year for a foal in 2013. I can't keep all of them and Booger is doing well in his training. He's ready for someone to take him to a higher level of training.

Busy times here on the farm

Up until this past weekend we had not had any rain so my garden was looking pretty sad. I've been busy watering almost every day because the wind would blow and dry out the ground faster then the water could soak in. Now that the rains have started, I'm not needing to water every day. I've also been harvesting a few things here and there. We finally had some fresh lettuce for salads, the dill is ready to pick and dehydrate the leaves for dill weed. We had cooked Kale for dinner tonight. But the biggest thing is we finally got our first ripe tomato. Only one so far and it was a cherry tomato, but at least we did get a tomato. The rest of the garden is just barely getting going. Even the Rhubarb has been lagging due to the hot dry conditions. You know it's bad in the garden when even the weeds aren't growing well.

I've also got duck, geese and chicken hens all setting on nests. I've had one crop of young chicks and ducks that are at least two months old now and I've also got a new set of one gosling, three ducklings, and 4 Turkey chicks. The hens on nests have nearly 30 eggs between all the nests. The vast majority are all duck eggs, but one hen has her own set of about 8 chicken eggs and there is at least one goose egg in the bunch. I'll have to wait and see what all hatches, but if I do get over-run with ducklings, I think we will have duck for Thanksgiving Dinner. I'll also have to wait and see if I have any turkey hens in the batch of turkey chicks. I'm hoping for hens because I already have two Toms. If I get more Tom's then I guess it will be Turkey for Christmas dinner.

The horses are all doing well. I hauled Baby Boy and Dream Girl over to the vet for some wolf teeth removal last week. Then I'm off to an ACTHA ride this weekend, but Keith had some work stuff to do so he couldn't go. I got a new saddle for Dream because of her wide shoulders, but I haven't had a lot of chance to use it because I've been busy in the garden. Now with the heavy rains and thunder and lightning each night when I get home, I'm also not getting much riding done.  Pretty soon though I need to get Baby boy started on the trails. Until then I'll be in the house crocheting or reading books on my new birthday present.

Ouch!

About a week ago now I went out to feed and saw Poor Ladybug with her eye almost swollen shut and excessively draining.  She managed somehow during the day to either bump her eye or get something in it that scratched her cornea. 

In horses there are certain injuries that I'll easily treat without getting a veterinary opinion. Eye injuries are NOT one of those things. I do keep antibiotic eye ointment on hand all the time for those cases when something happens and I'm not able to get in to see a vet right away such as on a weekend when the vet is out of town, but I ALWAYS have the vet look at eye injuries as soon as they possibly can. 

This is what it looked like just before I loaded her up in the horse trailer to take her to the vet. 

We had to flush her eye and stained it with the fluorescein stain to see exactly where the problem was located at. She had a small corneal ulcer up there in that bluish area of her eye. We caught it really early so it has been healing quite well. We are still putting in an antibiotic eye ointment but after just one week you can't even really tell that there was a problem. Her eye now looks like this. 

The blue color is gone, the weeping eye is gone and she's feeling much better. I think one more week of the antibiotic eye ointment and we should be good.  Since we were already at the vet, I had him go a head and pull the new coggins test for 2011 so now Ladybug is good to go hauling around to all the competitions I want to go to all year long. 

Stray Puppy

Today I had to haul a horse to the vet to get a Coggins test and found this cute puppy at the gate. He's about 6 months old and looks like a sheltie mix. From a distance he looks in pretty good shape, but that's because he's got a lot of hair hiding how skinny he really is.  He needs a new home because I just can't keep three dogs. I've already got two other strays and I still need to get Buddy neutered. So if you know any one looking for a cute sheltie mix let me know.

 The bigger red dog here is Buddy. He's the last stray to show up here at the house. As you can see the puppy is half his size. I don't expect this puppy to grow much more, his paws and legs are tiny and with his full set of adult teeth in the front, he's already about 6 months old and fairly well grown.

  I guess we will find out shortly if the puppy has ever been house trained. He's currently here in the house with the other two dogs and the two cats. He's doing well and isn't chasing the cats or harassing the other dogs. Nice and quiet and probably just enjoying the warmth and the comfort of his now full belly.

Stray Dog

This county and the local people really tick me off about dumping dogs and not caring about dogs at all. Jazzy my current dog was also a dumped off dog. Last week we noticed that Jazzy was spending more and more time running off chasing something. Something that we only saw at night as eye reflections running away from us.

Then gradually we started seeing the brown dog in the distance but could never get close enough to it. Finally he started getting closer and closer. and now he thinks he's supposed to live here. I don't know if we can keep him yet. We have to see how it works out and we will have to come up with the money for a neuter and shots.

The good things about him are as follows.

1. He doesn't bark much like some other dogs that bark constantly around here

2. He gets along with Jazzy and keeps her company.

3. He hasn't shown any aggression to humans yet.

4. He hasn't attempted to chase the horses or to dig into the chicken pens. 

The negative stuff.

1. He's not neutered

2. We don't know his background.

3. He's still a bit timid around humans and we have to monitor for any forms of fear biting or other aggressive behaviors.

The End

This is finally the end (I really hope) of a seriously BAD week.  Here's basically how the week went!

Monday:  

Call the vet and the backhoe operator to find out where they were on Saturday instead of at my house as planned. Back hoe operator said "gate was locked, couldn't get in". Vet says "I called and you didn't answer".  Ok, figured out that Vet's assistant wrote my phone number wrong. Spent a while rescheduling both the vet and the Backhoe operator. Then spend the rest of the day explaining to people that a notice of Value is NOT a tax bill. Why don't people fully read their valuations?

Tuesday:

Go out to drive to work and the Green Hornet (AKA Ford Explorer) won't start. It's about 20 degrees out and the wind's blowing like 30 mph. Had to re-awaken "The BEAST" ( aka multi colored Dodge truck).  Leave work early enough to get home in time to change clothes before vet and backhoe operator get here. Wind still blowing like crazy and wind chill makes it feel like zero or below. 

Waiting for backhoe, drive down to gate to see if he things the gate is locked, but nope not there. But he sees me, turns out he's parked at the next gate down the road at the neighbors locked gate. So he unloads the backhoe and starts digging at the post he had planned to lay Big Mamma to rest.

Backhoe hits a monster rock and blows a hydraulic hose. Has to load up and take it to get fixed so no hole finished to bury Big Mamma.  

Then Vet shows up. Went a head and had him euthanize the mare, but Big Mamma gave a whole new meaning to Appaloosa tough!  After a full 100 CC dose of Euthanasia Solution, Big mamma is still up and WALKING around as if nothing happened. And I don't mean head dragging, and stumbling. I mean Head up, alert looking and walking.  It takes a complete double dose to send that tough old mare to heaven. 

 Go check the Green Hornet and it starts fine.

Wednesday: 

Ready to go to work and the Green hornet won't start again. Still really cold about 20 degrees. Had to take "The BEAST" again.  Waited on a call from the back hoe operator almost all day because they said they would call as soon as they got it fixed. Had to leave work early again to get here for the burial. in between all that still had to deal with more customers who can't read the part that says " This is NOT a tax bill" After work, check the Green Hornet again and it starts fine. Stupid thing is just to cold blooded.

Thursday:

The Green Hornet starts only because we plugged that stupid block heater in to the electric out let. Why in the world would you need a block heater on a regular gasoline engine? Stupid Green Hornet won't start on cold days with out that block heater. Get to work and have to deal with more people who can't or won't read that part that says "This is NOT a tax bill" Then late afternoon, some guy comes in and wants to know why his name is removed from a piece of property. Won't accept the answer is that because his own brother took him to court and won the property in a legal battle. Leaves threatening to come back with a gun and shoot all of us for something his brother did.

There was one bright spot to Thursday! The weather was beautiful, and I went for a perfect ride with "The Bug".

Friday:

Get Green Hornet started and then needed to run back in the house for something. Stupid thing pops out of park into reverse with the drivers door open, backs itself down the driveway and hangs the door up on a tree. Not ton's of damage, but the door won't shut right. At least it shuts.  Drive to work with the skewed door and then at work the stupid door won't shut again! Two really nice guys at work fixed it for me though. Still dealing with people who can't read that " This is NOT a tax bill " part of their notice of Property Value. AT 4:30 PM this guy comes in to talk about his property and all the issues he's got with this at that. 5:00 rolls around and he's still talking. Got all his issues resolved, but now he just wants to chat. Can't get him to leave. Finally at 15 minutes after quitting time we tell him they are locking up the main doors of the building and shutting off all the lights and this guy is still chatting away.

So now it's Friday evening, I'm home and I so hope this is the end of this Horrible week. After this week, the weekend better be much better! Man I think my Rat Week at NMMI was easier than this week. 

Good Bye Big Mamma

Today we need to say good bye to "The Big Mamma". She's registered as Color Me Super, but  she's always been "The Big Mamma" to me. She's been a part of our family for quite a while and helped us start out in Mounted Shooting. It's hard to believe that a horse with only one eye would accept you shooting from her back on her blind side, but Big Mamma did just that.  

 At that time, Topper and Ladybug were still to young to ride, so our plan was to ride Big Mamma until the girls were old enough to start competing and then breed Big Mamma.  We did finally get to breed her and she gave us the beautiful Booger Butt.

Some time during the 5 months after Booger Butt was born Big Mamma must have fallen or stumbled and injured her knee. We didn't have her re-bred that year so that we could see how her knee was doing. Well unfortunately it has progressively gotten worse. Since she is now unable to maintain balance to stand on 3 legs to get her feet trimmed and she cannot walk much without difficulty, it's time to say good bye. So this afternoon about 5pm, the vet and the backhoe operator are scheduled to arrive and we will say our final good byes to a wonderful old mare. 

Jazzy Dog

One year ago in April, this sickly looking, starved and previously injured dog showed up at my house. Her leg had been broken and re-healed without being set causing her to not be able to bend her back leg. She was so hungry she ate a bunch of the green grass around my yard and then promptly threw it all back up.  We let Jazzy hang around and got her fixed and got her vaccinations. As she filled out and got stronger, it was obviously that she could get around very well even with her frozen back leg.  Here is is after just one week here eating good food. 

And almost a year later, she's out running around while we lead Roany.

So when you hear me talk about the Jazzy Dog, this is her, the rescued stray  that may be a Boxer, Pit Bull, Lab cross? That is what she looks like to me. She has the deep chest and wasp waist of a Boxer and she uses her front paws a lot like a Boxer. She loves to retrieve like a lab and she has the head of a pit bull. Anyway she's sweet and smart and amazingly was well trained sometime in her past. It's not a regular occurance in these parts to find a starved and abused stray that was well house trained.

New addition sort of

My nephew Christopher is getting his first pony! I had a hand in getting it for him by telling my sister about this mare at the vet clinic that was up for sale for the cost of the vet bill. She was a bit dehydrated and had not had her feet trimmed in like 8 months and was basically a case of owner neglect. But she's not in excessively bad shape just needs a hoof trim and a few good groceries.

She's coming to stay at my house temporarily until my sisters friend gets a stall ready. I'm going to pick her up from the vet on Wednesday and bring her here, then next weekend Christopher and my sister are going to try and come over for a short ride.

Topper Update

Well as much as I complain about " The Money Pit" being accident prone, she's never done something like this!!

 

This horse is named Amigo and he's still alive and being treated for his injuries. The Equestrian Vagabond  posted all about Amigo's accident and his struggles to recover. His owner has gone to great expenses to help this brave horse survive.  If you have a desire to donate a bit to help pay his vet bills, The Equestrian Vagabond  has all the details in the post. 

I don't think I'll complain to much about Topper's injuries as much any more.. And on that note, her latest injury is healing up very well. If it was not so muddy and snowy here this week, I'd almost be ready to take off the bandage and let it finish healing on it's own. But even in her  new location, they have quite a bit of mud and muck and it shouldn't be that dirty yet.  So at least she's doing very well. 

The rest of the horses are shedding like it's already summer. Just touching Baby Girl results in large clumps of loose hair. We still have up to a foot of snow on the ground and these critters are dropping hair like it's hot outside. 

A neat giveaway! and other news

Adventures in Self Reliance Blog has a neat give away for a fire starter. I love these kinds of things because I'm out in the nearby National Forest a lot on my rides. These fire starters are great to have in case you get stuck or a little off course and need to stay out over night. They are easier to carry then matches and you don't have to worry about a fire starter getting wet like the matches.

Adventures Blog is full of other great articles and information so drop by over there and check it out.

In other news, Topper's cut is doing well. I've ordered some special wraps for her and I'm getting a hoof boot to cover the whole deal. Still trying to keep the wound clean and dry so that it doesn't get infected. 

It appears that I've so far successfully been able to keep what ever critter away from the chicken pen. I haven't had another dead chicken since Saturday. 

I'm FINALLY able to see bare dirt!!!! We still have a lot of snow, but I see bare ground and I'm really happy about that. Unfortunately the weeks weather forecast includes another chance for snow this weekend. GRRR!!! I really can't wait for spring so I can start working in the garden. I still have almost a foot of snow in the garden, so I'm only still in the planning stages for the year.

The Equine Vet Kit

At my house a little bitty equine vet kit like this one just doesn't work. There is just not enough stuff in it for my horses needs. And if you have a horse like my Money Pit, you really need a big one.

I built up my own vet kit. first I went to Home Depot and got this really cool rolling tool box.

And then I stuffed it full of the majorly important stuff needed for a horse wound emergency. Unfortunately this tool box as big as it is, still isn't big enough for ALL the equine leg wraps, hock wraps, and knee wraps. Those all have a box of their own. This still has one package of roll cotton. 

Several rolls of roll gauze.

 

Tons of Vet wrap

 

Betadine Scrub

 

Gauze pads

And a bunch of other topical  ointments and wound care treatments. 

Then the neat thing about this tool box is the upper level, where I've put  things like bandage sissors

and Duct Tape, contractor grade tape is the best for wrapping hooves.

 

A hoof pick or two as well as some hoof knives.

 a flashlight

and clippers to shave around wounds

Then in the lit there are a couple really small compartments that are perfect for a second small flashlight with extra batteries and needles and syringes. 

So whats in your vet kit?