What a relief!

Just got a call from SmartPak Equine.  I had Lizzie on SmartDigest Ultra for the last year or so.  A horse taking that supplement is insured against colic.  But I wasn't at all sure they would pay for Lizzie's surgery since what happened to her was "strangulating lipoma."  The lipoma is a benign fat tumor that can wrap around the intestine and cause it to stop functioning.  In Lizzie's case, the intestine had actually broken open by the time we realized she had a problem and her blood was completely infected.  (Here's an Equine Vet Blog description of something similar - with pictures.)  I wasn't sure that would be considered "colic" at all.

 

But SmartPak just called and told me that they had completed their review of the report on Lizzie from LSU and they would be covering the entire cost of that surgery and all those tests and treatments Lizzie had -- SEVERAL thousand dollars worth!  Whew!  I am SO grateful! 

 

I'll tell you what, if you have a horse, put them on that SmartDigest Ultra.  It's definitely worth every dime!  Duke was insured already, but I put him on that Ultra, too.  I doubt that he will ever have colic -- he's been eating everything within his reach for his entire 12 years with absolutely no resulting problem to date -- but I'm keeping him on that stuff anyway, "just in case."

From mail to mourning . . .

Well, I thought I was past my serious depression after Lizzie's death.  Our vet came by yesterday (with 3 soon-to-be-vet students) and they examined Duke and Arthur, gave them all their vaccinations, and even leveled out Duke's teeth.  Whew!  THAT took a good hour or more.  And while Duke was sedated, Arthur stood very close, keeping an eye on Duke the whole time they worked on his teeth!  I couldn't believe he would be that brave!  I had to stand next to him to prevent him from "joining" the students while they worked!  But it turned out that both Duke and Arthur are just fine, if a bit overweight.  We feed them very little actual feed, but we have been letting them eat about as much hay as they want.  So their vet suggested we cut back the hay we provide them by about half!  (They are NOT going to be pleased.)

But generally, everything was just fine and that made me feel a lot better.  I had been feeling almost my old self.  Until this evening.  When I opened the mail, the license plate I had ordered more than two months ago finally arrived.  It had taken so long that I'd forgotten all about it.  Well, I took one look at it and broke down and cried.

 

Given that BOTH of my mares are gone now, I felt like I didn't deserve to have that plate at all now!  But since I've had some time to think about it, I guess it will be my personal way of remembering Ladybug and Lizzie forever.  I do love Duke and Arthur, but mares really are different.  They are SO special.  They're not nearly as open and friendly as geldings are initially, but once they become attached to you they really, REALLY are!   It's just wonderful.  And I can't begin to tell you how much I miss them both.  So I'll install that license plate and every time I look at it I'll think about them both.

Losing Lizzie

Lizzie --- 1991 to October 26, 2013

I've been really depressed lately, all things considered.  As most of you know, Lizzie, my mare, was euthanized after her surgery Saturday night at LSU after they informed me that her recovery would have been lengthy and in fact she would have been unlikely to actually recover.  She was 22 years old with Cushings disease, she had 22 feet of intestines removed in that surgery, septicemia (an infected bloodstream), and laminitis in her feet.  Poor baby.  So she was euthanized while still under anesthetic.  She's going to be cremated and I will get at least part of her ashes back.  I guess it's a bit peculiar, but I'll feel a little better once I have those remains of her back with me.

 

When we took Lizzie away to LSU, Arthur (our mule) began throwing a hissy fit!  He stood at the gate leading out to the horse trailer and brayed incredibly loudly over night.  The next day he began checking in her stall, then running along the fence and calling LOUDLY, then he would stand there for a little while and wait to see if she was going to answer.  Then he'd run further down and do it again.  And again.  And again.  Finally, by mid-week he began hanging out right next to Duke constantly.  He even went into Duke's stall with him and joined him in eating his hay -- something Duke NEVER allowed until now!  I guess even HE was sorry for Arthur.  But now the two of them have begun to behave pretty much as usual - except they're still together all the time.

 

Then on Wednesday, Boo had surgery too, over at AVS, having growths on his mouth removed and sent out to determine if they are malignant.  While they were at it, they cleaned his teeth, too, though, so his mouth IS in a lot better shape now, although he has to eat canned dog food for the next week or so.  He came through it quite well, thankfully.  (He IS almost 13 years old now, so I was a bit concerned about him being anesthetized.)  Haven't heard yet what the tumor results are.  Fingers crossed.

 

I sure hope absolutely EVERYONE we have left is fine indefinitely.  This has been really depressing.  I have to say, although Duke already was insured, I've added colic insurance for him as well now, so if anything happens to him we'll have, I think, almost $20,000 to cover his medical costs.  (I don't care WHAT it takes, he WILL survive no matter what!)  I hated to lose Lizzie, but losing Duke would be catastrophic - even for Mark!  

Here we go again . . . hard to walk upright AGAIN!

Woke up Thursday morning and had a hard time standing up straight!  Took a good 10 minutes.  And then every time I sat down for any length of time . . . yep, it would take ANOTHER 10 minutes to stand back up again!  Sigh.

 

So I went back over to the doctor Thursday afternoon.  More x-rays.  In the end, he gave me inflammation reduction meds to try first.  If that doesn't work (and it hasn't so far), then I'll need to do that steroid thing . . . where you take something like 6 pills the first day, 5 the next, 4 the next etc. etc. 

 

Then if THAT doesn't work, well -- it'll probably mean another back injection.  Those darned things are expensive, but I'll tell you what, when something like this happens I'm willing to do WHATEVER it takes to get past it.  I never really pay any attention to what all I need to do until I'm not able to do it.  Then it's more than obvious just how much stuff I need to get done on a regular basis!

 

On the plus side, though, this didn't happen until AFTER all our company had gone home anyway.  I would have hated not being able to get around well while everyone was here. 

 

Oh - got a note from the guy we found to replace David today and he will be starting next week to get on with a lot of things we still need done - various repairs to the barn, fixing those drawers in the kitchen that David didn't complete, and even replacing the roof on that storage building out in back.  Once that roof is replaced, Mark will be getting a giant dumpster put back there so he can clear out all the stuff in that building that has been there for the entire 10 years we've been in this house and we haven't missed any of it!  The way my memory is working (or rather "not" working), I don't have the slightest idea what the heck is out there anyway!  It's a decent-sized building, so once it's cleared out it will make a fine place to store all Mark's tools and equipment and the garage will be nice and open for BOTH our vehicles instead of just mine!

 

Oh, I checked with Home Depot last week and they don't have one in stock, but they CAN order a solid core door that's a full 4 feet wide and 8 feet tall!!!  That means we can make stall doors out of those instead of having to build them out of multiple layers of plywood or something.  Terrific!  The only thing is, the ones we used to make those sliding shutters on the front porch weighed over 100 lbs each -- and those were only 36 X 80!  I hate to think what one 48 X 96 is going to weigh!!!  Hope Shaun is either VERY strong - or has help! 

 

The stall doors need to be "dutch" doors, though, so those doors will need to be cut in half so that the bottom half can be closed to keep the horses in while the top half can remain open so that the barn would still have plenty of air movement.  The only time we would be closing the top would be during a hurricane.  So we'll have to get some sort of U-shaped steel made to cover the top of the bottom door and the bottom of the top door once they're cut in two because solid core doors are actually only solid wood around the outside edge.  The interior IS filled with wood, but it's not all one solid piece so it won't stay in place without the edge sealed.  Besides, having a metal top will prevent the horses from chewing on it, too. 

 

Those doors are unfinished, of course, so we'll need to paint them with waterproof paint (teal, of course!).  Hope the horses don't kick at them and ruin the paint! 

 

Oh, got the interior tack room in the barn air conditioned!  NOW I need to get busy and clean all the saddles that have gotten moldy sitting out there in high humidity.  But with the barn that nice and cool, I feel really guilty when I see Lizzie standing in her (hot) stall panting, with her head 6 inches from the fan I have aimed into her stall, poor baby!  She has Cushings so she's a lot more sensitive to heat that the guys are.  So I'm planning to get her one of those misting fans that are supposed to lower the temperature by about 25 degrees!  I'm sure she'll really appreciate that.  Of course, I may need to lock her paddock gate then so that Duke or Arthur can't run her off so THEY can stand in front of her new fan!   But hey -- it may feel pretty darned good to me too to stand next to her in front of that fan when I work on grooming her! 

 

Okay - here's a photo of our house taken last week.  It gets tidier all the time.  I REALLY hope it makes it to "perfect" (at least from our perspective) by the time neither of us can do a darned thing with it any longer!  (Obviously I'm having those thoughts as a result of that back problem.  Sigh.) 

 

Arthur definitely has a "big brother" these days . . .

Looked out this afternoon and saw Arthur laying in the sun having a nice nap, while Duke and Lizzie were grazing a hundred or so feet away.

 

 

 

 

Then as I watched from upstairs, Lizzie first began grazing in Arthur's direction, then suddenly began heading quickly over toward him.  I wasn't sure if she just wanted to get near him -- or if she wanted to kick the crap out of him while he was down!  (She DOES have her moments as far as he's concerned.)

 

 

But apparently the same thing occurred to Duke because as soon as she headed for Arthur, Duke stuck his ears back,  looked threatening, and walked quickly over to get between Lizzie and Arthur.

 

 

As soon as he did that, she went on by and acted as if she hadn't even noticed Arthur.  Duke didn't go after her, but he DID stay there near Arthur -- just in case.

 

 

And Arthur slept through the whole thing - pretty unusual for him.  Usually the slightest noise or movement and he's up and running.  Apparently he has great trust in Duke these days!  Out like a light!

 

 

As a matter of fact, he's been trying to sleep near Duke at night these days, too.  Instead of sleeping in his own stall, he goes over and lays down on that porch outside Duke's stall.  Duke sleeps inside, Arthur sleeps outside.  Darned good thing Arthur doesn't try and go inside and lay down NEXT to Duke!  Getting up might be a bit of problem if he did!  But those two are definitely attached to each other anymore, that's for sure.



Relief! . . .

Last time we tried turning Lizzie back out with Duke and Arthur, they chased her around for quite a while -- until all three of them were completely exhausted.  So today, I decided to lock Arthur in Duke's paddock and let Lizzie go into Arthur's where she could be near both of them but they couldn't harass her.  And it worked well!

 

The two of them came up and stood watching her while she
grazed inside the paddock pretending not to even notice them.

So I turned her out with just Duke initially.  She RACED over to the other end of the pasture -- probably expecting to be chased.  But Duke just stood there watching her go -- probably because Arthur wasn't out to run with him, then eventually he ambled slowly over there and grazed next to her.  In the meantime, Arthur was still locked in the paddock and howling to beat the band!   (He had all the dogs barking.)

  

So I waited 10 minutes or so, until Lizzie had wandered away from Duke and was back there grazing alone and Arthur had finally shut up, then I turned Arthur out, too.  But this time there was no racing around.  She was on the opposite side of the pasture and he did run over toward her, but when she looked in his direction, he instantly stopped and ate grass as if he didn't even see her!  Then when she stopped looking at him and went back to grazing he  would sloooowly edge closer to her.  Took him a few minutes to get close to her but he finally made it.  The boy DOES know how to be subtle -- who knew!

  

And eventually the two of them were walking around together! 

It LOOKS like Lizzie still has a big cut there on her shoulder, but in fact, for some reason, there is
very dark brown hair growing out along the scar line where the stitches were, while the regular hair
hasn't come back in around it.  It makes it look bad, but it's fine, actually.  Completely healed.

 

And eventually, Duke joined them and now the three of them are back there grazing together peacefully.  Yeaaaaa!

 

 

 

"Interesting" weekend . . . well, that's ONE word for it

We have been having a VERY strange electrical problem. We have a big generator that comes on automatically when the power goes out. It powers all the refrigerators and freezers, the central air conditioner, and all the lights in the main living area. It does NOT, however, power everything. The wall outlets upstairs in the office, for instance, don't work so neither does the computer or the cable internet connection. Talk about frustrating!!  AND because hurricanes generally happen when it's hot outside, the A/C works, but the furnace does not. 

  

Well, for some reason when the power flickered on and off on Friday, the generator did NOT come on (the power wasn't out - just flickering), but the electrical switched over to the generator selection.  So since then, the furnace has not been working and the temp last night went down to 28 degrees! Since some of the wall outlets downstairs still work, I plugged a couple of little heaters in, and turned on the gas fireplace.  And luckily, the outlet behind the bed is working and so the heated mattress pad is too!  Yippee!  But the rest of the house is VERY cold.  And there's no lights in my bathroom.  Annoying.

 

And on the plus side, all three horses (yes - I'm just considering Arthur another "horse" these days) have nice new or clean blankets on. Arthur's very first blanket arrived Saturday evening, just as the temperature was dropping into the 30's.  I wasn't the least bit sure he was going to put up with having it put on him. But as it turned out, he didn't object at all.  He seems quite happy to be warm!

 

I hadn't fastened his leg straps yet - but  I did eventually.  ;-D

He stood around for a while, then he laid down and went to sleep! Makes me feel really good about having gotten it for him. And I'm definitely happy with Schneider's Saddlery for getting it here so quickly. They've been in business since 1948 but that was the first time I ever bought anything from them. It WON'T be the last.

As for Lizzie, I put one of Ladybug's blankets that's closed in the front and has a bellyband on her and she seems to like that one fine.  From this picture you can see that she obviously lays down in it a lot -- look how grubby that bellyband is!

And then, because the electrical outlets on the porch were out, the heater I have out there for the cats wasn't working, I had to let the cats who live on the back porch inside.  I had put them out there originally because "someone" (and I wasn't sure which one) kept peeing all over things in the house.  But as it turned out, the two remaining cats behaved just fine this weekend so it must have been Harley who was doing that.  Li'l Guy even "asked" to go out at one point so he could go to the potty outside.  And while he was inside, he insisted on being in my lap the whole time!

NOTE:  I'm only playing cards on that laptop -- the wireless internet access isn't currently working at home either.

 

As for Abigail, though, she has become extremely suspicious - almost feral - since she's been outside and not handled regularly.  So when she first came in, anytime she heard me around she never took her eyes off of me for fear I would try to "handle" her.

 

 

 

But eventually, even she began to enjoy being inside where it was at least reasonably warm.

 

 

 

Jan and Mike came by yesterday.  They went to check out a horse over on the River Road nearby and stopped by on their way back.  Sounds like they found a really nice boy.  He's a Quarter Horse who apparently gets upset about absolutely NOTHING -- what a fine thing!  They're going to bring the two horses they ride most over to the BREC horse park and have the owner bring "Ben" over so they can get together in a space that isn't "home" to any of them just to be sure they all get along okay.  Then they'll decide if he's the one they're looking for. 

 

Torri posted a note on Facebook last night saying that Cory Bourque is coming to St. Gabriel again for a  horsemanship clinic January 19 and 20.  If Jan and Mike get a new horse that should work perfectly!   

Oh - and David got back from his California Christmas vacation and came back over this weekend to go back to work.  He got the base for the new freezer built in the garage, but he needs to pick up some heavy duty plywood for the top of it.  So it'll get done this week sometime.   The ground level garage is a little more than 1 and 1/2 feet lower than the elevated house.  There are steps going up to the back door in there.  So what he did was build a platform at the level of the top step by the back door so that we can open that door going out of the kitchen and the new upright freezer will be right there handy at the same level as the kitchen, right by the door!  AND it will also be perfectly safe that way if the garage should flood.  That's happened once or twice over the last decade or two.  So we keep everything at least a foot up above ground level.  And now that new freezer will be a good 18 or 20 inches higher than the floor.  Excellent!

 

Because I'm out of 2012 PTO time now, and since today is still 2012, I had to come in to work -- even though no one else in our patent group was going to be here.  For that matter, there are only 3 people on this whole floor! I have to tell you, I was NOT happy when I realized I was out of vacation time. But hey -- now I'm GLAD to be here in my office!   There's the building's heat PLUS my personal heater under my desk.  I definitely appreciate all that heat at the moment!  And my computer here is working perfectly -- of course.  I have my Kindle and my Droid both plugged into it to recharge them.  
 
A final 2012 work day just isn't all that bad after all!  But I better get some work done to justify it, I guess. 

Not sure why --

but I suddenly got an urge to deal with the kitchen yesterday.  It was a terrible mess. I FINALLY dealt with all the stuff we've been talking about doing over the last year.  I started by clearing off the counter tops that have been covered with tools and things for months and months.  Then I decided to move our giant microwave over by those old ovens to see if having it on the other side of the kitchen is a good thing BEFORE we remove those old ovens.  (I was planning to put it over there on the new counter area, but Mark didn't think having it on that side of the kitchen would be convenient.  So by the time we remove those ovens we will know, one way of the other, whether that's a good spot for the microwave now that it's sitting right over there right now! 

Oops -- apparently I need to replace several lights over the sink --
funny - I hadn't noticed that directly.



Remember this pic from last week?  FINALLY got rid of all that "junk."

 And THEN I asked David (who was working on putting those vinyl stall liners in there) if he would drill a hole in that dining room counter top so I could move the counter-height refrig that we use to store drinks up onto the top of that counter top.  I also asked David if he'd like to have the ice maker that we have had ever since we bought this house but have never cleaned up and plugged back in.  If we haven't needed it for all these years, we won't need it in the future either!  So he got it out of here when he left yesterday!  Yeaaaa! 

Drilling that hole through that marble counter top was no simple task (we had to do that because there is no electrical outlet above the counter).  But by the end of the day he had it done and the little drink frig was up on top right at eye level so it it won't be necessary to lean over to see what kind of drinks are in there anymore.  AND now there's about 5 feet of space UNDER the counter.  The first thing I did was put the dog food containers under there, and there will still be plenty of room to store cases of Coke and whatever else. 

Hmmm.  Guess we need to decide which bar stools to use and make them all the same, huh?
Two of the stainless ones are out in the barn now, and the third wood one has never gotten put together.
Well - we're getting there.  That's just one more thing that needs to stay on "the list," I guess.

I ordered a plain olive green curtain that I'm going to put up on a tension curtain rod across there under that counter.  With it the same color as the cabinets it shouldn't be too noticeable - I hope.   At least you won't be able to see those dogfood containers anymore.  Progress. 

Then today, David finished installing the stall liners and got the rings for the rope "fence" all put in for me.  Then this evening after Buddy and Lisa finished clearing out the pasture, Buddy helped me get the rope installed to keep Lizzie away from those oak acorns by the barn and away from the azaleas and holly berries as well.  We turned her out before they left -- that  way if the rope didn't work I'd have some help to get her back into her paddock.   But it worked just fine.  She did immediately go over toward that oak tree where she always headed first, and looked at it, but she didn't try and get through the rope.  Excellent!

The rope runs from the corner of the barn, over to that giant tree directly in front of the house.

That's that tree I had topped off before the storm this year -- that way if those giant screws in there are harmful, well -- who cares.   I wouldn't mind losing that tree in the slightest!

It's been nice that Duke and Arthur weren't as distressed to see her out there today as they were when she first got let out.  Arthur "hollered" every time he would see her out there for the better part of that first week!

Arthur was NOT happy that Lizzie was taken away from him.

Today he and Duke stood there and watched her, but at least he didn't bother to bellow this time!

I slipped outside a few minutes ago to see if Lizzie had stayed in her stall after dinner as she usually always did, even when her paddock used to be open to the back pasture.  Ha!  Not this time!  She was back out in front happily grazing out near the road.

I'll have to be sure and get her gate closed when I feed her breakfast in the morning though.  I don't want her out there during the day when I'm not home in case UPS or Fed Ex or someone shows up and opens that front gate!  But she can go back out when I get home.

David also got the table I bought a few weeks ago put together for me,

and I managed to put down a rug we just had cleaned under the dining room table - NOT easy.  That table weighs a TON!  I decided to put the red and green rug that used to be on the back porch in there for now since the colors are very "Christmasy."  Besides - they do kind of match the curtains in there anyway.

I was so happy to have the house looking so good and the barn almost done and the front set up so Lizzie could use it - everything seemed really nice.  But then I noticed the wicker chair on the back patio.  Joey has apparently had a relapse.  He hasn't eaten any walls or anything since they put him on that thyroid medicine.  But now? . . .

Hmm.  I guess it's one thing to have the wicker rotted -- that can happen.  But the disturbing thing is how much of the wicker that's no longer on the back of that chair is not on the ground either!  Apparently Joey has actually EATEN a good bit of it.  I've been keeping an eye on him, but he seems perfectly fine.  Oh, my.  Well - that chair is just one more thing to stick out in the front by the road for the parish to pick up.  I'm sure they'll be happy -- they JUST finished picking up all the stuff we had laying out there for them over the last few weeks.  Sorry, guys!

I should have known . . .

I've gotten so used to people saying they'll be over then not being able to make it that I just figured David had finally become a member of that group.  Should have known that wasn't the case.   Shame on me!  As it turned out, he didn't make it over Sunday because his roommate fell asleep at the wheel on Saturday night and ended up barely surviving that wreck.  He's in intensive care and they say he will remain completely paralyzed.  So David was over at the hospital Sunday (with a phone that wasn't working at the time), and then he was helping his roommate's parents deal with moving his roommate's possessions and deciding where he might get his subsequent long-term care when he finally gets out of ICU.  When he finally got his phone fixed, he texted me to say he'd be back this morning.   (And he was -- at 7 AM!!!  Good grief!)

All of that, combined with the horrendous problems he's been having with his pregnant ex-girlfriend (you wouldn't believe all THOSE problems, but I'm not going into THAT) have made the fact that he was back this morning just to continue lining our stalls nothing short of amazing.  He also said he would be more than happy to install our new built-in oven and later to remove the old ovens (elsewhere in the kitchen), build replacement cabinets, and put in the new countertop and backsplash.  Whew! 

Putting in a working oven will be really helpful, but it will probably be MUCH later before we can afford to do the rest of the kitchen - replacing the countertop (probably about 60+ square feet - need I say more???), and the flooring (400 square feet).   As for the backsplash, I don't think that it will be at all expensive -- I'm thinking we'll put something like beadboard back there.  In fact, come to think of it, maybe we can just put beadboard on the wall where the old ovens are going to come out too, instead of fooling with replacement sheetrock.  Much easier and cheaper - and relatively decorative in a country home sort of way.   Okay, that's one cost that won't keep me un-retired for another decade!   Now if I could just think of some sort of countertop that would be cheap but appropriate . . .

Just got a couple e-mails that the 600-foot rope and the big ol' carabiners that I'm going to use to fasten the rope to the screw rings were both delivered today.  David was going to put those screw rings in place today, so as soon as I can get that rope put up, Lizzie can hang out in front unsupervised!  Looking forward to that -- and I'm sure she is, too.  After having been out there often during the last couple weeks since she was hurt until she started eating those acorns, she's been standing there at the gate waiting patiently for me to open it.    

But I have to admit, I am NOT looking forward to the "putting it up" part.  I'm afraid if that rope is as heavy as I'm afraid it's going to be, she may have to wait for Mark to come home and help me.    Poor baby.

New project --

I've been trying to figure out how to clean up the front yard so Lizzie can go out there to graze.  At first I thought we could get Buddy to vacuum up all those leaves and acorns.  But I got a note from him today to say Lisa has been sick so he isn't going anywhere for the time being.  Not a good thing -- sure hope she gets better soon.   

 

Anyway, then I thought I'd get some T-posts and run a temporary wire fence across the front.  But that would take a lot of work from someone other than me, as well.

 

But then it occurred to me that I could use those cross-tie rings I bought a week or so ago to fasten a really long ROPE across the front instead.   But the price for a rope long enough for that was horrendous when I checked Lowes and Home Depot.  But then I found an outfit over in Texas, "ULINE," that had a really strong 600-foot long rope for $79! 

 

 

So I got it ordered and when David comes tomorrow to finish putting those vinyl liners on the stall walls, I'll see if he will install two of those rings on the post by Lizzie's paddock gate, two more on the back of one of the big trees in the front, and two more on the wall at the end of the porch by the garage door.

Those lines are red but that rope is probably going to be bright, BRIGHT yellow.

 

Then I'll be able to run two rows of rope across in a triangle that will keep Lizzie away from that oak tree (and acorns!) there next to the barn AND save most of the plants in front of the porch.  And I THINK 600 feet will probably be enough rope to put a couple more strands there on the left side of the garage, as well, to keep her away from all those holly bushes and things over by the garage as well.

 

It's probably going to look a bit odd -- I think the rope is going to be bright yellow! -- but I'm going to tie the ends onto metal hooks so that when Lizzie goes back into her paddock it'll be easy to release the ropes and just hang them on those hooks on that front tree so they won't be visible to "company."  

 

That rope is supposed to get here on Wednesday.  I'm just hoping that once I put it up Lizzie won't try and get through it.  I know Duke and Arthur would, but Lizzie usually isn't as pushy as they are.  If she doesn't try to go through it, she'll get to stay out in front a LOT if I don't have to keep an eye on her the whole time!   That would be really nice for BOTH of us.

Well, it's been an "interesting" week.  I've been so grateful that my back pain has been reduced to pretty much nothing.  Wonderful.  But then when I fell last week, my head hurt a LOT for a while there.  If I even lifted my hair in that spot it hurt like the devil.  But now, my head doesn't hurt at all anymore unless I actually touch that spot.  But the pain at the bottom of my spine kept getting less and less avoidable.  Initially, if I layed down or stood up it wasn't a problem - only when I sat.  But after the first few days, no matter what position I was in I could feel it. 

But then today when I was coming out of Arthur's stall I almost tripped on the cover over the center hall drain.  I didn't fall, but all my muscles tensed a LOT.  Don't know what that did, exactly, but for the first few minutes that spot at the base of my spine hurt so much! . . . way more than it had until then.  That was this morning, but in the 8 hours or so since then, it seems to be reducing a lot.  I guess whatever I did when my muscles squeezed must have helped move something back to where it belongs or something.  Who knows.   But I feel a lot better.  I just hope that result is permanent! 

But never mind "me" -- let me update you on everything else around here, huh?  First, the weather down here could not be more perfect!  It has been absolutely beautiful for the last couple weeks.  Nice and cool.  Beautiful sunshine.  Lovely. Lovely.  Lovely.

And Lizzie is doing very well.  Ann will be over Monday afternoon to remove her surface stitches.  I'll be keeping her fly sheets on her until everything is totally healed though. 

I've been locking the gate in the front and letting Lizzie out to graze in front instead of in the back with Duke and Arthur, just to keep her calm and safe. 



See that dark stripe down her right shoulder? . . . that's the drainage from her cut.



I have to either sit on the porch or sit looking out the window to make sure she isn't going to eat anything bad for her when she's out in front, though.  She seemed to very much want to trim the weeds out of the front flower beds.  I was tempted to let her (how helpful THAT would be!), but I kept running her back out to the front since I wasn't sure if any of it was poisonous.

Here she is eating the weeds that are coming up in the new raised beds where nothing "real" has been planted yet.

That's why we keep trying to find "sterile" soil for in those beds.  Weeds keep growing in there otherwise.

Then, as if eating those weeds wasn't bad enough, I looked out and there she was eating Live Oak acorns just like Duke did until we cut down the oak trees in the back pasture!  Gees!

Look how many of those acorns there are on the ground there.   I hope Buddy comes by soon while the ground is still dry so he can run that vacuum thing around there and pick up those acorns and all the leaves that are everywhere at this point.

Look at all those leaves! - and they're not even directly under those trees. 
I guess they've just been blown around all over the place.

Check out the front porch now.  Nice, huh?  I really love that dark teal color.  (I'm sure David is happy to hear that -- I feel sure he doesn't want to paint everything on there AGAIN.)

 

That's "Garage Cat" coming over to visit with me -- she's convinced that the porch is her personal home.  She is always sleeping on one of those cushions during the day - but she does go back into the garage on cold nights.  (That's why that left garage door above is open about a foot -- that's her personal entrance.)

Well, just got a call from Zoilo.  He will be coming by this evening to trim everyone's  feet.  It will probably be dark by then so I'm sure he'll be very happy to see that there are now bright lights in everyone's stall now.  

It's good he gave me plenty of notice.  Guess I better go get dressed for the first time in days, huh?

Still focused on Lizzie

Got very worried about Lizzie when she stopped eating yesterday and we couldn't get her meds into her.  So I called LSU this morning and asked them to check with Ann Chapman and see if we could use injections instead of the antibiotic powder since Torri said she could come help us with that after tomorrow.

 

But then this morning, Mark forced Lizzie to take her pain meds (a paste), then gave her a bit of her feed with absolutely NOTHING in it.  She acted like she didn't even want to eat that, so he just left her alone in her stall.  But when he checked back, she HAD eaten it, thank goodness.  When he told me that I felt a lot better.   It scared me to think she wouldn't eat.  But I was still wondering what we could do about getting that antibiotic powder into her.

 

I left work early today then, to go home and take Lizzie out into the front yard with it's thick green grass and see if she would move around and graze instead of trying to lay down immediately like she does in her paddock.  Then as soon as I got home, before I even got out to the barn, Ann called to say that after getting my message, she'd be coming over in 20 minutes to check on Lizzie again.  So I took Lizzie out of her stall and walked around the yard with her for the 20 minutes until she got here.   She did very well and seemed more than willing to walk around and eat that grass. 

 

Then when Ann got here she had one of their surgeons and a senior vet student with her, and they went over Lizzie again with a fine tooth comb, so to speak!   There was some question about whether she needs another opening to spread the flush further out, but for now they're not going to do that.  Instead, they removed that rubber tube that she had in there and flushed out all the openings with a good half dozen huge syringes full of saline!  When the surgeon did it, he would put a lot in there and spread it out, then when he would push on her side the stuff would come out that opening where the tubing was like a regular fountain!  Wow!

 

And then he suggested that we mix her pain meds into MOLASSES!  I never would have considered that, given her Cushings.  But they both said it wouldn't be a problem for her to have molasses for just the few days while she takes the meds.  So we mixed the meds it in for the first time this evening --- NOT a simple thing!  The stuff is SO thick that it's not easy to get that antibiotic powder mixed in there.  And once it is, getting it back into a syringe (pouring it in from the back) is NOT easy.  But once we got it ready, it wasn't all THAT difficult to get it down her throat.  Once she tasted it, she didn't even struggle to stand back up, she just let Mark inject it into her mouth so she must have liked it. 

 

It's 9 PM now and I just went out to check on her.  She's laying quietly on the floor of her stall, but she is upright, not stretched out with her head on the floor.  So she must be feeling at least a BIT better.  So I guess we have the system set up at this point. 

 

In the morning I'll just need to clean out the stalls and feed everyone.  Then I'll take Lizzie out to graze in the front yard for 20 minutes or half an hour before leaving for work.  She needs to move around, but I am NOT going to let out of her stall so she can roll around in the mud.

 

Mark will probably get back from those classes he has to go to for the rest of the week by 7 each night.  So I'm going to wait to feed the horses and medicate Lizzie at night until he comes home so we can work together - much easier with some help!

 

Okay.  Time consuming, but it's good to have a plan in place.  So now I'm going to head for bed.  I need to go to bed early so I can get up early the rest of the week.  There are going to be some loooong days.

Poor Liz

Lizzie didn't seem to notice much pain as long as she wasn't being touched that first day of her wound.  But now? . . .  she HURTS.   She hurts so much that she doesn't even want to eat anything.  I had planned to put all her pain meds and antibiotics and Cushings meds into her feed.  But since she's refusing to eat it, I'm not sure HOW the heck we're going to deal with her.  Mark is going to go pick up some apple sauce this morning and see if we can get her to eat her (powder) antibiotics  mixed with that.  We can force the pain med paste into her mouth if necessary, but we have GOT to figure out how the heck to get her to eat the antibiotics. 

I sent Torri an e-mail asking if she's still going over to Al's to feed their horses each night (or if Daniel is doing that instead).  If she does, I'll be more than happy to pay her to stop by and give Lizzie her antibiotics by injection each day for a while -- although I haven't actually checked with Ann yet to see if that's a good plan.  Hmm.  So do I call Ann first, and then Torri?  Or Torri first and then Ann?

Or maybe I'll just wait until Mark goes after that apple sauce and see if THAT works first.

Lizzie also needs to be walked around out in the front so she can move around grazing out there for a while without being allowed to just lay down (which is what she does immediately when we let her out of her stall on her own).

I wish I weren't at work.  (And I'm sure Mark does too!)