Life is okay -- but it no glorious time of life lately . . .

I'll tell you what, life in general is much more distressing than usual lately.  First there was Mark's sister Judy's illness and her ultimate death a month or so ago while Mark was stuck in the hospital here in town for more than a month, as well!  Then Mark's Uncle Ralph died this past week.  And now Janet's dad died yesterday.  So sad.  It's bad enough to be getting old ourselves, but losing our friends and family? . . . that's REALLY a difficult thing.

But you know what? . . . things in general have been a BIT of a hassle lately.  First of all, it is cold, cold, COLD down here all of a sudden . . . down to the 20's at night!  On the plus side, I had gotten a horse blanket for Shadow a month or two ago so we could keep all three of them nice and comfy when winter came -- we THOUGHT January or February.  So I was happy to know I already had that thing when it went down to freezing all of a sudden down here.  But as it turned out, she apparently had never worn a blanket previously because after I threw it over her (and that wasn't that big a deal), while I was trying to reset the strap across the center of her belly she threw her head around, grabbed my arm, bit the crap out of it and threw me down onto the ground!!  Scared me to death ultimately!  But at that moment, I just suddenly saw myself on the ground and didn't even realize what had happened for a couple minutes while I tried to stand up.  A few minutes later it hurt like hell, but (thankfully) I was back in the house by then.  Wow!  I've NEVER had a horse behave like that before.  Never!  Needless to say, I'm a LOT more cautious with her now than I used to be!! 

And you should see my arm at this point.  It's swollen up to half again its size.  It's entirely black and blue with a few red spots as well where her teeth just about went through!  Luckily, I was wearing a really heavy jacket with two layers of shirts underneath.  Darned good thing it was winter!!  Now when I drive, I have to use my right arm, putting it up onto the steering wheel, because if it touches against the back of the seat that REALLY hurts.  I can't stand to have anything touching it right now. 

I remember Jan telling me last summer about one of her horses biting her leg when he was trying to bite another horse while she was riding him.  She told me how awful that bite was but I had no idea just HOW awful it really must have been!  Well now I know!

On the plus side, though, Gigi wants to stay inside instead of out while it's so cold out there, and she no longer complains at all about being closed into her big crate in our bedroom.  And unlike the blankets in her dog bed out on the porch, she doesn't pull  the stuffing out of the blankets inside her indoor crate.  That's definitely a good thing!  (I might be tempted to throw her back outside if she destroyed everything while inside.  Lucky for her!)

 

At any rate, I sure do hope that things go back to a normal, happy lifespan by spring.  Fingers crossed. 

Good grief!

Mark is only home for one week this time but I have been having horrendous problems with that root canal infection ever since he got home so he's been stuck with dealing with everything for all the critters, pretty complicated since we got Gigi, too -- poor guy. 

 

I'm back at the office today because I have finally managed to function again.  The weekend was just awful, but I got an antibiotic injection Saturday and it does seem to be helping - along with the other two antibiotics I've been taking as well.  So I'm hoping that they can re-do that root canal tomorrow before Mark goes back to work. 

 

I've also begun having heart arrhythmia - every time someone checks me out to give me an injection or something they have a fit about doing it since my heart is not beating at all evenly right now.  But I'm hoping it's being caused by not eating (it hurts to chew) and being stressed.  If that's it, it'll be over after they fix that root canal.  Let's keep our fingers crossed!  But in case it isn't gone by then, I do have an appointment with a cardiac doctor when Mark comes back home again in another week.

 

BUT . . . on the plus side, all those trees along the horse fence have been taken down now.  What a relief!  Of course, we haven't yet removed all the ones cut down on our own side of the fence and Shadow has been eating the leaves off of those - NOT a good thing.  But on the other hand, she was eating those leaves BEFORE they went down, as well (she's very tall).  So at least once they're removed there won't be any more for her to eat.  I'll definitely feel better about that anyway.

 

Well, back to work.  Not only am I going to have to be out once they get around to re-doing my root canal, but John will be out of town for two solid weeks beginning at noon on Friday so we have all sorts of things that HAVE to be done this week no matter what!  I better get back to it!

 

Oh my . . . always SOMETHING!

Well, since the vet was here Thursday afternoon I thought everyone was just fine now.  Ha!  When I looked out the window first thing this morning I first saw Shadow standing out in the sun apparently asleep.  That was nice -- except she has never been out there by herself since we've had her that I know of.  I kind of wondered why that was. 

 

 

But she looked pretty darned comfy, so -- oh well.

 

But when I looked out again just a few minutes later, Arthur was right back next to her.
But when I looked more carefully, he wasn't JUST standing there --
he obviously thought he could be more than just a "friend" . . .

And sure enough! . . .

 

What I found strange was that Shadow seemed to WANT him to mount her!  He used to try and mount Lizzie when she came into heat, but she used to try and kick the crap out of him when he did that!  NOT Shadow!

 

When I hollered down at them, he did drop off of her and after they both looked up at me, he began to move away.

 

 Arthur actually began to walk away --

 

. . . but Shadow followed right after him!!!

 

So  I went down and fed them all - separately.

But between every bite, Arthur would run out of his stall and check on Shadow next door!

Then when they finished eating, I locked Arthur inside the paddocks and just let Shadow and Duke back out.  At first Shadow hung out on the other side of the fence from Arthur for a good half hour.

But once she figured out that he would NOT be coming back out with her, she began hanging with Duke instead.  But (thankfully) he made absolutely NO attempt to mount her.

 

Shadow at first went around right next to Duke.  But he apparently wasn't impressed.  ;-D

 

When Duke didn't pay any attention to her, Shadow began standing around like this --
apparently hoping SOMEONE would come by and mount her!

 

So they are hanging out separately and she is NOT getting mounted. 
That seems like a huge improvement to me --
although I'm sure Shadow doesn't agree with me about that!

So obviously she is in heat.  But since Duke isn't harassing her in the least - thank goodness - maybe I need to get the vet to come back and check out Arthur to make very sure he is completely gelded.  Sigh. 

Whew! Glad this day is finally over . . .

Went in to work early today because Anne Chapman, our horse vet, was scheduled to come check out Shadow at 2 this afternoon so I had to leave work about 1 so I could get home and get Shadow into her stall and ready for her doctor visit. 

 

Well, it was a LOT more involved than I expected.  She did get her annual vaccinations and Anne did her "new horse" check up, too.  (All was well - EVERYONE loves her!)

Here she is lunging Shadow to check out her legs and feet. 
She said there might possibly be a minor problem with one of her back feet or legs (I couldn't see a thing wrong with her movement, but Anne said she could).  But  anyway, Zoilo found a sore spot just to the side of her frog on her back foot, so that may well be what's causing it.  But anyway, it wasn't nearly serious enough to do anything about right now.  Anne will just check on her next time she comes out to see if that has improved.

 

But just as she was about to say that Shadow is a perfectly fine horse, she discovered that Shadow had ulcers in her cheeks caused by sharp points/edges on her back teeth.  She showed me that if you just pet her face, she will respond if her teeth are scraping against her cheek(s), so that you can tell right away if there's a problem even without forcing her to open her mouth!  But when you discover that, of course, then you DO ultimately have to check inside her mouth to see what the problem actually is. 

 

So then Anne got out a light and while holding onto her tongue she checked inside her mouth and found that she REALLY needed her teeth leveled out.  The sharp edges were definitely what was causing the lacerations in her cheeks. (And they no doubt also made her bit feel pretty darned bad, as well!)
 

 

So I had them put her out at the cross-ties where I give them their baths to work on her teeth. 

She was perfectly happy to be placed there where the baths take place - she actually LIKES baths - but she obviously didn't realize that she was about to be sedated and her teeth filed down!

 

Here she is having her mouth rinsed out by our vet. 
(Those other girls in the aqua shirts are vet students who came
along with Anne to learn how to do "horse stuff.")

It more than TWO hours to get her teeth all filed down, but she should certainly be far less distressed about wearing a bit now!  They obviously did a lot of filing!

 

 

She was sedated, of course, but when she was taken out of the paddocks, Arthur began throwing a hissy fit just as he did when Lizzie left home and was taken over to LSU.  I guess he was afraid Shadow would be leaving forever too, I don't know.  But I'm sure Shadow would have been able to close her eyes and relax a lot better if Arthur hadn't been screaming continually!

 

Arthur and Duke stood and watched at first while she was taken out to the cross-ties . . .



and Duke kept staring while they worked on her teeth -- but when they sedated her,
Arthur started howling and running back and forth along the paddock gate!  
He REALLY wanted to be out there with her!



Arthur REALLY wanted to get out and go over to be with Shadow.

Anyway, now that everything has been checked and been done, Shadow will be well insured.  Her Colicare insurance has already gone into effect, and her standard insurance (from Markel -- same as Duke's) will begin once they get the requested info from the vet.  Glad that's all taken care of.  Horse insurance IS a bit expensive, but on the other hand, if they have to go over to LSU in any emergency, trust me -- it's going to cost thousands.  So having the insurance is definitely worth it!

 

Okay.  Time for bed.  Got to get up early tomorrow again to be sure all the necessary work gets done before I come home for the weekend.  I've tried by phone and by letter to get off of jury duty next week, but I haven't heard a thing back from them so I guess I will have to go over to Plaquemine at least on Monday - if not all week long.  Anyway, consequently tomorrow may well be a very loooong day.

Finally - a relaxed weekend!

Well, the guys finished up with the barn and Jerry finished putting the mats in place over the concrete and removing all those grids, so the horses and I are ALL very happy at this point! 

 

They all enjoyed being allowed into Shadow's paddock once the guys completed that porch.

 

All those trees just on the other side of the fence are going to be cut down, I hope!
(Blaze, the guy who built the porch roof, has made us an offer WAY less than regular tree guys.
And he said he would haul them all over to the burn pile and get them burned up, too.  Great!)

 

I thought Shadow was checking out that property . . .

 

But in fact, she was just checking to see WHICH tree would be most tasty apparently!

 

Yep - sure enough.  Those trees have GOT to go! 
(And I thought Duke was the only one who ate virtually everything in his path!  Sigh.)

Well, I hope Vickie and John will go along with letting Blaze cut down all those trees.  Every year during hurricane season they scare me to death - especially since one of them fell and broke down the fencing 100 feet across the property several years back.  I'd be sooo relieved to see them all gone.

 

Well, it's supposed to storm tomorrow or Tuesday.  I'll be very interested to see if they will all come into their stalls on their own now that they don't have to tromp through the mud.

 

We'll see. 

Busy day! . . .

Jerry is here tidying up the flower beds and pressure washing the horse mats that will go on top of the concrete that was poured around the barn.  (The horses don't like walking on concrete, given a choice.)

 

The mats will go on the concrete, but I think we will be using those grids to make a non-concrete parking area off the driveway.

Those cars next to the horse trailer are parked on the grass where the grids will probably go. 
Putting those grids down, the grass will grow up through them so you can't see them anymore,
and then you won't ever have to get out of a car into mud with them in place!

 

Those mats were stuck on top of the dirt for a year or two and ended up covered in mud. 
So now they need to be cleared off before sticking them on the cement.

Once Jerry pressure washed those mats, they looked just like they looked when we bought them! 

And while Jerry is dealing with that stuff, Blaze Zuvich (Zuvvich Construction) is here with his uncle putting up the roof along the far side of the barn to keep Shadow and Arthur's stalls as  dry and safe as Duke's stall is.

 

Blaze is incredibly very neat about everything -- now THAT's a fine thing!

 

 

 

Here's a view of the doors into Shadow's and Arthur's stalls before the new roof gets built.

Adding that roof on the right side will probably make the barn look a bit more balanced, too.

 

Here's a view of the new walkway taken from our office window.  VERY nice. 
Those openings through the walk are there to allow water to run out of the paddock,
through the walk, and out into the front yard instead of building up in the paddock.

While I was taking that picture, the horses came in to check things out and amazingly, Shadow now seems to be the predominant one.  SHE got to go eat the hay while Duke just stood and watched her!  Amazing!
I've never seen him allow ANYONE to eat instead of himself! . . . EVER!  Even when he was staying over at Al's with a dozen or more other horses!

So I moved that hay container out of that corner where only one horse could get to it
and put it over where they can all eat out of it.  Shadow decided to go into Duke's stall
to eat the hay there while Duke ate out of the outdoor container.  (Poor Arthur was
just standing off to the side waiting for one of them to move away so he could eat too.)

  

Arthur is very careful -- he doesn't rush in and eat with either of them
until he's SURE they aren't going to mind.  (Very wise for a little guy!)

 

And speaking of Shadow, she appears to be gaining weight in just the couple weeks since we got her!  MAJOR eater!

 

 

Shadow is such a pretty girl, huh?

She really does look wonderful.  But she obviously weighs a bit more already. 

Of course it took a while to get photos of her alone --
Arthur is moving along RIGHT next to her almost ALL the time!
(I think people who don't recognize a mule might think she has a baby!)

 

Of course, Duke is also part of the group -- just generally not RIGHT next to Shadow the way Arthur insists on being.

 

 

Okay.  So it's only about 10 AM.  I'll post more photos this evening once that roof goes up.  Oh - and the guy who's doing the roof said he would be glad to cut down those four huge trees over on Vickie and John's property, very close to the barn, so we wouldn't have to worry about them coming down on the fence and/or barn during hurricane season!  Hooray!  Once he decides on a price, I'll get hold of Vickie and John and see if they're happy about it.  For that matter, I think we would probably be glad to pay part of it as well -- I REALLY don't want to have to worry about yet another tree falling over during a storm!

 

Anyway - what a great weekend, huh?

Happy horses . . . but UN-happy Gigi !

I HOPE the surgery Gigi had today will make her feel much better eventually, but at the moment she is NOT happy!  She has to wear one of those e-collars for 10 days.  Yikes! 

 

But her right eye did obviously hurt before because over the last month she gradually got to the point where she generally just kept that right eye almost closed all the time.

 

And by the time I took her in to the vet yesterday to get her final shot, it had gotten to the point where that eye was red and a thick yellow discharge had begun.  When her vet saw that she said Gigi needed to have a "preliminary surgery" to prevent those lashes from scarring her cornea.  She could have lost her sight in that eye without some change right now.   So she had surgery this afternoon and her eye is wide open again now, thankfully.

 

Here's Gigi when she first came home today -
wearing a clear plastic e-collar and with her right eye wide open!  Yeaaaa!

 

But unfortunately, she is going to have to wear one of those e-collars for the next 10 days!  Poor baby.  But it's really nice that her vet put  a completely clear one on her!  I've never seen one of those that's clear before.   Every dog I've ever had before who had to wear one had  a white one and they couldn't see anything except straight ahead.   This IS better - although she still can't move around without bumping into things constantly. 

Nice CLEAR e-collar. 
(Too bad you can't see her right eye here, but it IS open finally.)

 



And she has to have antibiotics put into her eye THREE times a day, and pain meds every day as well.  She's actually a bit easier to deal with while wearing that e-collar, but it's still super-difficult to hold her still enough to put that antibiotic stuff in her eye.  Don't know if I'll be able to put it in at all once Mark goes back to work next week!  I can't hold her still with one hand while putting anything in her eye with the other!  Well, I hope her eye is better after this first week!

 

********************

 

Well, at least we don't have to spend all kinds of time dealing with the separated horses now.  They aren't separated at all anymore.  The three of them have been hanging out together all the time ever since they were put out together for the very first time early this afternoon.  They are VERY happy about that . . . ALL of them!

 

We let Duke and Arthur out of their paddocks first.  Then a couple minutes later once they began grazing, we opened the gate and let Shadow go out and join them.  Here's the video I took as she went out -- it's more than 5 minutes long, but I kept it going in case they finally had a problem.  But they never did.  Nice!

 

Shadow goes out with Duke and Arthur for the first time.

 

Both Shadow and Duke were completely calm.  But then there was Arthur.  What a hoot!  He is about HALF the size of Shadow, but he already seems to be extremely fond of her!  Good grief -- I hate to think what she will have to put up with when she comes into heat with Arthur around!!  If you watch that YouTube video, you'll hear me laughing all the time because I could see Arthur better than you'll be able to see him on the video and he was pretty darned funny!  He's been crazy about every mare he's ever been around ever since I've had him.   He behaves as if he's a tall, handsome horse -- he doesn't seem to know he's actually a very short mule.   What a guy!

Wow! Quite a day!!

First of all, Mike and Vickie brought Shadow down first thing this morning.  They arrived within half an hour after the sun FINALLY came out.  Lovely!  So glad she came when it was NOT raining!

 

We had prepared Lizzie's old paddock and stall for Shadow so she could spend the first few days there by herself until she got used to Duke and Arthur.  Ha!   She met Arthur immediately - her paddock is right next to his.  Arthur kept trying to get close to her or get her to come over but for a while there she ignored him.

 

But Arthur definitely is NOT subtle.  he kept trying hard to get her to come over to him.  But after Duke came around to that fence, she gave in and went over to Duke AND Arthur. 

(All those grids and giant rubber mats there next to Arthur used to be laid around the edges of the barn, but had been stacked over there by his fence so Mark could smooth out that dirt by the barn.  Duke and Arthur couldn't care less - they just walk over them!  But it took Shadow a few minutes to get used to them.  We stuck those few there next to her over the mud outside her stall so she could go in and out without getting her feet muddy.) 

 

Duke had been standing at the front of his paddock looking over toward Shadow's paddock across the front of the barn.  But eventually he finally figured out that he could actually get close to her if he went around the back of the barn into Arthur's paddock. 

 

Duke finally figured out how to go around the barn to her fence and check her out.  At the time, she was grazing down at the other end of her paddock but when he ran up to the fence and started whinnying within just a few minutes she trotted back over to the fence to meet him.  In fact, before long she was trotting up and down that fence trying to figure out how to get over there to the other side to be with them!   Wow! 

 

 

Guess we won't need to keep her separated for long - maybe a day, until the land in back dries out some in case they decide to race around after each other back there.

 

Duke had been whinnying and carrying on while she was down on the other end of her paddock,
but she came over right away to see what his problem was.

And they seem to have become a very happy couple ALREADY!
(Darned good thing those wire are not electrified like the ones on the exterior fences! 
Of course, that's also why those chains were added.  Arthur tends to just push through those wires when they're not "on" -- the chains prevent that.)



Look how much taller she is than Duke, though! Wow! 
Good thing she's not in the habit of rearing up. 
It would be a loooong way down if I were to fall off of her!

We had put down a number of grids just outside Shadow's stall because there was a huge hole of muddy water out there.  She had a bit of a problem for a while there learning to walk across them to get into her stall.  But eventually she did quit worrying about it and went on in to eat her hay.

 

 

 

Then not long after she came in, we gave them all their supper.  She was pretty funny.  She would take a bite, then stick her head over her gate to check out Duke and Arthur while she chewed it up.  Then back to the bucket for just a second to get another bite, then sticking her head over her gate again while she chewed.  Funny!

 

Duke and Arthur were busily eating their dinner while she was checking them out while she chewed . . .

 

 

But as soon as they finished, they were ALL sticking their heads together.  Well, let me rephrase that . . . Arthur was trying to, but compared to the two of them, he really can't get HIS head over his gate.  Poor guy.  He was much smaller than Lizzie was, true, but he is REALLY going to feel like a dwarf with a 16+ hand mare around now!  Even Duke looks small next to her!

 

Well, anyway, it's wonderful to have her.  I'm really pleased with her at this point.

 

 

And then there's Gigi . . .  I took her over to her vet for her final shot this evening, and while we were there I asked her if there was anything else we could do for her right eye besides using the eye cream she gave me for her because that doesn't seem to be helping much.  Well, as it turned out, her vet said she needed to have eye surgery tomorrow (for entropion) so she is staying there at the vet overnight so she can't eat anything.  (If she were home and I didn't feed her, she would no doubt eat bushes or weeds or window sills!  SOMETHING!)   When I looked it up it said online that in giant breeds the symptom of entropion is mucus and/or pus discharge from the outer corner of the eyes.  And sure enough -- that's exactly what's been happening more and more all the time, but only from her right eye.  Well, I'm glad they're doing a temporary revision for her.  They aren't going to pull her bottom lid down completely because there is no way to tell how far it needs to come down until she is full grown, so they're just going to pull it down enough to have it stop scratching her lens for the time being and she will no doubt have to have a second surgery once she's completely grown.  Sigh.  So they will just make an incision just below her right eye and pull down the skin.  That should keep her bottom lashes from turning inward and scratching her cornea.  Poor baby.  But I get to pick her up after work tomorrow.  Sure hope she'll leave those stitches alone when I get her home!

 

On the plus side, though, last time she was at the vet she weighed 32 lbs.  Today - just 2 1/2 weeks later! -- she weighs 45 pounds!  I'll tell you what, I'll be giving her that 40-60 lb. Trifexis once this month, but I'm sure by next month she will be ready to use those 60-120 lb. pills that they all take!  Whew!  That's been FAST!

 

Okay - gotta head back to work tomorrow so time for bed.  Guess I'll have to dig out winter clothes again tomorrow morning, though, since it's supposed to be back down in the mid-30's tonight!  Gees!  This IS mid-April in Louisiana.  Wonder what's going on!