Halla's Eye

We went to WSU today to check out Halla's weepy, squint eye and we still have no answers. But there is no foreign body, no ulcer, no blocked tear duct, and she's reasonably sure it doesn't look like uveitis or glaucoma. They don't have an ophthalmologist there anymore, so this was a regular vet, but a very thorough vet.

My job now is to journal when it's worst. It could be an allergy or something.

Well, at least it wasn't something horrible!

All Good?

I'm not 100% convinced he's fine, but he's eating, drinking, and pooping a little bit. He doesn't seem painful. He still doesn't want his senior feed.

I went ahead and let him out of the stall because he just won't drink the water in there. That means I can't really count turds, but I can watch him closely.

His most recent oily poo

With how small his piles are, I worry that there's something partially blocking... I sure hope not. I'm a worrier.

We'll call this colic episode over unless otherwise noted. Let's hope we can just move on to another subject.

Like how cute Juniper is. She's so jealous of all the attention Sawyer is getting.

Oh, and Halla has an appointment to have her eyes checked at WSU next week. They're overly sensitive to light and the one just never stopped being a little runny.

But for now, I am going to get some sleep.

OK so far

Sawyer seems OK so far. He's passed a few tiny bits of manure and I've seen him pee twice. It's not dark. He's not eating consistently and he's not drinking. He would be happy to graze, but he just refused some senior feed. He's pretty upset about being locked in a stall.

His gut sounds were pretty slow, almost non existent on one side.  He didn't have much fecal matter in his colon and what was there was a little dry and had long stems. Honestly I didn't think he ate the stems in his hay, I thought he only ate the leaf. I'll be scheduling him a dental, it's about time anyway since his last one was a year ago, but he might be doing the best he can with his old man teeth.

His heart rate wasn't elevated but his respiratory rate is. He seems pretty painful if I were to guess, but he's not biting at his sides. He's licking with his tongue way out a LOT.

He sure didn't like the nasogastric tube. It must have tickled. Luckily he was lightly sedated.

Hopefully he'll be passing some mineral oil by morning.

Waiting for the vet

Sawyer wouldn't eat this morning. First thing I noticeced, walking out to feed, was that his gut looked sucked up, then he refused both alfalfa and senior feed. He looks miserable. I heard some gut sounds (just with my ears) and he has passed a small amount of gas, so that's good.

I also found some weird large bubble foam where he was standing. Assumed it was drool, but could be from urine or could have bubbled up out of the thawing ground yesterday.

A-ha! Just now we have a nice wet poo! Not huge, but that's OK. Nice.

I'll update later. He's probably fine.

Almost Springlike

Juniper is so smart. We saddled up in deep snow, her 2nd or 3rd time with the pack saddle on (I can't remember which), and she was like an old pro.

She did think about taking a second look at the giant pannier bags, but since I acted like it was nothing, it was nothing.

Making tracks, getting a feel for things.

We did a little off-roading. This was a big step for her but you can barely tell from the pics, or from how easily she went down.

No big deal, Ma.

The babies are getting big. They have the run of the horse trailer for now.

This one looks very proud. :D

Baseball season has started. It's cold.

But it was super cool, because there were bighorn sheep AND mountain goats in the hills. I'm not sure I've ever seen both in one day. They're in the picture but you'll have to take my word for it. I would have needed a much better camera.

I'm on a wee trip right now, and the menfolk are holding down the fort at home. I'll be back tomorrow. I hope they remember all the little feed details.

New Duckies! Yak Connection!

Through wind and snow and a couple of pretty serious snow drifts, I journeyed to find my treasure.

Duckies!

I shall call this adorable young lady Betty.

These guys, I'm not sure if their names matter, because they might be Brunch and Dinner, but for now they are Billy Idol and Fonzie.  They're HUGE!  I'd guess 12 pounds.  Just comparing how they feel to the weight of all the fat cats I weigh at work.

These guys are cute little peeps.  They're pretty skeptical about people.  I think Winston Really, REally, wanted to eat their food.  Maybe he wanted to eat them.  They are a little like mice.  But he's a good boy and I don't think he'd eat what he knows are "my babies."

He was totally riveted for a long while.

Fuzzy!

Skeptical

So far so good with everyone together.  Zorro did try to boss the drakes when I gave everyone peas.  One of the boys hissed at her and briefly grabbed her wing.  I would be seriously sad if Zorro was seriously hurt.  I'm going to keep a close eye on the situation.

Look at my little photo-bomber, lower left. :)

Isn't she just the most beautiful duck?

I love the raised crests on the Muscovy ducks.  They're so expressive, even though they're really slow and mellow.  And they look like punks.  And dinosaurs.

It's like an 80's movie, the pretty girls in their clique, and the leather jackets in their tough-looking group, but really everyone just wants to be loved. (or in this case, eat peas)

:) :) :)

OH!  I almost forgot to mention.  As we were standing in the cold, nasty wind, with heavy snow coming down, talking about what breeds of sheep she had, her donkey and geese protectors, and her goats, she just off-hand said, "Too bad the weather is so bad or I'd show you my yak."  WHATT??  Yak, plural!  She has a herd!  I am totally going back out to meet them when the weather stops acting like an angry teenager.  She's super nice and she'll talk your ear off, telling you all the attributes about which breeds of sheep she has (some breeds are milder flavor), and I already learned some new things about yak.  They are more susceptible to some diseases, such as bluetongue, than cattle, who can carry it but rarely show symptoms.  Good to know!  Anyway, serendipity!  Life is interesting.

Last night, in a lower moment, I decided not to get bottle baby dairy calves right now (a thing we were seriously discussing yesterday).  My damn health isn't predictable enough.  I couldn't feed the critters last night and I know John doesn't want the responsibility of bottle feeding.  (I could have if I absolutely had to, but it would have been awful.)  Things will get better when the snow is gone, then maybe I'll revisit that idea.

Roll Call

First I have to share with you our unfortunate little visitor.  She fell in the water trough and Liam saved her.  Lucky little bird.

She sat in my coat shivering for a while, then sat nice and quietly, and eventually she was ready to go!  Unfortunately at that point she was still really wet and it was getting colder by the minute, so I made her stay in a box for a bit before I let her fly away.

I'm not sure why people hate starlings so much.  Maybe because they eat so much. These guys have been eating all my duck food.  But they're hungry...  So I guess I can't blame them.  What else are they going to find in all this snow!  Once it gets a little warmer I'm hoping they'll go away.

I took this picture on the morning of a gorgeous sunrise, all in pastels, the sun coming up into a fog bank with the blue sky above. It just looks bleak to me here.  Don't mind my apple branches that have been laying there for months.  They will probably go to the burn pile eventually.

Juniper, wanting something.  Food of course, but I can't remember if I had treats or if she was just hoping I did.  She got her hind feet trimmed that day, so I probably had treats.  She has gotten so much better about hoof handling.  I just wish she'd like my farrier.

Halla, wanting alfalfa from Sawyer's stall.  He pretty much doesn't eat the stems.  It's a mess.  I wish I had a horse to give it all to.  Nobody here really should be eating it.  It will make good garden mulch or compost.

Sawyer, wondering why I made him pretty.  (Actually he's just chewing his food.) I put detangler on his mane and brushed it out.  Not much work, on him, but it was something to do.  I also touched up his hooves since the farrier can't get down my driveway.

Scout wanting food.  I'm beginning to see a trend here.  Bella wants food too, of course, but she doesn't get so silly near the electric fence.

Such impatience.  I can't give them their food until I've gathered up their feed tubs.  Which of course they always rearrange and sometimes lose in the snow.

Huckleberry is still in love with that moose leg he brought home a couple months ago.

He's so proud of it.

Winston loves it too, but he doesn't get a turn very often.

So that was my day of trying to get outside and feel better about life.  I ended up almost getting frostbite in my toes.  They still hurt.  So I cut some sheepskin insoles for my rubber boots.  They're pretty nice!  But next time I think I better wear real boots and go inside when my toes start to hurt!

Today I have no plans.  Sundays are so unstructured.  I'm about to sit and make a to-do list, because there is plenty to do, I just end up forgetting about it all.  And I'm really hoping someone gets back to me about some Muscovy ducks they're selling.  Hopefully next time I'll have some new friends to share!  But don't get too attached, they will be meat birds.  We'll love them and treat them like family while they're here though.  I think all animals should have a good life, and that's why I'm looking at raising our own meats.  

The yak thing is on hold for now...  I'm just not sure about this seller, for one.  I want to go visit his place.  And the plan to buy a butcher steer right now kinda went lopsided when it turned out he didn't have a butcher up there.  I don't really want to haul the poor thing 2+ hours down here all by himself and then butcher him.  That's a lot of stress.  But better than some alternatives.  It's all moot, I can't get my trailer out for probably another month.

Oh How I Hate Snow!

Here I was thinking I'd gotten over my loathing of winter, but it turns out it's snow I hate.  It's here, and it's horrible.  So hard to get chores done.  Not to mention not being able to get the truck out.  At least my lovely little car can handle the driveway so far.

Solitude, that's another bummer.  My sister has always been the only person I talk to daily, and she's not around anymore, calling me all the time with weird stories or to complain about the weather or plan summer adventures.  Or talk about horses. Hah, that's most of what we did!

Do you have any big adventures, or little adventures planned this year?  I'm not sure what we're going to do.  Not much holding me back, other than my horse and my energy, and I can work with/around those.  But I need some ideas!

I'd like to go to Escure Ranch in the early spring and do a weekend, maybe long weekend camping trip.  Beautiful there when it's green.  But the ticks!

Boy, how I wish Tonka was still here.

Later in the year we'll probably do a weekend at Heyburn, they have such a nice camping area with corrals.

I've never been to Farragut.  Well, not since my daughter was a baby.  And never with horses.  I'd like to check that out.  And Riverside up in Spokane, now that they have horse camping...  I haven't ridden there since we had our Mustang Club rides years ago.

I would love to go on a week-long trip down on the Snake River in Hell's Canyon, but I don't like the idea of just taking off in a new place I don't know.  My sister's friend offered to take us.  I might have to take her up on that.  She's a sweetheart.

For my sister's birthday in July we'll probably camp out at her favorite spot, where Tonka had his accident and then died.  Which is hard for me, now for more reason than one...  But it is beautiful out there.  Sometimes you hear wolves and elk calling.  Maybe no elk in July.  But wildflowers galore.

Today it's snowing hard again.  I've had to cancel my farrier 2 weeks in a row because of my driveway, so I'm going to trim Sawyer's hooves.  Might work on the wee donkey as well, if I feel up to it.  Then maybe I'll rearrange the barn.  I need to do something other than sit in the house.  I'm getting seriously depressed.  We're overstaffed and slow at work so I only worked one day last week - I'm just about to go crazy.  I'd love it if the weather was good - I'd be outside constantly.  But this being stuck in the house stuff is dumb.

Seriously, tell me about your fun plans for the year, or even just things you'd like to do, even if you aren't going to do it.  Or blog about it and send me the link.  I'm needing a pick-me-up.  And maybe you are too?  Just writing about it here made me feel a bit better.

Now, kind of a dumb aside - I'm digging this new vertical mouse.  Maybe you all know about them, but I was looking for a trackball mouse because I thought that was the good ergonomic mouse, and I stumbled on this vertical mouse.  I'm using it for the first time today and it's the bomb-diggity.  I want to get one for work now.  (I have no idea what those 2 buttons above the thumb are for, you click like a normal mouse.)

Quiet time