A Better Day

Today was a much needed relaxing day. I was able to sleep in late, and went out to breakfast with my husband. It was finally warm enough today to be outside. So, I spend the day outside catching up and outside barn chores. I picked out all the paddocks which was quite a chores as I've been putting that off with all the very cold weather we've been having. In all the time I was out there, Marie never took her face out of her hay. Buckshot however, was looking for something to do. He'd eat, then wander around trying to follow me, roll, go back to eating, roll again, walk around the paddock, eat a little more. So, when I was done picking out the paddock, I decided to play around with him.

When I came into his stall with his halter is initial reaction was "NO" and he turned away from me. I just waited quietly. After a minute, he turned his head and looked at me. I just stood waiting. He watched me a moment, then turned around and came to me. I led him out to my trailer to groom and saddle him. He was quiet until I got his saddle. He wiggled around a bit then and I just waited until he stood still and tacked him up. Not sure why he was having any anxious feelings about being tacked up so I'll have to pay close attention to him. I led him back to the barn and bridled him and grabbed the mounting block and went out into the paddock. He stood quietly while I mounted and didn't move until I asked him to.

What I want to work on with him is seeing how light I can make my cues to get him to respond to me. One of the many things I've learned from the mules I've had is when you are met with any resistance, you often get better results if you lighten your cues rather than increasing them. Not always, but more often than not. And that was just how it was with Buckshot today. I warmed him up a little than asked for a whoa with just body and voice. He was fine with this. Then I asked for him to back. He was a little unsure of my cues but as soon as he started to brace at all, I'd lighten up and go slower. He would then relax and think and he started to get what I was asking. Then I worked on having him yield his hindquarter. The lighter my cue, the quicker he responded. He didn't always get it right, but he tried every time. I enjoyed working with him and he seemed to enjoy having something to do. He's such a nice mule.

When I was done riding, I cross tied him and asked for all 4 of his feet. I've been working on getting him to pick up his feet on his own, again, with just light cues. Today he did great. He actually picked both of his back feet off the ground......well, not at the same time.... hahahaha. And he unweighted both front feet and let me easily pick them up. He earned some treats today which he very much enjoyed. After I turned him out, I put Marie on the cross ties and gave her a very thorough grooming which she seemed to greatly enjoy.

It's Done

Today was another hard day. Luke's body was removed from my farm. Though as thoroughly unpleasant as today was, it was still better than yesterday. Because today I didn't have to watch Luke suffer, that part is all over for him. Life will go on and time will ease the pain. But today I'm going to cry just a little bit more. And truly I am thankful that it was not a parent, sibling, child or my husband. I know I have to put things in perspective. I also know that anyone that has brought an animal into their lives and opened up their hearts to them will understand the grief associated with the loss. Today, just as I thought I was doing ok, it would come upon me so suddenly that it would stop me in my tracks and just take my breath away, and I would cry a little more.

I am truly blessed with the friends I have. Susie and Linda came and picked up Brooke and me and took us out to lunch. We have all been though it and so we laughed and we cried over Luke, and Mac, and Adam and Tessa and all the pets that have passed through our lives and made our lives better because of it. Luke and I did so many things in the relatively short time he was with me. So many treasured memories that I know with some time will push all the pain away. My only regret is the pain and sadness this has caused his owners.

This morning I saw a post on facebook that touched me,

        I will remember you long after your footprints have faded from this earth,
        Because they are forever imprinted on my heart. 


So right now, I'll cry a little more.......

Goodbye Luke

Today has been a very hard day. The kind of day that all pet owner dread but know at some point will happen. And I don't know if it's harder when you know it's coming or when it takes you by surprise. I guess either way it tears your heart into tiny little pieces.

I lost Luke today. I still can't wrap my head around it. There was something very special about Luke. He touched everyone that knew him. He was a gentle soul yet still full of all the wonderful quirks that make a mule a mule. He was sweet, beautiful, and talented with a willing spirit to do anything that was asked of him and he did it all with style.

Luke fractured his pelvis several months ago. I have no idea how, one of those mysterious pasture accidents. He was doing ok though we'd had a recent set back due to a large hematoma that developed on his hip. It seems it was pressing on the fracture and causing him pain. I was debating pushing the vet to try to drain it to relieve the pain or wait a bit longer to see if it would reabsorb. The vet favored waiting. But, I was sure either way, we were going to get Luke though this injury and he would get better. And he may have done just that. But, today, while doing what all mules love doing more than anything else in the world, Luke got cast on thhe fence while rolling. His already injured hip could not handle his struggle to get free and was broken beyond saving. I saw it happen and could not get to him in time to help him. I've never felt so helpless in my life. He did manage to get up once and he stumbled into the barn. I knew as soon as he got up that it was all over for him. He wanted so badly to get into his own stall, his place of safety and I felt horrible that I had to force him into the front stall. It has a large 10 foot door to the outside and I knew we'd need that. Luke stood for a while in there and I fed him nearly an entire bag of Rounder treats. And despite all he was going though, he wanted them and ate every one. But, Luke went down again in the stall and could not get back up though he tried so hard. I had called my friend Brooke and she and her sister came over to do what they could. Brooke gave Luke a dose of banamine by IV to help relax him. It did help though we had to hold him down until the vet arrived. Brooke and I sat with him and stroked his face and talked to him to the end. It was all we could do.

I know I'm going to beat myself up with "what if's" for a while, even though I know it's pointless. And my grief is doubled because Luke did not belong to me. His owners love him and trusted him to my care, and now he's gone. They are the most absolute wonderful people and have been unbelievably supportive though this despite their own grief. I can't even begin to say how much I appreciate their kindness and understanding.

Luke's body is still here tonight. I've made arrangements to take care of him tomorrow morning. It was hard when I went out to feed Marie tonight. Marie was calling for him. I brought her to him and let her sniff. She got very quiet and still after she looked him over and then very quietly went back into her stall.  And though it might be strange, I felt the need to groom Luke one last time. I needed to remove all the dirt and grime from his struggles and see him one last time with his beautiful coat once again sleek and black. Goodbye Luke, in the words of your loving owner, Kyle Smith:

"Goodbye "Gub-Gub" ... may your pasture be knee deep in grass, flies be few and your wallow be full of dust to enjoy when rolling. OX"

The Great Flood

So far this has been a hard winter and it's only just the beginning of January. We have a lot of snow and we have had a long spell of some of the coldest weather that I can remember. Several mornings recently of -20 degrees. Yesterday's high was only 17 degrees. Then today, the temperature shoots up to near 40 and it poured rain all day. 

When I got ready to go out and feed this morning, I looked out the window to see the driveway was glare ice. GREAT! I put on my barn shoes, slip my ice cleats and head out. Once past the driveway and heading across the front paddock, I find the previous solid ice, is now slush with lots of water under it and I'm punching though and getting very wet feet. When I reach the barn, I forget all about the wet feet as I suddenly see that is the least of my problems. I could only stop and stare as I see that the front stall of my barn is completely flooded! Water is pouring in the side door on the east side. AGH! I go back to the house to get boots. I grabbed Fred's boots as his are the tallest. I head back out to the barn, I step into the stall which is well over ankle deep and quickly discover that Fred's boot are NOT waterproof! I find they have holes in them! Again, I retreat back to the house to get my wellies and back to the barn once again. I wade though the front stall and go into the barn to find the front of the main aisle is flooded also as well as Marie's stall. My poor mare is standing in water well over her pasterns! There is also water coming into my feed room. Luke's stall and part of the main aisle are the only dry spots. I leaned against a gate and just had a good cry. Luke couldn't figure out what the problem was, he wanted his breakfast. Marie was wondering why Luke was living on a dry island while she was standing in a lake. 

After a good cry, I pulled it together as I knew what had to be done. I fed Luke and then I let Marie out into the aisle and fed her there and let her hang out munching hay in relative dryness. The water was coming in to the barn due to ice build up against the barn on the east side plugging up the drainage channel for the water. I got a shovel and ice pick and headed out to clear the snow and slush away from the barn. It was pouring outside and where I was working was right under the overhang of the roof, so I was getting drenched from that also. My rain coat quickly gave out and I just took it off. Once the snow and slush was cleared, I then had to chop through the ice to clear a drainage channel. Once that was done, it was time to begin bailing. It took me several hours to bail the stalls out as well as the front section of the main aisle. Once the water was out, then I had to strip down both the stalls which of course I had just filled with new shavings. For this I put Marie outside as it had stopped raining for the moment and I had to put Luke on the cross ties as the path to the manure pile is through his stall. I have not been using the wheelbarrow lately, just muck buckets and sledding them out to the manure pile. Very easy with just two equines in the barn. But, that was not going to work with so much soaked bedding to move. So, I had to shovel the wet sloppy path to the manure pile. Then I find my wheelbarrow tire is slack so I take it up to Fred's workshop to blow up the tire, then back to the barn and the shoveling begins. After standing quietly on the cross ties for about an hour, Luke started to protest his situation. I apologized to him and then told him to deal with it and continued to move wet soaked shavings out of the barn. 

When that less then fun task was done and I had Marie's stall quite dry, I put in new bedding and got her back into her stall. I put wood pellet bedding in her stall as that would work well with any residual dampness. I could not bring myself to put any water on them though after spending so much time taking water OUT of her stall. I then got Luke settled back into his stall much to his relief and gave both plenty of hay. I'm just so glad that Buckshot is over at Upper Pond Stables right now. Marie and Luke's stalls both have stall mats. The front stall that is Buckshot's is just dirt so though I removed the water, it is muddy and I can't put any bedding back in right now. Once the barn was all set, I went back out and worked on the drainage channel once more to make sure it was all draining well. 

Then, into the house for a HOT shower! You'd think I'd have enough water but the hot shower was good. Then some time to relax with a hot cup of coffee. I'm exhausted and will go to bed early tonight for sure. Right now though I have to suite up and head out for evening feeding. Praying to find my barn dry when I get there! 

Day 4 and 5 of Lyme Treatment

Day 4 of Buckshot's Lyme treatment went with any problems. He is being such a good boy about it all. The IV port still looks great. I gave him 4cc's of banamine today seeing if I could avoid any signs of discomfort. He did a little bit of licking and chewing when I was still administering the tetracycline but that was all. After the treatment he wasn't interested in taking any treats from me. A little worrisome though he seemed ok. He was eating hay. He's had no more bouts of diarrhea which is good. I watched him for a while but he was doing fine.

This morning however was fun getting to the barn. Yesterday, the temperature never got into positive numbers! The high temperature for the day was -4! UGH! Last night the wind picked up and it snowed all night.After a quick check this morning on Luke and Marie to make sure they were fine, I headed over to the barn at 5:30 am so it was still dark when I got there. The driveway was not yet plowed and the drifts were too high to drive my little car through. There was a spot clear enough of snow for me to pull over out of the way. Thankfully, I still have my head lamp with me so could see. Upper Pond Stable has a LONG driveway. Brooke drove out as far as she could to come get me.   Buckshot did not eat his grain. But, he is still eating hay and drinking well. Brooke and I decided to give him a dose of Mylox to help his upset belly. He was not impressed with this and took it as quite an insult that we syringed him with that. We went back to the 5cc's of banamine as that is the amount that keeps him from showing any signs of trouble with the tetracycline. Again, he stood like a good boy for it all. When we were done, we offered him some hay stretcher pellets and timothy pellets. He was interested in those and ate what we gave him. And Book said he ate his grain tonight. This is good. Poor boy, this is all hard on him. The vet is coming tomorrow and we'll discuss it all and see if she thinks we should add something to the routine to help with possible ulcers. Tonight is supposed to be even colder down to -20 or more. NOT fun!

Treating Buckshot for Lyme

Buckshot has been diagnosed with Lyme disease. He was chronic high positive. That just tells us he's had it more than 2 months. But, I can be quite sure he didn't have it when he came to Maine from Mississippi in February (2013) as Lyme is not an issue in MS. My regular vet clinic wanted to treat him by IV at the clinic with tetracycline for 8 to 10 days followed by 8 weeks of doxycycline orally. But, after getting a very scary price quote for this treatment, my friend Brooke talked with her vet and she said if I moved Buckshot over to Upper Pond Stables, she would put in the IV port and teach me how to do the treatment myself and it would be less than 1/2 the price quoted by the clinic. She wanted to treat Buckshot with 3 weeks of IV tetracycline if we could keep the port in that long, followed up by 4 weeks of oral doxycycline. The vet wanted Buckshot at Upper Pond because the stalls there have full walls so there would be no half walls or doors for him to hang is head over and rub the IV port out on. And I would have Brooke to help me as she has experience with giving meds and working with IVs and such. And I'll say here that her experience had been invaluable to me. 

I moved Buckshot over to Upper Pond Stables December 20th. The port was going to be put in on the 21st. That ended up getting pushed back to the 30th but it worked out in a way giving Buckshot a week to settle in to the routine at Upper Pond before starting on the medication. And I have to say that he settled in very quickly and seems very content there. Many mules really hate being in stalls but Buckshot doesn't seem to mind at all. Buckshot and Brooke's horse Levi quickly became friends. Too much so actually. Brooke and I were watching them play over the fence one day and at the same time as thinking how cute they were, we knew that it was not going to end well. And sure enough, Levi go his feet into the fence and tore some down. Brooke and I spent many hours that day , with some help from Karen and Cierra, knocking ice off all the lines and insulators so that we could get the electric working again. 

The vet came December 30th and placed the IV port. Mules sometimes require more sedative than a horse but we decided to go with a normal dose. Buckshot is a laid back mule and has no issues with vets or needles so we though that would be enough and it was. And Buckshot could not have been a better boy than he was. He made no fuss at all about having the port inserted and stitched in place. The vet gave him his first treatment explaining all that had to be done, and all the things to watch for. I was so grateful that Brooke was there as it was a little bit of an information overload. Nothing was hard to do, just a lot of little things to remember. Flush the port with saline, remember to pull back just a little until you see blood in the line, then draw 30ccs of saline and 30ccs of tetracycline into the same syringe, and attach to the IV port and push that in SLOWLY. She told us what could happen if we did this too quickly and told us a couple stories of things she's seen to have us appropriately terrified of rushing this part of the procedure! 

Once we were done with Buckshot, we put him back in his stall, I paid my bill and we chatted for a little while with the vet. I was getting ready to leave when Brooke went back to check on Buckshot before heading upstairs to her apartment and it was a good thing she did. Buckshot was having a reaction to something, either the sedative or the tetracycline. He was trembling all over, pawing, and kicking out. We quickly got him out of his stall and took him into the indoor arena as he was also looking like he wanted to go down. We put a blanket on him and walked him for over 30 minutes with no signs of improvement. Brooke called the vet and asked if it was ok to give him 5ccs of banamine. The vet said yes so we did. Within just minutes, Buckshot relaxed and came right out of it. PHEW! When we were quite sure he was doing fine, we put him back in his stall and watched him a little while longer. He went right to munching on hay and he was fine after that. The vet felt his reaction was from the sedative as she felt he would have reacted much sooner if he was having a problem with the tetracycline. 

Tuesday morning Buckshot looked good and the IV port looked great. No signs of any heat or swelling at all. And Buckshot acted like he didn't even notice it was there. Brooke and I were very pleased. His stool though was very soft. He had some diarrhea overnight and that was something we'd have to watch and we were adding probiotics to his feed. Brooke walked me though the whole procedure, and I went very slow with administering the tetracycline. When I was done, I put Buckshot in his stall and now the watch was on to see if he was going to be ok. Unfortunately, within 10 minutes, he was showing full blown colic symptoms. The only difference today was that he didn't have the trembling that he'd had the day before. Since we knew what was going on, Brooke quickly gave him 5ccs of banamine and like the previous day, within minutes he was fine. We were both so disappointed to find out that it was the tetracycline that was causing the reaction. Brooke called the vet to see what she wanted to do. The banamine was working to pull him out of it but we didn't know if it was safe to keep giving it to him every day. The vet said that it was. She wanted us to try giving him 3cc's of banamine before the tetracycline the next time and see how that worked. That evening I went back to the barn with the intention of riding him. But, though he was eating and drinking well, he didn't seem to have much energy so I just walked him around the arena for a while and put him back. He really seemed to be ok, just not quite himself. 

When I got to the barn this morning, Brooke and I talked over whether or not to turn Buckshot out or keep him in the barn. The vet wanted us to keep him in the barn as she was worried about him rolling and dislodging the IV port. While this was certainly a risk, as mules are rolling fools, I decided that he would be stressed if left in the barn alone and stress will trigger a mule to roll and he was just as, or even more likely to roll in his stall. For today, it was the right decision. He was very happy to go out but he didn't try to roll. We were both very happy to see that his stool was solid and normal. When we brought Buckshot in to give him the meds, we did as the vet suggested by giving him 3ccs of banamine, and then the tetracycline. Again, he was as good as gold making no fuss about leaving his friends and being brought into the barn. After we finished with the meds, I walked him around in the arena for a while. (It was -20 degrees this morning, so, I was staying INSIDE with him) Anyway, he did ok. The only thing he did was some odd licking and chewing but no real colic symptoms. So, just that mild reaction and that didn't last all that long. We may go back to the 5ccs of banamine for tomorrow. We'll decide  that in the morning. I put Buckshot back in his paddock and watched him. For a few minutes he just stood there doing the odd licking and chewing. Then he turned around and started eating his hay quietly. I left feeling quite sure he was going to be fine and with the security of knowing Brooke would be keeping and eye on him throughout the day. When I talked with Brook this evening, she said that at turn in time Buckshot was running and bucking and demanding his supper. It was great to hear that he was feeling that well!