pictures

I've been looking for the pictures we have of Paul climbing Mount Sunflower. If anyone has them tell me so I can quit looking.

on the road

Tami's horse Hero was having trouble with his feet that none of the local vets could figure out so she took him to a vet in Wichita. While there they looked at his breathing which had been diagnosed as Heaves. It turned out to be pneumonia. When I saw Tami she said Hero was just like Elena. The vet was checking to see what would work on Hero and she was to bring him back today. I called down there and we took both horses today. He sedated Elena and ran a tube through her nose and into her lungs. They were full of stuff, the vet referred to her lungs as a garbage can. He let us look at his viewer and we looked at various parts of her lungs. He stuck another tube down the bigger tube to get some samples. He kept both horses because he thought with so much stuff in Elena the same things would work on her as Hero. They'll both be on IVs for at least a week. For a horse to get an IV they sew a catheter into them and give injections. The horses got gentomycin and something else. For those of you remembering using gentomycin on pigs, this was way more, probably 10 - 15 cc's.

loading time:45 minutes

Tami had to take her 2 mares in to get a Coggins test and while gettting them she noticed Frederick had an owie under his chin. So she decided she'd better take him too. Frederick isn't halter trained or trailer trained or anything. The first half of the 45 minutes Tami spent losing her temper. She could see that wasn't working so the last half she tried to trick him. Tami says Frederick is extremely smart. So smart that he figured out her tricks way too fast. She finally got him in and went to the vets. Turns out he also wouldn't unload. They finally got him out by allowing him to run over them while they hung on. Tami says Frederick is a big boy, way bigger than the one that was out here. He's now home in a stall and taming down nicely. The owie should be ok.

hot again

This sale was worse than the last. We started out with only 3 people. I was opening gates on Elena and she wouldn't stand still. To fix that I circled he and backed her and went back and forth. The problem was she was getting hot and so was I. We were totally soaked and I decided to get Cassy, I didn't want to make Elena sick again. Cass did just fine. By the end of the cows I was mostly wore out. We did calves for awhile and finally I had to get off. Heather told me to stand in the shade or go inside. I was happy to. I didn't do much for the rest of he sale and that's about all the energy I had. People all over were hanging onto the fence and trying to get air. Both horses were ok. Last night the Mexican cats were in the bathtub looking down the drain. I'm sure they lost something down there but today the drain still works.

alright

Elena has turned out ok. I watched her close after the sale and nothing happened. It's been so hot not much has happened. The sale was really short, which was good, and it's so hot it's almost worse than riding in the winter.

hot

It was screaming hot at the sale. I ended up walking because I felt like the horses had enough. A couple of the water tanks were sort of clean and I dunked myself in them several times. We hosed the horses down before we left and in the process sprayed each other but nobody cared. When we got home everyone walked off normal and went to the pen. Then Elena started rolling. She looked terrible. Tami gave her a shot of banamine, I called the vet, after hours of course, and we took off. When we got there she didn't look too bad. Dr. Matt checked her all over and didn't find anything. We talked for awhile and she started doing it again. Her signs were still ok. Dr.Matt said it was gas colic, painful but could be worse. Elena stayed overnight. When I came to get her she had another episode in the night but was alright in the morning. I took her home and in the middle of the afternoon she did it again. Paula was home sick but I got her anyway to help me give a shot. Again Elena looked terrible. In a situation that seldom occurs, I had to calm Paula down, she wanted to take Elena back in. Shortly after giving the shot Elena was ok. She hasn't done anything today.

doctor

Took Elena to the doctor today. I was a little concerned about her breathing and didn't want it to get as bad as last time. While I was there I told him about her soreness. We were pretty sure she was sore but couldn't figure out where. He had me walk Elena around and then trot her. He had a kid helping him and had the kid walk her so I could see. Elena was favoring her right foot a little. The reason we never found it was because he said the soreness was in her stifle and nobody had looked that high. Thouveneau does acupuncture and asked if I wanted to try it. Of course I said yes. She jumped a little at the first needle and bent her head around to look at him. Thouveneau said if she didn't bite him she would fall asleep. She fell asleep. I don't know if it helped but she seemed very at ease when he was done. This is a shoeing problem and I think it started several farriers ago. Thouveneau had a horse mineral he wanted me to try on Elena. He said Elena was a special horse and we needed to treat her special.