IF YOU LIKE WIND, TODAY IS A GREAT DAY......!!!!

I think California is headed for New Mexico today.  I don't know how hard the wind is blowing, but it is really nasty, reminds me of Iceland.  The wind blew there constantly, which in the winter was really interesting.  Only place I ever was, that you could have a snowstorm and when you looked out the window, the snow was blowing straight up.  

I'm still fighting the good fight with Boaz's habronema in the corner of his mouth.  One good thing, almost all the ones I'm getting out now are huge, a large as a piece of rice.  So my assumption is, there isn't a lot of re-infestation, although the flies are hanging around.  I'm putting Invermectin on twice a day, so if they do drop some eggs, hopefully the eggs won't survive.  I've e-mailed Renee at Colorful Equine to see if she can make me a couple of long nosed crusader masks for him to wear.  Her usual long masks wouldn't cover where he has sores. 

I have noticed that Quilla's hair was starting to get matted in his arm pits and down his legs.  So has Coquette and BlackJack.  They all have fine fluffy hair and I've always had to watch BJ's arm pits, because if you don't get to them, they will wad up against the skin and can cause sores.  

I decided that Quilla probably needed to be body clipped, so I got out my toys this morning.  To show you how neglected these poor guys get, although I look them over on a daily basis, I obviously don't touch their bodies enough.  Usually as I walk by, if someone looks like they need a scratch, it's on the face or neck.  

Got all the stuff out, John brought the extension cord down from the garage for the clippers, got my animal crackers, tied up my victim and was ready to go.  Decided to brush some of the dirt out of his hair, to hopefully make my clipper blade last a little longer.  One swipe with the brush, I went to a curry comb and boy did the hair start flying, literally, remember the wind discussion in paragraph one?  You certainly didn't want to be downwind.....!!!! LOL  He just needs a good currying.  So I handed John a curry comb, he did one side I did the other.  Even all the mats came out, without a lot of drama.  

We are going to "try" to curry someone every morning, unless things get too crazy.  At least we can do BJ and Coquette and maybe work on those 3 for awhile since they all have a problem with mats.  We'll see how long this idea lasts........!!!

JOHN'S DOING A HAPPY DANCE..........!!!!

 BOAZ'S KNEE, MAY16, 2014

The hay was delivered yesterday as planned on time...........I love it when people do what they say they are going to do, thanks Chris and Carlos.....!!!  It looks good and the analysis is pretty good.  

John has been complaining about long hay for quite some time.  I guess horse people like the long hay because it doesn't blow away, but if you are weighing hay rather than feeding it by the flake, long compacted hay isn't fun.  At least that's what John says, I do the mush buckets he weighs hay, we tend to stay out of the other one's area.  We haven't stayed married all these years by working together, believe me.......!!!   

When they were unloading the hay off the truck with the squeeze one of the bales decided to take a header.  I guess John was nosy and wanted to see how the new hay was, because he weighed that bale out this morning.  Came in the house, shouting from the roof tops how great that hay is.  What's really great is, it's nice and green and soft too, so we'll see tonight what the "experts" think.  Hopefully the whole load will be like this.  Chris brings good loads, we had a broker one time bringing hay.  Took us 2 years to figure out that the squeezes that were unloaded all the way in the back of the hay barn were not very good.  Probably not by accident, he figured by the time we got to the back of the barn, we would just feed it and go on.  We did the first year, but when the same thing happened the 2nd year, we decided it probably wasn't an accident. 

I think I've figured out what is bothering Boaz.  Sometimes I wish these guys were not so stoic  and were more like horses, when it comes to wounds etc.  Last night I noticed the right side of his mouth looked swollen.  Of course he didn't want it messed with, when I got in there I found 3 large spots of habronema larvae, that have been there long enough, the larvae were easy to see.  UGH........I hate those things, they can do so much damage and are really hard to eradicate.  Especially on the inside of the mouth.  There is no way I can think of to keep flies off.  At first he wasn't cooperative at all.  But once I put some ivermectin on them and started using a cloth to rub them out and picking some of the larger ones out, he seemed to appreciate getting rid of them.  Cleaned a little more this morning, but there are a lot still in there and of course they draw more flies, as we always say, the flies come to visit the kids.  They are responsible for transporting the eggs of the stomach worms that cause the problem.  I left a tube of wormer in his pen, so every time we see him we'll glob some on the sores and I'll work on it once a day to remove the bodies.  Hopefully that will turn the flies away enough not to reinfect.  IT'S GOING TO BE A LONG SUMMER, I have a feeling.......!!!  LOL

WHO KNEW.......!!

I learn something new every day, hopefully it is something useful.  Not always, but if not, at least it's something that I had no clue about before.  

The well guy is here right now, pulling the pump & dropping dry ice down the well.  I guess he put chemicals in first & then added dry ice which is suppose to make the water boil so the chemicals get pushed around & hopefully clean out the perforations that let the water in.  I guess between rust & calicum, not much water is getting in, at least that's what we're hoping.

Sunday we picked up the water wagon from Jon & Linda's.  John kept saying bowser & I finally figured out he was talking about the water wagon.  I try to keep things simple, & figured this was a "technical" term the Air Force came up with.  John still likes to use all that military jargon if he can.  Imagine my surprise when I did a search & found out it's a common term, I just never had heard it before.  The internet is such a wealth of information, even if some of it has to be taken with a grain of salt.  So now I have a new word to try to dump into a conversation, I have a feeling it "ain't" going to be easy........!!! LOL

Yesterday John went to have his eyes checked.  He's been having light shows & eclipses in his eyes & thought it was time to see what was going on.  He started to tell the technician about them & the guy started telling John what he was seeing, when it happens.  Even showed him pictures.  Has anyone ever heard of ocular migraines?  We sure hadn't. There's not much treatment if any for it, you just live with it I guess.

We changed Jenny's foot bandage this morning.  The hot weather is making her foot sweat which makes the bandages damp.  I'd love put some Vet Powder all over her foot to help keep it dry.  Last week it was really soggy & gunky, I cleaned it up & we let her foot air dry for about an hour before rebandaging it.  I did put a little Vet Powder around the coronet, & it looks a lot drier & tighter, if that makes sense.  So I figure it might be good on the whole foot.  Just called the vet clinic to see what they think.  By the way, when we had Jenny in the changing room, i.e. garage, Pancho waited patiently for her to come outside.  That's the first time one of the boys has actually waited for her.  She certainly has a following, most of the boys seem to think she's just what they want............!!!

Last night John noticed Chantilly was still limping a little bit on her right front.  She came here in January & we've never "messed" with her much.  She had learned to stay away from people by hiding behind Zorro & Rambo.  She come a long ways, insists we pet her when we feed & will come up to us anyplace on the property.  But none of that halter & picking up feet stuff.  John came in the feed room & said she let him pick up her foot & he could see the ouside was about an inch higher than the inside & the bar was way too long.  Don't know if that's the problem, but figured it wouldn't hurt to trim it off if we could.  We got it done, with a few abortive attempts, but she let John hold the foot up & me gnaw at it with my compound nippers .  It wasn't pretty, but at least the foot is level now.  Haven't noticed how she's walking today.

Boaz has a problem with habronema like Cisco, but he doesn't seem to be allergic to them.  He's had a place on his chest that today finally opened up & I can see them in there.  It's just a sore & not inflamed like Cisco would be.  So I slathered on some Ivermectin wormer, which should kill the little devils.  Still doctoring his knee, & the actual scab is still getting smaller.