Thanks Claire & Quilla

(& Gus' chubby little side)

You think these two aren't enjoying their "quality" time with Claire?  Here... they are just one of the herd.  At Claire's house, they "RULE"........!!!!   LOL 

Last night old crippled Pepper was at it again.  He's figured out if he tries to "woo" Cheyenne he might have a chance.  She's only 32 inches tall, so all it takes is  walking over the top of her & go for it......!!!  John wanted to take pictures, but I told him we don't want to embarrass him, as if Pepper ever could be embarrassed.....!!!  He's going into this winter (19 degrees a couple of mornings this week) with a little meat on his bones, & stepping out pretty good on his poor old broken hip & bad knee.  So hopefully I won't have to blanket him, which he hates, because he has to stay in the pens at night.  Otherwise I have no idea where the blanket would end up in the brush.  He's only getting down occasionally.  John's getting good at rolling him over without having to use the ropes.  Pepper just lays there & doesn't try to fight, so John stands between his front & rear legs, (you'll notice I didn't say Tish rolls him this way, I have better sense) grabs all 4 legs & rolls him to his left side, & he usually pops right up.  I have told John, although Pepper doesn't fight & all that, standing between his legs like that isn't a "REAL" good idea, but so far he's gotten away with it.  

The other day John was very upset with Daisy, she stepped on his foot & wouldn't pick it up.  DUH...!!!  I asked John why he didn't throw all his weight into her shoulder to off balance her?  John is great with the animals..........BUT......I really believe it is much easier to work with large animals if you were raised with large animals.  He grew up with 3 very long lived pets, a dog, cat & parakeet, while I ran the gamut, you name it, I probably had it.  I might add opossums do NOT make good pets, raccoons are great fun, but destructive & crows are worse than a 2 year old child. 

I don't want to jinx Jenny, but her foot seems to be doing better, since we've been soaking every other day in epsom salts & betadine, & keeping it wrapped in a diaper with a sugardine poultice.  She's also still getting metronidazole, rectally twice a day.  I swear she walks slower & more crippled when she knows we're watching her.  She's being real good about everything, & I make sure there is a steady supply of animal crackers.......!!! LOL

 

Vincent Van Gogh, painting

Steve a volunteer is coming out tomorrow to trim some of the trees.  A few days ago John asked me to go around & mark which limbs I want gone, so I used bright colored plastic tape to make them.  You can probably see where this story is going.  We're on poo watch to see if we can figure out who has developed a taste for plastic tape.  John thinks it's either Ruthie or the minis, Cheyenne in particular.  It's bright pink, so should be easy to find.  Guess I'll take Steve around & "show" him where to trim.  LOL

When I took the diaper off Jenny's foot this morning after 2 days, it was pretty wet.  Dr. Voss said to soak every 2 days & I thought leaving the diaper on would be OK.  I can't tell if the moisture is what the epsom salts & betadine is drawing out of the hoof, or build up from the foot being wrapped.  It was never that damp when we were re-wrapping every 5-6 days, so hopefully it is the poultice doing it's job.  

Talked to Dr. Megan & we decided that I'll see what it looks like in the morning & if it's still too damp, I'll start changing the diaper twice a day.  I'm about out of the metronidazole, & the vet has to order it, guess they don't keep a lot of it on hand.  We're just about out of options at this time.  Dr. Voss told Dr. Megan that the only thing left would be another resection.  I doubt that her foot would take it, & if there is infection in her foot, she doesn't have much coffin bone left for them to remove.  So I really hope this works. 

It was 20 degrees here this morning.  We covered my tomato plants in the courtyard with a sheet, but a sheet was no match for 20 degrees.  It's a shame there is lots of green tomatoes on the pathetic looking plants.  I'll pull them out & prepare for next year I guess.