Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[frustratedearthmother]

Thanks, ya'll. I just feel horrible for her, but I'm gonna keep high hopes that she'll be ok eventually. It's not like she has to work for a living - she can just be another pasture ornament.

A few decades ago I had an appy gelding - young horse - that went lame in his left front. We had x-rays, and nerve blocks - saw several veterinarians and we even took him to Texas A & M for diagnosis. Nobody could say definitively what was wrong with him - except that it was in his shoulder. Osteochondritis was the suspicion. Shoulder lameness isn't all that common unless it's from an injury - and no one could pinpoint an injury... it was so frustrating. Eventually the horse lost total use of that leg, he would take NO weight on it but he did learn to compensate. He'd come running - yes running- up to feed on three legs, keeping the leg from ever hitting the ground. The obvious solution was to put him down - but that year was the rainiest year we'd ever had. From Labor Day until Memorial Day the ground never dried up. That was the only reason he stayed alive - there was no way for me to get him buried! But, I'm glad I didn't. It took almost a year, but that horse healed on his own and became as sound as he ever was. He eventually made a great riding horse and competed in western pleasure and trail competitions. So, I'll give this gal a chance too - at least long enough to see if she can make some progress.

Nothing else exciting going on these days - thank goodness! Back to work tomorrow and play catch up for the next couple days.

Thank ya'll for your support! It's nice to have a place to come to and complain, lol!

 

[SSDreamin]

on the mini!

How does a horse get founder? We were warned to keep a close eye on the cows when we put them to pasture, to avoid founder. We were told they wouldn't be able to 'burp' and it could eventually kill them - so founder in horses must be different?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Yep, founder in a horse can be caused from several/many things.

Overeating is a biggie (like getting into the grain barrel), access to too much water while they are too hot, being bedded on walnut, high fever, and you can even have what is called 'road founder' which is a concussive injury.

Founder occurs when there has been a breakdown of the support system (delicate tissue called laminae) which hold the coffin bone (inside a hoof) in place. When the support breaks down, the coffin bone can rotate, or drop inside the hoof. In it's worst state, the coffin bone can come through the sole of the foot - in that case the horse is usually put down.

Mini's and ponies are subject to foundering just from eating too much lush grass. There's been lots of grass this year, and she's had more than her fair share....

The farrier is coming out this afternoon and I'm anxious to get his assessment of her condition.

Stay tuned...

 

[Denim Deb]

Normally, it's the smaller ponies that are a problem. Both Licky and Stormy are larger ponies and I've never had a problem w/them. I've heard others say the same thing. But, I've heard that haflingers are also prone to founder from grass.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Ya know, I've been around ponies that were pig fat and never foundered, so I do wonder if there isn't some underlying issue that's never been researched or identified. Why do some, kept on the same regimen, never have a problem - and others do? Is there a lack of some trace mineral or could there be a genetic predisposition? I dunno, but it is an age old problem, and my first personal experience with it. Sigh....

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Okay - farrier has been here and gone. Nice young man - how shall I say...ummmm CUTE(!) but only 30, yeah, I shouldn't have noticed - but I did! Nothing wrong with some eye-candy, right? I may be old, but I'm not dead, lol!

Ok, here's the deal.....She definitely has evidence of slight founder; separation of the white line at the toe, and some bruising, but he really thinks that with some careful trimming for a couple months that he can turn her around. Time will tell... She wasn't happy about standing on sore foot while he was trimming the other - a couple of times she tried to lay down - which would have been ok, but she wouldn't be still.

I had to laugh at this guy when he was trimming my older mare. He's a tall guy about 6'3" so getting down to mini level was hard on him. When he did her back legs, he pulled it up as usual, but straight back, not out to the side like most farriers - then he just leaned back on her butt and they held each other up - it was quite funny!

I'm so glad to have that done, and to find out that it's not nearly as bad as it could be. So -

 

[Denim Deb]

That's a relief. Hope keeping her on a dry lot will do the trick and she'll be fine in just a short period of time.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Ok, back to my regularly scheduled life - that horse had me upset for days!

We're supposed to get rain this weekend. It's been raining all around us for the last month or so - but we've had nothing at our place in quite some time. Pond level has been going down and the ground is HARD. We can really use some rain and the timing will be right since the septic system is finished. Some nice rain will help to settle the ground where they did all the digging and filling in.

We're kind of fighting with the septic company. Before they started this process I asked them what kind of payment they took. They said that they DO take credit cards, but they don't really like to. The guy gave me the invoice when they finished the job Wednesday evening. DH called the office Thursday morning to try to pay with the American Express card. I like to use it because you earn points for purchases and you can redeem those points for lots of things like Travelers Checks because they are just like CASH! So far I've turned in points for a grand total of $1700!

I know they have taken AMEX because recently a friend of a friend paid them with his AMEX - so why don't they want to take mine? They even got snarky with DH and said they'd turn us over to their attorney for collections! We're trying to pay them, but they don't want to take it - for goodness sakes. My biggest issue is that they didn't tell me ahead of time that they wanted cash. And, I feel discriminated against because I know they've taken a cc from someone else and they won't take mine...grrrrrrrrr. Oh well, I guess we'll end up giving them a cashiers check but it still irks me....

Step-son and grand-sons are supposed to come out for a visit on Saturday. I loooove, looove, looove those kiddos. They are 12 and 4 and they are a blast. They'll want to be riding horses, (and goats) and chasing chickens. The 4year old is my egg collector when he's around. I'm not saying how many eggs actually survive from hen house to our house - but he enjoys it and it's incredible to see the look on his face every time he finds another egg.

We got the latest chicken run tarped last night in case of the rain this weekend. I still haven't moved all those roosters where I want them to be but I WILL do it this weekend - maybe even tonight.

Even though I've got the feeder pigs - I'm still contemplating getting some breeders. Boars kind of scare me though... something that big with that much testosterone...ugh. Red Wattles are supposed to be very docile and there is a good source for them fairly close. But, I'm supposed to be thinning out the number of mouths at our place instead of adding to them!

I need to scour Craigslist for someone to do some privacy fence work for me. We took down several sections of it for the septic work. We could just put it back up there, but I need someone to build a gate for me. We also need to do another section on the other side of the yard - and I want a gate there too. DH and I can get a lot of stuff done ourselves, but gates are so important and I don't think duct tape and baling wire is gonna work for that, lol!

TGIF!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Monday DH and I are starting a month of no grocery shopping. We are determined to eat only from what we have in the house. Um, but I cheated a litle bit today. I stopped at the grocery store on the way home from work today...:/ I tried hard to not buy anything that I wouldn't ususlly buy on my weekly trip. I did, however add one new item to the list. I bought some flour tortilla mix. We don't usually keep bread products around, but sometimes a gal just needs a bacon/egg burrito for breakfast! So, instead of buying a bunch of tortillas that would probably go bad before the end of the month, I bought mix. So, this month will be a two-fer....I won't buy any more groceries and I'll learn a new skill. I've made tortillas once in my whole life, so I'm looking forward to trying again. I want to try to keep track of what we actually consume this month also. It'll give me a chance to see what we actually use the most and/or least of.

I've got to work part of the day tomorrow, but it's supposed to rain anyway - so why not? We had a nice gentle rain for several hours today, and we needed it. Tomorrow is supposed to be more stormy so I wouldn't get much done outside anyway.

My female Westie is in rip-roaring heat and my male wants some action. I want to breed her and keep a little pup to replace his dad who is old, blind and partly deaf. Heck, I'm not sure he even has active swimmers anymore.... But, the timing is wrong. She'd deliver around the end of November, first of December'ish, and we'd have puppies around 5 weeks old when we are going to Grand Cayman in January. We'll be gone for 5 days and 4 nights and I'm not sure I'd find someone to take proper care of them while I'm gone.... sigh... On the other hand, if I wait for her to cycle again, the old man will be that much older! But at least if that breeding took we'd have summer babies instead of winter pups - preferable in my opinion.

 

[Wannabefree]

Oh if you like the Taco Bell chalupa shells I have a recipe for those. We love them. I think maybe I just don't roll the tortillas thin enough, but it works It's SUPER easy to make, let me know if you want the recipe and i'll go get my binder out

I LOVE the idea of no grocery shopping for a month!!! I'm gonna have to do that next month for sure to make room for the hog.