Do you like fall?! Sad news

This is a long one, so get a coffee or something!
I'm sorry, I still didn't get around to uploading pics and I don't think I will this week, unless I really push myself. The funeral will be held on Thursday and I have to clean the house a bit.


Anyways, I was going over my old pictures and found some nice ones that may take you back to warmer days... this was in the fall and it was super nice that day. Warm and sunny, just the way I like fall days!


This was taken on Thanksgiving (Canadian Thanksgiving). We were going up to my uncle's place for dinner and I decided to snap a few shots on the way. The fall colours weren't in full swing, but close enough!


These are wild turkeys in a freshly cut oat field. Wild turkeys were introduced a few years ago to our region and seem to be doing really well... in fact... they are everywhere! Hunter are allowed to take one bird per year, in the Spring. The hunt is only opened for 2 half days per year. Hopefully, they will let hunters take more since turkeys are really taking over EVERYTHING! Our indigenous partridges are starting to regress in numbers because wild turkeys destroy partridge nests and are big competition for the food. In fact, there are some many turkeys, that they had to capture and rehome about 200 of them because they were destructive to crops! We have also seen an increase in coyote population and wolves.


I took the following pictures from the truck as we were moving along the gravel road, so they may not be perfect.



These are the fall trees (with adjacent power lines... sorry!).

This is the road we are going up to get to my uncle's place, he lives about 15 minutes up this road on a lake shore.

That is a small lake we have to go by to get to my uncle's it is vry pretty when the leaves are in full swing!

Same little lake, different angle. There is definately some stuff that I would've removed from the picture if I had been on foot (Wires, red thing at the bottom!?!)... but this as taken from a moving truck!

This is a little farm near the little lake!

Same little farm, I think that this picture is very cute! Don't you all feel like running an rolling on that grass?! Maybe it's just me!?!? I think I need to get outside NOW!

On a sadder note, one of the horses that we boarded for the summer, King, has passed. I am very sad, but not shocked from these news. King was a percheron cross gelding and was 17 years old. The owners got King and another gelding for free if they could catch them. King was in good shape last year at this time, but kept loosing weight over a year's time. Last Summer / Fall King was only skin and bones. The guy brought his horses over for pasture boarding in hopes to get some weight on King. I put King as a 1 - 0.5 on the scale, he was litteraly skin and bones. Unfortunately, that summer / fall would happen to be the most frustrating one for me. These people knew nothing about proper care to a horse. When King came home he had SADDLE SORES!!!! on his spine (yes... spine), one was deep enough. Bone was sticking out everywhere on King and they would still ride him!?!?!?!? I honnestly felt like crying, raging, screaming... I was a real B**** for the rest of the time. I told the owner several (if not 20) times to have King's teeth done, that would help solve the problem. King ate painfully, spitting out 3/4 of his food. King was also fed Fat Fiber whenever the owners felt like it. King obviously had a tooth problem the size of Texas! The owners never took King to a vet and continued riding him throughout the summer / fall. I'm surprised that the poor thing didn't collapse before that!

I finally told the owner to file the teeth or King wouldn't make it through winter. He was surprised, but still did nothing. I decided to let it go, because I already had lived enough in the past months (losing the foal to an actual good reason!). He would've never took his horses back home if we hadn't taken the liberty to bring them over and drop them on his front lawn. This man had 4 horses, one of which was in obvious bad shape, one of which got injured on our property but received no vet care at all, for a cut that was about 2-3 inches deep on her back pastern, I think that she had kicked in a fence, she was crazy! One of which was lame and ridden VERY hard by a 12 year old girl (the horse was 2!!!!!) and the other had serious psychological problems that would've been easily dealt with by a trainer. All this to say that any kid was allowed on any horse (thin or injured or lame), without helmets or proper attire... I'm talking about kids from 4 to 16 years old. Tack was in bad condition and it is basically an accident waiting to happen. Now, a good horse has died for absolutely no reason other than neglect. I wish I would've done something at the time, but there is no resources for things like that in my neck of the woods... we have an SPCA, but they probably wouldn't have done anything! I knew something had happened to poor King because I drove by twice and never saw him. He was supposed to keep him inside and blanketed for the winter, but I am sure there is no blanket on this man's property and the horses don't have a good shelter to begin with, so there is certainly no stable to put him in. I'm sorry if I'm going on about this, but I feel partly responsible for not doing more, but financially, I had just taken on my rescues and had no spare cash to take another, but today, I could've taken him, but it's too late, plus, they would've never let him go.

I had vowed that if that horse made it through winter, that I would call SPCA and take him on, but it's too late now and I feel very sorry. I guess we can't save them all, but I just feel like smacking EVERYONE upside the head for that. I'm so upset! That poor horse died frozen in the cold winter. It was obvious to me that he wouldn't make it, why is it that they couldn't see it. Now the kids must be traumatized, or don't care at all... I now hate these people, I can't stand them! I feel like the next time I see him, a fight will break... IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO CARE FOR YOUR HORSES, DON'T KEEP 4 OF THEM ON HALF AN ACRE!! THAT IS NEGLECT... NOT PROVIDING VET CARE IS NEGLECT... floating teeth costs what... 50$, for all I know, he could've trailered the horse to a vet and pay for it... would've saved them a lot of psychological scars! I even feel responsible because the horse was boarded for free on our property and that no work was done in exchange for board, like it was supposed to happen. Sorry, but I am enraged. I don't think I can face these people again because the minute he will tell me that King passed, I will blow up! I don't have a picture of King, because I didn't want criminal charges against me... I was only trying the help by giving pasture and my best advice, which was obviously ignored. Did I do the right thing? I know I should've called SPCA but they probably would've taken into account that all other horses are nice and fat and that it is not a neglect case. Still I should've tried.

More news!

Did I tell everyone that I had found a vet!?!? I don't think I did.

So I found a vet in Ontario, she can't practice in Quebec (where I live), but she lives close enough for me to trailer my horse there. Anyways... I didn't have to trailer my horse at all. She gave me a medicine to clear Dandys lungs. It is a powerful expectorant made specially for horses. The only thing I had to do was to drive over to her place and get it on Saturday. Fortunately, she wasn't gone on any emergencies and gave me really good tips to help Dandy. So I put everything in practice this weekend. Starting with hay, I unrolled a complete round bale on the ground, in the fresh snow, this should help eliminate most of the dust found in it. The hay is not mouldy at all, it's still very green and smells terrific. It was baled during our only dry week of the summer and contains a bit of dust. Dandy has a habit of stuffing her face right in the middle of the bale, therefore gets a good amount of dust.

According to my vet, I did the right thing by giving Dandy penicilin (back when I did), because she did have an infection. It was clear to me that she did, since her nasal discharge was thick and white, her eyes were very cloudy and she had fever! After 5 days of antibiotic every 12 hours, Dandy seemed much better, but the cough remained. According to the vet, her lungs never completely cleared from mucus. I don't think the Cough Free helped, I think it only prevented her from coughing and releasing the mucus, but like the vet said, the mucus is really stuck there! So I give her her medication twice a day. Yesterday night was her fourth time getting the medicine and she blew her nose quite hard right on me (thanks!). There was about 1/2 tea spoon of mucus that came out. This morning, I was giving her medicine and grain and she coughed right in her bucket... there was about 2 tea spoons of mucus there... so good news... it works!

I am pretty excited about this... yes, I am excited about mucus coming out of my horse's lungs... but you have to understand, that after countless attemps to cure Dandy, then to look for a vet (quite unsuccessfully, my vet still hasn't called me back!), I was THRILLED to find someone that was willing to actually help me! I am officially changing my vet to her, she was nice and didn't make me trailer my horse for nothing! Plus it only cost me 80$ and my horse could be cured! If she is not, I will trailer her over, but it's even nicer if I don't have to! I officially called EVERY vet within a 2 hour radius from my house, most don't treat horses and the ones that do don't take new patients, and my vet is probably on vacation (it would've been nice to advise his clients and provide an alternative in case of emergency... but I guess he is affraid to lose business since his services are very expensive). So you see, in case of emergency, I might as well forget all hopes of ever saving them. This is why I had to learn to give shots, treat illnesses, abcesses, trim hooves (our farrier supply exceeds by little our vet supply) and monitor my horses health. Fortunately, they are easy keepers and in realtively good health, nothing I can't handle.

So asides from that, we've put Peg and Pearl in the same enclosure as Nabisco. We first walked them in with their halters to see how everyone would react... nothing... So I took Pearls halter off and she trotted towards the cow, the cow moved. Same for Peg, but Peg is hateful (I know, she is so sweet with humans, but so hateful to everything else). She saw the cow, took off running passed it with her ears back, nearly trampeled a cat, kicked towards the cat, thankfully missing it! Then looked over the fence at the large pasture. I think they thought they could go off running in the large pasture... surprise! Nobody is going out in the large pasture before the snow melts and the grass starts to grow. Plus the cow will calve in March-April, so we will keep her inside so that the calf doesn't get cold. Nabisco is getting very friendly and actually comes up to smell us, she eats grain from a bowl even if you are holding it and will follow us around given we are holding her grain bucket! LOL! We have never had to chase her, if we want her to move, we make her follow us with grain wherever we need her.

I have not yet uploaded my pics, but I will tonight. One of my great uncles passed this weekend and I haven't had time to play around computers (just like any other weekend!). I didn't take any new pictures this weekend since everyone was pretty sadened by the news. I will be attending another funeral within 6 months... the last one was of a friend that died from cancer back in September. I hope we will be done with funerals for a while. I don't like funerals, but I doubt anyone does... I have to go because it was my dad's uncle and they were very close. Also, I want to pay respect to him and the family. He helped us quite a bit this year, he sold us all of his hay at a very respectable price. It gave us a good boost! he was 81 years old and was active up until a few weeks ago. He plowed snow with his tractor just last Wednesday, but he was out of breath and weak. He checked in the hospital that Wednesday night and passed Sunday morning (yeaterday). I think he knew that he was going to go. He was so weak and insisted to plow snow and do at least one lenght of his farm's laneway. It was his last. He was a beef farmer only until a few years ago and always had chicken. He baled hay every year. He actually had very good quality of hay. Our family lost a good part by losing him, but he is in a better place now.

So keep your fingers crossed that everything will fall back in place for the family and the horses. I am tired, exhausted even, from all the comotion that's been going on lately.

Trailering; Cow; Interesting stuff

I would like to thank everyone for their good word of encouragement!

Jayke, I have verified for temperatures and have found that -15 C is ok!!! I would've never thought.

Dandy seems to be doing good, but I will get a better chance to see if she coughs this weekend. I also want to take her measurements for a blanket, she is growing up so fast!!!! Thank goodness she'll be four in spring because I am starting to think that she'll be too tall for me to get on without a step ladder... I'm 5'8'' but not extremely flexible! Hahahaha! I hope for no more than 16 hands... but I don't know... her sire is a 17.3 hh percheron. He is gold papered, Class A, he is 22 years old this year!!! I think I have a bad photo of him somewhere. Here! It's tiny and really off centered, but I think you can see a little of his conformation! He's still as gorgeous as an oldie!


Update on Nabisco (our cow): We finally moved her in the barnyard so she can be close to the shelter and water. She is doing great! When we brought her home, she remained in the bush for 2 weeks only coming out at night, she sometimes made her way to the shelter but was afraid of the horses and the horses were afraid of her. She remained at the other end of the 40 acre pasture ever since. So we lured her in with grain last weekend (at night), she followed us right into the barnyard so we could shut the gate. She got a bit startled but nothing to worry about, she ate her grain and tryed to go back to the woods, no deal! She then proceeded to look around her enclosure, then went in the shelter, she was a bit nervous at first, but settled right in after a few days. She now eats right out of your hand if you let her. She snoops around when we do something in there... she's like a horse! She is getting used to seeing the horses (they are not pastured together) and vice-versa. She is now settled in. I think we will keep her close until she gives birth in March or April.

She had lost a tiny amount of weight (probably from the stress of being removed from her herd), but is healthy. I am rather uneasy with cows and get nervous when they do. I'm usually able to control that when I'm around horses, but I don't know cows so I can't settle down. I don't know what is bluff and what is not, what their movements mean, etc. I know all that about horses. She is very easygoing, but she still has horns and she knows she does, she rarely uses them, except for scratching herself! I don't think we will be removing her horns, after 7 years of having them, I would feel bad removing them. They don't cause her any problems at all and are healthy. She is very tame and would not charge us for any little reason. She does get pissed when she runs out of grain, but that is just totally funny, it's like she is pouting and snorts and shakes her head when you take the pale back!! She wouldn't charge unless she was very nervous.

So I'm getting used to seeing and being around the cow... I've never been on foot much around cows, mostly on horseback, moving them... and I didn't usually put a lot of pressure on the ones with horns... My family has a bison farm and those beasts are vicious, seeing a cow with horns probably reminds me of being charged by bisons countless times... fortunately, they've never actually made contact or I could get out of harms way quick enough. Don't be mistaken, they look large and lazy but they can RUN and jump as well as any horse! We don't move them with horses since they would charge for sure. The yearlings can be handled with horses, but I wouldn't play around them in an enclosed area!

I have pictures of the Bisons. This is a male they had, he has now moved on, since a bull is only good for so many years (to prevent inbreeding). He was very gentle and you could actually pet him, given the right amount of treats! He weighed about 1 800 pounds which is not very big for a bison bull.
The cows were a bit more aggresive and we didn't even go near them if they had calves. Since they are wild animals, they need no help to calve, I would suggest you don't even go near if you care for your life. The calves are born an orange color and are SUPER CUTE. Their dark brown coat comes up later (about 2 months after birth) and consists of their winter coat. The current bull weighs in at about 2 500 pounds and is HUGE!!!! He is roughly 5'5'' + high when LYING DOWN! He is gentle unless entering the pasture during breeding season.
Here is a cow with her calf. The calves are sent for meat before they reach the 2 y-o mark. The meat is tasteful, lean and contains much less cholesterol than beef. The herd now consists of about 50 heads. These bisons are bio meat, though I don't think they are certified. We do sell meat, but the stocks are limited.
I hope everyone will have a great weekend... I will try to post more pictures, I took real nice ones of winter scenery / trees. If I can only get two minutes to upload them!!!!!

Interesting infomation!

I was just doing some reading up on trailering horses in winter... turns out that it's fine to trailer a horse in winter, even in a stock trailer. I've read this from several sites, written by vets. Our stock trailer does have a solid portion in front. It also says to not blanket too much as we would tend to do for ourselves. Horses are much better adapted to cold weather than we are and have an ability to maintain their core temperatures in very cold weather... I also read that the Guttural pouch in their throats would help warm the cold winter air before it enters the sensitive lungs!!! AMAZING! I'm not much for horse inner workings (except for hooves) so this is a first for me.

I am considering trailering now, since it will save me 250$. I will still buy a blanket and bring 2-3 liners to make sure she stays dry and cozy. The cost of the fuel will probably be about 100$, so I will probably spend about 250$ but I will have a new blanket to show for it!

Tell me what you guys think!

Have a great day!

Am I ever POed

Just a short post to say that I finally found a vet that is willing to travel to my location... only problem.... he doesn't WANT TO!!!!! I did leave a message to another vet that might just come on site, but he must be on vacation or something because he hasn't returned my calls. The one I am used to is booked and will not come over, unfortunately, Dandy is considered a new patient (since he never treated her and actually never has been on our farm (When I called for the dying foal)).

So, in order to get treatment for Dandy, I would have to trailer her about 2 hours away from home... I have two problems with that... we have a stock trailer and it's winter... not a good mix for a coughing horse. I will try and wait a week to see if the vet that would come over will call me back. If not, I will have to pack up, borrow a trailer, blanket Dandy (that has never been blanketed besides for cooling), shut every door and window on the trailer and drive rather carefully for about 2 hours, get a diagnosis, and start all over again. I don't know but I need your advice here... what would you do? Wait for the vet to call back, risk the fact that he also may not take new patients or trailer an occasionally coughing horse over 4 hours (round trip) to see a willing vet... I don't know what to do... I want Dandy treated, but I'm not good at making choices!

I will see what I can do. Getting the vet over would cost $250 only for the call, taking her over... might cost me as much as that. I will talk to my SO tonight to see what he thinks of the whole deal. Thing is, we cannot trailer in a stock trailer unless we modify something to somewhat block the vents at the top... I don't know... that could be a hazard for the horse... Plus I would need sheets to put under her blanket because Dandy is not used to being trailered and would probably sweat.

Anyways, I need to go have lunch, maybe I will have a clearer mind then. I away your thoughts...

Update

I would like to thank Jayke for her words of encouragement regarding my last post.

I think I will have a vet over as soon as I can anyways, Dandy could use a physical exam and I'm affraid of possible damage to her lungs from the cough (or virus) being present for so long. It has now been over a month, maybe two since the cough started and I'm not going to take much more of it. I tried all I could to help her and it hasn't been working, I need to go to the next level. It has comforted me to see that she hasn't lost any weight and that she is still kicking and screaming, but it happens that she coughs when playing and working and I don't like that at all!

For my little dog, his eye seemed much better last night. I had cleaned it up the night before and it looked almost perfect yesterday night. I freak out when it comes to eyes. My parents didn't really make me feel better either. It was as if his eye looked like this because I must've been a bad mom. There was nothing I could do he woke up Sunday looking like that... I was as upset about it as they were but there was nothing I could do... if I could make it magically disapear, I would've long ago, but I can't. Rant over!

I will look up more info on horse cough. Dandy puts her nose close to the ground when she coughs, she always coughs three times (I don't think this is significant info...) and it's like something is stuck in her throat... it's like she's coughing enough to gag, only horses don't have that reflex. I will look up Strangles and Choke info, hopefully I will be enlightened.

Happy New Year everyone!!

We have just started a new year, for some of us, it's a fresh start, for others it's a chance to go further, do more, do better.

I haven't taken up a resolution yet, but I would like to get Dandy in a better health. I have resigned myself to call a vet. I am pretty tight for cash in this harsh period (economically speaking) and getting a vet to my house costs a fortune. I will be saving up for this over the next few weeks, at the same time evaluating her every move. I am no longer planning on riding her at all. I am giving her the rest of the winter off. Unfortunately, this will mean complete re-training comes spring. I've rode her a week ago and noticed that she had lost a lot of her softness and is now easily distracted.

She has been getting grain and supplements for the past 3-4 weeks. I've seen some improvement, but then it's right back to square one. Her feet need re-trimming to correct the darn slant she has in her fronts (that'll probably always be there because of neglect before I bought her). She has not lost weight, she is still her same old self, she runs and plays like she used to, she just coughs... My patience is wearing thin and I'm feeling so helpless toward her situation. It's come at a bad time, I need glasses that cost me a fortune, then she gets sick and just yesterday, my dog got what seems to be an eye infection that might require vet attention. What is more important!? Can leaving Dandy with this illness be dangerous for her? What should I do? I don't want to lose her and am not ready to sell her or give up on her either. I'll call vet offices to get a price... hopefully, I can afford it really soon. I don't want to make up excuses, but I've just started in life, I have a mortgage to pay, a car, insurance, taxes and bills to pay, plus I'm up to my neck in debt from student loans, credit lines, etc. I'm 24 years old and I feel like I'm carrying a lot of stuff on my back.

I just feel like crying at the thought of everything and it has been cause for many sleepless nights. Obviously, Dandy's problem will not resolve on its own, I obviously need glasses, I can't see a darn thing, then the dog... what will become of him. I hope one of the darn cats didn't scratch his eye, that could've happened. My dog is a 3.4 lbs Yorkshire Terrier, he is 3 years old and only goes outside to do his business and play when it is not too warm or cold. If there are cats in sight, he will chase them, even though they are twice his size, they sometimes scratch at him, but they are used to being around dogs and mine don't usually send them running for the hills. I will clean out his eye tonight and see how it goes.

I'll keep posts on how things go... vets are hard to come around where I live, most are over an hour away from my farm. I only know about two that practice on horses, the others are in Ontario and can't practice in Quebec, I would have to haul my horse there and I won't do that when it is freezing cold outside. It's my only option.