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November 23rd, 2009
 | 09:49 am
Histology came back on Saedy's tumor. It's a spindle cell sarcoma. Histology shows that they got the whole thing off cleanly.
Vet says:
* This is a type that can recur even if properly removed, but we'll have to wait and see.
* This is a type that can metastasize, but does so slowly.
* So it's bad news. However, of the bad news we could get, this is the best of the bunch.
So, the plan is the same: keep an eye on the spot for regrowth, get X-rays of her lungs again in Jan/Feb, and go from there.
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November 18th, 2009
| 12:17 am
Saedy got home around 6, and is reeeeeally stoned. All she wants to do is lie around and blink. I fear to think what she'd have been like if she'd really been recovering from general anesthesia. J says she was pretty worked up when he picked her up, so she may also be tired.
Definitely got an appetite tho.
It's good to have her home.
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November 17th, 2009
| 10:15 am - Saedy's Done, and Okay!
Talked to the vet surgeon just now; he says she was being so good this morning they decided not to put her under, but just to have someone hold her while they removed it.
He said she did get a LOT of good drugs ("she's probably having a better morning than you are").
He also said that, on review of the X-rays, HE's pretty sure that the spot in the lungs is just consolidation. But we'll wait until the histology of the tumor comes back; if it's not something nasty, we don't have to worry.
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November 16th, 2009
November 12th, 2009
| 11:41 pm
The cute moments make life delightful. Saedy bounds in the door now, for some reason. It's sooooo adorable.
I couldn't find Galahad's vests from last year. I think I know where they are but I can't do the bending over/standing up necessary to dig them out. So I found a cut-off sweatpant leg that was about the right shape and cut holes for his forelegs, and tried it on him a few times until I got it right.
Then I left it on him to make sure he could move freely. Once I was sure it was going to work okay, I called him over to take it off. I took hold of it...and he laid down and gave me puppy-dog eyes. I think he wanted to keep it.
Tonight Serenity was seriously sucking up to J, licking him up and down his arms, just being a precious loving filly. She even grabbed his belt loop. At one point he started to walk off to check on something; I held out my hand to her. She glanced at me, then streeetched her neck out trying to reach him. SPURN! Funny little daddy's girl.
Bright moments in the day.
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November 10th, 2009
| 09:04 am
We had someone lined up to take care of the horses and dogs while we're at Mayo in Dec, but she called this weekend and canceled. She's got family health issues of her own.
I asked Duchess's vet yesterday for a recommendation. The vet gave me the number for the person who comes by and makes sure HER farm runs smoothly while she's out of town. Bonus: this person may even be able to farm-sit, whereas the person who just canceled was only going to be able to stop by twice a day.
Still, that's a "maybe." If she can't stay overnight with the doggies, mom-in-law says I can bring Galahad over there and he can spend the week with her. That would be fantastic. He's such a sensitive little soul. The other dogs should be okay with long stretches left to themselves, but I worry that he'd get pretty sick.
Soo, I'm looking forward to meeting her, showing her the routine, and making sure she's comfortable with things like dosing Duchess and using the nebulizer.
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November 9th, 2009
| 11:43 am
Duchess has been having a rough time of it. We did know this already, of course. Rut this weekend got pretty bad. Every time we went out to see her, she was wheezing.
The vet just left. She gave Duchess a couple of injections (I believe IV dex and IM long-acting steroid) and suggested that I start giving her a higher daily dose of dex. She also suggested adding an antihistimine back into the mix, and will be trying to locate some for us today. We are, of course, still nebulizing her regularly.
I need to watch out, as too much steroid might cause founder, but the vet says right now the highest priority is getting her to breathe comfortably. I hate to see her so miserable. I hope the injections kick in quick. I'll go out and nebulize her in a little while, too.
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November 3rd, 2009
| 01:09 pm
I haven't been well; we know this.
Duchess is currently dribbling a lot of food, and it's food I don't want to let he other horses clean up behind her (senior food with a lot of molasses). So when she's done at night, we sweep the area really well and move the leftovers to the muck pile.
In the morning when I'm feeding alone, however, I just sweep it into the aisleway behind the stall doors, and leave it.
Apparently this is a bad idea. Last night we saw a SKUNK in the aisleway, and I think it must have been eating the leftovers. Aw rats. We spent the rest of the time there moving very carefully and being as quiet as possible.
Augh, need a new way to dispose of Duch's leftovers. I don't think I can sweep it up really well and get rid of it. By the time she's done eating most mornings, I am *wiped*. Doing anything that involves kneeling or bending over and standing back up, or vigorous arm motion, is totally out of the question.
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October 31st, 2009
| 01:08 am
It's that time...
We had to replace our "Arco" clippers (the batteries died, and the blades were never very long-lasting, making it not worth it to buy new batteries). Just got our new clippers. (To be able to clip horses and a cocker effectively, and to save bad wrists, and to be a solid durable set of clippers, Jeffers recommended the "PowerGroom" by Andis.)
I've been mowing Serenity today. This takes a tremendous amount of effort, as she grows the longest, thickest coat I've ever seen. I have to make three passes just to get past the outer coat.
I have to do this in stages; my back doesn't appreciate the bending and twisting, and my central nervous system ALSO doesn't appreciate the bending over/standing up. Dratted things. And there's no point trying to bathe her and keep her clean until she dries, to save the clipper blades. It takes her a whole day to dry. So I either try to clip her wet (ugh) or with her coat full of sand--not that bathing can clear THAT coat of sand.
I thought about trying a hair dryer on her, but we don't have one. I wonder if the heat gun on "fan only" might do the trick. Hm.
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October 26th, 2009
| 02:11 pm
I had a long snuzzle with Firefly today. I was out checking on Duchess, and Firefly walked up to me and just wanted to be scratched and cuddled. She leaned her head into my chest, almost tucking her nose under my arm, and stayed like that with much happiness while I scritched her poll and ears and forehead.
Ah, happiness.
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| 02:09 pm
A couple of weeks ago I thought Tessa had an eye infection.
Well, her eye is still looking kind of sunken and the third eyelid often sticks out a little; the redness is not so obvious anymore, but there's clearly something wrong. The ointment didn't clear things up.
I talked to the vet, who says that in about 50% of these cases, they can't find a reason...but sometimes there is one, and it could be really important to find it. She says we can start with bloodwork and checking her ears to see if there's anything obvious, but we might need to get X-rays of her skull and ribcage to make sure there's nothing pressing on that nerve.
It doesn't seem to be painful or bothering her, at least. The appearance is kind of disturbing to us, though.
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October 23rd, 2009
| 10:22 am
This was a few weeks ago but I never had a chance to post it then.
( Firefly is a little mama's girl. )
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October 5th, 2009
| 12:24 pm
I noticed Tessa's eye was red last week. I thought she was getting an eye infection. I made her a vet apptmt, but I had to cancel since a headache blew in, and the eye didn't seem to be bothering her, just was red.
I got her in today. The vet thinks that she has Horner's syndrome, which she described as something affecting the nerve on that side of the face. She said it may also spontaneously go away.
She said she's been getting a rash of these, and she doesn't know why. She even had one client who said, "Money is no object; find the cause" and she still couldn't determine what caused it in that dog.
For now, I've got some eye ointment to hopefully reduce the irritation in the eye. My poor baby girl. It's just one thing after another.
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October 2nd, 2009
| 08:32 am
Tonight as we were heading out for bed check I saw that Firefly was in the corner of the back pasture, near the dog yard and the road.
Then I heard a very distressed cat noise and Firefly was galloping for the barn.
Oopsy.
(Checked her all over and she doesn't seem to be scratched, no further cat noises so I presume the poor thing bolted but is unharmed)
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September 26th, 2009
| 10:32 pm
I love my fillies. I got to show off yesterday that not only do I bathe them without halter or lead of any kind, I also hose their faces without restraints, too.
Today Firefly had some goop in the corner of her eye, so I pulled her eyelid down to see if she had a hair or something. She had some gunk in there, so I grabbed it and pulled it out. All without restraint, again. Such good li'l beebees. (And then she wanted me to pleeeease rub the itchy eye for a while, mommie!)
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September 17th, 2009
| 11:06 am
Yesterday I had a surprisingly non-dizzy day, so I hopped on Kat for a few minutes. That number of minutes turned out to be very, very few. My newfound pain intolerance apparently will not allow me to ride bareback on Kat.
Still, she and I were both happy that I had a chance to pull her out and do some stuff with her. And I was tremendously impressed when my skittish mare simply stood and stared, when a cottontail bolted from literally under her front feet. What a good girl.
I also did a little long-overdue saddle work. It's good to work. Even a little bit is nice, when "any" has been impossible for so long.
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September 15th, 2009
September 13th, 2009
| 02:48 pm
Who knew horses could be histrionic?
Kat spent about an hour today making the most awful noises--distressed, even panicky whinnies. She was on the far side of the barn from the babies, who were perfectly fine and quite calm. She would go stand at one of the gates, where she could see them, then run around in a circle screaming her head off. (Duchess, of course, was in her AC stall and was also perfectly calm.)
I *think* the poor idiot wanted the babies to go graze in the front pasture with her, and they just weren't budging.
Very distressing to us, of course, because that sort of sound out of the horses usually means something awful. Somebody's hurt herself, someone's trapped, someone's separated from the rest and can't see them and is about to panic...and we kept going out to check, just to find all four horses fine.
Kat's been in heat for about two weeks. I think the hormones have overwhelmed her brain. I wonder if I need to talk to our vet.
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September 12th, 2009
| 07:48 pm
Walked babies today. Worked on standing at mounting block. Good babies. Hands shaking and body giving out. More later if I can.
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