Sunday, February 22, 2009

Call Me Dr. Jen...


Ok, I'm not a veterinarian, but when you own animals and have a farm, you find yourself doing a lot of things to cut down on vet bills. This morning I went out to let the chickens out of the coop, and found my 12 year old gelding Buck standing on the rock in front of my tack room, dripping blood from a gash in his neck. I don't know how he did it, but just in front of his shoulder he has a cut about 3 inches long. The muscle is fine, it's just his skin. I haltered him up and led him to the house, where I hollered for my husband (nurse) to come out and help me. My mom, another animal person, got me this great little first-aid kit for animals designed exactly for this type of thing. Hubby got me a bucket of hot water, rags, 4x4 pads, and an apple to keep the patient occupied. Buck seemed to know I was trying to help him, and was not as fractious as he could have been. Buck is a handful, and when we got him about 4 years ago, it was obvious he had been beaten by men, specifically with a curry comb up around his head. It literally took me years to get him to trust me enough to do anything up around his ears. The fact that he was waiting for me when I went out actually means a lot to me, because he finally knows I will take care of him.
He stood like a champ as I washed all the debris out I could see, and trimmed the hair from around the wound. I packed it with an aloe salve, covered it with 4x4's, and wrapped it with green adhesive bandage. He looks a little ridiculous. Big white horse with a green collar on. I'm hoping the other horses will leave his bandage alone. Tucker, the big sorrel I have, likes to play tug-of-war. I hope he doesn't grab Buck's bandage.
Tonight I'll give Buck a shot of penecillin and a tetanus booster, and I think he'll be fine.
Then, last night, my husband though he would give puppy a piece of meatball. Cricket was all for the idea, and scarfed the meat down without chewing it. I hear something a second later, and here she's writhing on the ground, choking. I snatched her up and squeezed her chest, then swung her towards the ground, hoping centrifugal force would pull the meat out. Luckily, it did.
Man, two heart-attacks in two days. I thought weekends were supposed to be relaxing?
Can't wait till Monday...

I also wanted to note, I've gotten almost 6k words down in the past day and a half. Hooyah, baby!

5 comments:

  1. You are Dr. Jen.

    Wow--you really are! The animals are fortunate to have your loving care.

    ReplyDelete
  2. We'd be broke if I had to pay a vet for every little thing! Most of the time it's just common sense anyway.
    Thanks for stopping by!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jennifer, it's great what you're doing with the animals. :o) I'd have them everywhere if I was able to take care of them and had a place to keep them. There was a time when I had 3 horses and 4 calves, not to mention dogs, cats, and turkeys, and all of them at the same time. Taking care of them was a job, but I loved it.

    Now I have to tell you that I'm jealous. That's right. Jealous! 6K words! I've NEVER done that many in that length of time. CONGRATULATIONS!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you very much. The animals take up a lot of my time, but I love it. And my husband loves me. He's allergic to everything, Horses especially! But he puts up with them and all the bills attached to them. I think their feed bill is more expensive than ours every month.
    As for the 6k, don't get too excited. That happens once in a blue moon. I think I average about 1-2 a day. On the days I write.
    Thanks for stopping by!

    ReplyDelete
  5. And about the animals. When we first moved to Ky, we had 5 horses, 3 goats, 2 dogs, 4 cats, 15 chickens and a pot-belly pig. (and a partridge in a pear tree)

    ReplyDelete