August the month of challenges

[sas]

Well after last night and last week I feel like crawling into a hole.

As some of you know our black mare decided to cut her cheek somehow
and severed an artery. It was a horrendous gash and we never did get the
artery fully tied off. She's been on stall rest since which doesn't go well, since she's
a hot blooded thoroughbred.

Then we had a swarm of honeybees take over one of our chimneys, great for the garden
but I'm afraid they won't survive the winter where they are.

Then last night, hubby takes out our Border collie and she gets sprayed by a skunk.
Yes we have a resident skunk, a big sucker. He normally stays out on the lawn and
everyone is educated on keeping doors closed and the dog on a leash after dusk and early
in the morning. Well last night my son had parked his car close to the back door and you guessed
it Mr. Skunk was lurking at the back of the car, Jess our dog was leashed but guess hubby was tired
and didn't notice. He's getting teased relentlessly for having a major fail .

While bathing Jess this morning, yes everyone all of a sudden has important appointments
this morning except me, I actually(gasp) contemplated putting a hit out on Mr. Skunk. But
no he's not a bad sort just a tad misunderstood. Funny now how he's now called MR. and
not just the skunk .



Thanks for reading my rant, but you know I wouldn't live anywhere else.

[Fishnut]

Ah, the joys and trials of country life.  To think most people in the city think country life is simple!!  We also have a resident skunk...at least we must because I regularly smell one at dusk around our place...in the city.

How is your mare doing?  What is the prognosis?

[smalltownfan]

Sue, after seeing your place and the location, I miss the country life too. It does come with it's "challenges". But, on the scales of life, they don't make any difference. We wouldn't have it any other way.

Hank

[dan2x38]

Hope your mare is OK? Hope your week improves over last one/s.

[sas]

Fishnut, looks like "Susie" will recover, thank goodness.
After looking around the fields, I estimated that she lost roughly
8 liters of blood. Susies a big mare at 1600lbs and could lose roughly 80 litres.
Pretty scary stuff although horses can lose a lot of blood.

Yesterday was the first day that Susie was allowed out on pasture
and of course she had to roll and scrub the bajeebers out of her
incision. Thankfully everything held together. So looks like she'll make a
full recovery and yesterday she finely had her spring back in her walk.

Hank, the house and land that you saw was our second place,
we actually live in an old farm house about 2 minutes away on only
an acre of land. It's quite tame compared to the farm you saw with the bush
so close.

Keeping my fingers crossed that Susie stays healthy and life stays simple.

[washefuzzy]

Glad to here your horse if fine.
There are skunks everywhere. I live on the 15th floor of a high rise and can smell skunk some summer nights when the window is open. Gives me the allusion I out in the country. Miss country life.

[RoxyDog]

Sue, glad to hear Susie is okay.    Mr. Skunk has some relatives in the city where I live, I smell them ALL the time...it's too bad they smell bad b/c they sure are cute.  I'm quite sure the dog will get hit one of these days, I can only imagine de-skunking a great dane.  

[Greatwhite]

I'm a weirdo.. I like the smell of skunk - from a distance.  Well - not "like", but I don't "hate" it.

That all changed a few years back when my Lab got sprayed right outside my patio door.  It is COMPLETELY different up close and fresh.  My poor, dumb dog - ran back to the house, near blind.  Ran in the patio door - and up the stairs to his bed...... in our bedroom.

I had just read that tomato juice was not "ideal" for removing the stink, and to use a weak peroxide in shampoo.  Luckily, I had some dog shampoo with peroxide in it for a skin issue that my dog had at the time.  It really worked, but you could still smell the skunk for weeks after whenever he got wet.

[magnosis]

I feel your pain, Sue !  Injured horses are no fun to deal with >.< and get crazy expensive really fast !!

My brother did his coach/trainer course at LaPocatiere, and has good relations with the vets there.  On a few occasions we've sent out injured horses to them; long and stressful drive, but not much worst than driving to Guelph and a heck of a lot cheaper.  Maybe something to consider in the future... let's hope you won't have to !

One other advise I would pass on is to add some cayenne pepper on the bandages (over, not under !! aha).  It really really helps keeping the horse (and her friends!) from munching on it and taking it off. 

Lastly, never lose hope (doh!) ;-)
I remember 10 yrs ago we had a really promising young gelding brake a femur (ouch!).  Everyone was telling us it was over, it wasn't fixable, better put him out of his misery...  Guess what ? We didn't listen.  My dad managed to build a cast around it using hockey pads, rebars, duct tape and bandages (and cayenne pepper, ehehe) and saved him !  Today you'd never know that even happened to him less you had an x-ray scan to show it !  It was almost as exciting to call and tell the vets they were wrong ("in your face !" ahaha ) as it was to see the horse get back on all 4 ! :-D

Best of luck with Susie !!  Our entire herd is praying for her ;-)

[rockgarden]

The black critters with the white stripes are skunks.  Their odour can be quite obvious.

The faint skunk odour in the city might be a distant skunk or it could be some local grow-op airing out the humidity at night.  Smells like faint skunk.

Glad to make everyone feel better. Now wander up and down the neighborhood streets looking for THAT house.  You know the one I mean! Our neighborhood skunk turned out to be a nice four bedroom two-story one only five house away from my house.

Ron

[sas]

Jenn I certainly hope you never have a skunk encounter with your Dane,
although you really don't have to use a lot of the concoction when bathing.

Greatwhite, this is the recipe I use when getting rid of skunk smell,

Skunk Spray Bathing Recipe

1 quart 3% hydrogen peroxide
1/4 cup baking soda
1 tsp dish washing detergent

I used Dawn dish washing detergent.
I put this on the dry dog and then leave it on for 5 minutes.
Obviously keep it out of their eyes.

Magnosis, thanks for all the tips. We have a great relationship with our vets
up here and I'm a Vet Tech so we can pretty much handle anything, except
a freak accident like this.
As far as expense, I am of the belief that if you can't afford them, then you
shouldn't have them.  

Ron that's an interesting point that you bring up concerning grow-ops.

Susie so far is doing great, incision hasn't broken down, which is a
common thing to happen. She spent all of yesterday morning out grazing in
a small paddock and today I'm hoping to get her out in the big fields.
We're at the 8 day mark and sutures are to come out 10-14 days. I'm in
no rush to take them out that's for sure.
Thanks everyone for the well wishes.
I'll have to see if I can get some pics up of her and her son, Big Al.

[RoxyDog]

Thanks for the recipe Sue, we had to use it last night.  I take back what I said about skunks being cute!   

[sas]

Oh nooooooooo!
Not fun eh?
No skunks are not cute at all.

Well the recipe works well enough but you can still smell
skunk off of Jess at night when it gets damp or after a rain.
Jess is now sporting a combination smell of Old Spice
and Obsession to help with the lingering smell.

On a side note if she's wearing Old Spice do you think we might
lure in that Old Spice guy? Not likely eh.

Back to the old nag, Susie, I may have spoken too soon. Looks like the top
of her incision is threatening to bust . Keeping my fingers crossed that
it stays together.

[washefuzzy]

Jess will be attracting mates of females and males persuasion with that mix of perfume and after shave.