Sunday, April 19, 2009

Weekend - rain & shots

Saturday it rained, so nothing much got accomplished. Today it looked like rain all morning and was blustery & on the chilly side. About 2 PM the sun popped out and it started to warm up and dry the puddles. Even so, the ground was still pretty greasy when we got to the farm.

T moved in a round bale, and we wormed them all but Sahara (I thought I had four Ivermectin left, so I only picked four up - turns out I only had three and one Strongid... drat!) and vaccinated Sunny and Amyra for West Nile. The vet clinic didn't have the 4-way I wanted, and the tractor supply store was out, so I have a raincheck in for that.

Amazingly, everyone was good. Shots were a complete non-issue for the two that got them - they both had their heads in their grain buckets, and I don't think the pricks even registered.

Sunny's never been a problem to give shots to, other than one memorable occasion right after I bought him. He was a long yearling, and the first thing on my agenda was to have him gelded. The day or so following he had some swelling - only on one side - which was a bit concerning, so I called to see what the vet wanted me to do.

"Hose him down with cold water, and give him some penicillin."

It was, of course, a cold, blustery spring day. Sunny really hadn't been handled all that much at that point, and he wasn't real thrilled to be snubbed to a post away from his friends. He was even less thrilled when I turned the hose on him. But he was fairly good for that portion of the day's agenda.

The shot, however, he was having nothing to do with. After being squashed into the sucker bars repeatedly, stepped on, dropping the needle multiple times, both of us sliding around in the mud, I stood back, looked him over, and told him, "Fine! You win. Just see if I care when you drop dead!" I was just a touch annoyed....

Of course he was fine. Vaccinations (small gauge needle) were no problem. And when he stepped on a nail and developed an abscess as a three-year-old, by that point he'd decided penicillin shots, large needle & all, were no big deal - especially when accompanied by his morning grain ration - LOL!

Other than that, a quiet weekend

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