Surgery, hoof trimming, and needles

 

Early yesterday morning we made the trip into town with Flavious for his surgery. We dropped him off and headed back home to work on trimming goat hooves. We managed to get part of the herd done and next week we'll finish the rest. I can only work for so long before my hands start to hurt... squeezing the clippers repeatedly starts to create blisters on my palms. I know I should wear gloves but I go so much by feel while I'm trimming... feel of where I want to cut, where I don't, and where the clippers are positioned, that gloves just don't work for me, so I'll take the sore hands.

Jim, our caretaker/helper, took some pictures in between helping me with holding goats. Sammy is the easiest to do since he's still a big baby and curls up in my lap to chew his cud just like he did when he was a kid. He's still that same little kid - just with big horns and a lot bigger belly.

I think Sammy would appreciate it if I would just move to the barn with him, seeing that he cannot live at the house with me anymore. I've resisted the urge to relocate permanently so far, but I do visit him often at his lodgings for evening cuddles and reading sessions. As most of you know, he always enjoys a good book... In more ways than one.

Brie was a very good girl, as was Henrietta. Since they are small, they are super easy to handle, and they are pretty quiet little girls in general.

 

Later in the afternoon it was back to the Vet clinic. Norman & Douglas came with us to get their annual check ups and vaccines and a very unhappy Flav was waiting to come home. Both Norman and Douglas got pretty good bills of health, and their vaccines, so they are ready to head North again. I learned a little bit more about Norman's heart condition, which helped me understand a little better where we stand, which made me feel a lot better. So far his heart sounds pretty good despite a light murmur, and the Vetmedin is keeping him pretty balanced. He just needs to loose a little weight.

I can still remember when I first learned he had an enlarged heart, barely. I could not stop crying, and when I asked the Vet what this meant, how long he'd live, she shrugged and said "it's hard to say." I was thinking it was all over, he was young and I've only ever dealt with enlarged hearts in old dogs, dogs who were already on their last legs... so I was afraid. He was a year and half old. Now at five, he's going strong, but it was a horrible day. As soon as I came home I told friends, many of whom also have Chihuahua's in their lives, and so very many of them told me similar experiences with their dogs who had ended up living normal long lives with the help of good diets and medications. It gave me an absolute ton of relief.

We brought Flav home and put him in a dry comfortable stall in the barn. He hated it... and I'm pretty sure he considered disowning me, at least once. He considered in the course of the evening, running away and joining the circus and I know for a fact he spent most of the night (or all of it) planning a detailed escape from the horrible prison I put him in, without any valid charges and without reading him his rights or offering to call in legal counsel for him. He was pretty miserable. He worked hard to destroy his cone, I could tell his hope was if he smashed it into a million pieces, maybe he'd be able to bury it in a place where no one would ever again find a trace of it or it's existence... and in between looking at me with varying degrees of sadness, disgust, and anger, he sat in the corner and closed his eyes... I'm sure imaging chasing rabbits and squirrels with Max in the freedom of the pastures.

Meanwhile Brie and Henrietta looked on with concern at their fearless (a bit of an exaggeration) leader, who protects them from all the horrible things in this world whom wish to eat them... sitting in a pen with a cone on his head crying in a corner.

This morning Flav was not very pleased and he was going crazy. He had tried to dig out, chew out, and then a little later, after he had his breakfast, he ripped all the screen down from the side of the barn where we roll it up to let the air in, and continued trying to eat through the walls of the barn, hurting his mouth in the process.

It got to be a little much. I relented because my barn was being absolutely destroyed and put him in a separate pasture across from the barnyard, away from Max so he won't be playing rough and so Max cannot mess with his bandages. Izzie the three toed cow is with him, and he spent most of the day sleeping and digging holes to lie down in. He's not running around, and he's thrilled to be free... although disgusted he still has his cone collar on... He's smashed it pretty bad, but I'd like him to wear it while I'm away the next couple of days so Jim doesn't have to worry about him messing with his bandages. As soon as I'm home from New York, I'll take it off. Unless he completely destroys it before then, which by the looks of it at bedtime tonight, is likely.

I'll take pictures. At the clinic they said if the collar wasn't too messed up I could return it. There might be about two pieces of it left when Flav is through with it.

Douglas was pleased with his visit to the clinic, which isn't unusual... he's happy to see anyone, go anywhere, and do anything. Norman, really couldn't care less about the entire situation and was pretty much bored with all of it.

I changed Flavious bandages tonight, I was supposed to do it tomorrow but we are leaving for New York by 8 AM so it was easier to do it tonight. His foot looks good - the incision is clean, and now he's got fresh bandages on. Jim held Flav while I was working on his foot, and in the middle of my bandage changing, Izzie moo wanders over, sniffs everything, and then proceeds to pick up the old gauze from Flav's bandaging and just as I reached to grab it from her, she tried to take off with it! She's such a goof ball. Meanwhile, Brina, the goat kid broke out of the barnyard, and squeezed through the gate into the pasture we were in, because she was tired of having to wait for her milk until we were finished with Flav's bandages. Very little patience to go around here on this farm.

Now it's time to quickly pack and prepare for tomorrow before bed. It's been a busy few days. I fell asleep in my chair last night which is something I almost never do. I might end up doing it again tonight if I'm not careful!