This morning, my neighbour Michael and I went to search for the culprit that caused that there was no reaction from the electric fencing ....
Cubanito, our grey one, had already pleated some poles and tested the wires.
The culprit turned out to be the poor conductivity of the ground. Therefor Michael made 2 additional grounding contacts and all the bad contact of the wires were redone.
The horses enjoyed the sun that finally shone again ... and most of them went to lie down and have a nice rest. But Aston was not feeling well and by noon he had the Niagara Falls again.
Together with Michael we moved Amoroso and the Black Stallion ....The Black back to the Cubanito and Altanero...and Amoroso with Aston. So I could give these 2 a bit more avena what would do their bowels some extra good. The other men had had fewer bowel problems, so.
At lunchhour I went to the kids and was shockedto see they had about half a bale of cebada to eat ... while it's a new kind of food for them ..... Although I had prepared all the food for the next 3 days, nicely divided into packets for morning, lunch and evening ... something obviously went wrong.I informed the man that they can only give the food that I have prepared before, because I want to avoid any additional problems.
Later at home I noticed however that the Black Stallion was lying down a lot and again focused on his box ... as if something was disturbing him ...and yes I did not see him urinate. So I warmed some water and gave him another internal wash.
So a busy day once again .... and Aston left me no rest .... I treated him with the torch again and did the extra points that Brian had communicated. You'll never believe it .... at 7 pm. Aston put the perfect pack down .... the best of them all
Searched for a new device ....and did not find it, so I opened it myself. Went to the store to get a new condensator, but later inspection by my neighbour Michael revealed nthat the condensator was not broken.
A new fuse was inserted and there was a good contact. Thuisgekomen bleek na plaatsing om 20u15 dat er niets veranderd was aan de situatie.....
But back home I installed it again at 20u15, it appreared that nothing had changed ... Well if it ain't the wires and it ain't the device, what then ?
Sometimes by night I already have forgotten what I actually did that day .... don't worry, it's just fatigue
The night was particularly bad ... every movement of my head awakened me because of the pain of the pinched nerve in my neck. Luckily I was able to visit the chiropractor this afternoon.
Like every morning it's a matter of preparing and administering oral syringes, feeding the horses and cleaning the stables and paddocks completely & thoroughly. And that should happen today too, but slightly slower and with less abrupt movements.
As I got ready to go to the chiropractor and washed my hair, I deblocked my spinal purely accidental and I had much less pain.... ... I therefor annuled my urgent appointment ....as he was taking me after his hours because it was urgent and now it wasn't anymore.
Given the good response of the horses on the "paja the cebada en rama" I phoned the supplier and ordered a load .... Normally it will be delivered on Thursday, if it finally stops raining...
The horses are meanwhile better again: Scores:
Altanero: 9/10 (always leave the door open he) ) Cubanito: 9/10 Black Stallion: 9/10 Amoroso: 1 pack less good in the last 12 hours: 7 / 10 Aston: No Niagara falls in the last 24 hours...still a bit soft sometimes ... but much better than sunday 4 / 10
In the afternoon I returned to see the little foals of course. They had to stay inside all day because of the inclement wet weather. Luckily they have an extra large shed where they can easily walk around in these bad days.
At 9 pm. the big guys got their 4th meal of the day and yet another day had gone ...
Once more I made a false move and I pinched a nerve in my neck ... a good start to the day soHmhm... HMHM ...
Quickly went down and excecuted all the tasks because I had to leave to go to Alicante. Meanwhile my neighbour Tony stayed with the horses. Aston was indeed quiet and had become a bit sad.... After seeing the inspectiondoc, I had to go to the medical horse clinic because my vet had enough of the fact that Aston still had diarhea. As everything was OK at home (I called several times .. yesyes), I went to see the little ones and they were all fine. Then I went to the pharmacy for an extra charge of medicine and then I went back home.
All horses were right up and everything was cleaned up ... I could not see what had been laid during my absence.
I gave Aston the antibiotics but was shortly afterwards shaken as he no longer had diarrhea ... During the whole period that I was downstairs with them they were no more waterfalls ... I was almost sorry that I had given antibiotics but well...it was too late now...
Also the rest of the day the packages were acceptable, yet not good but better than yesterday.
The DA was surprised that I had managed to find "paja the cebada en rama". Apparently, it must be totally different than the barley straw up North of Europe because here it seems to be one of the best for horses. And the one they delivered to me yesterday does not have those piercing stems and therefore can not cause damage to mouth and intestines.
So they had a bit this afternoon for the first time for dinner and again at 16.30 and 21u30 although mixed with oat straw where the grains are still and straw of oats and ...
Ow yes ... they are crazy about it and are even a bit wild when they see me coming down with it....
Tired and worried Ow ... did I tell you yet that it's raining again and now the stormy winds are heard and felt.
I didn't sleep much....Amoroso had spasms again last night and so I had to keep him in sight And for me that meant staying with him for an hour after he gets better again and then check on him every 90 minutes.
Fortunately he stayed well during the night.
The showers were not too bad ... we have been spared so far.... but it is very dark and cloudy .
This morning I had an appointment at 10 am. with my neighbours to go and pick up a large bale of straw that I bought yesterday at the ranch where the foals are. The weather was still threatening but fortunately it had not rained yet. We connected the trailer and went on our way. After we had put the big bale in the trailer we went to visit the 4 foals to say hello and stroke them. The objective is that the neighbours would go once a week to visit the kids so that they would be less alone .... At my place I was all day long in their neighborhood.
We hugged them and pieces of apple and banana (in fact my breakfast) were distributed.
On our way home we were stopped & put aside by the Guardia Civil....and I knew why but... well ....
So to the side and get out ... meanwhile I had my iron corset on top of my other one ... Madam, you know that car and trailer have to have the same nrplate ? But of course sir, that's how it is no ? Well damn, well I've loaned my trailer to a friend and they have apparently forgotten to change the plates again. Oh sir, I've got the plates at home. Why don't you come with us... I just went out to get some food for some starving colts that I saved...blabla blabla .... A vague memory of my old career in Belgium came back to the surfaceand my arguments took 5 more minutes ... but I did win all means ... Maybe he felt ashamed at what his fellow citizens had done to these foals ... and saying that both the Police and Seprona were informed about my actions ... well
Instead of having to pay 160 for the fine, I received a warning ...and that's a first .... whew an extra 160 for the foals so
Back home everyone was free and upright. And Amoroso put a nearly perfect package down for the first time in 3 days. The treatment with the torch must have done him good. During the afternoon cleaning at the paddocks of the foals, a truck arrived... and they thought of playing with my feet again. I had ordered 10 bales of barleystraw to see if the foals would like it and was well tolerated but he arrived with a full truck.
Well I did not change my mind and he backed off with the rest.
After the disinfection of the stables I took the time to briefly look on the internet about information on barley straw .... and so I learned to know the different types ... I was also warned about the danger of barley straw and so I decided not to use it today but to wait till tomorrow, so I could first speak with the vet.
During the afternoon Aston deteriorated ...He had another visit from the Niagara Falls. It was terrible .... it squirted easy 1.5 m far back ...
This could not continue and so I decided to give him a complete treatment with the torch and to also treat the points for viral infections. Luckily he was still playful and was still eating...
All in all a tiring day and tonight I will hold guard ... you can't be too carefull with Amaroso !
Thus we returned to oats, because alfalfa at every meal seemed to do nothing good for their bodies ... and other straw can lead to congestion so...
And then .... then you have oats straw with the oats still on, called "avena en rama" here ... which I've just 5 bales or something left. The entire winterstock of my horse went to the foals.Yes indeed, really, I gave the food for my horse to the foals.
And so this morning I 've been calling around and going to stables .... but nobody has any avena and it is no longer available untill May 2010....
Tomorrow I get a few bales of something that should appear like a cereal straw .... something about straw of something else
Nobody in northern Spain or France can help me to find a phone number of a supplier?
A donkey ... does not hit his head 2 on the same rock ...
or how do they say it again
This morning it was already so far ... within a time span of 5 minutes, I knocked my head against the same corner twice ... How stupid do you have to be ? Or was it a sign that I was tired and should take it easy.
Amoroso had a good night ... after the last spasms of last night I did not see anything druing the check-ups that was disturbing, he was relaxed.
After administering the morning oral syringes (URBAL & ultra levure) I saw during the cleanigworks that Amoroso had diarrhea now: that did not disturb me much because the pain relief he got yesterday could have caused it. The packets of the others were slightly better, only Aston is still in the back row.
Continuing on my feeling of yesterday they only had avena / oats for breakfast. Amoroso also ate and had no cramps after that.
As the other owner of the ranch had now arrived and was up with his horses, I took advantage of the fact that there was a superintendent who could keep everything in sight, to go the pharmacy to pick up the rest of the order of yesterday and find a cream for my burned hands and to pick up the mail: I received some lovely post of a co-bokker with beautiful pictures of her rescued animals and a bonus for the foals: They thank you!
Back home, everything went fine, so I filled the car to go to the little ones ... Hearing my car is still enough for Filly to call for me
I laid out the food laid for the next few days and decided to start giving them foalchunk again ... they are not sick and they need it, so we begin to quietly rebuild it up.
Back home I gave the big boys their lunch and started to clean again.
After lunch Amoroso had cramps again but not for long and no injection was needed.
At dinner I decided to let Amoroso eat only a small amount in the barn to eat so he could not overeat with the others ...But of course there was something standing in the way, my left leg was not high enough and so I landed flat on the ground in the remains in the bleach ...I can barely step and will start treating me now.
Amoroso just had some coliccramps again and therefor we will have another tiring night with regular check-ups.
Now preparing the evening syringes and then administer them ...
I saw it immediately .... this is not good .... Amoroso was lying down this morning when I went down.
He did get up to go have his breakfast and did his business ... but stopt eating and went lying down again ... he streched his leg and stretched his neck, his head went back and he showed his teeth, his breathing was faster and louder .... so it was clear to me he was having pain and went back up to get an injection and to take the torch.
I gave him an injection and treated the colicpoints. I sent an SMS message to the vet because he only starts at 9:30 ... And then the vet called me and I could also tell him that everything was better. The vet was in surgery and therefore not around ... he was also off work from noon till next Monday. Agreement was that I would call him before noon to tell him the situation.
An extra large barn with an extra large paddock ... fortunately at only 15 km from home ... so I can go visit them daily and take care of them
Punkie has already captured some hearts ...and an adoptive candidate ... but he can not go right now ... he has x legs and we have to see with the vet what we can do ...
Edit: because of the question of Yvonne, I would like to confirm that the children are fed 3 times a day But today I was there just in time for breakfast and so I gave them their meal.Otherwise they give the children their meal. I do provide the food that is given because that is part of the agreement and also I'll know exactly what the kids eat They are in a riding school where people are constantly walking around and it was recommended to me by our vet ...
I hope you understand ... but I'm still running past myself to get everything done ...
Short version vd days:
After giving the first round of medication and the distribution of the breakfast, I quickly went to 2 places to go and see where the 4 little ones could stay for max. a month. One of the places fell through because everything was built for adult horses and not for the kids...they could run underneath.
In the first place it appeared to be in the backyard of a finca but the littlens would not be able to go inside on their own and in my humble opinion would never get any sun but in the wind when the weather would be bad.So this was definitely not an option.
In the second place they had a large barn where they had direct access to a large paddock and even if it was (because of rain for example) necessary they could easily stay several days in the barn because it's really big. Unfortunately, this solution is terribly expensive, but well .... I have no choice: And so I called the vet to explain my decision and asked F whether he could drive the little ones for me (I'm no longer car with towbar, hence) to the new place.
Back home neighbour Tony helped us so we could quickly load all foals into the horsevan and wetook them to their new place:"La Llar del Cavall" in Muxtamel (Alicante).
At noon they were in their new place .... a bit concerned at the sight and hearing of so many horses (bad memories catching up propably....) I found them comfortable and gave them their dinner in their new temporary shed. Home at 12:45 and now my workingday still had to start ...
All paddocks were clean at 4.30 p.m. and meanwhile keeping an eye on all there horses I heard something running or falling, ...were they urinating or did they have diarrhea .... and who had normal feces and who had diarrhea ?
3 showed signs of Niagara Falls as my vet calls it... Only Picollo and Amoroso had nice balls ... but Picollo did have problems with gas and abdominal pain. The Black Stallion on the other hand could not pee again and I gave him an internal cleaning with one hour of interval.... but this time it did not do the trick to get his penis out of the shaft. I had an appointment with the vet to call him at 16.30 to explain the status but I already sent him an SMS before to ask him to come ... Black continued to have problems and it bothered him ... so I rubbed his belly and his b ****** jes ... (that's the first time for me!) en hij And it did him such good .... if you see a horse in pain, but then virtue of what you give him, that makes your whole day. His penis finally came out but he did not urinated
The vet came at 17u25 while I was cleaning the boxes with the Kärcher that fell down and was broken .... .... Now I must go buy 2 new because it was not mineand I can not go without
Briefly now, because I have to go tothe horses
*had a sweet phonecall from a lady who sent the packages with the good news that someone wanted to give a donation for the foals and that would be used to help regulate the vetbills. A was here at 17u25 * with the stableing of the foals for one month and the vet today, I'm now almost 600 poorer in less than 24 h ... and even then the vet has been very sweet ...
This morning everyone was up when I went to give them their injections ... but soon afterwards the gray went down and continued eating ... not so good sign ...
Pretty Face seemed slightly better, Black Stallion was lying down a lot.
The neighbours Brenda and Michael came down again, all stables were emptied and decontaminated again, as well as everything else like buckets, brushes, halters etc. .. paddocks were cleaned and then the picador prepared for the arrival of the little ones. With this we were finished by noon.
Then I continued on my own and thanked my neighbours for all their help.
more info tonight
Pretty Face and Picollo yesterday
Cubanito has lost weight
Pretty Face is isolated and feels miserable despite my good care
View of the new distributions of the paddocks and the littlens in the picador ...
Black Stallion with problems
Chiki showing the rope halters that were made on Sunday ...
Pretty Face who rolled down between the barriers, got stuck and scared me to death (sorry the picture is not sharp, but I was in a hurry to go and help him).
Pretty Face wasnot feeling too good ... but the painkiller that I had injected happyly started to work quickly ...
Thus ... when I went down this morning AltaNero (Picollo for Brenda) was lying down... not unusual in itself but when you know they normally are all waiting up for breakfast ... Then you know that something was wrong. But Picollo saw me with breakfast and immediately got up and put a pack down... so I was relieved.
I gave breakfast to everyone ... all alfalfa and Chiki & Negro their grain + alfalfa:
But then I saw Picollo lying down again next to his food and he rolled (something he had never done before) ... and so I decided to put him a halter on, and to isolate him and call the vet ... The vet had to come today anyways if Aston "Pretty Face" would not improve.
And Aston did in fact not improve at all....and Picollo went rolling ... and rolling ... and rolling ... and then a good thick Plops double pack came out .... and he was playing the deadgame ...
I stayed with him ... of course .....but meanwhile he had rolled down to Pretty Face and got stuck and Pretty Face did not want to get up so I had to turn Picollo all 4 feet in the air and roll him over again myself. He got up to go and lie down again a meter further and about 10 minutes later, another load of manure came out ... he obviously had had an obstruction in his intestines ....
I left him lying for a while so he could recover and later on he voluntarily got up .... And Aston also just got up when the vet arrived.
Meanwhile, the Black Stallion went down loo but that he does that every day after breakfast. The vet checked him out as well as possible ... but found nothing special. Picollo was well enough to go back to the group, according to the vet. But with Pretty Face the vet encountered the Nigara waterfalls and the vet was really worried ... He did not like that at all.
We had to intervene .... all contact with the little ones should be avoided because what came out of Pretty Face srayed easily further than a meter aways
And so he wanted the little foals to be moved into the round pen during daytime and locked up at night .... all well and good but it does take several hours of work to make the roundpen foalproof and I still have to clean and desinfect all the stables, I had to go and get medication at the farmacist and so on ....
Thus a temporary solution was necessary.... I asked if Negro and Chiki could go up the hill at the other stables but F refused... He just took his horse Negro and left me with my problems...
Long story made short ... I've put double cables everywhere so the horses can not get into contact with each other. The little ones are at the stable of Chiki and Chiki is standing in between the littlens and the big boys
All the big ons are getting Urbal again every 12 hours, the sick ones every 8 hours and also an injection Fluxinine and a paste every 8 h with Flore process and ultra-levura.
And now I have to go back down and later on I ll take a rest....So until later ....
I'm at the end of my strength but I continue to fight .... I have no good news ... I'll try to post more info tonight ... need to go back down .... Fortunately, 2 neighbours come down at 4 p.m.... because I saw that I just could not finisch the work before it would be dark ... And now let's hope Chikiboy will stay calm because F just came to get Negro to put him up at his place with his other horse.... yes I was not amused ... It's not the right time to have more stress
The vet is on his way ... AltaNero has colic .... will lie and roll, roll, lie ... Vet is on his way, more info later ...
Edit 10:30: We're still waiting for the vet but everything is already better again. Altanero apparently had an obstruction because after 10 times a double load of manure came out and he released 10 minutes later another load .... all together more than a dayload ....
He also got up from himself 15 minutes ago. I left the stables as they are so the vet can have a look at all the manure. Of the littlens only Filly suffers a bit, the rest looks fine .... Even the manure from the big boys is acceptable this morning.
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