Friday, March 17, 2017

Exciting Things

About a month ago, DJ was sitting in our living room and "felt a rain drop."  His words, not mine.  He called a contractor friend to have him come out and look at it.  I suggested DJ mentioning finishing the basement to him and see what it would cost.  "Just get a rough estimate so we have an idea," I said.  To my surprise, DJ asked.

And then DJ started making plans!

Nick has come out a few times to measure things and talk about a plan.  We change things on him each time he comes, cuz I'm convenient like that..

So now my lunch breaks are spent on Pinterest looking/dreaming/planning.  Here's my vision.  Ish...
Basement Remodel



Yes, I do realize that is an outdoor fire pit.  No, I am not planning on putting it in my basement.  Maybe I can find an indoor version looking similar.

I'm sure my plans will change multiple times, but they're going to start framing on Monday.  Flying by the seat of my pants.  My comfort zone.

Also-- today marks eight months!  It's nice out and Char's coming up, so maybe we can get some decent pictures of Mama in all her muddy glory!

Sunday, March 5, 2017

Month Seven Part 2

The following Wednesday, I went out to do chores.  I gave Mama her antibiotics and went about my normal daily chores: scooping poop, filling hay bags, etc.  Since it was nice out and DJ was gone, I decided to set up my barn camera (or try to).  I went back to the house to get it and plugged it in.  I opened the app on my phone, but it couldn't find it.  I went back inside to move the router and head back to the barn.  Still nothing.  I accept defeat for the night and grain the horses.  Mama doesn't move.  Weird.  I call for her and she looks at me, still doesn't move.  I take the feed pan to her and she sniffs it.  Hmm...  She tries to take a bite and starts shaking her head.  I watch her for a bit and this continues.  Then I notice her flank area is moving abnormally.  I convince myself it looks like contractions (note: I have no idea what contractions look like...).  I walk away from her to give her space and she still won't eat.  Then she comes over to me.  Hmm... this is weird-- she's not exactly thrilled with me since I started shoving a tube of antibiotics down her throat twice a day.  Then she starts pawing.

I call Peter.  No answer.  I call Tessa.  She answers, screaming children and all.  I tell her what's going on and then I realize the sweat is real and I'm not just convincing myself of that.  Time to call the vet.  I give him the rundown and he wants to check her.  Naturally things like this only happen when DJ is gone with the truck.  I call Debbie and start crying as soon as she answers.  It's like I kept my cool for the first two phone calls and then lost it.  Her and Bill hook the trailer up and head over.  We load her up and head to the clinic.

We get there and he's in the barn waiting.  Her respiratory rate is high and her guts are moving fast.  Another head scratcher, because other than that she now appears normal.  He decides to give her some banamine and suggests I keep her separate from Pongo to notice any changes in manure consistency or food consumption.  Uhh, yeah I can do that... I guess.  That won't be too hard.  By the time I get home, I'm a walking zombie.  She's eating again and acting normal.  "I'll figure this out tomorrow," I tell myself.  I get inside and call DJ.  I tell him we need to figure something out to keep them apart.  He's pretty excited willing to play Bob the Builder.

By the time I got home from work, I had a stall in the barn.  WHAAAAT!!  Major brownie points for DJ!

The craziness has quieted and we're getting into a routine for giving the antibiotics.  Hopefully that will be the end of the excitement until baby gets here in June... fingers crossed!

Thursday, March 2, 2017

Month Seven

Month seven came and went.  Four months to go (less now...)!

I was doing chores on a Thursday and when I was walking around, I decided to reach down and handle Mama's teats (NOT to be confused with Ma).  I've done this randomly since I decided to breed her to get her used to having her teats messed with, so she will allow the foal to nurse.  She's never had an issue with it; she'd just look at me like what are you doing under there?  This day was different.  She wasn't having it and tried kicking at me.  I looked under there and noticed one side was way bigger than the other.  Since she was otherwise acting normal, I decided to keep an eye on it for a few days to see if there were any changes.  Monday rolled around and there wasn't much change.  The more research I did, the worse the news got.  I decided to call the vet and see what he said.  He wanted to see her to make sure it wasn't mastitis.  I had the day off, so we got the trailer hooked up and headed down.

He checked her over and "milked" her.  It was (as far as we can tell) milk.  Normal looking milk.  He decided to do an ultrasound, as early milk production can be a sign of abortion.  Everything looked normal on the ultrasound.  We saw the little one's head and the placenta looked fine.  Her cervix is tight.  All signs of a normal/healthy pregnancy.  Gotta love it when the vet says your case is a head scratcher....

We decided to treat it as placentitis to be safe.  Antibiotics twice a day until there's a baby.  We're assuming the baby is sick and will need to be seen ASAP.  As it gets closer to then, I'll talk to my vet and decide if he wants her down there to foal or if our place is good enough and call when something happens.

Here's some pictures of her at approximately seven months.  I think you can see she was feeling fine!!




The chalkboard would have been pretty boring- -the only news: We have hair on the tail!