Healing and Weaning

 

Looking like nine days of "healing/don't run/don't play/ don't lick" time left for us here at the Lovestead---after today, of course.

We are hoping to find out today from the vet how long to expect the No. 2 accidents.

Bridie's tummy problems continue, and we sure have washed a lot of towels around here.

She seems to be regaining control of her bowels, but it's been a marathon. 

Amazing how conversation levels among college-educated adults change during times like these. 

"Did she go poopie?" we ask each other on alternative bases.  All depends on who took her outside as to who asks. 

"No, but she squatted several times like she wanted to."  

That answer has been common. 

Without going into detail, I'll report that inside the house, Bridie has not had to squat. 

Still, in spite of all her internal gut activity, she's as happy as she can be, and the collars have kept her from licking her incision, which looks better every day. 

My sister recently went through the same 14-day healing regimen with her dog Jessie, for a different kind of surgery.

"It's hard," she told me, especially when Jessie decides the middle of the night is when she needs to go outside ON A LEASH.  

The leash part is key to this process.  They must always be on a leash whenever they go out the door. 

Laurie said she celebrated when Day 14 came.  

For some reason, both Bill and I can understand and look forward to her joy.

Yesterday, we did have some quality time on our outings in the lovely sunshine with Bridie. 

Liam and Foster didn't think it was quality time cuz they had to stay inside the house. 

During this time, Bridie must go solo because if dogs have Attention Deficit Disorder, she certainly suffers when Liam is outside, even when he's not visible outside. 

Come to think, maybe it's not Attention Deficit Disorder because she does focus, solely on where her hero happens to be. 

Liam likes to tempt her by showing up a ways away, with just his his poking out from behind a snow bank.  

Look out, leash holder when their eyes meet!

 So far, I've been able to hold Bridie back during these sudden high octane lunges, but my arm muscles have felt the sudden workouts. 

I've reflected over these past few days about the last time I had to keep an animal confined for healing, and I mean confined for a long period of time. 

That was my horse Rambo.  

He had injured his chest, his knee and his back leg  on barbwire, and the puncture wound would not heal because Rambo refused to leave it alone. 

Many a time, I chased the big horse down in the pasture after seeing his bandages gone, blood all over and him intently licking his wounds. 

Eventually, the vets said, "Keep him in the barn."  I believe it was forever during that summer with Rambo standing almost 24-7, tied snugly in a tie stall, all so he would leave his wound alone. 

Rambo was not nearly as well-behaved as Bridie, and he was a big horse.  Naturally, his mood went south the longer he had to stand cross-tied in that stall. 

Twasn't fun walking alongside him to take him outside.  

Eventually, I must have whined long enough to the vets that they loaned me their cribbing collar, made of nylon rope, beveled wooden sticks and little wooden balls, and designed especially for horses. 

Having the collar would allow me to let Rambo go to pasture, or so I thought.  

Well, that relief didn't last long.  Seeing that Rambo was not wearing his collar,  we found pieces of it collar scattered all over the pasture. 

  

Rambo returned to the barn until the wounds were deemed healed. 

Long story short, I've been through this process in an even less tolerable situation than what we're now experiencing with Bridie. 

At least, we got more sleep last night.  Bill did the 3:30 recovery of soiled towels and a trip outside so Bridie could practice her squats some more.

It's a grind, for sure, but when you love your pets and you're old, you'll step up to the plate.   

And, so the Bridie beat goes on. 

Yesterday, I thought it would be nice and safe to take her for a ride with me while I snapped photos around the neighborhood. 

I learned from that experience not to take a pup which is recovering from surgery and which had, an hour before, eaten a small bowl of rice and chicken broth.

She had seemed a little, uncharacteristically on edge during most of the ride. 

On the way back home, Bridie's lunch ended up on a towel and the floor below the passenger seat.  

As always, she was a good sport, and the mess didn't take too long to clean up.  Thank God for towels in times like these. 

Happy Monday from the Lovestead Rehab Center. 

Be sure to read the latest report from Gooby Ranch, below, which indicates that sometimes things don't take. 

She's not sleeping. 

 Bridie has watched Liam lick enough depression in the ice that she has decided it might be a fun pastime.  

These are teasers for us in the north country.  Annie spent the weekend geoaching in the Southern California desert with lackeys from Groundspeak.  

She even met the producer from "Dirty Jobs," who's a geocacher. 

Right now, leaving foot prints in sand rather than snow would be a treat. 

Bill's checking out and following tracks from univited visitors which spent time in our hay field on Saturday.  

Gooby Ranch Report

 

It was time to wean the calves.  They had their pre-weaning shots a couple weeks ago.

Mary Ann still hasn’t drunk any milk since she accidentally got her pre-weaning shot.  She is definitely weaned.

Mary Ann had to go about six miles up the county road to chase the cows down into our corral so we could separate the calves. 

The free grazing along the county road really helps us save having to use our hay.  Of course, the people driving down the road aren’t too happy.  One person stopped and told Mary Ann we should get our cows off the road. 

Mary Ann explained to him that grazing the tall grass beside the road in the winter is a big help in keeping the snow from drifting on the road. It is a win-win.

We have a neighbor close to our place that doesn’t have any cattle and spends the winter in Arizona.  I opened the gate that goes into a big alfalfa field to tighten up the wires.  

After I tightened the wires, I couldn’t close the gate.  So, I opened the gate all the way so the cows wouldn’t get caught in it. 

In a little while our cattle were through the gate and eating in the neighbor’s field.  Since the neighbor spends the winter in Arizona, they haven’t asked us to get our cattle out of their field.   

Now, Mary Ann only needs to walk a little over two miles to check the cattle.  When she went out to see how the cows were doing, I got the telescope to see what she was doing. 

The next thing I saw was her milking a cow and drinking the milk.  I guess she’s not weaned after all.