Farm news

Our new farm is progressing! The old barn we're dismantling and moving is starting to look like a frame. All of the siding is removed from the long addition, and the stalls and feeders are gone from the main floor. The milking parlor is currently being dismantled. RNB bought some special tool to remove the standing seam roofing. We had hoped to sell the metal roofing material but maybe it won't be so useful because we have to cut it to remove it.

Despite the humungous wind storm in this area recently, we had no damage to buildings! Phew! Yes, road clearning activity was required (50+ trees down across the class 6 road and the driveway) and who knows what the woods look like now. Plenty of firewood, that's for sure.

Locally, where we still live, Brownie had kids yesterday morning. Triplets! They were doing well but one got fatally clobbered by a goose. Wrong place at the wrong time, poor little thing. I cried. And moved the doe and her surviving bucklings to a stall for a few days. The geese are sitting on eggs and have proven they are to be avoided. Unfortunately, one nest is in a goat house, so future conflict is a really possibility. I'll wait till these cute little ones are larger and stronger before they are put back in the goat pen.

Cows are well. Sheep are well. Horses are well. The drizzley rainy weather of late is helping the fields green up nicely! Waiting for the asparagus to come -- that's always the first harvest, and usually abundant beyond what we can use. Family, neighbors, and the freezer will receive some of our asparagus. Chickens are laying, guineas are out in the fields, maybe eating the earliest ticks? We have been adopted by a third barn cat who is quite keen on the local rodent population so he is welcome here.

Sofia continues to improve though still limping. She limps going uphill more than downhill, and there is a little heat just at the back of her pastern on that one foot. No raised temperature anymore. I wish I understood biomechanics enough to determine just what was injured based on how she moves. It's enough for me to study her limp to develop confidence about recognizing hind foot lameness. Front lameness has been easy, using the phrase: head down, foot sound. Not quite so clear with the hind sound or lame foot, from my attempts to see this and recognize a pattern. I suppose I could google it and learn from someone else's discoveries!

Tuesday update Sofia

Yesterday her temp was down to 99.5 which helped me realize she had been running a low grade temp since I started taking her temp. Swelling seemed a little worse at her heel bulbs, but she was moving a bit more easily and when standing still to eat for example, she was shifting her weight a little onto her tipped toe and back again, back and forth.

I contacted my vet and we agreed that another round of antibiotics would be a good idea. She finished up yesterday morning and starts again this morning. I applied Traumeel topically last night after soaking her hoof. Traumeel is a homeopathic remedy to be used after traumatic injury. (That might be a redundancy, to use traumatic and injury together! Aren't all injuried traumatizing to body tissue?!!) Anyway, I massaged her heel bulb area which seemed tender to her, and gave my intuitive version of a lymphatic massage up the leg.

This morning, even better news. When walking she is weighting her foot right through the stride. Brings foot forward, puts it down -- this is all in very-lame-slow-motion -- and limps forward leaving that foot on the ground through the stride. I'm very excited about this!

I'm still undecided about my upcoming travel plans. Today I am attempting to precisely quantify and write down instructions for RNB as he has continued to offer to do Sofia's care if I decide to go away as planned months ago. I had to come to terms with the likelihood that he can indeed do what I'm doing, that I'm not absolutely required to be here as if I'm the only one who can provide her care. Especially with her looking better today, I'm feeling more confident about leaving for 4 days. Not fully confident, but more confident!

Saturday pictures with Sunday update

Sofia continues to improve though very slowly... Good that her temp remains at 101 and she's eating well (including her antibiotics which somehow are adequately disguised by cinnamon, devils claw, and alfalfa pellets!), and getting cranky with her companion, Bo. All good signs. She still is extremely lame though. I would like to see her improve a lot with the lameness but assuming some damage to ligaments, that will take weeks to heal... (crossing my fingers for a full recovery)

Pictures taken in the daylight...

Solar view




Front view showing some swelling




Left hind for comparison




All four legs

Saturday Sofia update

She definitely likes being outside all the time so I'm grateful for the stiff frozen snow. If we had normal April weather right now, I'm not sure what I would do with her as there is major mud in the paddocks this time of year. But minimal right now with this late winter revival.

Sofia's temperature remains at 101 and she is putting more weight on her injured foot. She still cocks it forward to rest and to walk, but puts more weight at rest and when walking. I've gotten her meds into her via food, she still thinks the oral syringe is NOT a good thing, and I'm giving her 100 ml twice a day of Devils Claw for pain relief and anti-inflammatory. I'll back that off some in another day. Healing or pain relief or both? Is that why she's moving more?

Sofia's April 07 injury

Sofia is in not such a Fine Fettle right now. She stepped on an old fashioned rectangular barn nail on April 3rd. Here are some pictures taken April 7th late in the evening. Click on any picture for larger view.


The nail, against a cloth measuring tape.




Her four feet, showing how she stands, which is also the general position she keeps her foot (right hind) when she walks -- she will draw it more forward than this actually, weight it slightly as she moves forward Major head bobbing but putting some weight on it compared to the Wednesday and Thursday.




Solar view of her injured right hind. It was late, it was dark, I was alone -- not the best prep for photos.




Solar view with me holding the nail for size comparison. The entry point was closer to the heel bulbs than where I'm holding it, about under where my first knuckle of index finger is, with about as much showing (and as much embedded) as shows in the picture.