Baasha's bad day

I went out to feed breakfast and Baasha's right eye was closed. He wouldn't open it. I freaked out, cuz I'd been treating him the last 7 days for conjunctivitis with antibiotics in both eyes 3 times daily. What went wrong!?

We have no vet in this area yet, so I got out the business card my neighbor gave me, and tried to get ahold of her vet. He's in Koeln (Cologne) but she said he comes to this area. Hm. The answering service said they'd call us back. After 2.5 hours sitting by the phone (my man and I took turns cuz it was so frustrating), I said "Screw this, what if he's in great pain?" So I went to my local www.yellowpages.de (really, that's what it's called, but in German) and found a list of vets. No idea if they're horse vets. I started calling. It's Saturday, so it was quite frustrating. Horses like to hurt themselves on weekends just to prove to themselves how much we care. Hrmph.


Finally I reached a vet on his emergency line, and he started trying to figure out where we live. Funny! He said, "So, down by Plettenburg's pond?" I think I know where that is, but not sure. Plettenburg, that sounds right..."So, near Mr and Mrs F?" "Oh!" I answered, "They're directly next door!" and he said, "So, the house of Mr. S?" "YES!!! We live here now!" I'm totally impressed, but should I be? This is a small town.

Mr. S's mean Rottweiler had to be put down by this vet, for meanness. I didn't know that little tidbit!

He shined lights in Baasha's eyes, stained the eye green and voila, cornea scratch. The vet looked at the medicine I'd been giving and said, "He still has conjuntivitis, and you don't want to use cortisone with this scratch." Baasha's eyes probably itched from the meds and he rubbed a scratch in his eye.

He gave me another tube of medicine and said he'll come back on Monday, after telling my man and me the tale of the mean dog.

Poor Baasha, he's going around like he's sleepy, eyes half closed all the time. The vet comes back on Monday to check him again. His eyes don't hurt bad enough to keep him from snacking on our various trees. My man calls it, "Devaluing the property." BAD Baasha!

My man knew I was worried that Baasha didn't seem to drink any water yesterday. I was rebuilding the floor of my manure pile (rainwater got in, agh!!) and saw him in the barn. I said "What are you doing so comical over there?" and he smiled big. "What have you got there?" My curiosity going nuts...he had a bucket of warm water with 15 carrots floating in it. He gave it to Baasha to see if it would remind him to drink. It worked; while bobbing for carrots, he took a few swallows. Cool, and what a man I have, who is starting (I hope) to consider Baasha his son as well: )

I worked on my fence for 7 hours today. This morning, my man helped me, holding the posts and my ladder. I was getting tired and he'd say "5 more strokes" to encourage me. Finally I just wanted to hear him count, so at the beginning I asked him to count how many strokes of the hammer it takes to get a Tpost in the ground. No kidding, one of them took me *80* strokes. My gosh! My man had to go correct his students' tests so I was on my own.

But our second grazing strip is done, for Baasha, to alternate with the other strip we made him. I even hung a little "Caution - Electricfence!" sign on it.



Some new neighbors came over with their Bernese dog Gina to meet me. The woman, Elke, had a huge Canon camera around her neck. I am so jealous! She was just out to get photos of the trees, and her man to walk their dog, who growled at me briefly as I stuck out my hand to shake hands. My gosh, scary! She was a good dog, aren't all Bernese? But didn't like my sudden movement toward her master.

UPDATE: The vet came out again and I asked him to listen to his lungs cuz he's been coughing. The vet said "Bronchitis" and gave me more meds. You know, the other day I noticed something odd I'd never seen before---pollen in Baasha's nose. Maybe he has allergies!? My poor baby's allergic to Springtime in Germany? I hope not.

I had to cancel my ride with the neighbor girl, cuz even though the vet said Baasha could go out at a walk, I don't want her 30 year old horse getting sick. I feel sorry for Baasha so I've been letting him hang out in the stall during the day. It's nice and cool in there when the sun is hot, and I noticed the bugs don't follow him in. I noticed another tick crawling up my leg yesterday, so I put permethrins all over Baasha again (Equi-Spot). That stuff rules. He has not had a tick on him since I started using it, and you only need to use it every 2 weeks. So the ticks come over to me...: )

He's getting a med called Acetylcystein which is used to treat a large number of unrelated ailments, and many experimentally. Obsessive Compulsive disorder, Kidney damage, Aspirin overdose, Post Tracheotomy, Schizophrenia, Pneumonia, Cocaine withdrawal, Hearing loss, Hangover relief, Influenza, Bodybuilding....the list goes on for this wonder drug.

Or, I should say, "Snake Oil" cuz what drug can do all that? *giggle* I accidentally inhaled some, so I expect to start feeling a lot better soon: )

To finish off his bad day, he got himself stuck in the little orchard area I've blocked off with one string of wire (not hot). I suppose Baasha is better known for his looks than his brains, because if he got in, why couldn't he get out? Was it a matter of conscience, and he felt guilty about the getting in part? Hm. When I found him, he stared at me and started pawing the air...







...switching legs to show his urgency. He seemed to say, "I've been trapped in here for HOURS! SEND HELP!" and I laughed cuz it had only been 15 minutes max. And I was in slippers so I didn't want to go out there. I laughed and my man and he went out and rescued him.





Baasha nickers in his sleep, and even squealed yesterday, waking himself up!! I was sitting in the greenhouse watching him. He did that scene at the end of Black Beauty, where he lay down on the grass under a shady tree, and realized the grass was yummy and ate while lying down.








Then he fell asleep, and then the junk truck came - finally!!! It was 30 euros and a 5 week waiting period (I've been waiting since February to get rid of all the junk the S's left in this house!!). It was so cute cuz the guys were parked about 50 feet from where Baasha was napping on the lawn, and they were throwing sheets of glass, shattering them, and using the trucks' crushing device to crush the large pieces of furniture, and Baasha just dozed through it all. In the pic you can see the two guys dressed in orange.


Baasha looked over like "Noise ordinance?" Then this line of cars formed that couldn't pass our street cuz of the big garbage truck, and one car was parked directly next to where Baasha was lying. He thought, "What's this, an audience?" and jumped to his feet, looking over at that car.





Hey, no more junkpile! I can sit in my little entryway and look out at our hang, and see an unobstructed view! I can't even express how good it feels to have all that crap outta here.









Here is the finished geotile section we put in. As it gets more muddy, we'll add more. We sure made a mess putting those in! I hate messy.










It's unbelievably pretty here in Springtime. I can't get enough of it! Too bad Baasha bit off a big piece of the plum tree's bark, I don't think he's allowed in the front yard anymore.







Here's the next door neighbors' yard, they have this amazing, huge cherry tree that's totally white now, and next to it, a young chestnut tree.