Finally home

Finally! We are completely jetlagged but we are home. We are not suffering, really, we just wake up at 3 AM and want to get the day started. And we get tired at odd spots in the day. 5:30 AM I was outside pulling weeds out of our driveway. Well, the birds were up!

It's been really hard for me to blog about Baasha, despite many concerned people asking. I guess I just couldn't handle it, I was so worried and trying not to be at the same time.

Upon our arrival home, I took one look at my horse and instead of hugging the horse, I hugged Sonja. I will never really understand what she went through the 2 weeks she was here, but I know that it was the most intensive treatment he has ever required. She showed me the photos of Baasha's eyes that she was afraid to send me in America. I know she lay awake at night in our bed, praying and worrying about him, and every day was an ordeal of treatments.

Despite it, he galloped to her when it came time for his treatment, knowing daybreak meant the end of his freedom, he has to be locked in a dark stall every day. I watched as she demonstrated how to clean his eyes, and how to use the medicines. I noticed how slowly she moved, as if he were a young horse. She was so incredibly gentle with him, he endured qtips in his eyes and drops and salves very well. When she would stop to talk to me, he would move in close to her, affectionately.

She showed me a new trick he can do, thankfully she took the time to engage him after his dark time of depression. He targets on her raised flattened hand. He poked me with his nose a lot when I first greeted him, like, "You can give me a carrot too, cuz it's been a while!"

Thankfully, there was a bag of carrot clippings on our front doorstep that a kind neighbor had left. He got those right away.

***

There is a big stack of medicines, some that worked, and others that didn't. I lined them up next to the laptop and started looking up the active ingredients. What was it the vets had tried, and what worked? Here is the med table, and I was thrilled that Sonja contined my Health Journal for Baasha, writing about what medicines were used when, and any progress. And any other idiosyncracy she noticed. She seemed to notice everything.

I researched conjunctivitis some more and learned there are three types, all requiring different meds. No wonder the first vet had us on two different regimens, depending on how the eyes looked. I think this began as an allergic type of conjuntivitis, which the vet cannot confirm, but it definitely progressed to the infectious type. And then it could also have involved the third type, the type that is a reaction to an injury, because he sure scratched up his eyes due to the itching.

I looked into his eyes and saw a divot in the cornea of each eye, and I thought he will surely lose his sight.

The vet came out Thursday and was very encouraged by his progress.

I asked about the weird divots in his eyes, and the vet immediately stained both eyes again to check for new injuries. He said those are scars from the old scratches, and they did not attract the dye, so they are OK. Whew.

The vet left another new tube of antibiotics, and told me to continue the three times daily cleaning with qtips in saline. Baasha is actually really good about that, cuz Sonja always went so slow and gentle with him. Baasha even seems to like the vet, despite the painful procedures he subjected him to, the eye-stone removal and the sinus cleaning procedure (what should have required sedation, but Baasha just let him!). As the vet was talking to me, Baasha moved in close to him and put his nose against his chest. How can Baasha like the vet after all that!?

The vet was really positive and I could tell he was relieved too. He said he will be back in a week.

My man asked the vet if we could get a rebate based on the sheer number of visits, and he laughed. It was his 7th visit in 3 weeks. I'm so afraid of that bill.

I didn't realize how stressed I was about it until he was gone, and I suddenly felt this incredible relief. Baasha might actually recover fully?

***


Walks are prescribed because of his stiffness from being cooped up all day, so my man and I went to the pony party barn to greet friends.












Stopping along the way to eat clover and admire the yards of the neighbors.











That donkey scared Baasha again on the way, in fact, it was almost as if Baasha had never seen the donkey before. He had his front legs braced in front of him, his entire body gathered to leap away, and he posed, snorting and staring at the cute little thing. I said to my man, "Quick, give Baasha and the donkey a carrot!" And that seemed to help.





No one was there, so I left a hello and drew a horse on the chalkboard.












Later I asked Sonja how often they walked by the donkey. She said "Every day. He never acted worried about it." Hm. So, Baasha acts afraid for my amusement? Due to my expectations that he will? Oh well, it makes for the cutest photos. But I may just ride by that donkey sooner than I thought. Or, as soon as I can ride again. I feel that is a long way off. I may get him that mask that someone recommended, that blocks 85% of the sunlight.




***

Cleaning with qtips. I go through about 3 per eye. The goo that his eyes is producing can turn to little stones that stick in the corner of his eye, which must be removed by the vet.











Baasha looked at me with bright eyes in the morning, and I was filled with hope that he will fully recover.











I tried to take some pics, and tried to get him to back off so his nose wasn't in the camera, and he saw my outstretched hand and thought I was asking him to target it. I was cracking up taking pics of him as he followed me around.




We visited family today and Sonja told me to give him a carrot for her. She also said he is the nicest horse she has ever met, that he seems to really love people. I said, "You know, that was my first impression of Baasha when I first met him, that he loved people." That was 21 years ago. Then she gave me the nice compliment, saying that she can tell he has never been hurt by anyone in his life. I said, "Not that I know of!" Man, I am all glowy from this conversation!

When we arrived home, there were bits of straw in the driveway, and I said to my man, "The straw arrived!" and sure enough, in our greenhouse stood two bales of straw. This was Sonja's suggestion, that if he has to stand in a stall all day, he might be more comfortable on straw. Good idea, just, I have never in my life used straw for Baasha. I can't remember if Baasha has even seen straw.

I opened one bale at his feet and started separating it. It was loud and crunchy and really fluffs up when you pull it apart. He nibbled it curiously. They say it's good for horses' digestion, I don't know about that, but I just hope he lies down on it. (Check it out: I'm wearing pants, not shorts. First time in a month! It was a pleasant, rainy 70 something today.)








Out in the field at dusk, he can graze all night. When we left, our field was as yellow and dry as ....well, as the front lawns in West Seattle (lol)! But now it is ultra green. This is a photo from last night. No photoshopping color. I am so used to Washington, the Everyellow state, that I have to blink in the morning that our grass is this green.






June, directly after hay harvest.












August, after a rainy July. We will have to be very careful about turnout when we start letting him out in daylight.












This must be why Baasha has finally gained weight. Finally finally finally*. He has those fat bulges in his butt, that little tailhead bulge that means he is finally up to his ideal weight. I also used my tape on him, and finally got the result I was waiting for the entire past year. What did Sonja feed him!? She said nothing different, but perhaps he is so bored in that stall, that he eats to amuse himself. But that pasture, that is probably the real reason. In fact, our hay man suggested we get a sheep herd out there to help. We are both OK with that, I cannot find the poop out there to clean it up.

***

I will eventually post photos of how his eyes looked when even the veterinarian despaired. Yah, he admitted to me that when he first visited, he wasn't sure he could help him. He said a case of conjunctivitis has never endured so long, and it was obviously a first time for him. Both a neighbor and my mother in law said they freaked out when they saw Baasha 3 weeks ago. Sonja said his eyes were like a horror show. I can see where the infection and medication burned the hair from his face, but I think that will heal.

I hope I never have to personally experience Baasha suffering depression. I am telling people I am not gonna take another vacation the rest of Baasha's life, but that could be a while. I cannot imagine him depressed, it must have been mostly the pain and the darkness, because Sonja visited him 5 times a day to clean his stall and treat him. I am so happy I put that big mirror in his stall, because in my absence I read two articles about how mirrors help horses. One was how they help when a horse must be confined, and the second was a study done with trailering, how horses travelling with mirrors had vital signs that matched horses who travelled with other horses. Too cool.

I am so grateful to Sonja, and hope that she can come out eventually for some geocaching with Baasha in our neighborhood. Now I can say it is truly good to be home.

*My man named our home "Finally Farm" cuz it took so long before I finally got my own horse property and could bring Baasha home.