Health – The Hermits' Rest

Good News and Fun

I know I’m getting pretty dull, you’ve noticed, judging from my sad stats and lack of comments. But hey, that’s not stopping me from my relentless blogging. I’m pretty pleased by the lack of drama in my little world (as opposed to outside of my hermitage).

But look! A frog! *Lithobates sphenocephalus*

Yesterday’s drama with Big Mabel seems to be resolving. Once Tarrin looked at the video I sent her, she put together what the symptoms meant: Mabel wasn’t eating and was pawing at food because an adverse reaction to a vaccine made her unable to lower her head! Poor horse!

The Gang of Three were not amused. Mabel is the big one.

This morning I fed everyone early so I could test out the theory that she’d eat if the food was higher. See for yourself.

Thank goodness! After a day on hay only, my ribs were starting to show!

She ate her food, the food Fiona rejected, and Apache’s leftovers, which I held up for her. I did notice she could put her head almost to the ground, so she improved. Fiona was grazing on the edges of the pen, so I felt good about her, too. They all had good times the rest of the day, helping Mabel find stuff to eat other than the three hay bags I put out.

Greenbrier shoots. Taste like asparagus.

A busy weekend is afoot. Tomorrow is horse stuff, as Drew gets to meet a new human and the herd gets a new member. You’ll have to check back tomorrow for details!

Meanwhile, you can ponder what the back of this tanker truck means.

After that I set out Sunday for another visit to Hilton Head, though without any fun sisters. Boo hoo. I’m glad Kathleen is back and able to help with horse stuff. I dread flying. I don’t want COVID again.

We did do exciting errands this afternoon. I returned my underperforming Viasat satellite receiver and got more horse food. The reward was going through the fancy new Buc-ees car wash. It has that dang beaver all over it.

Hmm. Perhaps my readers are right. I’m pretty dull these days. I didn’t even find an exciting snake skin today. This one is tiny.

How Are the Bur-heads?

I haven’t done a horse update in a while. That’s because not much has changed and I’ve been focusing on sick dogs. But today Jackie came to do bodywork for the first time in a while, so there’s a little more news.

I’m here, too. I enjoy taking food containers out in the pasture where Suna can’t find them. Fun!

All the horses have decorative cocklebur crowns these days. It only takes a few days to replace them, so I’ve given up on daily removal. It’s too hard on my hands and my gloves.

Why remove them? It’s a fashion statement.

Drew, as I’ve noted, is having some movement issues. Jackie determined that his back end is doing way better, so yay for that, but he’s still stiff, sore, and unhappy in his neck and shoulders, including the ribs. He let her know just how it feels, like he was doing with me earlier this year. She worked on him a lot and gave me suggestions for getting him to swing his front legs out and round his ribcage.

I’ll do that stuff and continue to work on extended walks on the ground and in the saddle. At least he still likes doing that, until he stomps his perfect little feet. By the way, I got his tail and back 3/4 of mane cleared up, but he was in no mood for forelock work after his adjustments.

Apache with invisible bur crown, last week.

I got no photos of Apache, because I was busy removing a bucket o’ burs this morning. He is the only horse that got completely bur free. I was happy with his body report. For a horse who eats no supplements and tries to spit out his daily medication, he’s doing well! His feet still look good, too. He’s been fun to work with and ride, as well. I think he will do ok at this weekend’s horse show. We need to get out there and just have fun doing our best.

Mabel is still great. She’s shiny, fit, and pretty darned sound. There’s only one crack in her white hoof! She let me get all the burs out of her tail, but only a few out of her mane. I’m just happy she’s happy and holding her own in the herd.

This is Mabel booking it to get away from my picking at her mane. At least she has one.

Dusty is still Dusty. So gentle, kind, and compliant. Well, unless you’re messing with his tail. His mane has no burs, but I only got a few out of his poor tail, which looks like it’s been braided with burs.

Dusty has been getting extra grain most days, because he is looking thin. But he eats well and is cheerful most of the time. I know his back hurts, even with supplements. But he still loves to hug and craves attention.

Goldie is improving. She’s tapering off pain medication and is getting around better. She can pick up the pace when she wants to, and now easily climbs the steps on the patio. She even managed to tell me her water dish was empty this evening, got me to take her out to drink, then stared at the water dish spot until Lee remembered it was in the dishwasher. Clever.

Goldie and dead house plant. I travel too much.

No one read my post yesterday about moths. Oh well. What I find fascinating isn’t always what the audience finds fascinating!

No Longer Healthy as a Horse

I’ve been very healthy most of my life, other than being incapable of pushing babies out and having a messed up gall bladder removed. I don’t become ill very often, either. Now that my slightly low thyroid and lady hormones have been adjusted, I’m one healthy elder.

And I’m a great photographer! It’s a katydid at sunset

But today I found out I have a condition! Here’s the story.

Yesterday the guy adjusting my back said I should get it x-rayed to be sure I hadn’t cracked a bone in there. That made sense— it was probably just bruised, but who would want to mess with it if you weren’t sure?

So today I thought I’d go to the doctor to get it looked at, but they don’t have x-rays there. So I went to a nice standalone ER place as soon as I got my important work stuff done. It took longer than I’d hoped, especially since I’d forgotten to eat anything.

Once the doctor found out I’d been thrown off a horse he went into covering all the bases mode and decided to get a CAT scan of my head and back. So, now I know what one of those is like. It’s not bad. Sort of fun, probably expensive.

The bubbles in the draining water are like my money draining away.

I was getting worried I wouldn’t make it home in time for my lessons with Tarrin, but eventually the nice doctor came back and told me that my head and back were okay, which I thought would be the case.

That lifted some dark clouds off my head.

But there was more. I have a splenic artery aneurysm. I guess they really look at you when they scan! It turns out these things are usually found when looking for something else. Mine is 1cm and they get concerned when they are 3cm.

I’m supposed to not fall off things, get kicked in the spleen, or get in a car accident. I told Drew and I think he’s holding off on the naughtiness. Just kidding. I’ll be in touch with my primary care doctor on Monday to see what to do.

My guess is they will want to check again in a year. Or they will yank out my poor spleen. I’d like to keep my organs.

Of course I’m still riding. Carefully. Both horses did well today at our place for lessons. It had rained a lot again last night, but we managed a lot with mostly walking. I’m so glad Drew is treating me normally again. That took a while!

No picture of me riding, so here is Tarrin schooling my handsome guys.

Hope you enjoy these sunset photos. There were colors I truly wish I could paint in tonight’s!

Mabel’s Transformation

Friday, when Apache and I came back from our lesson, a brown blur appeared. A horse was galloping full speed towards us, then stopped on a dime at the gate. What energy! Who was that?

No, not Fiona. Last July, Kathleen rescued a large, dark bay horse, who we named Mabel. She was in such sad shape, she melted our hearts. She was skin and bones, and had open wounds on her legs.

You could see her spine and her hip bones stuck out sharply.

Kathleen spent a lot of time getting her veterinarian treatment, dealt with severe choke, and tried to get weight on her. It was slow going. she also had ulcers.

Legs all fixed up. She was all leg, hips, and bones.

I admit that I thought she was pretty ugly. Her head seemed huge for her, even though she was tall. She looked mean and upset. Well, she probably was. She had to feel horrible, which would make anyone irritable. I’m sure her back hurt a lot. It looked awful.

It’s hard to see, but her back looked like a roller coaster.

When Kathleen left in November, I took over feeding her horses. I just kept giving Mabel more food, but the winter was hard on her. At least she had shelter. By spring, I decided to try to get her more healthy myself, since Kathleen’s health stuff meant she couldn’t.

Also. One of the other horses but her tail completely off. She was the bottom of the pecking order.

I’ve been giving her the coconut stuff Drew gets to put on weight, and I’ve given her amino acid oil. She’s been steadily putting on weight since spring and gotten noticeably friendlier.

We have fewer horses here now, and they’ve been getting supplemental hay, so her life has been more peaceful. She’s grown fond of Apache, so he’s now her protector. Her coat grew in shiny and bright this summer. And her demeanor is 100% better now that she’s had her teeth taken care of.

Her face is now pleasant. All the pain wrinkles are gone!

Her tail has grown at least a foot, and it’s so thick and shiny! Her feet look better, which may explain why she’s running now. She gets them trimmed by a pro soon and will be on a regular schedule.

She’s shiny and of normal weight! And look at that face!

I look at these recent photos and get all teary. She’s happy, except when I try to take burs out. She may never be rideable much, but I’m trying to slowly help her build up her muscles.

She will soon start getting bodywork, too. The last time we tried, she wasn’t ready and it hurt and scared her. Maybe now she’s ready! At least she’s got friends, people who care for her, and good nutrition. I’m so glad I could step in and help out!

We’re looking forward to doing more with her. Kathleen is getting better and so is Mabel. These things take time. I’m happy for them both!

You Know You’ve Been in Bandera Too Long When…

…you start to give the feral cats names!

Yep. I was sitting on the porch a long time yesterday, since it was my designated day to not do anything in particular. The gang of feral cats kept wandering by. One of them kept sitting there, staring at me. No, feral ginger cat, I am not going to feed you or give you water, because my spouse would be Most Displeased. Besides, I happen to know you have plenty of food and water.

Cat looking through bars. — You’re the one in a cage Suna, and I’m watching YOU, says Ginger.

I was feeling all smug, because I’d already made my Move and Exercise goals on the Watch. It’s easy around here! That made my December goal, which was even more smugifying. I’m doing what the doctor said and increasing my exercise; I even raised my Move goal last week.

exercise app screenshot — I did just fine yesterday. Christmas was even better.

In addition, a Facebook friend graciously told me how to make the Exercise app on the phone show up on my watch, which means that if I stop for a second to take a picture, the app will pause. That will make my walks “count” more than they have in the past. Nothing’s more frustrating than walking for a half hour and getting one minute of “credit” for it. (Yes, I know my body counts it as exercise, but I want to make my watch happy, too. And yes, I know one of my goals for 2020 is to stop trying to make other people happy. But, this is a watch. It’s different.)

Self Aware Means Self Care

Last week I was in a mental vortex, tizzy, or something. I’m so glad I was aware that something was amiss, and that the only person who could do anything about it was ME.

So, what kind of self care can I do? Can you do it, too?

Exercise

I realized yesterday that I hadn’t done any yoga in over two weeks, maybe three. Between work getting hectic and taking a week off, I was feeling sluggish and stiff.

I’ve gone to the class at work twice this week, and I can really tell it, both physically and mentally. I’m a lot more centered and my muscles feel well used, but good.

Continue reading “Self Aware Means Self Care”