A One-Of-A-Kind Day, Thankfully

Yesterday is over.

I am happy to report that we all survived.

I hate to wish any day away, since we only have a finite

amount of them.

But.....

Yesterday was pig vaccination day... traumatic, most likely, only to me. 

Seriously.

And, yesterday, our sweet Chloe had surgery to remove a mass from her neck.

Dr. Becky gave her a sedative that made her a little sleepy.

We walked her out to the soft grass of the pasture and she

was given her anesthesia.

In less than a minute she wobbled her way down to the ground...

asleep.

We rolled her on her back and propped hay bales on each

side to keep her supine.

First a "cat scan"...

Then, Dr. Becky made an incision through an area that at first

looked like a sarcoid (and that first area may have been just that.)

What lay beneath the skin, however, was a plum-sized fibrous tumor.

It's been sent off to a pathology lab for identification.

We'll eventually know what it is.

The underlying tissue was sutured together and

the skin was brought together with stainless steel staples.

All of the blood was cleaned off with peroxide.

We'll have to remove the staples in about 10 days.

Because Chloe is not the most cooperative donkey,

that will have to be done under a little sedation.

Waking up from anesthesia was a unique experience.

Dr. Becky said she never had a horse or donkey sit like that before.

She wanted to be upright, but her back legs just didn't 

work right.

She'll be on oral antibiotics for the next 10 days.

Getting her to take them should be quite the feat.

As of last night, we were completely unsuccessful.

Horse vaccination was the next task.

Thankfully, that is always easy.

Peppermints are handed out and everyone lines up

happy to oblige.

Then the dogs got their vaccinations....

equally easy.

Last, but not least.... the pigs were vaccinated.

Hubbs fashioned a wooden block so that we could

essentially pin one pig in a confined space (not too tight)

so that she could not thrash, and break any human legs in the process.

With a whole lot of protesting,

(pig screaming is nothing short of a soundtrack from Hell)

the pigs were quickly vaccinated.

Hubb's block worked perfectly!

 Within minutes, they were back eating Ritz crackers again.

All was forgiven.

I checked on Chloe several times until her 

sedation finally wore off.

In the afternoon I spent a little time just sitting with her.

Again... all was forgiven!

By evening she was eating hay again.

But, the sticky feed with molasses and her antibiotic?

No way... not even with crushed up peppermints on the top!

There's no fooling this girl!

After last week's freeze most of my tomato plants 

looked absolutely fried... brown leaves which mostly fell off.

Almost miraculously, though, new leaves have started popping out

on almost all of the plants... peppers too.

Somehow, nature finds a way.

And I am so very thankful!