Though true, it's a saying meant to give hope. And so it is... with the dawn of a new day, things are looking much brighter here on the farm.
I was eager to get to the barn yesterday morning. Moonie had spent his first post-op night in one of the barn stalls in order to protect the pressure dressing on his eye socket. I was pleased to find him just calmly resting in the middle of a stall filled with wet spots and poop. Just like those first few diapers on a new born baby, I celebrated the obvious signs that everything was in good working order. All was well.
Dr. Becky arrived early to remove Moonie's dressings and check his incision. He had had just a small amount of bleeding over night and everything looked good. ("good" being a relative term)
In case you were wondering, his eye socket is closed over by his upper and lower eyelids which were shortened and stitched together. Eventually this will all heal over smoothly and once again be covered by the velvety, golden fur of his face. (Half of his face was shaved for the surgery.)
I might have to fashion him a pirate's eye patch for future use. Arghhhh!
All kidding aside, he is doing really well. (And it's a good sign that today I can joke a bit, because up until this point I was struggling a little to accommodate this situation.)
It will take some time for his other senses to take over for his left eye. Normally a dead-calm fellow, he is on high alert right now and a little nervous about things happening in his space. I talk to him constantly, so that if I am on his left side, he can locate my position. Having only one eye cuts his field of vision in half, so this is something he will have to get used to. For a prey animal, losing half of their field of vision can be frightening. Luckily, Moonbeam lives in a very protected environment.
Eventually, he won't even have to think about it, but for now, it is a hurdle for him to get over. All in due time - and animals are much more resilient than people. We get stuck in our own heads and trapped by our emotions, whereas animals take things more in stride and quickly adapt.
He is wearing his lightest fly mask while indoors to keep hay and dust from settling on his incision. Eventually he will only have to wear his UV protective fly mask during the daylight hours to protect his good eye.
It's so good to have this behind us. Each day will be easier. And when he can get out of his stall and move about freely with his family... Moonie will be a happier fellow. I will be carefully watching to see how his family responds to this new version of their fearless leader.
Thank you for all of the care and concern that you showed us... Moonbeam and his human family. Life is so much easier when we hold hands! (and hoofs)
The mercury rose to the mid-forties yesterday helping to melt what is left of the snow.
However, we have two distinct micro-climates here on the farm. Half of our land is exposed to the south and east. This part of the farm is almost devoid of snow.
The other half, on north-facing slopes, remain snow covered and quite wintry looking. The advantage of this is the fact that we have two completely different conditions to choose from depending upon our mood!
Though beautiful, the snow does make moving about the farm a little more challenging. So, once again seeing bare, albeit soggy, ground is somewhat of a relief. If we can place an order, please... We'd like any further snows this season to be little ones. Thank you!
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We've had a big disruption around here recently with our herd. We lost one of a bonded pair. The survivor (Sniff), was grieving and not doing well. The other problem was that that Sonny and Sniff were in a smaller pasture with their own stall barn. Our large pasture has the big barn and we only had 5 stalls in it.
We finally came up with a solution and rearranged the big barn to be able to move Sniff to the big barn. He is back to eating, grazing and taking treats again.
Happy New Year . . .