Worms, videos, clicks

I was a week behind my normal schedule, but I got everybody dewormed with pyrantel pamoate. I used the traditional method of luring the horses to me with their usual handful of grain, sticking a halter on each horse, and hanging off the noseband while I convinced each appalled horse that YES, I really WAS going to violate the victim's personal integrity in such a horrid fashion. Then everybody got grain and completely forgave me.

It sounds like I'm making light of alternative horse handling methods, but I'm not, really. I'm lucky that none of my horses actually act violent about dewormer or are terrified of it. It's more like I'm extremely amused by my horses' individual drama queen reactions to the hated wormer.

Champ, who is normally the calmest horse in the universe and puts up with any weird thing I want to do to him, flips his nose up and down as fast possible til I get mad and cuss him. Once I get the dewormer tube in his mouth, he starts actively trying to spit the paste out as fast as I deposit it on his tongue. As soon as the grain appears, he completely forgives me.

Silky is appalled that I am invading her old-lady dignity in such a horrid fashion. She stands perfectly still, but clamps her lips shut as tightly as possible. It's like trying to feed a three year old kid her least favorite food - except I have a syringe, instead of a spoon, so I win. Again, once the halter comes off and the cookies appear, she's back to being a quiet and respectful pocket pony.

Dixie seethes with barely controlled rage. Her ears alternate between pinned-back and focused on me, like she flipflops between "I will kill you for this!" and "Oh wait it's the boss human!" She actually never left all afternoon - she was caught, dewormed, and fed some grain. Then she hung around hopefully until I broke out the clicker, and after I was done clickering her she hung around a little longer to watch me and Poppy.

Since Dixie had gotten over her snit so quickly, I decided to clicker clean her feet again today. IceRyder had asked for video of it, and I tried to oblige. However, my skills at wiring a camera to a round pen panel are somewhat lacking and it's really not all that great. I uploaded it anyway, as proof of how good Dixie was about the whole thing, and how amazingly effective clicker training is.


Dixie clicker training feet from Funder on Vimeo.

The people talking are me and K, Poppy's new owner. The periodic "earthquakes" happen when the dogs, Cersei and Lucky, run under that round pen panel to get in or out of the pen. And apparently my camera only takes 3 minute videos, so yall missed the last hoof cleaning.

I know, I need to wear a belt.

Clicker stuff: I think it's fascinating how Dixie has her ears pinned almost constantly. She really doesn't like for any creature to touch her anywhere under any circumstances, except for humans offering her treats directly under her nose. Well, and she does seem to like me - whenever I offer her the halter, she sticks her nose in it, and she leads great, and whenever I look at her she's got pretty ears. Apparently not when I'm picking her feet! But look at those ears pop forward whenever she hears a click.

For a cue, I'm tap-tap-tapping with a finger on the lower part of the leg I want. It's clear and not painful. When I started her near side, I started adding the "up" verbal cue. I really prefer a verbal cue for foot lifting - it's kind of sweet yet annoying when the horse keeps picking its hoof up for you when you only want to brush off its muddy legs or trim its feathers. I'll keep doing both the tap and the verbal cue for a while, then try to fade the tap.

I'm planning on adding trimming next. I'll bring my makeshift hoof stand out and see if I can't get a second of duration when I put a front foot on the stand. I think trimming should progress almost as fast as cleaning has... I hope!

Clicker people, any critiques or suggestions?

And here's a video from earlier this week, when I was trail riding on Champ. This is the fishing lake, and it's my second favorite of the seven lakes. I think it's just gorgeous out there.


Trail ride, fishing lake from Funder on Vimeo.

Dewormer

Gave everybody ivermectin, much to their dismay. Nobody's ill-mannered, mind you, but they obviously hate it. I call them up to the truck and halter whoever comes up first, then deworm my victim, give my victim a treat for being good, and repeat. The first horse is always surprised and dismayed, and the other two become very wary. But greed always wins in the end.

It turned off chilly overnight, and it's cloudy and damp. I tried to get excited about riding Poppy or Promise, but I just wasn't feeling it. K agreed that it's a gross day, so we just stood around and talked for an hour then headed home.

Now I'm going to watch football and drink beer and cook something tasty. It's a perfect day for that at least!

Ahhh, Thanksgiving. Also Guitar Hero.

These are my two excuses for not blogging.

I am making duck for my extended Thanksgiving feast. My husband's not so crazy about duck, so on Thursday we just had homemade rolls, mashed potatoes, tasty gravy, and ham. I also started my enormous duck prep - I took a duck apart, salted the legs and wings for confit, stuck the breast in the fridge, and made some excellent stock with the carcass, rendered all the extra fat. Yesterday I went to work and was way too tired to futz with the breast, so I waited til tonight.

I made this recipe, which was exceptional and highly recommended. I also cooked the confit tonight; I'm going to try to wait a few days before I reheat it. Supposed to be better if you can wait a bit. And the stock? Duck risotto, I guess; I just felt bad about letting Cersei eat such an expensive carcass.

Also, Graham brought the enormous TV and Xbox 360 down here with him. I am now ROCKIN OUT!! on Guitar Hero at night, which cuts into my blogging time. Tonight I unlocked Welcome to the Jungle and Pride and Joy. I WAILED on them. (On easy. Cut me some slack, I've been playing for a week.) Finally, my misspent youth, in which I listened to classic rock nonstop, is paying off. \m/

Aaaaand I took Dixie on a short trail ride today. Kelly rode her daughter's (totally laidback BTDT) Quarter Horse, and a calm buddy was just what Dixie needed. We had a fairly major freakout about a white washing machine at the side of the trail.

I kinda thought she might come unglued, because you know how horses are about Strange White Monsters. She quivered and kept trying to spin to bolt and backing up snorting when I asked her to walk forward, but I just kept her pointed at the Monster. It was kind of a delicate dance between urging her forward when I thought she could do it and reassuring her when I thought she was about to completely flip her lid. It took several minutes, but I eventually got her past the Washing Machine of Death. The far side of it is covered in rust, so coming back was no problem, and then we went past it again and she was fine.

I always wonder if the horse isn't just testing me after something like that, but I don't think that was the case today. She was really terrified of the Maytag zombie. We got through it, though.

We all trooped past the first big lake, down to the second big lake (the skeet shooting lake), and grazed there for a long time. Then we headed back. A very short ride for the horses, but a big one mentally for Dixie.

More horse stuff soon, I promise! I've got a lesson tomorrow, and I feel pretty good about my legs. (I am sure this hubris is going to doom me, but we'll see!)

Housekeeping: Vet came out on 11-25 and pulled Coggins, vaccinated for West Nile.

Picture time

Oh, first, before I forget - I de-wormed everything today. Cats, dog, horses. Ivermectin for the horses.

Here's some Poppy Pictures. He's starting to grow in his winter coat, so he's an odd brindle - burned yellowish-brown summer hairs mingled with jet-black winter hairs. He doesn't fade quite as dramatically as Brego, but he definitely looks more bay than black by August.



I got out the tape. He's a shorty - 16 hands, give or take an inch. But he sure is broad! I am really surprised that he hasn't gotten taller. Well, it's probably for the best - he is plenty large.



Look at that pretty face!

Housekeeping

Advantage for cats, Frontline and heartworm stuff for dog.

Housekeeping

Heartworm pill (Iverhart) to Cersei, Catvantage to cats. I need more catvantage - the first thing I thought when I opened up the box was "why the hell did I buy six doses for two cats" and then I remembered that I'd bought like $150 or $200 worth of pet meds that day and I didn't want to spend that much more!

I know I could get my meds a bit cheaper online, but I just shop thru my vet usually. The actual savings for buying online for most preventatives isn't that great, and I like to support my wonderful vet. If it were something like Rimadyl, which actually is a lot cheaper online, I'd probably get it online.

Last night Jerome persisted in licking my barbri books. He likes to lick the edges. He likes it A LOT. He is a bizarre little beast. I put up with his weird ways because he is so amazingly sweet at bedtime. Bedtime is his favorite time - he comes dashing up as soon as I turn out the light. He just explodes with purring and trilling and begging for scritches, then settles down pretty quickly and curls up around my head. Then he goes to sleep. It's the very picture of contentment. :) You can lick my books, little buddy.

Housekeeping

Damn I'm good.

My main reason to start this blog was just to have a place online (in case my laptop melts down) where I have a record of animal stuff - deworming, pictures, hoof trimming, etc. I am convinced that I can't be trusted to keep track of shit like that (mainly because I can't actually remember what happened last week.) But I've started noticing that I'm better than I thought.

Yesterday I started worrying in the back of my mind about whether it's time to deworm the house pets. Then I forgot. Today I remembered again, and I checked here, and whaddya know - it's been exactly a month. So today Cersei got her Iverhart and Promeris and the cats got their Advantage.

Also, cats are pretty amusing. While I was out this morning they knocked their scratching post off the desk. When I came home I picked it up and set it in the chair. They've been exploring it ever since. Familiar chair + familiar scratching post = Entirely New Structure!

Curtis has been eating some strange food lately. He's such a wicked little beggar that I'll usually give him a bite of my food when I'm done. In the last week, he's had oatmeal, raw cabbage, and whey protein powder drink. Pro tip: When The Internet says "cats are usually lactose intolerant," that really means "if you feed your cat some whey protein drink, he will hork it up in three different spots on your carpet within 5 minutes of consumption."

Housekeeping

De-fleaed the house pets today. Capstar all around, then Advantage Multi on the cats and
Promeris on the dog. Since the Advantage kills heartworm larvae too and I try to keep everybody on the same schedule, I went ahead and gave Cersei her heartworm pill too.

The damn fleas came from the damn (poor deceased) kittens. Grumble. I tried Frontline on everybody last week but these are those horrid Frontline-resistant fleas.

Monthly update

Sunday I thought perhaps there was a flea on me. Oh god, do I hate fleas. So yesterday I gave Cersei her heartguard, plus flea treatment. (The kind in the tube that goes between her shoulder blades; I forget the brand.) And I gave Curtis the last tube of cat flea treatment - apparently I only had one left! But hopefully any fleas on Jerome will go exploring to Curtis or Cersei and die a horrible death.

Also I'm a sucker and I had to rescue two kittens. One of the young black cats at the barn had three kittens last month - a grey, a grey-and-white, and a black. They were hanging in there pretty well - small, with raging URIs, but stubbornly alive. All the women at the barn took turns taking them into the roundhouse, cleaning them up, feeding them a little wet food, and taking them back out to momma. But yesterday the grey died. I think he succumbed to the URI - he was just dead in the hall, no obvious trauma. So I took the two survivors home. They're just fighting so hard to stay alive, and I can't just watch them die. Momma is very very thin and I don't think she's got any milk left for them, and they're too small to scrap for cheap dry food with the rest of the big ones.

They are possibly FeLV+ so they're in quarantine. In a dog crate, actually - it's usually Cersei's toy box. Every day I go pick up all the toys and chewies and throw them in the crate, then vacuum, and Cersei goes in and picks out which toys she wants to play with. Well, I evicted the toys, laid down a towel, a sweatshirt for snuggling in, a piepan of litter, and a little dish of dry food soaked in water. I've got some antibiotics left from when Curtis was sick so I'm dosing each kitten with 1/4 of a Curtis-sized dose.

Nobody has the money to take them to the vet. Nobody actually even wants them, but... they're fighters. They want to live. I'm just trying to give them a shot. If they make it - and I'm more hopeful today than I was last night - I'll see if the AC lady will speuter them and take them to my uncle's barn in Como. They'll catch some of his mice and he'll feed them, and it's not a great life but it's better than what they've got now.

I don't know how old they are. Their eyes opened about 7-10 days ago. They've got canines and their incisors are trying to come through. But they're TINY - I can hold both in one hand. They've figured out how to eat, and they're figuring out how to use the bathroom.

Last night they ate a bit then squalled til I took them out of the crate and stuck them on my lap under a blanket, then they slept under that blanket all night. I wasn't sure if they'd make it overnight, but this morning they seemed perkier. They were eating when I left.

Curtis and Jerome are reacting pretty well. Curtis is kinda "what the fuck" and Jerome is just fascinated. Neither is poofy-tail howling, so that's good.

After I handle the kittens, I wash my hands. And empty dishes that come out of their crate
go straight into the dishwasher. C & J have had all their shots, including the FeLV vaccine, so I think the risk to my cats is low. The vaccine's not 100% but if I keep up the precautions I'm taking right now, it should work out.

Also my laptop is in the shop :( My Macbook Pro had a fan start to die so I took it in to the Mac Store. The extended warranty just paid for itself - it's major surgery to replace the fan. But they're getting me a new keyboard too - I'll have a left arrow key again, YAY! 48-72 hours before I get my laptop back :(

Dewormer and happy horses

I wormed everybody with generic Strongid (pyrantel) yesterday, then turned them all out in a large-ish paddock with GRASS. That's right, edible amounts of green stuff! They loved it. The light horses all try to act like wild horses, keeping an eye on what's going on around them and their ears up. Poppy, the big dolt, just flops his ears out sideways and goes to grass heaven. He loves food more than the average horse :)