Blog

Since last week's blog about the dog eating horse wormer, my granddaughter broke her arm, my other dog got his tail slammed in the door and had to have surgery in order to stop the bleeding and I threw out my back doing God only knows what. It's times like that when I think one catastrophy calls out to it's friends and they all come and have a party in your life and trash the furniture before heading on to someone else's life.
 
But it is also times like this that remind me that we have a choice as to how we react. We can either get depressed and angry, shake our fist at God, slam doors and curse the universe. We can get wrapped up in the turmoil. We can let it define us. Or...

We can roll with the punches and look for the message that calamity brings. What is out of balance in our lives? And how can we restore balance? In retrospect, I think the events of the last week point to me not paying attention. To being unfocused, hurrying to do too much. Not taking the time to really see, to breathe in rhythm with the earth's vibrations.

So I start again, reminding myself to live in the moment. And watch the cloud shapes float across the Colorado sky.

Today's blog picture is a new painting called "No Bull." Full of attitude and a sense of his own power, this Hereford steer seems to be showing the youngster at his side how it's done.

Today's post has nothing to do with art, but is a warning for people who have horses and dogs and worm their horses with Ivermectin. 

On Sunday I wormed my horses, and at the time it didn't seem like a big deal, but my mare spit out about a quarter size glob of the Ivermectic paste. After worming the horses, I let them out in the pasture and then let my dogs out. Later on in the evening, my husband noticed our five year old 20 pound Jack Russell-Australian Shepherd mix was walking strangely and was bumping into walls and furniture.Further investigation led us to believe that he had gone completely blind. By this time his back legs were wobbling.

I quickly googled "sudden blindness dogs" and came up with an entry on Ivermectic poisoning in dogs - specifically dogs with collie, sheltie, australian shepherd, border collie in their breeding. The symptoms fit and the prognosis was not good - death being a very real threat. We took him to the Emerency Vet Clinic where they induced vomiting, gave him charcoal and put him on fluids.

By 3 am he was having seizures so they put him on phenobarbital. The vet at the Emergency clinic called and said she thought it best to transport him to CSU.  The cost would be prohibitive. I decided that I would give him the rest of the day to see whether he would improve or go downhill. The chances were good that his temperature would spike to 106 or that he would need to be put on a ventilator. So in the morning I transferred him to my veterinarian. I cried the whole way, certain that this was Jackson's last day.  

He spent the day on fluids and phenobarbital. By this time he was unable to stand, eat, close his eyes or urinate. His muscles were twitching uncontrollably. Because my vet doesn't have overnight staff, the choice had to made whether to bring him back to the Emergency Vet Clinic or try to take care of him myself at home. I chose to take him home, trusting that whatever was right for him would happen overnight. Either he would have more seizures or stop breathing or he would make it through the night and I'd take him back to my vet in the morning.

After a fitful night of non-sleep for me, cradling the little dog through muscle spasms and listening to his whimpers, prayng for the best outcome, by dawn he seemed to stop twitching so much. When he woke up, he seemed a little more alert, and actually tried to stand - not easy for a weak and wobbly dog on tile floors.

I took him back to the vet, where they marvelled at how much better he looked. Reports throughout the day are encouraging...he seems more aware of his surroundings, he hasn't had any more phenobarbital and no seizures and very little muscle spasms. He was able to walk outside a little.  But he is still totally blind. There is a good chance his sight will come back, but it could take two weeks.

All this from eating a small glob of Ivermectin. And so the warning: if you worm your horses, make sure your dogs are put away (they like the taste!) and promptly clean up any that gets spit out. I would hate for anyone to have to go through what we are going through. We are lucky that Jackson is young and healthy and will probably make a full recovery. Not all dogs are so lucky.

Post Note:  Jackson did make a full recovery and is back to his happy, healthy, obnoxious self.

Well, this is a weird thing - I posted a blog last night and this morning someone else's blog entry appeared in it is place. Ah, the weirdness of cyber-space.

I had written this whole big thing about the harbingers of spring - a killdeer peering in my office door, the Iris poking their heads up out of the ground, the starlings stealing horse hair for their nests in the walls of my barn, the flock of robins gathered in the Russian Olive tree, gorging on olive berries. And the fact that this morning it was 25 degrees out with ice covering the water troughs.
Oh well, perhaps it was all just a internet Aprol Fool's prank!

Todays featured painting is called Moon Shadows. It is a painting about solitude and stillness and the mysteries of introspection.