Sleep Deprivation and a Sick Horse

Hi Everyone


I don’t know about you, but there are nights that I can’t sleep. I’m like a canary in a mine picking up signals from the ethers that others don’t. I really dislike nights like that--the next day--I’m totaled.

And this was one of those days: a SD day.

On top of that, it was 107F yesterday here and today, 102F. The swamp coolers (which are 5 cents an hour electricity-wise) work like air conditioners in dry climates. Except when the dew point is 50% or more and then, we start feeling like steamed clams or maybe a steamed lobster. And that just knocks the stuffings out of me and everyone else, too.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
There was a beautiful moth on our screen this morning and I had to shoot it. Nature is amazing....moths always seem so drab....but look at the color they hide!

You have tiredness with high heat/humidity and you get an idea of the day for me.

On top of that, I had to edit a chapter of DARK TRUTH with my brain feeling like mush. And, the swamp cooler in my old office where I’m at isn’t doing well--and the heat rises in here in the afternoon and is unbearable. On most days, I can’t take it like a champ, but today, it drove me out.

Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
The other day we went to our friend's house for Sunday dinner and in their roadway was a Gambel Quail Family!

I decided to go to my new office that Dave is building for me--that is above flood levels here in the canyon--and turned on that swamp cooler to see if it would get any cooler. This is the first time it has been turned on this year so I won’t know until tomorrow afternoon when I go up there to work on my book.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Isn't this a cute little Quail family????

Monday’s are always hectic and this one was no exception. Cinnamon, my 18 year old Arabian mare, has had an ongoing leg problem (right front) and we tried an enzyme treatment that didn’t do anything. So, our vet, whose just a super guy, Dr. Jim Bleek, came out at 10 a.m. this morning. I had “Plan C” and so did he. Interestingly enough, we were both thinking the same thing.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006


Cinnamon has something (we both think it’s a cactus spine that worked its way in behind the ‘elbow’ or joint area of her front knee and then the body encapsulated it with a hard tumor like cyst to prevent it from doing any more damage. The only problem is: this tumor is pressing against where the lymph has to move down into and up and out of her leg and hoof region.

I have been aggressively massaging that area behind her knee and the big, watery lump above her knee. It has kept the leaking of the serum from the corona area (hairy area just above the hoof) to about 50% and the swelling has stayed at about 50% as a result. But unless I do this 2 times a day, it will get horribly swollen and hard and serum starts leaking out like a sieve from her corona band. And I have to, every morning, get a warm pail of water, soap, a washcloth, my calendula ointment and a towel, and clean off all the gooped up crap around her corona band and pastern. The calendula ointment is wonderful because it is antibacterial but it also coats the area and stops the opened wounds from becoming infected--which could be a real problem for us.

We’ve been waging this battle for over a month and I’m tired. When you have animals, especially horses, you often get into a problem where you can go weeks or months doing daily treatments on them. It wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t so doggone hot and muggy. And Cinnamon,the champ she is, is such a sweetie and tolerant and patient. She actually is not a horse--a human living inside a horse’s body!

Anyway, Jim put a needle into the upper bulge above her knee and yellow serum leaked out. We collected some in a test tube and capped it. I got to be vet assistant today which is always fun. And then, he inserted another needle to the worst area behind her knee and that fluid was orange colored. These tubes will be tested for all kinds of things, but in particular, bacteria. We suspect there is bacterial infection and toward that end, he gave Cinnamon some antibiotic (shot) afterward. He also took blood from her jugular vein and we’re going to run some standard tests to see what it looks like, too.

Then, Linda M. had suggested a poultice and Jim was very interested in that. It used to be called unna boot and it’s a product from Germany. It is a poultice used on humans, but I got one and told my vet I was going to use it on Cinnamon to see if we couldn’t pull out whatever was in her leg causing all these other problems. He agreed. And, Jim found the small, nubby, hard tumor on her flexor tendon behind her knee! I felt it too. He can’t cut into her leg and get it--you would have a another Barbro, the poor horse who broke his back leg, situation on your hands. So, we have to hope this poultice does the work. Keep your fingers crossed!

Tonight, at 7:00 p.m., Dave and I are up in Cinnamon’s corral, along with Rocky, and I wrap her leg in the poultice, then add some gauze around it, some vet tape and then some standard white tape at the top and bottom--to hopefully hold it all in place. It’s tough wrapping a horse’s front leg because that knee has to bend. And of course, where we need the poultice to DRAW is behind that joint. And you can’t wrap the dressings too tight or you cut off circulation. But then, if you don’t wrap it enough, it slips down and you’ve lost the battle and the war. So, it’s a fine balancing act.

Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Finally! I got a photo of one our local Desert Toads! I was out running around setting the huge lawn sprinklers at nightfall and there he was! He was nice enough to wait and let me run for the camera to take his photo. Isn't he CUTE??!!

Dave will go up before bedtime to see if Cinnamon’s dressing and poultice is still in place. If it isn’t, we’ll have to struggle with other ways to get this to hold in place. Everything with a large animal is a battle. She’s a thousand pound horse and it’s not like dealing with a sick baby! She is our baby, of course....just a big one!


Now....I gotta get a good night’s sleep. Too much going on and gotta stay on top of things!

Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
This is an orographic cloud--often confused as a flying saucer or UFO--and it'sn not. These types of clouds form around mountains where the air currents are swirling...and so the clouds look like mushroom caps of a sort--or UFO's...if one wants to use their imagation. This was a particularly well formed one the day I shot it. Another way the clouds can form is due to clear air turbulance and this is why this one formed because we don't have any mountains--they are 50 miles north in Flagstaff!

In Spirit....