The Iron Maiden

After surviving a horrible accident with a severe head injury that has left vets, equine consultants and horse friends amazed, Nancy is improving daily. I think it has been the power of prayer and good nursing. She was standing at the wall of our stone barn waiting to be brought in for feeding. Lucy, as is usual, came around the corner, spooked Nancy (which was odd as Nancy would usually simply move), Nancy spun, hit her head on the stone wall and was knocked out cold. She was out for an hour and a half. The vet came in about 20 minutes and she was still unconscious. He treated her with IV steroids and a sedative, stayed with us for about 45 minutes and she was still out when he left. She "paddled" while unconscious, and her near fore leg was stiff. She had "ragged" breathing, and at one point stopped breathing. I didn't know what to do so I kicked her in the area where her lungs are, and she started breathing again, may have been conincendential. Her gums became blue, her pupils were dialated. I placed hay bales around her to protect her if she regained consciousness. I made an agreement with the vet that if she had not regained herself by 6:00, I would call him to euthanize her. She awoke, thrashed about and somehow landed with her backside inside of the opening of the barn with her head facing out. She remained in a lying position and I could tell she was not completely responsive. I placed more hay bales around her, and in about 10-15 minutes, after trying three times, she got to her feet. She was very unsteady, so I quickly placed a halter on her with a lead rope and with little encouragement, she followed me outside. I took the halter off, and left her outside alone as by this time I had placed Lucy in her stall. I placed food and water near her, but she was so disoriented that she did not know what to do with them, she was still very unstable on her feet. By this time it was getting dark, and I left her. I checked on her every 3-4 hours during the night and she was till alive and walking, albeit very unsteadily. The next morning the vet came before I checked on her that morning and gave her another IV of banamine and I think steroids, he said she was in terrible pain. Her face looked like she had gone several rounds with Mike Tyson with a hematoma above her right eye, and she was covered in cuts and scapes all over her legs and side where she landed. I slipped a halter on her, by this time she had walked to the far side of the pasture and appeared disoriented. She seemed to have forgotten how to lead, but with gentle encouragement, she lead, but could not seem to rate herself and walked very fast. It took a lot of tugging on my part to slow her down enough to get her into her stall. By this time Lucy was suffering from cabin fever, so I turned her out. I placed water and food into Nancy's stall along with hay, and she spent the night in her stall. Two days prior to the incident I had noticed that her near hind pastern was swollen. She gets abscesses in her hooves easily so I thought that was the case this time and I had been cold hosing the site for the two days before she was knocked out.The next day, I placed Lucy back into her stall, and lead Nancy outside. She was trying to graze, but seemed to have forgotten how, and also could not sort out how to eat her feed. (due to her history of bolting her food, I had been soaking it for many years to prevent choking). She was drinking water just fine. During the time she was outside her swollen rear leg had broken open and to my chagrin she had very clearly been bitten by a venomous snake as the fang marks were clearly apparent. I had no idea until that point that she did not have an abscess. It drained copious amounts of infection. The vet placed her on antibiotics right away. I was giving her banamine IM every 5-6 hours to control her pain, so the antibiotic shot was another needle for her. She took the shots like a trooper. She was still not eating her grain, she wanted to, and she was also having trouble grazing. It was as though she had forgotten how. After five days of her not eating grain, she had started grazing by pullin gup grass by the roots as if she was not sure how to graze properly. At that point I decided to stop soaking her grain, and it worked, she could manage to eat it as is she were grazing, eating with rather a bobbing motion.I suspect that she had lost her depth perception. Over time she figured out how to eat, graze and her pain shots were gradually transitioned to oral butazoladine, 2 grams twice a day, a lot of bute. Over time that was decreased to a half a gram twice a day, but the snake wound was not healing. We subsequently treated her with another rouns of antibiotics. I asked the vet to culture the wound and sure enough, it was growing out an organism that was resistant to the antibiotics. We started her on the appropriate meds, she responded initially, but then she reinfected (all during this time I was cleaning the would and dressing it). I took her to the vet, and asked him to open the would so that it would drain more. He did and it blew out an enormous amount of infected material as well as fibrinogin, the clotting mechanism of the blood. It was almost impossible to drain the wound effectively. I took her home (by this time it was well into November), and started irrigating the wound that the vet had opened. I used hydrogen peroxide and cleaned it with water. The infection was not clearing still, so I asked the vet to give me a culture tube and I cultured it again the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and the results are STILL not back (inexcusable). I am continuing to irrigate the opening (the original wound is granulating) and now another site has opened to the bottom of the original wound, and still no culture results. I am irrigating the sites twice a day with a darge bore cannula, and 20 ml of peroxide and betadine. The leg is horribly swollen and she is finding it more and more difficult to walk. I now have her back on banamine 10 ml IM every morning and bute, one gram by mouth at night. I don't know if she will survive this especially without the proper antibiotics. I called the vet and he has talked with the lab (in Murfreesboro, TN) and is as confused and frustrated as I because he can't get an answer either. In the meantime, he wants to give her an IM shot of a very broad spectrum antibiotic that is only given every 4 days and hopefully by then the inept lab will have an answer (and hopefully it will be accurate). Lucy has been out with ther 24/7, Nancy's appetite has not slowed, but the is tired and is starting to loose weight. With winter coming, I don't know if she will survive, but I am marginally hopeful. She is truly the iron maiden.

The Family Graveyard

These are photos that I took of the Sowell-Dobbins Family Graveyard. It is located at the farm next door and in the winter can be seen from our farm. It is said that it was also the final resting place for the family servants, but no graves of that sort are marked. However there is a rather large area to the right of the gate that appears to have graves in it. The last family members were buried there in the early 20th century if I am remembering correctly. We have a goal of making a Tate family cemetery here at Laughing Fox. It takes going through some hoops with the local zoning commission, but I think that we will pass muster, just have to get to it!

The Graveyard

As you may have read in much earlier posts, Laughing Fox Farm had been in the same family line for over 150 years until we bought it in 1999. The family, the Sowell's and the Dobbin's family graveyard is situated between our farm and the farm next door, and is located on that farm owned now by Bob and Alexa Doyle (formerly the Russell Farm). Andy, my sister, Carol and I visited the grave site a month or so ago and I took a couple of pictures of the head stones. (However, the Blogger Photo Uploader is Down, so will post later...gotta love cyberspace)

Why I Haven't Posted for so Long! (Andy and Lucy)

Gosh, has it been since February that I wrote? Well, I have two good excuses. Andy had been in Tulsa, OK with his police supply company since August of last year and came home in February! Also, I bought a new field hunter in March. So between the two, I have just now slowed down enough to return to my old friend, the Laughing Fox Farm blog.

The spring has been fabulous, albeit WET! The Duck River has not flooded like last year, thank goodness, but it has been high enough to see from our second floor window. It is beautiful, but am glad that it is far enough from our home to not be a threat. Our flowers have been beautiful, and even now I am looking out our kitchen window at yellow, lavender and peach colored Irises. The Peonies have borne big, fat white and fuchsia flowers and I have been able to cut many of them for the church's altar, and the table in our foyer. They smell like heaven!

It is green, green, green here, but those lovely Cow Weed yellow flowers that the mares will not touch have invaded my front pasture, so I spent yesterday cutting, pulling and spraying like a mad woman. Andy said I won't eradicate them this year, but to be diligent and they should meet their Waterloo next year. I am a Dead Eye Dick with the Roundup sprayer!

I am so glad that Andy is finally home and he promised me that he would never again bid on a project that would keep him away from home that long again. I enjoyed my independence to a point, and did get a lot done (all of the out buildings are cleaned out, and the old fence row in the back yard is gone), but I like his being here more than I like my independence.

I spent the entire hunt season without a hunter. I had looked for a year and upon my ninth attempt, found my field hunter. I bought her from Carrdian Farms in Monticello, FL and had her shipped up four weeks ago today. Her name is Lucy, she is a solid Chestnut American Paint with a perfectly formed diamond on her forehead (did I hear someone singing, "Lucy in the Sky With Diamond", no s) and a near hind sock. She is a bit tall for me, I refuse to believe that she could get over 16 hands tall, so will not put a stick to her - lol. She is 5, so very young and learning quickly. She can be a red headed mare at times, but over all she has a very sweet disposition, AND Nancy LOVES her. I have attached her "head shot". I have started lessons with her under Meg Hilly, she does trails like a superstar, I hunted her with the Live Oak hunt, and was very impressed with her interest in hunting.

I sold Molly to a most wonderful young lady, Marlena Jenkins. They are a perfect fit! Lucy loves to show and so does Marlena. As a matter of fact they are at a show now! She went to a wonderful home.

I will close this entry now. I have more to tell under another topic later.

Spring Has Arrived at Laughing Fox!

The first Daffodil has arrived at Laughing Fox. We will be covered with them in less than a month. What a joy to see nature at work!

The 2010 Floods at LFF and How the Dogs Reacted to it

This is a video that I took from our backyard on May 2, 2010 at Laughing Fox during the floods in middle TN that May. It was quite the experience. The water never threatened our farm, but we were trapped for two days because of flooding at both ends of the road off of which our road runs. It was said this flood was considered a 500 year flood. OK with me if it doesn't happen in another 500 years...but the dogs did not mind at all which you will see in the video!

Clarice and Nancy Last Wed. Hunt of 2010

This video is bitter sweet. It was the last time I was able to hunt my dear Nancy. She has been diagnosed with Cushings Disease which has rendered her unable to hunt. She has earned her retirement, though and is now comfortably living at our farm with her friend, Molly. Nancy was the best hunt mare I have ever ridden. I love her very much, and miss hunting her more than anything.

Calm on the Farm

Gracie and Duchess enjoying the outdoors at LFF.

Winter at LFF

Good morning! It has been sleeting and raining most of the morning but the "Middle Tennessee Smoky Mountains" (the hills around Laughing Fox Farm) are just beautiful. I've never understood why people find winter not as lovely as the other three seasons, because here there is something to see all the time. The colors are muted, but beautiful, dove grays, charcoal, heathers, hunter greens, whites, wheat, silvers, russet, terracotta, cerulean, periwinkle, just spectacular. It is a little foggy, but that puts me in the mind of early mornings in Britain. Middle TN looks much like parts of the British Isles.

The birds are feeding. Titmice, Cardinals, several pairs of those, a Red Headed Woodpecker, Purple and Yellow Finches, Chickadees, Wrens, all fat and seemingly content are all hovering around the feeders. "Homer", as Andy calls him was our resident suicidal Cardinal last year. He would see his reflection in our windows and flog himself until he was exhausted. I tried pulling the curtains, placing things in the window that I thought would scare him, but he was tenacious. He has since gotten the message and the eternal/infernal flogging has stopped...or he's croaked. We also have a Great Horned Owl in the neighborhood. I saw her a couple of nights ago, and she is magnificent!! After I die, I want to come back as a hawk. We have several of those, too.

Many years ago when we did not live here, our then home burned completely. There was nothing recognizable. Once day when I was rummaging through the debris, I kicked something with my foot, and here you will find a photo of what I found. I saved it, and bring it out every Christmas holiday to remind us that we are always being watched over and blessed everyday, even through adversity.

Have a wonderful winter! Keep in touch and keep reading for more comments from Laughing Fox Farm.