Horse Sense....
I want you to open your mind for a minute...
No, not until your brains fall out, thank you very much. However, just for a teensy minute I want you to put to the side everything you know about horses.
What if you saw that a horse could hear things way before you and I could?
That's easy, right? We know they can.
What if you also saw that a horse could sniff you and see where your body was out of balance?
That might be a maybe, right? Well, it's a definite for me because I watch them sniff me then tell me what's out of balance in my body. I also see a horse pick up what part of my cycle I'm in and you and I have talked about how Missy could smell me going into season 5 hours before I knew. So, I'm converted. In fact, I'm the one that says to them, Ooooohhhhh that's cool, show me how to do that.
So, what if when we give them medication and they perform by either running away, biting or kicking they are using these senses and telling us, Hey, stop doing that, that stuff is not good for us.
Well, that's the conversation that I've been having today because we were having a chit chat about Missy and I was banging on about her left side being out and then I realized that they were talking about the right side being out. Trust me, it took the best part of 20 minutes to get that sorted and in the end someone was pretending to be a horse and I had to stand exactly where I stand to make sure that I knew my left from right. It worked out I did but you know, that was always going to be 50/50.
But then other stories started coming up about left, right, biting, kicking etc and in the end I asked, Are we talking about the same horse? We were.
But that's the interesting thing. I'm not a professional horse person nor have I been round horses for decades and let's face it, I never look as if I actually do anything. Nor do I ever force a horse to do anything and that brings up a conundrum, because if I don't ask the horse to do anything it doesn't want to, then it will always behave and not bite or kick.
However, I'm in two minds. Correct, in some of all the above but also correct that a horse tells you what does and doesn't work.
I just want you to sit with that. Nothing more, nothing less.
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Now bloody Flash decided she would try and die on me today so after my last effort of, I'm not calling the bloody vet I called the vet.
And it was the best thing I could have done.
Well, first off Flash was lying there looking sad, needy and all ribby and within 20 minutes of getting a drip (trust me, but if you don't, video on Insta) was up walking around. Not bouncing round with joy but walking never the less and that's helpful but not the awesome part, that came when the lovely vet and I started talking about Harriet. I know, horse, gate, bolted however, I'll take what I can get, when and however I can.
Now, do you remember me talking about Harriet's lack of enthusiasm for living? Well, that's a side effect of not having colustrum in the first 24 hours. Do you also remember me saying that she had a sore, red tummy? Of course, you do because I showed you have to make a Kanuaka wash which I used on her. What about me using Vitamin C? Yes, of course you do. Because I got absolutely hammered for that choice. And last but not least, do you remember me saying she had a black tongue? Actually, I think I did but in all the kuffle I might have forgotten to blog about it. Certainly, I spoke about it. In fact, I'm pretty sure I drove everyone nuts about this bloody black tongue. In fact, I still get shite about it.
Well, after conversation with vet it now goes like this...
Calves that haven't had colestrum within the first 24 hours don't have the immune system strength to fight infections. They often are quite Meh! And a sore on a calves tummy is an umbiblical cord infection. This is bad because unless it is caught almost immediately the calf will die. We got Harriet at either day 3 or day 4. The infection was already well settled in her body. The Vitamin C I used was when Harriet got spurts of enthusiasm back but unfortunately, I did not use the correct dosage. It needed to be noticeably higher which is why Harriet kept getting better in spurts and then would fall back down again. I was giving her enough Vitamin C to keep her balanced but not enough to kill the infection. The black tongue was Septicaemia (blood poisioning).
98% of calves with an umbiblical cord infection die. Most quickly. Because I used Vitamin C (even though in the wrong dosage) she lived for almost a month.
I feel so much better after talking with the vet.
Actually, I need to clarify this. The vet doesn't use Vitamin C at all, she's heard about it but is not something that she uses. So, when I say I gave the wrong dosage I am talking from a Natural Healers viewpoint. The Vitamin C kept Harriet alive but didn't kill the infection because the dosage wasn't high enough.
I fought really hard for Harriet though and I would have sworn on a stack of bibles that I was doing the right thing but knowing what I know now, the chances of Harriet living were slim to none. However, it does not change the fact that I was adament that I was in the right and wouldn't call a vet.
And Harriet died.
I can't get away from that point. But I am feeling so much better about it. I'm now working very hard trying to get my dosages right with Vitamin C. Actually, in the New Year (we're waiting for it to turn up) we are trialling the difference between Absorbic Acid Vitamin C and Sodium Vitamin C. Does one work better for certain things than others? Is one for general well-being while the other is for crisis cases? And lots of other bits and bobs. In fact, everyone likes trialing stuff. It's really interesting because we will have 3 or 4 products which will say they all do the exact same thing but the texture, smell, taste and feel are all different so they quite obviously do not do the same thing. If one is cream coloured and powdery and the other is white and grainy they are not the same.
But it's great trying them all because the conversations after are intense, quick paced, intelligent (mostly - not naming any names) and fun.
Super fun.
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Tegen came over and rode Az. It was great to watch and Az is super cruizy although to be fair, Tegens a tidy little rider and has a Welsh herself so you know, he always behaves when he has someone who knows their stuff riding him. However, we are looking at putting him into either games, events or jumping but you know how it goes in our family...Spirits will.
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So, Flash is not behaving properly. Read into that she is not getting noticeably better. So, I've upped the Vitamin C, added Dynavyte and tonight grabbed some molassas from my stable. They're really generous like that. And we're back to 4 hour feeding on Vitamin C because Under No Circumstances am I losing another calf. Although, if I'm honest, I think Buzz was like, I'm not going to the works Liam loves me and Fenny was like, I'm not going to the works, Tania thinks I'm cute and Flash went, Fu*k it, I'll just die now.
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Down at Cambridge tonight. It was cool as per usual. I'm learning how to be with the horses, what they need from me, where and when. I am so lucky as to how things fell into place for me.
I'm also super pleased about the Energy and how I'm working with it now.
Energy doesn't lie. People do. Horses don't.
Oooohhh...almost forgot, spoke to Missy today because she wanted extra food. Like a second feed a day. That's a no because she's not in work. So, we had a bit of a chit chat about that. That she had to stop scaring people by bolting, biting and kicking. Which I find weird because she's just not that kind of horse. Anyway, we had a chitchat about everything and then I said that no one was allowed to scare or hit her with sticks. Not that we have found out that she has been but we have found a very big stick where it shouldn't be so we had a chitchat about that. The interesting thing was that she stopped feeding and watched me as I got rid of the stick and made sure it was lost, lost.
It's an odd life, baby.
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Flash is better. Sort of. Not standing up and moving around though but she's eaten 3 times today and is on 4 hourly Vitamin C, Dynavyte and molassas. Not at the same time, there's 30 to 60 minutes space between everything. No medication apart from the day the vet came and the morning after. I decided to go straight into natural things every 4 hours. This includes the night so there was a 4am feed last night and will be another 4am tomorrow. When you are feeding the natural way and not medicine then you have to work differently and 8 hours is too much of a space, the body needs regularly 4 hourly doses. However, a small price to pay.
Anyhou, it seems to be working as Flash is perkier.
So, that's been us this week.
Everyone's happy and no one's died.
Go us.
* I've also recently added honey to Flash's Let's get better regime. It should have been Manuka but I didn't have any. All that was in the cupboard was Lemon Honey (actual honey with lemon not that delicious lemon curd type honey with butter and sugar) Ginger Honey and Rewa Rewa Native Honey. I went with Rewa Rewa and Flash loves it. I have also dropped the Vitamic C right back now as her body has had enough and she is happily eating 3 meals a day. However, in saying that she is still not wanting to get up and move so much.
Well, never when I'm in the paddock but everytime I go back in she's in a different sitting position.
Overall, I'm pretty happy though and feeling positive that we're in the success zone.
** Did you know that when you are doing the natural thing you have to feed around 3 to 4am because 3am to 5am is the Death time. This is when the body is at its lowest ebb and if it is going to die it will, which is why you have to get up and feed - to nourish the soul.
*** And last but not least, let me leave you with An Old Wives tale...
When Death comes knocking at your door he has to take a soul. He has been promised one and he will take one.
Well, when Flash was really sick Death stood with us. Flash got through the night but the next day while I was driving along, I hit a bird and killed it instantly.
Truth is stranger than fiction, baby.
Wishing you much love my friends and of course, my humans
Caps, me, Spirit, Az, Ralph, Chew, Suzie Q, Buzz, Flash and Fenny
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