Yours truly - hates medicine.
I am a big, big sissy.
The only living, breathing thing in my world that doesn't mind medicine - Flower. I think she might mind it, but she just inhales anything that gets near her lips. She doesn't really know if it was good or bad before it's gone. This works well when it comes to medicine, but not so much with other things that I would prefer she not eat.
Our kids, they are old enough now to want to feel better. They are also adults. I usually have no arguments from them. It wasn't always that way, but even when they were little, they knew that when I said, "Time to take your medicine." I meant it, and fighting it would do more harm than good. So, even back then, they were pretty good about things. They had no choice.
The Man in Charge - he does what he chooses and I leave him to that.
Myself - I usually do what I have to, as long as it doesn't taste bad. I draw the line if it tastes bad.
Yuck.
For the rest of the animals - I have given a lot of meds to my mare, and for the most part she has handled it all well. I haven't had to give the chickens medicine. They haven't needed any. I have doctored here and there due to injury,but the girls are a pretty hardy bunch. As usual though, there has to be a kink somewhere. Mine is Deuce. He is big. He is pretty easy going about most things, but he has his limits. There are things that he is just not a fan of. Like...
1. Shots
2. Wormer
3. Baths
Pretty much, in that order!
Yesterday - Wormer day
It was on the calendar. Did you miss it?
I usually don't do wormer day, but for some reason, I have decided it is just easier to do it than to get the Man in Charge to do it. For those of you that don't know about horses, wormer is a paste. It is necessary. It comes in a syringe. You have to get it in their mouth, and they actually have to swallow it.
Sounds easy enough, right?
Our old horses...
Kool - He would fight you from the moment he saw the wormer or anything he thought might possibly be wormer. He was not having it.
I never wormed him.
I tried to rinse his mouth one time with salt water that I had in a big syringe. He thought it was wormer or some sort of medicine and the battle was on. He lifted me off the ground with his neck. I can say, with absolute certainty, that was the first day of my life that my knees actually knocked together in fear. I had heard about it, even read about it, but up until that day, never experienced it myself.
Rio - She would take the medicine easy enough, but once you let go of her, she would spit it out! We would hold her head up and rub her throat trying to get her to swallow it, but she would always out wait you. The minute you let her go, it would go flying across the stall. I always thought that it had to make it worse to hold it and taste it longer, but she never listened to me. Every time, the same thing. Then, the Man in Charge would search for the hunk of paste and stick it back in her mouth. Then the process would repeat.
Blaze - easy enough to worm. She has had so much happen to her, and she has needed care and has willingly accepted it. She pretty much takes everything like a trooper. So, as I went into her stall with halter and wormer in hand, she had that look, but she relented easily enough. Her eyes get wide as she realizes what's coming, but she doesn't put up a fight. She is wise enough to see the value in being healthy.
Deuce - a different story. I put the halter on him, and he spots the wormer right away. He gets ready for the fight by flexing his neck. Once I halter him, the next step is to hook my finger in his cheek so I can hold his head. Once I have him hooked, he has no choice but to hold his mouth open. Then, you use your other hand to squeeze the paste into the back of his mouth and we're done, right?
For one thing, he is pretty good at evading arrest. He will toss his head up every time you get even remotely near his lips. His next evasive move is to rush forward. If he can run over me or push past me, he can get his head past my shoulder and behind me. Once he accomplishes that, I can't grab him. At this point, I usually knee him in the side. He doesn't like this, so he backs up and we start all over again.
Over and Over.
He has a habit of throwing his head around and I don't like that. If he clocks me with that big block head, he could do some damage. So, the battle rages on and on. This is some what normal, so we both know what to expect. You would think he would know by now that I am not going to give up. I guess I have to give him an A for effort, but eventually he pushes me past my limit. Then, I grab his head and bring his eye to my level so we can have a heart-to-heart. Something usually along the lines of,
"Look, Jack Wagon! You are going to take this medicine!"
That is pretty much the message that I relayed to him yesterday when I got the giggles. It really is like trying to wrestle a 1200 lb. four year old, and give them cough medicine or something. You tell them it is for their own good. You tell them it is not that bad. You even try to persuade them that it tastes good because it is cherry flavored!
In this case, apple flavored, but same difference.
My horses don't like apples. Probably due to all the medicine that is apple flavored! None-the-less, when your mom says you have to take your medicine...You Will Take It!
I finally managed to hook his cheek, and right when I squirted the wormer in his mouth, he jerked his head. The medicine stayed in, but his tooth scraped across the top of my knuckle. It was a bloody mess by the time I got it back. The scrape was not that bad, but it was covered in horse slobber.
When was my last tetanus shot?
I recently cut my hand on wire in the chicken barn, and should have gone then to get a shot, but who has time for that? You have to make an appointment. Then go. It is all too consuming. Besides, it healed just fine. Then, I kid you not, while searching for a paper towel to wipe the blood off my hand, a commercial ran on the radio advertising immunizations at your local pharmacy.
Fast, convenient, no appointment necessary.I pulled his head down so we were at eye level again,
"Okay - We're even!"
The commercial didn't lie. I was in and out in less than ten minutes. We are both now good to go.
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