Ugh, the weekend

This was not one of our better weekends to say the least.  It's been pretty stressful.  On Friday afternoon, me and Shawn had noticed a fairly large cut on Cody's (my mom's morgan horse) leg.  When my mom went out to feed them, I could hear her calling for me from outside.  I got out there and she was telling me about the cut.  Obviously, I already knew about it and told her that.  We had been to the store and I had since forgotten about it.  From where I had been standing earlier in the day, the cut didn't look too bad.  However, upon closer inspection, it was obvious that we needed a vet asap.  The edges of the cut had started to turn a very pale pink, an indication of either lack of blood flow or infection.  Either way, a very bad sign in a horse.  They were at the house within a half hour.  He sedated Cody and had me get a bucket of warm water.  He cleaned the cut REALLY well, so much so that he was sticking his finger inside of the horse trying to get any bacteria that remained out.  He told us the cut was older, approximately 5-7 days.  I KNOW this cut had to be either scabbed over or had mudd on it, as I was out with the horses everyday for at least those 5-7 days, as were my mom and Shawn.  There's no way we would've missed it.  There's always the possibility as well that it had started as a very small cut, closed too soon and got infected, only to break open that day.  There was a large amount of fluid on his leg that had leaked out and appeared to be mudd.  The vet told us that if the infection doesn't go away we're looking at some major decisions.  One of which would be exploratory surgery to see WHERE the rest of the infection is located or if it's spread to bone tissue.  ($700-800) And then if it had spread to his bone, they would have to do surgery to remove ALL of the infection by scraping the bone and then closing him back up.  We didn't get an estimate on that one.  I think we were both too scared at what amount would come out of his mouth.  The only other option is that he would go lame and we would have to euthanize him.  I don't think that's really an option.  Prior to being sedated, Cody was acting completely normal, no limping, no lethargy.  He was eating and drinking.  Once he came out of the sedative, he started showing obvious signs of feeling ill.  He had a temp of 102.  (normal 99-100) But he continues to eat and drink normal.  We're giving him 12 antibiotic pills twice daily through a syringe.  He is to be kept stalled for a week.  Anyone who doesn't know THIS horse has no idea how difficult that is proving to be.  In the first day alone, he got out twice, WITHOUT unlocking his stall.  We set up half the round pen and put him in there, where so far he hasn't been able to pick the lock.  We're supposed to get storms Tuesday so he will have to be put back into the stall.  I just hope we can make him stay there.  The vet is to come back Wednesday or Monday.  (we'll be out of town Thursday through Sunday as long as Cody appears to be doing ok) We'll know in two weeks whether or not he's going to need the surgery.

Paul came over to help put up the wall for the baby's room.  (he was an apprentice for a construction company for two years)  Sounds easy enough right?  Well, after a full day of getting NOTHING accomplished, they finally figured out why nothing was matching up.  No one makes 2x4's anymore.  Our house was made with 2x4's but when we went to put the boards up, they came up about 1/2 an inch short of the ceiling.  On Sunday they went and got some plywood and added the extra wood and now we have half the wall up.  It would be finished by now if we would've known in the beginning that the boards were too short.  (we thought the house had been built like crap and was slanted)  Since we won't be here to do it this weekend, we'll have to finish it the next.  Let's hope there's less problems then than there were this past weekend. 

For the past several months, our Husky, Takoda has been getting sicker and sicker, we just didn't realize it at the time.  She's always had bowel "issues" so we didn't think anything of it when it started up again.  At least not until she stopped eating.  Last night when I went to feed her, she didn't eat ANYTHING.  She's always been finicky but she usually eats at least a few bites.  She's also lost a huge amount of weight that went unnoticed due to the amount of hair she has.  You just couldn't tell she was getting thin until it was really bad.  Aftereveryone went to bed, I put all the dogs outside except for Takoda and gave her a full can of dog food, which she ate very quickly.  I looked her over really good and saw that the problem may be a tooth that had broken years ago.  It seems to be decaying and may also have infected part of her gum, causing eating any kind of hard food to be painfully impossible.  For a while I'm going to feed her normal with the other dogs and then put them outside and give her canned food.  If she puts on weight then I know it's just the tooth, if not then it could very well be something more serious.  I hate that all this animal stuff is happening so close to our vacation.  If it weren't for the fact that we'd already bought tickets, paid the hotel, etc.  I would strongly consider skipping it.  Already if Cody isn't doing considerably better, we won't be leaving.  Well, I am so exhausted.  It's time for me to go to bed.  I've got a doctor's appointment in the afternoon and I'd like to get some sleep before hand.