up and down and all around so many things to deal with, my head is still spinning.
the shavings arrived unexpectedly so we quickly had to toss out of the bin 75 bales of shavings to make room for the bulk delivery...our 2 month wait ended up being 3 weeks. i wasn't about to turn it away cuz gawd only knows when we can get some more.
jeanette, jeanette, jeanette....such a troublesome cow. i popped into the vets to talk about her...they REALLY want her lifted at least once a day....so i got on the phone and started making calls to farmers and carters and haulers and here is what i came up with....i have an excavator fellow bringing in and leaving one of his machines here...he will come for an hour each evening and with borrowed hip lifters, lift jeanette to her feet....how long she stays up is entirely up to her. we do have to pay for this...a $125 pick up and drop off charge for the machine and $100 per hour for each daily lift...so we are looking at about a thousand dollar bill to lift her for the next ten days. jeanette is well worth it so i don't care about that and the ten days will give her time to gather her strength if she is able. if she is not, i think we have done all that we reasonably can do and might have to look at admitting defeat...i hope not, but the possibility exists.
Dr. Patrelli is coming tomorrow to do some accupuncture with jeanette. she also wants me to get a TENS machine so we can stimulate her muscles in between lifts and accupuncture treatments...so i guess i better find a TENS machine somewhere and it will probably be really good for spritely's leg and arthritic old dogs too....sheesh, now i am a physiotherapist and a soon to be expert cow mover...i have the "cow on the tarp to be dragged around" thing down to an art and soon i will have the "motorized cow in the hip lifter" thing down to an art too. it boggles my brain.
it is amazing the things that you have to learn to do in rescue each day....i used to think rescuing animals was just about taking them in and finding them good homes..honestly, once they are here, finding them homes is the least of my worries, i need to take care of them first. and that makes me a constant student as i learn more and more and i do more and more in meeting more and more caregiving challenges each day.
by the time i drop dead from exhaustion, i am going to know so much freaking helpful animal stuff....someone should steal my brain.