I'm sick today with a bad cold and some chest congestion. Yesterday, I helped my wife clean stalls through that hacking and wheezing. Today's a different day. Maybe if I stayed quiet yesterday, I wouldn't be seeing the loving light at the end of a long tunnel today.
The guilt maybe the worse part of being sick on a horse farm. My wife cares for the horses all week and only gets of a bit of a break on weekends when I help her with the stalls. Not only does she not get the slight break, she's trying to nurse the prince of wimpyness (that's me) back to health. She's actually on her way to store now to buy stuff to make chicken noodle soup. "You don't have to," I wheezed out through a congested airway to no avail. She ignored me a usual and went anyway.
Who knows? I'm glad I'm not a sick horse.
If I'm sick, I can pretty much tell people where and how I'm ailing (and believe me I don't hold back). For horses, Vets have to be sleuth-like Sherlock Holmeses to deduce the virus or injury crimes by following the clues. Instead of following the money trail, finger prints or trail of broken hearts, they follow by listening to heart, belly and breathing of the sicko horse patients. They'll look at the poop, watch for biting at the sides, do pinch tests, nerve tests, watch for oozing or dozing or pacing or panting.
Vets will do anything, stick their arms up horses butts, stick tubes of concoctions (eye of newt and wolf bane come to mind) down their throats... all in the interest of helping to ease the discomfort of a frequently irate and often ungrateful patient.
We've had horses with colic so bad that it took forty feet of intestine removal and a$6,000 charge. Yes, we have insurance now.
We had horses that could barely stand due to hoof abscesses. It's good for them to walk, the vet would say, but it pained us to watch.
Ooh just thew up in the back of my throat. Yes, it stinks to be sick.
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