Baymule’s Journal

[Baymule]

Had a tree cutter at the farm yesterday, taking down big dead oaks, that were next to the house. Going back this morning, tonight I’ll post pictures. It was 104F when I got home at 2:30 yesterday, I took a nap. Going to be 103F today. I’m going to start on taking down a span of barbed wire this morning. It’s out in the open, no shade, so I’ll have to quit early. It’s a big pasture with field fence on 3 sides and this fence row is clean, so will be easier to take down and put up sheep and goat wire. One side is just across the driveway where a water faucet is, so will be easier on me this winter to care for the sheep.

Daylight is breaking, gotta go!

 

[Hideaway Pines]

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Trip hasn’t been doing well lately. He’s lost weight, not eating much and finally just quit eating. I tempted him with raw beef hamburger and steak. I cut the steak in fingernail sizes and hand fed him. He would only eat a small amount at a time. I gave him bread, cornbread, he loves both. He chewed with his mouth opening wide, dropping pieces of food. Depressed? Pain? Bad tooth? I made a vet appointment.

He wasn’t having any part of them trying to examine him, so they brought out a muzzle. He wouldn’t allow that either, so I took it. I suggested several times that they sedate him. I put the muzzle on him, several times, it failed. After I told them several more times to sedate him, and that when he came to after being neutered, he tried to bite everyone, the vet decided to sedate him. LOL Trip got real relaxed.

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They put him on a stretcher to take him to X-Ray. The vet showed me the X-Rays, his stomach was distended, huge, full of gas, his intestines were inflamed, the intestine walls were thickened and full of gas.
Trip had hookworms, but they shouldn’t have caused all this. I wormed all the dogs last month.

The vet mentioned the possibility of lymphoma. No way to know for sure without opening him up. Don’t really want to do that, as a last resort, but even if we did, there is no cure for him.

Since he was sedated, the vet got the tube she uses on horses and cattle and tubed him. The techs squeezed his belly, releasing a lot of gas. They worked him over, shots of B12, fluids and manipulating more gas out.

Vet said bland diet for couple of weeks, no more steak for Trip. He had a medication for nausea, one for pain and one for hookworms. @Ridgetop suggested milk of magnesia so I got some today.

Trip’s appointment was at 3:45, we didn’t leave until 6:20. The vet and 3 techs stayed after 5, working on Trip. He came to, and was glad to jump in the truck to go home. I fixed him chicken and rice, he ate it up. His belly had to feel better without all that gas in it.

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Today I bought 40 pounds of chicken leg quarters and a 20 pound bag of rice. I’ve cooked 10 pounds, pulled meat off the bones, got 2 half gallon jars of meat and huge pot of broth. Trip had a good lunch.

So this is where Trip and I are at. Does he have lymphoma? I don’t know. I’m really hoping it is something else. For the next few weeks, he’ll get rice, chicken, broth and medications for nausea, pain and to get rid of the hookworms. He’ll get a little milk of magnesia to make sure his intestines are working, the rice should add bulk to help things move along. We’ll see how it goes.

I know dogs come with an expiration date, but I figured Trip’s expiration date was a few years out, I’m sure hoping so. I’ve had enough loss, it needs to stop and give me a break.

poor guy, I will pray that he recovers fully - so glad they were able to give him some relief though.

 

[Hideaway Pines]

I had Trip put down today. All I could get him to eat was half a piece of bread, one tiny piece at a time. He backed away from my offering of chicken, and I knew. Cancer was killing his insides, I watched him all weekend, sleeping, barely breathing sometimes, other times panting, almost gasping for air. He wasn’t going to get any better, he was dying.

I took him for his last ride in the truck. He was standing, then slowly sank down, resting his head on the armrest, watching me with adoring eyes.

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I cried all the way to the vet. At the vet’s I sat in the floor cradling his big head. The vet sedated him. Tears streamed down my face. I couldn’t hold it together. She gave him the drugs, his heart stopped and he was gone. Trip was 7 years old.

I called @Devonviolet and cried all the way home. She prayed a beautiful prayer.

I couldn’t let Trip suffer. My big white teddy bear didn’t understand, all he knew was that he was in pain and misery. I did the right thing, but why does it have to hurt so damned bad?

oh no... i am just now reading all your updates, man I am sooooo sorry. I know this was so hard to lose him, praying for your heart - poor dear.

 

[Finnie]

I’m so sorry for Robert and Sharon and their family. And you as well, since you are close to them.

 

[Baymule]

There sure is enough grief to go around. I cried over Trip today. Haven't talked to Robert and Sharon today, they were holding it together pretty good yesterday. Just a totally sad situation.

 

[Baymule]

Here’s the oak tree line up. This one is in front of house, but far enough away that it won’t fall on the house. Bennet will take it down.

Tree #1

Tree #2 it is in the front yard and will have to come down in pieces.

Tree #3, will also have to come down in pieces. It’s across the driveway from end of the house.

Tree #4, it’s at the back of the house. Will have to be dropped piece by piece. It’s leaning towards the house.

Tree #5, it’s far enough away that it won’t fall on the house. Bennet was going to drop it, but changed his mind and struck a deal with Domingo, the tree cutter, swapped a steer for cutting the tree. Look closely, dead pine Tree #6 is standing on other side of the fence, but poses a threat to the new fence I’ll put up. The landowner said we could cut it.

 

[Baymule]

Snowmeggdon of February 2021 burned and damaged them badly. We had temperatures below zero and this kind of oak tree can’t take it. Now we are in drought with 100 plus temperatures and no rain, it has finished them off.

The tree cutter said he has been cutting a lot of trees that that freak winter storm damaged. Drought is killing them off now.

 

[Baymule]

Those were the before pictures, now the after pictures. Yesterday I was at the farm at 7:30, Domingo and 2 helpers were already there, working on Tree #2. I got back home at 2:30, it was 104F, I was tired. I went to the back of the house and started taking down the pipe fence panels.

They are easy, just tap the pin out with a hammer.

I got up to the front and stopped. After they went to the backyard, I finished taking the fence panels loose, but left them leaned against a T-post, too many tree branches to crawl over trying to carry the panels to the pile I was working on.

A neighbor came for firewood and Bennet loaded his trailer.

Branches of Tree #2.

They moved equipment to Tree #4 in the backyard. One of the guys went up in the bucket with his chainsaw to cut limbs. This tree was real close to the house.

Propane tank was right under the tree. None of the branches hit the tank. These guys were good.

Then they moved to the end of the house for Tree #3 and took it down a piece at a time.

 

[Baymule]

Here they are taking down the very tall dead pine. They roped it off and used the tracts to pull it, when it fell, it fell right along the fence line, but not on my property. Then they took down Tree #5

This concludes tree cutting for now. Lots of clean up!

 

[Baymule]

I went to the farm this morning and got two runs of T-Post clips taken off. I used side cutter pliers and needle nose pliers. Of course, the clips were triple twisted around the barb wire. I filled a 3 pound, 3 ounce coffee can with clips. Bennet said he’d roll up the wire, he wants it for fence patching. It was 10:30 when I finished and 94F degrees.

This is the end, got one side done, then did the other side done. That’s my truck at the end.

I went home and rested for awhile. Then I loaded up scrap plywood, T-posts and treated wood posts. It was 3:38 and 102F degrees.