Wednesday, August 10, 2011

New Bolton: Let me count the sheep -- er, the ways


Absorbine/Showsheen Announcement COMING SOON! Sorry for the delay

I spent part of my trip to NB counting sheep.
Well, Ri and I didn't go to MidAtlantic Equine Vet Clinic. They called the day before and said their ultrasound equipment was broken.  Drama queen that I am, when I got off the phone, I  wailed in despair.
  • It is freakin' HARD to align the planets and stars to have an appointment, a hauler, and time off work at the same time. Those appointments/meetings I moved? For nothing. And now I may have to move them again.
  • Next week the serious mayhem (start of school) begins, so rescheduling might not be possible for several weeks. 
  • Darn it this can't wait. I need  to find out for sure if Riley needs stall rest, and SOON.
  • I'm en route to a funeral in New Jersey. Not exactly a great time to be troubleshooting this.

Pushy broads make things happen (albeit while annoying everyone)
Trusty Droid in hand, I started searching the Web for phone numbers and making calls to other equine facilities with high quality ultrasound equipment. No one could take me on less than 24 hours notice. After the funeral (around 2pm), I called New Bolton. The vet on call totally got it. Tell me what's going on, he said. Let's try and make this work.  We talked about Ri while he checked the next day's schedule. Can you be here at 10am? 


So many reasons to love New Bolton...
And here is one more: the interesting scenes you see while you're on their campus. Case in point:  "the sheep on a gurney." Years ago a friend of mine first described seeing sheep being toted around like royalty by not one, but two attendants. Well, yesterday, I saw the same thing. Over and over. Every five minutes.

Is it the same sheep? Where are they going? Are they just touring the facility to give the sheep a break? Is it like handwalking? You tell me! I didn't ask but would love to know....




Coming up next: the diagnosis (they don't think it is a suspensory issue)...


6 comments:

  1. That is too funny! Maybe sheep do not leash-train well. :)

    That happened to me once with a horse dentist. I took off work for a serious dental appointment, only to find that the dentist did the entire barn of horses and decided to come back the next day for my horse's procedure. What?! Why wasn't my horse done first? Especially since I was taking a personal day, which must be scheduled in advance. Not surprisingly, I no longer use that dentist.

    Hoping for a minor diagnosis.

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  2. Bless New Bolton. When they "get it," they really "get it."

    Now I will have to wait to hear the results?

    OK, thought here. Did you think to ask about the sheep? I certainly would have given any opportunity. My curiosity would have gotten the better of me.

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  3. Maybe they figure that if enough sheep go by, the horses will get sleepy?

    As for it not being the suspensory, that's good news! I'm hoping that whatever-it-is is better news than the suspensory, though...

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  4. I heard once that they use sheep to transfer embryos for horses, as in across the ocean, so they don't have to ship a horse, etc. Wonder if it has anything to do with that?? Find out, I can't stand it!! Hope your diagnosis is simple and smooth.

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  5. I used to work with sheep at UF. Carts are the best way to transport them from one lab / area to the next. Their cart is quite fancy...ours were much more humble. I can't imagine trying to hand walk a ewe ..it would certainly take some training. Cows were a different story..no cart for them..you actually had to lead them, of course these were dairy cows.
    Hope everything turns out well for Riley.

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  6. True. Very hard to lead a racalcitrant sheep.

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