The Many Faces of Pink Eye

Last week, Dallin noticed a cow that was having issues with seeing - she kept tripping and walking into trees and the other cows.  24 hours later, several cows were having the same problems!  We called a vet out on Friday and he confirmed pink eye.  Pink eye in cattle can be started easily by a cow getting poked in the eye by a blade of grass, the cut getting infected, and then a fly landing on the infected eye and going from cow to cow.  The vet supplied us with all of the meds we needed plus a vaccine. 

Saturday morning, before it got too hot, Tim and Dallin rounded up the cattle and got them into the corral.

It wasn't very easy to get them where they should be - so many cows were having problems seeing, they just kept running into the corral panels instead of going through the opening!

Poor thing!  Her right eye is affected, but not her left (YET!).  (notice the flies??)

Weeping left eye. (and more flies!)

Both eyes infected. (yep, flies)

It looks horrible, doesn't it?? (flies here too!)

The bull was sporting a pirate-y one-eye-winking look! - see how the flies are hanging out around his infected eye?

Poor Miss Daisy had it the worst!  Both eyes looked like this.

Once the cattle were in the corral and a little calmed down, we got our supplies ready - bottles of meds, a chart for Hayleigh to write down what we did, lots of syringes, and the fly sprayer!

Dallin has the 'persuader' *wink*! (He also got pushed off of the top by a cow and got an awesome abrasion across his whole chest.)

Daisy's other eye. (and LOADS of flies!)

Kyle came over to help us (thank goodness!) and we got a system going - single out the cow we want to treat, persuade it to go in the chute and eventually turn in to the head gate.    In the head gate, we can lock them in to make it easier to give shots, etc...   Sounds easy, right??  

Let me tell you, with blind cows, this was anything BUT easy!  Each cow had to put in the head gate, checked out, documented, treated for pink eye, and sprayed for flies before being let go back to the pasture.  Some cows had eye patches put on too.

Patiently waiting her turn.

This poor little guy had an extra fun time in the head gate!  Not only did he get an antibiotic squirted in the eye, a vaccine, pink eye meds, and fly spray...he also got BANDED.  Too much fun. hahaha.

Tyler took over Kyle's spot when Kyle had to leave - thank goodness! Tyler putting glue on a patch for an eye.  

When all was said and done, only 5 head out of 36 did not have pink eye.  14 had pink eye in both eyes!  Hopefully, this herd will start seeing life a lot differently very soon!

Granddaughter #2!

It's so exciting!  She's finally arrived and we are all thrilled to pieces!

High School Graduation

OH MY GOSH!  We are now the parents of 6 HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES!  Talk about feeling old........

It's always interesting to see what the 'spirit' rock has painted on it.  They did a great job this year!

The day was not as hot as it usually is - of course, this year, graduation was at 8:30 AM!

Dallin and Tim

2014 NIHS Graduate!

:(

Happy 18th Birthday Dallin!

8th Grade Dance and Promotion

For an end-of-school celebration, the middle school hosts a dance for the 8th graders.  

It's an all-out-teen-fun-time!

At 8th grade promotion, Hayleigh received her certificate for CCTL achievement.  CCTL is an alternative to high school that is held at the local community college.  Hayleigh declined her invitation as they do not have the courses she wants to take.

Waiting in line for her 8th grade promotion diploma!  So glad to be on her way to high school!  WAIT...WHAT??? Hayleigh is going to high school???  No way!!

Field Day was Fun!

Kirsten had a fantastic field day this school year!  The few games I saw (I had to leave to pick Dallin up from exams) looked like so much fun!  They had duck-duck-goose with a soaked sponge.  As the 'picker' walked around to pick the goose, instead of tapping them on the head and saying 'duck', they let some of the water from the sponge drip on the kid's head.  The kid that was chosen as the goose, got the sponge squeezed out over her head and got soaked!  So cute!

There was also flavor ice - big hit with my kids!  We've already gone through 5 or 6 boxes of 100 so far this year.  

Kirsten also had an awards ceremony - she earned over 100% of her Accelerated Reading goal and earned Honor Roll for all 4 marking periods!  Yay Kirsten!  So - we just can't figure out where the breakdown between the NC State testing and teaching Kirsten is.  Kirsten did not do well on either of her End-of-Grade tests; in fact, she will be attending summer school for a little while to finish up a couple of her 'portfolios' that are required to be promoted to 4th grade.

Busy Week!

It's been a very busy week here!  We've had all kinds of end of year school things - and Dallin's graduation from high school too!  We did find time to go swimming - we so appreciate our dear friends who let us use their pool! 

Emmy LOVES watermelon!

It's been stormy and humid a lot recently and the weeds are taking over.  I went out to weed and I thought there was a mushroom or something growing on my lantern.   

Turns out it was a frog.  I am NOT fond of frogs. Really. Not. Fond. At. All.  Anyway, Dallin tossed him somewhere and the flower bed was weeded.

I will be trying to catch up on here - I have some dance photos, some 8th grade promotion photos, and senior graduation photos.

Throwback with some New News

Sometimes I think the name Ethan means "Injured" or "once again needing to be repaired"!  Within a year's time, Ethan had stitches 3 different times on his head.  In high school, he had his head hit during a soccer game and needed a couple of stitches.  In club ball, he got hit in the head and had a tooth pushed back.  Anyway - the photo above is showing the stitches Ethan got when someone at church opened one of those heavy solid classroom doors and caught him in the forehead.  He needed to be stitched up. 

And now for some "new news" - This photo is from the first day of Ethan's junior year.  He had dislocated his left shoulder several times and the decision was made to have surgery to repair it.  Ethan is on his mission in Arizona currently and has dislocated his right shoulder enough that the mission president said "Let's get this fixed!"  So, in the near future, Ethan will be having surgery on his right shoulder - the diagnosis being "tear through the anterior inferior labrum from 1:00 to 5:00 with detachment of the entire anterior labrum.  This detachment extends up into the superior labrum which is also partially detached.  This is consistenet with a Perthes lesion, a Bankart variant.  Also an Old Hill-Sachs fracture of the superolateral humeral head. Cause: Repeated dislocations of the shoulder."

WINNER!

Yes, that is Keenan standing on the other side of the car!  Congratulations to the #3 for winning the Belle Island Dual 2!  What a great weekend it was for Penske Racing - Will Power won Saturday and Helio won Sunday.  Keenan got to climb the fence with the Helio and the team to celebrate the win!  AND GUESS WHAT??? Somehow the race didn't get DVRd....there is one depressed mom in this house this week.