I was sent home yesterday from Turriefield (the veg co-operative scheme place where I volunteer) with a large sack of celery leaves/tops and stalks for the ponies. A perk of my “job”.

As the ponies actually bothered to come up the hill this morning, which is not their norm anymore, I gave them their lovely reward.  They are now out 24/7 as they refuse to go to bed when asked – I gave up after chasing them up and down the hill 5 times and ran out of steam. There is no hay ration either.

Anyway, they were all very happy and enthusiastically munching grateful, I think, for real food.

And the big ones were watching on.  I could see Iacs thinking “I could like celery”, but I know that he doesn’t from previous form.

Not like Newt who is a keen fan.

So, as there was masses, I threw Iacs his own pile of leaves.  He did eat most of them to be polite and almost made a “clean plate” but I doubt he will ask again tomorrow.  The others steered well clear.

When I went back later on to poo-pick the track, there was not a trace of any celery leaves anywhere.  They had finished today’s ration.  There is more for tomorrow.

I’m still worried about ‘Ster.  He is not himself.

He’s finished his course of antibiotics and doesn’t smell of wee anymore, which is good.  But his back end is hunched up and he is walking stiffly which could be an indication of kidney stones (urolithiasis) discomfort.

I am giving him huge bowls of soaked sugar beet to up his fluid intake and have spoken to the vet.

A sheep friend suggested giving him ammonium chloride, which will lower the pH of his urine, making it more acidic, which helps dissolve the stone’s components.

To the best of my knowledge (and searching), there is no ammonium chloride on the island so sheep-friend suggested a recipe of red onion, garlic, lemon juice and vinegar – boiled until everything is mush and strained which apparently creates ammonium chloride.  It is evil-smelling.

I syringed the liquid down ‘Ster this morning, much to his total disgust but he was a good boy about it and then went out with his friends for the rest of the day, which was an improvement on his recent withdrawn behaviour.

I also gave him some painkillers too.

We will continue with this regimen and I will also order the real ammonium chloride off Amazon. I have also bought a bag of lamb creep (feed for lambs), which has ammonium chloride as standard and everyone will start eating that daily.

As long as I can keep ‘Ster eating, drinking and chewing his cud, then hopefully the potion will nuke the stones and make him more comfortable.

Poor ‘Ster.  On a plus, he still likes his hugs and is stealing chicken food!

Everyone looks revolting these day. It’s that time of year when the horses and ponies are shedding their winter coats but I refuse to brush anyone because a) that’s too much like hard work and b) winter may well return and they will thank me.  The forecast is a harsh north wind and 5℃ at the weekend.  Told you so and oh yes, they will thank me for my indolence on the brushing front.

After their breakfast, Dahlia and Gussie also followed me down to where I was feeding the old horses and ponies.

After I sent Daisy her daily photo of Iacs, she asked where Gussie was, so I replied “he is tipping over buckets”.

Ever the class clown.

And suddenly Gussie has changed. He is no longer the sweet little lamb that sat on my feet and I brought home along with his mother.

These are his teenage years and he has quickly become a thug, tripping me up if he can in the pursuit of food.

Pepper is now off house-arrest due to her poorly paw and is allowed to come with me on my crofting duties, or on dog-walks but only on a lead.  She is making up for lost eating/clearing up time but I am glad she is getting better.

What to do with the Minions.  Last night, they stayed on the track mostly because they refused to come in so I left them there and then spent the rest of the night worrying that they would probably get laminitis on the few blades of new grass (t’was Monday so they got a small new bit of track).

Anyway, this morning the ponies all came up saying they were hungry and I took this for a good sign that I still had some influence over them.

So what to do?  This afternoon, when they saw me in their wee paddock, they all (and even Waffle) came in to see if I was putting out some chocolate cake for them.  There is very little on the track – it is mostly moss.

And it was too late for them, as I shut the gate, and gave them last night’s leftover and untouched soaked hay.  It’s need to be eaten.  I hate waste.

Realistically, I need to decide what to do – do they all stay on the track 24/7 and hope for the best while cutting down the soaked hay in nets to possibly nothing and only having their 50g sugar beet + balancer ration.  This is what we did last summer and it did work and they did lose weight.

Pros – they are out exercising eating barely nothing.
OH stops mucking out every morning.
I can go south for a weekend to see daughters.

Cons – they could potentially break out in the night into lush grass despite prison-like fencing.
I get to muck out (poo-pick the track) for everyone 24/7 and that is a lot.

Or Tiddles and a fat friend comes in over night (4pm – 8am) and eat soaked hay.

Pros:  Tiddles and fat friend would not get a full 24/7 sugar blast.
Cons:  They would hate it and possibly me.
Going south would be difficult.

So, answers on a postcard, please as they say on the telly.  I am edging towards grabbing Tiddles and a Fat Friend for the night so they can’t overeat the absolute nothingness on the track.

I’m not feeling my best. I think I rather over-did it today.  I had to go to town for an appointment and ended up doing a million other things too.

So I came home knackered and with a monstrous headache and decided to go to bed for a little rest. Of course, I fell asleep.

And now I feel even worse having just woken up because that’s what happens when I have an afternoon nap.

I am having a cup of tea now to see if that makes me feel any better.

(sorry)