Sam's Cold Treatment - Day One

I'll be the first person to say I hate giving shots. I'd rather get shots than give shots. In saying that, last night's cold mecidine treatment didn't go so well. I didn't get enough penicillan in Sam to make a difference I'm betting. I hate having to poke him on both sides just for one shot. His neck is still swollen from when I gave him the first shot back on Saturday just to see if it would help.

I've decided I'm going to take the weiny way out and use the powder instead. The powder will take longer but it also means that Sam won't hate me when he sees me and won't have a completely swollen neck.

I was hoping to keep my costs down and since I already had penicillan it seemed like the best answer. But I forgot I have problems giving shots. I can give vaccinations but shots of penicillan don't seem to go very smoothly.

Thank goodness for family. Once again mom is going to run to the vet and pick up the Unaprim so I can start treating Sam through that method instead. I'm almost out of the alfalfa pellets so I may have to make a fast trim in to TSC just to pick up a bag. I'm running low on Senior so I may end up making a tad longer stop. I've switched Sam over to Senior and that seems to be helping with his ulcers. Of course I've cut him way back on grain but if the senior is better on his stomach than senior it is!

Whenever Bob is done with his food dish (and there's always a little bit left), Sam steals it and licks the dish out. I can't figure out why since the only thing left is the beet pulp juice and maybe a flake or two of beet pulp. I've tried giving Sam beet pulp before and he totally turned his nose up at it.

It could be that he's just that darn hungry. So I'm trying the beet pulp again. But this time I'm going to mix it with warm senior mash to see if that will convince him he doesn't mind beet pulp. I hope he gulps it all down so that I can switch him over to beet pulp and get the weight back on him. Otherwise I'll keep pumping him full of soaked alfalfa pellets since that seems to make him happy.

I have to admit that both Sam and Bob are wearing on me. I'm always so worried about their condition. I know I need to decide soon with Bob and I can't bring myself to make "that call" and Sam looks so bad that I'm not sure how to put more weight on him. I guess I'm stressing over things that will just take its course but it's hard for me to sit back and not do something!

I guess today will be day two of Sam's treatment or it may be day one depending on how I want to look at it (based on treatment method). Keep your fingers crossed that Sam starts putting weight back on ASAP and he can kick this cold in the next few days.