The Guild is a web series about people who play an online role playing game and belong to a guild called the Knights of Good. (The game is based upon World of Warcraft, but the game itself is never named.) Every now and then the cast produces a music video. The first one was “Do you want to date my avatar?” The new video, Game on, was just released today.
The Guild meets Bollywood! Love it. 
Thanks Mom! #The vet said that the lumps on Isis’ sides might be three things: allergic reaction that turned into hard bumps, sarcoids, or lymphoma. The vet gave Isis a local pain block so the lump on her right side could be biopsied. The test results should come back in two weeks.
The biopsy site has two stitches in it. No real special care for it: just Swat around the wound to keep flies away. She can’t be worked for 10 days. Maybe a bare back ride at a walk after 5-7 days. Otherwise, she’s on rest.
Meanwhile, the stitches will take about the same amount of time to heal. No treatment for the lumps until we know what the lumps actually are. Here are possible options:
So I am feeling really deflated and down. I know there is nothing to do until the test results come in.
Waiting sucks.
Stella’s eyes are changing. Today her eyes are not very responsive to the light. When she opens them, the pupils stay wide and are slow to adjust to the light. The vet warned me on Friday that Stella might end up with detached retinas from the hypertension (high blood pressure).
Basette ended up with detached retinas as a side effect of her diabetes. The night she lost her vision, she wandered in to my office and sat by my feel like she usually did. The light caught her eyes wrong: her pupils looked like saucers filled with a murky grey-black fog. She could still follow my fingers and discern shapes.
Picture taken the night Basette went blind.
That night was the first night Basette was confined to her kitchen containment area with her food, litter, and bed all neatly arranged. Basette adapted to being blind — but she still had her hearing. (Basette only lived a few weeks after she went blind.)
Basette's self-contained world in the kitchen after she went blind.
Stella is a courageous little cat. We have both adapted to her deafness: I’m careful to tap the floor or the bed if she is asleep so I don’t startle her. How do you deal with a kitty is both blind and deaf? She’ll have to be confined (she will absolutely hate that) but it will be much safer for her. We’ll deal with that situation if we come to it.
Some mornings she is so quiet and still that I watch her chest just to make sure she is breathing. She looks so tiny and pitiful. She isn’t in pain. She still plays and goes after my hand if I don’t play with her enough. Her rear end is wobbly pretty consistently now. It doesn’t stop her from jumping up on the desk to be with me. I have taken to setting her on the floor or picking her up so she doesn’t have to jump around.
Stella is currently asleep on the desk. Her coat is in rough shape. I should give her a bath. (She will hate me.)
Stella and Kiesha on my desk.
I feel guilty for not forcing the high blood pressure meds down her throat. She was miserable from me trying (and 75% of the time failing) to force the meds. Instead of curling up with me every night she ran from me. We tried for three months to get her to take the pills. It seemed better to let her go without them. It came down to a quality of life. I chose to let her be happier… but at what expense?
She is dreaming now. Her little legs are twitching. This little cat has been with me for more than half of my life.
Kiesha, on the other hand, seems to be absolutely fine. No puking (except hairballs) and she is eating well. Like a vacuum. She purrs whenever I say her name and greets me at the front door most days. Not today though, which made me go look for her when I got home. She is curled up on my lap right now with her head tucked into my elbow while I type.
This last vet visit made me realize just how much Stella has gone downhill in the past few months. It’s been hard on her: moving, losing Ambush, and her kidney issue worsening. Instead of looking like a kitty who is half of her age, she looks like she is her age now. The vet said that she looks like she is 17. Poor little kitten. She’ll let me know when it’s her time. I hope we have more months together of her being in good health.
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Last weekend the weather was gorgeous and Isis, who has trouble dealing with the heat, was feeling frisky. I free lunged her in the big ring and after a few minutes, the tail came up and she started snorting. The snort, the prance, and the bounce in her step all show how good she was feeling.
This is the bay mare that takes my breath away. Miss Charisma sure that she is the center of the universe (and she is — my universe at least). Not bad for a mare who has had EPM, laminitis twice, two sprained tendons, and colic surgery.
I’ve never had a horse like Isis: one who I think something and she does it. If I am in the barn, I stand next to her stall door away from the other horses (otherwise she pins her ears and shakes her head at the horse next door). She usually puts her head out and presses her cheek against mine (and then nudges my head with her lip).
We’ve had our scares. There have been three times when I wasn’t sure if she would be around for another day. So far, every time she has fought her way back to health (twice the vets used “miracle” to describe her recoveries).
Having been through almost losing her, every day she feels well and is out there prancing and dancing is a reason to celebrate. She is an absolute joy in my life.
Keep on going, Bay Wonder Mare(tm).
Isis has always had skin issues: rain rot, fly bite allergies, scratches, etc. For the most part, these things last a little while, are treated, and then resolve. For the past two months or more, Isis has had lumps under her legs, right where the girth goes. Initially, the lumps did not interfere with the position of the girth. The lumps were slightly in front. However, wearing the girth irritated the lumps.
The lumps are behind Isis’ front legs right in front of the girth. The lumps appear to be only in the skin: I can move the lumps easily around. They feel mostly hard and small. The lumps are not uniform in shape. The one on Isis’ right side is long and tube-shaped, while the ones on the left side are like clustered pearls.
The lumps have gotten worse in the last week (see pictures).
I’ve tried a variety of things to deal with these lumps and so far, nothing has worked.
My next step will be to call the vet and see what she recommends. Maybe a biopsy? Maybe this is caused by clogged sweat glands. Who knows?
I’ve been trying to ride my mares more often. Today was a 2.5 hour trail ride on Prize. We baby sat my friend’s four year old gelding. He’s been ridden about the same number of times as Kasane, although is training is farther along.
Here is Sylvana riding Renegade:
We got back from the trail ride, and I tacked up Kasane. My friend was in the ring with me and offered to take some video and pictures of the Bay Wonder Mare Junior. It’s rather disjointed footage but it shows two things: her responding to my seat and legs for gait changes instead of relying on reins. This is only the third time we’ve trotted in the ring, maybe the fifth time I’ve asked her to trot. Ever. She knows the cues and the voice commands. (For comparison, it took me about 10 times to get Isis to trot by understanding what I was asking, as opposed to tricking her into trotting.)
I was really tickled with her today.
