week 23: something like a rhythm
this week on the little dream farm
You know what…ticks be damned!
If you’ve been hanging out with us on Instagram this week then you know that Molly-Max tested positive not just for Lyme but also for Anaplasmosis and Ehrlichia - all tick-borne illnesses.
On Sunday I went out to give him hay and I thought he was moving far slower than usual. When it’s his hooves there’s always a limp involved, so this felt different. The following day, same thing, so I went with my gut and called our equine vet who happened to have a cancellation and was able to come by Tuesday afternoon.
I told her when I was brushing Maxy the day prior, I saw something fall off him really quickly while I was brushing his chest and couldn’t find it in the grass. It looked like a gray ball…and sure enough when I looked up fully engorged ticks, which I’ve fortunately before this point had never seen before, that’s exactly what it looked like.
She took a blood sample to do a SNAP test back at her house then collected extra blood to send off to Cornell’s labs in case we needed it. Once his SNAP test lit up the way it did, we sent the bloodwork off just to check everything else and see if he’ll need any additional supportive care. She said she’s only seen a test like that in one other horse, and when she called Cornell to ask about it they told her the viral load may have been so high that it was cross-flagging other tick-borne illnesses.
What I know from the research I’ve since done this week is that ticks can and do carry multiple viruses or diseases, so it is certainly possibly to be infected with more than just one thing.
Poor Molly-Max. We call it the Maxtasrophe—he always seems to be getting hit with something. The vet said in 4-5 days with the twice-a-day dose of the antibiotic Doxycycline that he should start feeling better, and we can confirm we’ve noticed that. He’s moving easier, more like himself, and hungrier than ever. This medication, unlike the antibiotic we use for his abscesses when he gets them, is an apple-flavored powder that can go in his food (it smells like straight chemicals), which makes it far easier to administer. He’s on these meds twice per day for 28 days, and then we’re also giving him some pain meds for the next few days to take the edge off his legs more than likely not feeling the best while infected with Lyme.
We keep learning the hard way on this farm that that ounce of prevention really is worth the pound of cure—so we’ve been looking into alternatives for tick and fly prevention. We’ve been doing our best to mow their pasture down every 4-6 days, but the vet said she tells everyone you could keep your farm or your pastures like a golf course and they’re still going to get ticks. Sadly, she’s seeing and treating more Lyme and Anaplasmosis (which Dominic had in summer 2023) than ever before.
When you look across the market at the sprays and options they have for equines, the chemicals are all quite awful. That, and many of the products cause scalding on the skin of the animals (especially horses with white on them or in this case, Molly-Max who is a lighter-colored donkey) when applied and then exposed to the sun. We’re weighing some permethrin-based product with some natural spray at the moment—thinking we’ll do a combination of both to cut down on the harsh chemicals but also keep them protected so we don’t have to deal with the damn ticks and their damn diseases again.
Speaking of which, I just found one dug into the back of my arm right near my armpit yesterday while I was showering. Thankfully it was flat so it couldn’t have been there long but dang did it hurt for a little while after it was removed.
We do really extensive tick checks on ourselves and Black Kitty…but so far this year BK has had three ticks removed (she gets Revolution Plus every month from March to November, which I also hate using but is the best thing for how bad the ticks and parasites are here) and I’ve had three, too.
Chris and I use both this pump sprayer and this aerosol sprayer on ourselves.
We also have these tick removal tweezers that we always use on BK—on ourselves we just use a regular pair.
So that’s the news on the tick-related front.
As for Chris and I, this week we had a chance to get off the farm together Thursday night to meet a bunch of friends at the old train station that was converted into a restaurant and just recently reopened under new management. We both got to meet a few new people and had a lovely and much-needed social evening.
Saturday we were expecting rain most of the day so we hit the gym, headed out to run a bunch of farm errands, and then stopped at a gluten-free bakery we’ve not yet tried and absolutely loved!
We came home, knocked out a few chores around the farm that we could do in the rain, and then cleaned ourselves up and had a wonderful dinner date night down in Albany and finished it off by running a few other errands while we were in the area—have to make the most of being in town when we’re there!
I mentioned this week in a post on Instagram that something feels different this year. Is it us? Is it our mindset? Is it a few years experience under our belts? Have we learned how to work better as a team? Are we finally finding our stride? Do we know our limits better?
It’s probably a combination of it all.
But the tasks don’t feel as daunting. The projects go more smoothly. We’re laughing and joking more as we work. We’re taking the lumps in stride. The systems we’ve built and put in place are working.
And dare I say we feel like we’ve really got a handle on this whole land steward hobby farmer life we’ve cooked up.
We’re finding ourselves in something like a rhythm and I’ve noticed in both of us this past month how much better and more confident and more at peace we are this year. It helps that my back is keeping up with me just fine—this is the best I’ve felt all year so far!
And in just a few weeks once the majority of the things we wanted to get done this year are checked off our list, we’ll get to go into maintenance mode and just sit back and enjoy what we’ve created—keeping up with weekly tasks and harvesting goodies from our incredible gardens.
We stopped back at our favorite organic farm on Friday to pick up the rest of the starts we’ll plant in the fruit and veggie garden—sweet corn, popcorn, pumpkin, watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew melon, cucumber, celery, and a few herbs. I’ll roll up a total list of everything we planted this year once we’ve got it all in the ground.
This weekend is our villages annual balloon festival but sadly both morning’s have been super foggy and they can’t launch in these conditions. I’ll leave a photo here from the 2024 festival—still one of my favorite photos I’ve taken while living in this special little place.
We’ll catch you back here next weekend, friend! Hope you’ve been filling this weekend with everything that you love and more of what you need.
Hope MollyMax gets back to feeling like her/his (!) old self soon.
I used to Hot Air Balloon. I was crew and learning how to pilot one. That was a wonderful adventurous time. I also went to a balloon festival in the Adirondacks one time and it was beautiful.