Moonie's Saga Continues

Two weeks ago, you may remember that Moonie had a squamous cell tumor removed from his left eye.  The plan was to wait for his eye to heal and then begin chemotherapy ointment to help eradicate any leftover cancer cells.

Unfortunately, in the mean time, his tumor grew back (it seems very aggressive).  I noticed on Wednesday night that the white of his eye was swollen and red.  Dr. Becky came to check it yesterday morning and it was decided that she would remove it once again as it was threatening to invade his cornea.

This time she opted to sedate him and also use Ketamine, so that she could do the surgery with him lying down.  We took him up to the flat yard next to the barn.

He was sedated, 

and anesthetized; and he settled down to lay on the ground.

Becky injected above his eye to temporarily paralyze his eyelid to keep him from blinking.  This time she made an incision at the outer corner of his eye so that she could better see how far back the tumor extended.  

She removed the tumor, then froze the tissue on the eye, hoping to further kill any remaining cells, and stitched the small incision at the corner of his eye.

After the procedure, waking up was a little difficult.

But, eventually he found enough strength to nibble on the grass,

and then eventually to get back up on his feet.

With Hubbs leading his head, and Becky steadying his tail end, we got him back to the dry lot so that he could finish waking up.  

About 20 minutes later he was back to doing what he does best - looking for food!

So, the plan is this:  We start his chemotherapy ointment next week.  We will have to keep a very close watch on his eye.  If the tumor grows back, Dr. Becky will remove his eye.  The biggest risk here is that if the tumor grows back it will invade his orbit (metastasize to his bone).  And if that happens, the prognosis for our sweet Moonie is not good at all.   So, better to lose his eye than to lose his life.

 We are keeping the faith that all will turn out fine in the end, and that this is just a little speed bump for our beloved Moonie.  Fingers crossed (and toes) and prayers said.

While Dr. Becky was at the farm, she also did a third treatment to Chloe's sarcoid tumor... injecting her neck once again with mycobacterium cell wall extract.  Fingers crossed that the end result is for her sarcoid to disappear.

And so, I sat with a donkey head in my lap until her sedation wore off as well.

Since I spent so much of yesterday at the barn, I decided to do a little grooming.

  Red and Ollie were given complete makeovers.

Here's Red showing off his wild, windblown look.

Yesterday was a day... it certainly was.  I am sure there will be more Moonie updates in the days to come. A good part of our weekend will be dedicated to Moonie.  I suppose while I am at the barn I will also groom the ponies.   Other than that... we'll be here on the farm and be back here on Monday with more tales to tell.

Bread making addendum:

You can find the recipe for the multigrain boule HERE.

The crumpet recipe HERE.

I uses these banetons to proof the dough before baking,

and these containers for mixing dough and letting it rise.

I substitute this cereal mix for the 10 grain mix that the recipe calls for... as I have never found ten grain cereal.