I went up the stairs and dropped down a bale of hay. I came down stairs and picked it up and went sliding again. I still did not think too much of it. I opened up the bale and and tossed the flecks where they needed to go. I came back later in the day to clean up the stalls and there are really large slippery puddles all over. I clean up these puddles and put down clean shavings. The horses are out in the field and don't seem too interested in me so I put down the evening hay and go back to the house.
I go out the next morning to these puddles again. I have no idea why someone is using this as a potty place. I try to step over it this time but my foot goes out from under me and I am now sitting in this stuff. Really slick, shiny goo. I have no clue as to what I am sitting in except that it is not horse pee. As I am trying to get up Miss Nosey turns around with a startled Neigh and her face and chest have ropes of thick slimey goo dripping down. Of course when I fell the can of grain went everywhere. In most cases that would be no big deal except I have two goats that will eat anything smaller than them . Which is still ok except Miss Nosey has never learned to share and in her haste to run the goats off she she rears up and hits her head on the ceiling and spins around and slips and falls also.
About this time my heart is racing and the only thought going through my head is get out of the way before I get really hurt. Right behind that is Rabies. I get out of the barn to regain my own bearing and let the horses settle down." Rabies, she cant have rabies" I tell myself. " I gave them shots right?" For the life of me I cannot remember. I go to the barn and get out my horse kit. There are 5 empty vials and the manufacture date is for this year. All is good with that part. So maybe she has gotten poisoned. I never ever store my grain near any chemicals but maybe the grain is bad from the store. I put my face in the bag and take in a long deep sniff. It smells ok. But maybe there is something wrong with it anyway so I decide to taste it. Now this is really smart. First it does not taste like what it smells like. Second what was I thinking of by putting it in my mouth if it was poisoned? That wasn't good enough so I go back to the barn thinking that maybe the clorox hadn't dissipated enough out of the water. So I sniff it. It smells like water in a rubber maid tank. Just to be safe I taste it also and it tastes like horse water. I have no clue, but I have had enough at this point. She is acting like herself and I kind of forgot about it.
That night as I bring them in the big guy wipes his face against my chest and covers me in slime. He rubs again and stuff is flowing out of his mouth . In comes Miss Nosey swinging her head from side to side with drool flying everywhere . " Houston , we have a problem here " I say to myself. I truly have no clue. Nothing. blank. I start over a mental checklist of what bills have been paid and I wonder if I am going to have to call the vet out. I love my vet and I know he loves me because everytime he comes out I put another one of his kids thru school.
After the initial panic subsided I get on the computer to ry and find out what is going on. Slobbers. What a fitting name. Commonly caused by a fungus on clover. Internet information says that it should clear up in a few days . I decide to close them off of one field for a few days to dry them up. After 10 days of wading thru horse spit this plan is not working. It may possibly be worse but I can't tell because two are drooling gallons a day. I move them back to the other field in the day time and put them in the barn at night. After a week of this back and forth with the fields I am getting tired and frustrated. I search a bit farther and find out that the only way to clear this up is to remove the clover from the fields. Sounds about right on track. We finally get the right stuff to grow only to have to plow it under. A week after the plow under , everthing is dry
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