Wee shite
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♥Feb. 4th, 2014 // 09:03 pm♥
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GB's stable randomly has half-height panelling all the way around it. It's been faintly annoying me, because it's a bit rotten and manky in places, and I'd pencilled pulling it off as a job for the summer.
The last time the vet was here taking blood, he managed to crack one of the planks of wood during his bargy phase, so I pulled that (rotten) plank out.
Then GB discovered this really great new scratching place, and has been using it to itch his bum on ever since. It's been moderately annoying, as he's scuffed up his coat even though his rug, but as he's not been showing any signs of pin worm I was mostly ignoring it, and just occasionally removing another plank as he broke it.
Last night, he snapped three planks, though, and when I pulled those off a couple more came with them:
So, after I'd mucked out* I had a go at pulling it off. The planks are nailed onto three batons, which are fixed to the wall with serious huge nails that appear to have been concreted into the wall. The first part of it went fine, as the batons were rotten. The rest of it, though, was not so rotten. I popped next door to borrow a crowbar, and Mike came out to help, and I did eventually get a nice neat stretch of it off, leaving his lordship with no convenient corners to scratch on:
(It's generally a strangely-done job: really nice materials, all the nail heads covered over, and possibly a bit too thorough, but didn't allow for the fact that there are damp bits in the walls. A sheet of plastic behind the batons, or coating the woods in something, would have increased the life of it hugely.)
I decided that that would do for now, and after a bit of pondering we just hammered the serious nails as flat as we could (those that hadn't either rusted away or had the concrete rot to nothing) and hoped that GB wouldn't catch himself on them.
I've just been out to check on them, and he's obviously been having a lovely scratch: he's ripped the arse out of his rug. I'm very glad it wasn't a colder night, because I'd be very annoyed if he's done that to his posh heavy-weight rug. It might be a repair job but I suspect that daylight will reveal that I'm looking for a new rug in the summer sales.
Not sure what to do about it now, though, and I might get Mr Next Door in to consult. I suspect that we're going to have to snap the nails off and put some sort of filler over the top to cover the sharp edges.
* Both of them, as we went out for a hack and Mike's back went half way through the second canter. Fortunately, he was able to ride home, as I didn't fancy either having to pony GB and have him keep going for the Baby or having to pony the Baby and try and keep him under control....
Jodie seems happier still, today. She wasn't very impressed when we left her to go out hacking, but it was the first time she's been left since the op. Hasn't eaten a huge amount, but I did get her to finish her breakfast and eat more biscuits at dinner time. I'm seriously considering stopping feeding her wet food, when we get through the boxes of it in the store room. Partly because she seems to prefer the biscuits but mostly because it's going to be really grim in summer if she continues to just leave it for five hours before she gets around to eating it.
And now I'm going to go out and duct tape his arse rug, in case he has another scratch and hurts himself.
Edit: Hmm. Is the generic duct tape I 'borrowed' from Mr Next Door (a few months ago) crap, or is it less sticky than I remember it being? It just about managed to stick to the rug, though I doubt it will survive a scratching attempt, and it failed miserably as sticking to the walls when I thought I'd try taping over the nail I think he's been using.... |
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