Ok, I didn't really fight him, I was just trying to hold him. I went to an animal swap meet this weekend. Took three of my toulouse/african grey geese. As I was getting one out of the cage to transfer, his wing slipped out of my grasp and whacked me right in the eye. The bony front part of his wing caught me across the left eye. I had to go the emergency room and have dye put into my eye to check for injury. I had a large abrasion and spent the rest of the day in the recliner with a big patch on my eye.

I was really proud of the nurse for controlling her laughter. I'm sure it's not every day that the answer to "what hit you" is "a goose".

Today it is still swollen but not nearly as painful. Lesson learned.....an outward show of calm is just waiting for you to relax you grip, don't do it!

-- Mona in OK (jascamp@ipa.net), April 09, 2001

Answers

Wow, I'm glad you're OK. I'm sure the ER people have laughed at me and my family-we've been there for a good variety of things over the years. Last fall I was cleaning stalls and brushed up against the stall door. It hurt, but I couldn't figure out what I'd done. I went to the house and said, "honey, will you look at my butt?" Of course, dear hubby said yes. There was a three to four inch splinter in my butt. Once my darling husband stopped laughing, he tried to pull it out. It wouldn't budge, he wanted to take me to the ER. I said absolutely not, I was not going to the ER with a huge splinter in my butt. He finally got it out with pair of needle nosed pliers but I haven't heard the last of it to this day. Man, that hurt.

Stacy (I'm just full of embarassing moments) Rohan in Windsor, NY

-- Stacy Rohan (KincoraFarm@aol.com), April 09, 2001.

Last year while loading pigs my elbow contacted my wife's glasses resulting in the frames breaking. Much hilarity at the optomotrist's office when she went in for new ones. This year she was loading the sheep to take them to the neighbor's to get them sheared and one of them knocked her glasses off resulting in the lens popping out and a screw stripping in the temple. She goes back to the optometrist and explains how her almost new glasses got broken. The tech laughs and says , oh that's nothing. Last year a woman came in because pigs broke her glasses. They are awaiting next year to add to their file.

-- ray s (mmoetc@yahoo.com), April 09, 2001.

Years ago when I pulled a bale of hay down from the stack, it flipped wrong and hit me on the top of the head. It hurt immediately and my husband insisted on taking me to the ER--actually he threatened to have his firefighter buddies come with lights and sirens to "package" me for the trip to make me submit to going in our vehicle. He still made me wear a C-collar and it's the closest he's ever been to instantly becoming dead or divorced. Never felt so ****foolish in my life. Walked into ER under my own steam and had to explain to every idiot in a lab coat what I had done. It seemed they were paging people to come ask me--thinking I made it up perhaps? I don't know but it sure ticked me off. They did a series of radiographs of my head and neck including one with my mouth wide open so they could shoot through it. I was okay but so sore for the next several days. And very embarrassed.

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), April 09, 2001.

So glad you weren't hurt badly!!! Never got decked by a goose, but been chased around the barn by one.... Boy did he taste good!

Hope you're 100% real soon!!

-- Sue Diederich (willow666@rocketmail.com), April 09, 2001.

marilyn, I discovered that funny thing about er people when I took a son in for a compound open fracture to his arm that he got falling from a swing set. I was starting to think they weren't paying attention, and becoming a little annoyed when I realized they kept asking because they didn't believe me:-( We were in the process of putting up the swing set; all that was there was the frame. I saw the children swinging from the top of it and said to myself(knowing myself to be overprotective) what's the worst that could happen, he falls and gets a bump. Imagine my surprise. (And 2 weeks after the insurance company dropped him, too.) But we lived to tell the story, you know, I felt like a terrible mother, but the arm healed, and we even eventually paid off the bill.

-- mary, texas (marylgarcia@aol.com), April 09, 2001.

Several years ago I was selling down our 40 goose flock and wanted to mark some pairs to keep. Tried leg bands but they keept pulling at them till they got them off. So got a good idea a can of spray paint and put a "spot" on the setting goose and her matching gander. Don't ever spray anything that hisses at a gander they attack. My pregnant wife was laughing so hard she didn't try and save me. Only thing got hurt was my pride but geese are a lot stronger than people think. Sorry about your eye hope its well real quick.

-- jd-tx (inkina@cctc.net), April 10, 2001.

You are not alone Honey! Last night I was putting my new baby does over the stall wall into their stall as my big does still butt them when they come in at night. My stall walls are long motorcycle pallets covered with dog wire. We can move them around that way.

Anyway, I had lifted the black girl over, she's big, and she started squirming and kicking, and I lost my balance and leaned against the wall. Well, someone (me) forgot to bungee the wall in place, and down I went, along with the whole wall. It went down real slow as there was a bungee on the other side! I landed on top of the wall, I couldn't catch myself because I had the goat in my hands!

Well, the goat was fine, she was allready clear of the wall, but my left shin has a big knot on it and my arms are scratched up. Steve heard me crying (yes I cry) and said "Are you OK?" Of course I had to say thru my sobs, "Noooo, but the new goat is thank goodness!"

I hope your eye gets better Mona.

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@hotmail.com), April 10, 2001.

Stacy's story about the splinter reminded me of an incident with my mother ... I had to have been about six years old ... we were living on the ranch in Montana. No electricity, no indoor plumbing, coal heat. In fact, it was actually a 2-room cabin, kitchen and dining room/winter living room downstairs and the bedroom and summer living room upstairs.

Anyway, wintertime baths were taken in a big round washtub. You filled the washtub full of snow, put it on the back of the coal kitchen range and kept adding snow until you had at least half a tub of warm water. Then the tub got lifted down onto a braided rug we put in front of the stove where it was the warmest.

Well, my mother wasn't quite careful enough when she was getting dried off and bent over the wrong way ... right ... branded right across the backside! Daddy tried awfully hard not to laugh and it really was a bad burn because the stove was really hot ... middle of the winter and probably below zero. Fortunately the burn didn't get infected and healed okay but for several days Mom didn't sit down at all and she slept on her stomach for a long time!

-- SFM in KY (timberln@hyperaction.net), April 10, 2001.

For all of us with bumps and bruises, might I suggest arnica? Speeds the healing, and relieves some of the pain. A few years back, I rolled my van on the freeway, and had bruises from my shins to my temple. Put arnica everywhere, just about, and the bruises were cleared up within a week (except the ones that lurked for a few days before appearing, and those lasted for nearly three weeks!) Anyway, we find it helpful, because there are always thing to trip on, run into, fall on you........ around the old homestead.

-- z in washington (beebedz@juno.com), April 10, 2001.