New coop in progress

[tracy0052]

Beautiful coop! And adorable dogs!

 

[Talonstorm]

Your coop looks fabulous and your Berners look adorable, esp the one wearing the hardhat and glasses! These pics made me happy and sad as we lost our three year old Berner last year to cancer. Malignant melanoma, how does a dog covered in black fur get malignant melanoma!?!

**not chicken related**

It is my understanding that melanoma in dogs is not related to sun exposure. I have recently gotten a crash course in this as my big boy was diagnosed with cutaneous malignant melanoma. It presented as a lump on his tail. $8K later and 2 surgeries, his tail has been amputated (a much worse process than it seems like it should be) and he is getting a melanoma vaccine (4 shots spaced 2 weeks apart, then once every 6 months for the rest of his life at $900 per shot!). Cancer is a terrible disease and I completely empathize with your loss. This breed tears your heart out. I can only hope that through the selective breeding and research being done will help reduce the rate of cancer in the breed. 7 is not a good average life span! My first berner made it to 10 and it seemed like that wasn't even close to long enough. I hope to have my two boys now much longer.

**chicken related**
Thanks for all the coop compliments. It was a much bigger undertaking that I had planned, but it turned out nice. I am working on getting the yard ready, raked, and fence installed this week. I'm currently pulling some of the landscaping in that part. I read that hydrangea bushes are poisonous to chickens, and digging up the old ones in that part of the yard is turning into quite a chore!

 

[6of6chicks]

Your coop looks fabulous and your Berners look adorable, esp the one wearing the hardhat and glasses! These pics made me happy and sad as we lost our three year old Berner last year to cancer. Malignant melanoma, how does a dog covered in black fur get malignant melanoma!?!

Oh, I read that and got sad all over again. You sound JUST like me. I lost my beloved girl (purebred yellow lab) to lung cancer in January. Once of the first things I said when the vet told me lung cancer was, "You've got to be kidding me. What do you think she does, sneak a smoke out in the yard when I let her out to go potty? How does a DOG get lung cancer??" Hers was apparently rare, too, because it started in the lungs and spread from there. How and why my girl got a rare form of lung cancer is beyond me.

Ah, well, I'm not embarrassed to admit I'm shedding a few more tears (again). So hard to lose your best friend...

 

[chickensfinally]

Oh, I read that and got sad all over again. You sound JUST like me. I lost my beloved girl (purebred yellow lab) to lung cancer in January. Once of the first things I said when the vet told me lung cancer was, "You've got to be kidding me. What do you think she does, sneak a smoke out in the yard when I let her out to go potty? How does a DOG get lung cancer??" Hers was apparently rare, too, because it started in the lungs and spread from there. How and why my girl got a rare form of lung cancer is beyond me.

Ah, well, I'm not embarrassed to admit I'm shedding a few more tears (again). So hard to lose your best friend...

Too much "crap" in our environment. They are probably our "canary in the coalmine". Sorry for the loss of your girl, I see she was purebred too. We went for hybrid vigor with our current dog. He is a Mastador, half english mastiff, half labrador, all good heart. 140 lbs of mushy "love sponge". Sorry, OP, off topic!