BYC Café

[DobieLover]

Gloria is our domestic creature vet. She specialised in fowl when she was training.
I was until recently one of two people who took fowl to her. In recent months, possibly due to Covid, a few other people have been taking their sick chickens and ducks to her.
She isn't up to date with avian veterinary practices, but she does have a good basic knowledge and has helped save the lives of a few here over the years.
There is an avian vet about an hours drive from where I live. Apparently he is not particularly good and he's very expensive. There is also a National Park avian vet who is excellent but doesn't see domestic fowl usually. I know him personally though and he has seen a couple of the chickens here as a favour in the past.
One of the reasons I take chickens and ducks to Gloria is she is incredibly fair in what she charges and in the event I don't have the money to pay her, she will happily accept and has in the past, woodwork I've done, Honey from the bees here, help at her surgery and veg and fruit grown here.
Today she charged me twenty Euros for examining Cillin, re-bandaging his leg, giving a six day course of antibiotics and loading a syringe of injectable Ivermectin for Fat Bird and Lock. I did help her out for a couple of hours as well. With an arrangement like this there is no reason why I wouldn't take a sick chicken to a vet unless I was absolutely sure of what the problem is and how to fix it. In this case I was concerned about tendon damage.

You are lucky to have her and to have such a relationship with her that she will give you the meds you need without seeing the birds. I have 2 vets that will work with me that way at the office where I take my dogs.

 

[DobieLover]

Cats barfing mouse parts.

Cats barfing ANYTHING on your counter.

Cats,

Strangely enough, I agree... when the cat is indoors.
I have a cat.
I love my cat.
I will never in a bazillion years get another cat when she's gone!! I'm so tired of cleaning up her barf it's not funny. And the cat is so old it seems she's going to out live me.

 

[sourland]

Our first cat lived 21 years - after I said "Never again." Long story made short, daughter came home from college with a cat that lived 16 years. "Never again." Well, there is Scaredy cat a feral turned tame who showed up many years ago, but she is not allowed inside. She has her own outdoor heated sleeping box aka whelping kennel.

 

[DobieLover]

Well, there is Scaredy cat a feral turned tame who showed up many years ago, but she is not allowed inside. She has her own outdoor heated sleeping box aka whelping kennel.

And THAT is the only way a cat would be allowed with me again. But then you run the very high risk of it crapping in your landscape bed mulch. Now go ahead and ask how I know about that little treat.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Hey we still have 4 inside the house .. We have 3 cats outside still .. I am not sure how they have made it .. Kinda odd but we had barn cats as a kid they would come and go they would all line up as we milked .. Yes hate cat puke anywhere ..

 

[Perris]

Gloria is our domestic creature vet. She specialised in fowl when she was training.
I was until recently one of two people who took fowl to her. In recent months, possibly due to Covid, a few other people have been taking their sick chickens and ducks to her.
She isn't up to date with avian veterinary practices, but she does have a good basic knowledge and has helped save the lives of a few here over the years.
There is an avian vet about an hours drive from where I live. Apparently he is not particularly good and he's very expensive. There is also a National Park avian vet who is excellent but doesn't see domestic fowl usually. I know him personally though and he has seen a couple of the chickens here as a favour in the past.
One of the reasons I take chickens and ducks to Gloria is she is incredibly fair in what she charges and in the event I don't have the money to pay her, she will happily accept and has in the past, woodwork I've done, Honey from the bees here, help at her surgery and veg and fruit grown here.
Today she charged me twenty Euros for examining Cillin, re-bandaging his leg, giving a six day course of antibiotics and loading a syringe of injectable Ivermectin for Fat Bird and Lock. I did help her out for a couple of hours as well. With an arrangement like this there is no reason why I wouldn't take a sick chicken to a vet unless I was absolutely sure of what the problem is and how to fix it. In this case I was concerned about tendon damage.

You are so lucky! Here our independent vets disappeared into a corporate outlet that rip-off at every opportunity, like wholly unnecessary annual boosters for dog jabs, at £40 a pop....

 

[ronott1]

Good evening Cafe.
I got a call from DH Jr yesterday. He wanted to talk about his dad's condition. He and his sister were so surprised at how much worse he is now than when they saw him at Christmas time. Well, yeah. He's not going to get better. He's on a steady decline.
He then told me that DH's sister, who has him now, wants me to send down another week's worth of meds and supplements because the original plan for her to bring him back to PA this Friday has changed due to some critical scheduling for her DH. So I'll likely get an additional 5 days before I go down to pick him up. That's good for me. And good for his family.
They can start to get a tiny idea of just what I go through on a day to day basis taking care of him. But let's add in the fact that they all have partners to help them. I don't.
Most of them are fully retired. I'm not.
They all have support structures around to help. I don't.
They all don't have THREE houses they are working on. I DO!!!
They are FINALLY starting to 'get it'. Let's see if anyone steps up to the plate to help me out by taking him more than just once a year...

It would be nice to get some help

 

[Shadrach]

You are lucky to have her and to have such a relationship with her that she will give you the meds you need without seeing the birds.

I worked for it. With regard to equivalent value payment she does well out of the deal. The vet practice is in general reasonably priced compared to most in the UK and USA. Even the sheep vet and the horse vet are reasonably priced.
In rural farming communities there are two groups of people, if you've got any sense, you look after; vets and what get called Lampista here. Lampistas are combined electricians and plumbers.

 

[Shadrach]

Good morning Cafe.
Coffee is made.
It's somewhere in the mid thirties Centigrade here with 58% humidity; hot and sticky basically.
A farmer in the next valley has recently felled a Cork Oak tree and when I saw him this morning he said he had put aside a section of the main trunk for me. Very thoughtful of him. I'll pay him for it of course but it won't be anything like the price of buying seasoned wood from a hardwood specialist wood yard.

 

[sourland]

Good morning Cafe, and thanks, Shad. Well done on the potential 'next project'.