Granny's gone and done it again

[lovesfarms]

Ergh, we're dealing with a fire ant infestation. Started right before the hurricane, I thought they were just trying to escape by climbing into the RV.
We put out ant baits. We spot
There's nothing in my bed for them to drink or eat, no crumbs or mess. I don't snack there, the kitties don't snack there, it makes no sense.
I've concluded they are not like sugar ants at all, the fire ants are just demented torturers specifically targeting me!

I think they want your blood
I got ant traps today. Our basement is mostly cement floor, all around the oil heater which is in the center of the basement.But the heater must be on soil and there are ants under there! They are pushing soil up from under the heater. They push the soil up through a crack along the edge of the heater. A lot of soil.I can't push the soil back under it cause the crack is too small.
Borax mixed with sugar didn't kill them. Suppose they remove all the soil from just under half the heater and the heater would tilt??
I may be paranoid but stupid things seem to happen to me and I'm not letting an army of ants win a war against me!

 

[Nomadicus]

I keep losing a wheel on my cart I transport things in all around the property. I lost the left wheel as I start to move it loaded with pieces of downed limbs from the wind so know it is another expense I could do without. I'm going to Lowes in the morning looking for a better quality tire and rim than what Harbor Freight is selling for the cart.

 

[lovesfarms]

Sorry, but OUCH! Only a topical sounds really painful. A nerve block would be ideal.

That said, the expense for vet services can be outrageous. We're still paying off the huge bill for my mom's Chihuahua who passed.
But at least when it came to the kitties, we have an excellent charity here (sponsored by a bequest) that takes all cats, pets or barn cats or strays, for like $20 and they do the shots and claw trims while they're under. They're very compassionate too.
I took our Mia Meowy in last year soon after she found us (emaciated but so sweet). To our surprise she had already been done, they saw the tattoo when they shaved her belly. She seemed too young to us, but they said the tattoo was from another charity or the pound, so it could have been done when she was a little kitten.

If you band them (use a rubber band) it cuts off the blood supply and 'it' falls off. The same way Drs band hemorrhoids. They dont load you with pain killers either.
Edited: I would rather keep my hemorrhoids then ever do that again! It hurts terrible but the pain goes away.

 

[troyer]

Sorry, but OUCH! Only a topical sounds really painful. A nerve block would be ideal.

They usually don’t even make a sound, it takes about ten seconds or less and by day three you really can’t tell that anything out of the norm happened to them. We need to be kind to our animals, but the pet vets have really capitalized on peoples emotions and commercialized it to the extent that it’s hardly practical to even use a pet veterinarian anymore. We still use a large animal vet when needed. Eight years ago we had a six month old foal break a leg. Every vet except one told us to put it down. That one vet, an older man suggested doing a splint and gave us suggestions on how to do it. I followed his advice and it worked. We have a beautiful eight year old stallion that bucks and jumps and runs around the barnyard with no lameness at all. Notice the calcified bump just above his ankle on the right hind leg. It doesn’t bother him at all.

 

[SourRoses]

If you band them (use a rubber band) it cuts off the blood supply and 'it' falls off. The same way Drs band hemorrhoids. They dont load you with pain killers either.

Well... some Doctors were really born to be torture practitioners

I remember when they had me come in for a uterine biopsy. "uncomfortable" they said. "Take some Ibuprofen" they said.
Try being run through with a rusty sword and being told to stay still and not fall off the table so you don't hurt yourself. I think I had heart palpitations.

If a doctor ever told me I needed a Spinal Tap, I'd tell them to stuff it. Or the brain-surgery-while-awake horror. Mom knows my list of stuff I don't want to endure for something so fleeting as life on this little blue ball. I'd happily run away to heaven, thank you very much!

 

[microchick]

@BigBlueHen53 I don't have a picture of Diesel when his brother chomped on his ear this past spring and we had to take him in for stitches. He's the one who destroyed his E-collar and wound up wearing a pool noodle for 5 days. I think I have a piece of pool noodle left through that I could rig up another one and get him to model it for me.

That dog is so funny. His brother (the ear chomper) will steal one of his water buffalo horns that he loves to chew on and Diesel will sit down in front of me, look at his brother and then look at me, then look at his brother. Message clear. Mommmmmyyyyy, he's got my horn and if I take it from him he's going to chew my other ear off. Please Mommmmmyyyyyy. He won't chomp your ear.

 

[Nomadicus]

Time for me to start shelling peas. More got picked today... The only variety of summer peas I will plant next season is pink eye purple hulls. Easy to shell and taste great.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

They are the talkin'est animals, aren't they? And just with their eyes, faces and body language, they never have to say a word. Makes me wonder why we even bother with language!

 

[SourRoses]

They usually don’t even make a sound, it takes about ten seconds or less and by day three you really can’t tell that anything out of the norm happened to them. We need to be kind to our animals, but the pet vets have really capitalized on peoples emotions and commercialized it to the extent that it’s hardly practical to even use a pet veterinarian anymore. We still use a large animal vet when needed. Eight years ago we had a six month old foal break a leg. Every vet except one told us to put it down. That one vet, an older man suggested doing a splint and gave us suggestions on how to do it. I followed his advice and it worked. We have a beautiful eight year old stallion that bucks and jumps and runs around the barnyard with no lameness at all. Notice the calcified bump just above his ankle on the right hind leg. It doesn’t bother him at all.View attachment 3955250

He's beautiful! I'm happy to hear you were able to save him. It must have been his young age that allowed him to heal so well.

 

[microchick]

Well... some Doctors were really born to be torture practitioners

I remember when they had me come in for a uterine biopsy. "uncomfortable" they said. "Take some Ibuprofen" they said.
Try being run through with a rusty sword and being told to stay still and not fall off the table so you don't hurt yourself. I think I had heart palpitations.

If a doctor ever told me I needed a Spinal Tap, I'd tell them to stuff it. Or the brain-surgery-while-awake horror. Mom knows my list of stuff I don't want to endure for something so fleeting as life on this little blue ball. I'd happily run away to heaven, thank you very much!

Had a lady vet once who had wedge resections done on her ovaries because she had polly cystic ovarian disease and was trying to get preggers. Afterwards I asked her how it had gone and she said horrible! She couldn't believe that she spayed dogs and never gave them anything for pain afterwards. She said from that point on, any dog she spayed was going to get pain medicine afterwards. It was a real eye opener for her.

We always request pain medicine for our animals after they are spayed or neutered.

I can remember my mother telling me that back in the day nobody took their cats to the vet to get them neutered. They would just stick them head first down in a boot and while they were struggling to get out, snip snip. I thought she was kidding. Nope. Dead serious. One of those instances where the good old days weren't that good.