The Old Folks Home

[drumstick diva]

SCG love the circus train animals - the lion looks like a lot of intricate touches. Some lucky little sprout will love this.

 

[Beer can]

Dang, SCG, hope your head feels better.
Dang Alaskan, hope you find a vet.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Very nice SCG! (Not the part about scaring me in regards to the concussion.... I mean the quiet book)

When I only had one kid.. And the kid was small... We went to a funeral... Me in my tree hugger-ness had brought the kid only one toy, a wooden book with a painted animal on each page.

Groovy

So the kid kept dropping the book or smacking it on things ...

Or looking at the pictures and making the corresponding animal sound.... Loudly....

We were family so in the front row. Again

needed to chime in when I was about 3 front row church Mom in the choir
I had a rubber band older sister was trying to take away guess where the rubber band went
and the minister never skipped a beat

 

[Beer can]

We went to a county fair today we have never been to. WOW! just as big as ours, ours is second best to the state. Totally chaotic, no rhyme nor reason how it was set up. Had a hard time finding it, had to drive by a junk yard to get to it, real red neck just like ours, but different. Most of the animals were right up there with ours, but the poultry, pretty pathetic. Had some cool exhibits, one room school house was cool, few others were also. Bucky Covington was supposed to play on stage there tonight, wow, saw him at another really small fair some yrs ago after he was on American Idol, awesome, he really rocked the country. Only draft horses they had there was Percheron's, many of them, our fair has many breeds, this one just them. Barn photos kinda dark, dang those things are huge, missed a good photo when they had a couple hitched up pulling a wagon with a bunch of people. They had more old tractors, really nice old one's, but ours runs them, displays sawing lumber, shucking corn. etc.
Really cool antique race cars, we don't have that, many of them, with B&W photos of the driver and car back in the day racing them, awesome. Glad we went.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

needed to chime in when I was about 3 front row church Mom in the choir
I had a rubber band older sister was trying to take away guess where the rubber band went
and the minister never skipped a beat

HAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

 

[Wisher1000]

I can do almost anything I need to do with my animals as far as vet work. My first horse vet wanted me to become a vet and trained me to stir my interest. I was 13 when he started and through the years he taught me to give subQ, IM and IV shots, tube worm, debris wounds, install and remove drains, stitch, palp for pregnancy, do fecal slides and read them, wrap just about any animal part so that it would have the best chance of staying wrapped, and more. He was terribly disappointed when I didn't take that career route, but I have never regretted it.

As for the chickens, I found one vet that would listen to my diagnosis, and the treatment I had determined to be appropriate, would calculate the dosage for me, and would sell me the medication if I couldn't get it online, but would not treat a single bird. She explained that she, like most small animal vets, was willing to help with my "flock" but not with "a chicken." Works for me!

 

[Latestarter]

I guess most vets as well as some people "discount" the value of a chicken... I mean it's "just a chicken". For some, I guess they can be just as much a cherished pet as a dog or cat to others. They could also be champion breeding stock. They aren't either to me, but that's me. It's good that you are happy with the career choice you made Wisher. Sure makes life easier when you're doing something you can at least tolerate if not love. Sounds like you lucked out in the vet department as well.

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

That's what gets my nickers in a knot. Don't VALUE the monetary worth of something as the one individual. It is not even sentimental or PETness...what happens when it is a breeding project of an accumulation of years where you keep back only the top three percent? That one bird represents years and huge numbers to get there.

Then you figure in that to replace that ONE bird (if you are extremely LUCKY), you'd have to RE-invest nine years of your life (old persons GET that nine years back is more like FIFTEEN forward...older, slower, less energy and drive) and all the resources used up to get to that point all over again. so what, to be right back to where you were before you lost the one bird? Great!

Higgins White Dove Project pullet - Bantam White Chanteclers
​

This one pullet and her first eggs, she's worth nine years of my life to us here. Would I treat her with anti-biotics...most certainly NOT (never ever treated any of our poultry with that--cripple yer flock with weaklings!)...she needs to be a disease resistant TOUGH basis for going forward on (what you tolerate, is what you will make more of so you better enjoy the bottom rung of your tolerances--alot). But we would not EAT her, not toss her out to fend for herself in the wilds...but would treat her for an injury if she managed to hurt a toenail or whatever. I can stand being a klutz and accommodating that but not succumbing to a losing proposition where she is plain and simply a WEAKLING--better be a tough girl!

Eatin' pretty posies...
Peanut looking moi in the eye and having a sniff--
she don't want posies, she wants to make contact with me
Am I worthy, eh? ​

I put up umbrellas for my sheep to have shade--they have a bucket of fresh cool water under those umbrellas that I go out and check and RE-fill as needed. I like that they look me in the eye and there is "something" behind those eyes, they smell me, they KNOW me, they TRUST me. There is a wisdom in these (DUMB by human standards which shows you how DUMB humans ARE) beasts, a gentle peacefulness and a contentedness that most humans will never aspire to achieve in themselves...chooks know the meaning of life laying dead chicken in the sunshine--too bad us stunned humans can't grasp you enjoy the simple joys in life and go with it as often as is economical.

The problem with a "pet" vet is they will steer you into spending five thousand dollars on a dog that is dying instead of injecting that needle towards a peaceful dignified death to wait at the Rainbow Bridge for when it is our own turn to join them.

The problem with a "farm" vet is they will not help you work with meds and preventatives on animals/birds that would result in financially going over the greater value than auction mart meat. Farming is suppose to be a business with a bottom line on profits, but surely 10 healthy ones you can ignore should be profitable enough to cover one sicky poo that needs a little more TLC. I shy away from anyone with only a perfect specimen flock or herd...where are your cripples, your gimps, the geriatric scar bagged ones that survived our animal husbandry blunders as we got up to speed; where are the ones that are funny because value is placed on being more than skin deep and living happily, not "looking" like the perfect pristine farm but rotten to the core inside where it really matters.

What you need to find with us empathetic "nutty to not fit in one category" type owner is a vet that is both a pet and a farm vet (nutty themselves too). They know how to treat livestock ('cause you inevitably get deadstock) and help serve your dreams to do better. Need a vet that understands how to place value in a single specimen (for the good of the flock, you save the one lamb). I don't want us to coddle and cripple and breed forward on disasters--one bad one should end that line, not make an exponentially bigger problem for you in the future progeny. You can own, enjoy, and not breed certain beasts...and then breed only on perfection to ease the burden of ownership by making improvements.

There are fantastic eager vets out there willing to support customers...it is just culling thru all the average ones that takes effort, time, resources. When you find the one vet...you gotta hope and pray they are going to outlive your own life expectancy in critters. Mine is about my son's age and has bought in ownership on his clinic...all sorts of new equipment and a new clinic in the works--he's still excited and keen...he has not fallen victim to the drudgery of thinking up new ways to get people in to REvac their dogs and cats--how boring would that be to do that over and over and over again? His clinic is a going concern that I doubt my life and my animals' lives will outlive. Thankful, doesn't even cover how happy that makes me to rest at ease...he'll do what I ask and help me get up to speed. Trust is a two way street. I have invested YEARS with him and we have that client/professional relationship built up. He lets me go home with drugs because he is two hours away...and he knows I will call before administering the oxytocin...to make sure it is justified in its use for a retained placenta. Ask twice, avoid regrets.

I LOVE my vet...money is a poor way to say THANK YOU but it helps pay his bills and ensure he can keep expanding and making improvements! I don't envy his predicament...here in Canada, animal medical is not covered like human meds are...there are no subsidies or government or insurance to haze over what real costs are. Lots of time the same meds are used on animals that humans get and that is often quite costly. Gives us incentives to work towards care free HEALTHY less stressed dependents--daily fresh food, clean water, safe containment...keeping our barns and coops in scheduled good order. The more hands off we can be by making strong, disease resistant, happy, long lived stocks, the more enjoyment we can have with them not costing us an arm and a leg to keep going.

I think we should always have several empty pens on our place as insurance we can house the injured or socially picked upon without being frustrated about "where to put this one now that it don't fit well in the flock at the moment!" ...we should only have the number of animals we can reasonably AFFORD to keep and maintain. Not saying that a dog with hip or elbow dysplasia and needing thousands of dollars to fix is an OOPs any of us can just carry off without missing a beat, but taking care, keeping numbers reasonable, and ENJOYING the hobby are all a good equation to be able to manage our responsibilities well.

Having a good vet in the wings as back up just makes doing this a happy endeavour should we get ourselves into a situation where we need to ramp up and call in the BIG guns to save our sorry butts.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[perchie.girl]

I found such a vet Tara.... I had a goat Miss Dewdrop who was sick with some sort of respiratory illness. Not a breeder but a weeder with her three Wether brothers. all four were bottle raised by her previous owner. before they came to me they had never climbed on a rock or been out of their yard. OH the joy they had at my place.

After about four years Miss Dewdrop developed a slight cough but other than that she was fine. One of the boys had had it an got over it. But she didnt she got worse. I talked to the gal at the feed store to see if she knew if one of the vets worked with goats. She gave me a name of a vet who I assumed only worked on High priced horses.... Were talking Dressage and hunter jumpers worth many thousands.

He even had a hospital at his home. so I gave him a call. He asked me if I could bring her by.... It was a thirty mile trip in the back of my Geo Metro.... He helped me unload her then he took her to a box stall with fresh bedding and a nice flake of alfalfa. After the exam he said hed have to do some research and let me know. When I expressed concern about the price he said not to worry.

I came back the next day and Miss Dewdrop had a bunch of fans oohing and awing and Isnt she cuteing hospital staff. He had done his research and had done a blood test and had already given her an antibiotic injection. He had a care package for her Two more shots that I had to give sub Q for the next two days. He said there was a type of Pneumonia going around the goat population up on the mountain and she was just hit the hardest.

He charged me for the meds and time and it was under a hundred bucks. Nice nice man.

deb

 

[Beer can]

@CanuckBock saw a pretty impressive Jacobs sheep at a small fair yesterday. I've seen them a few places now, this was the first I've seen with a nice set of horns. How many yrs does it take to grow them like that?