The Old Folks Home

[jtn42248]

Wait.... there are quantity discounts? I have taken in 7 animals at a time to one vet, and then there are 6 horses and a cat at the barn that the horse vet takes care of (that cat gets his rabies from the horse vet)

Wish we could find a small animal vet that made house calls. We have seven dogs and the vet is a 50 mile drive to another town. So we have to stagger routine shots and care to make the trip once a month pretty much year around. But, our vet does let us run a tab which is handy. When one of our dogs got bit by a rattle snake you should have seen us trying to not wreck the car driving to the emergency clinic at 10 at night.

 

[chickadoodles]

I can see the fun part of owning goats! I do love seeing the pics of everyone's goats!

I got my dh to go to a livestock auction to see what they were selling for and how many people bought them!
Boy were we surprised! There was one guy in the front that must have bought the first 500+! And no one even tried to out bid him....
After we talked to many goat owners we had to give up the idea of getting any due to the fencing we have around our pasture. There is no way
the two of us could or would want to have to take down all that fencing and buy and put up new fencing.
Right now we have some trouble keeping our cows in our own fence. hahaha our cows jump the fence to go visit the bulls of our neighbor or the bulls in the feed lot.
And our bull ran away from home so many times that the last time which was 2 years ago dh has let him stay put on the feed lot next door.
Dh said we don't have enough cows for him here and he will just keep running off. Dh said he's never been able to keep a bull at home.

 

[chickadoodles]

Microchick you need a family member to become a vet tech!

 

[microchick]

Ahh good, then you already know about the true cost of just one horse, let alone 5 of them.
I was about to warn you about that

unpleasant fact of keeping horses.
Scott

I actually had two horses, both half Appaloosas. They ate like....well, horses. In all seriously it wasn't and isn't the cost of feeding and vet care that keeps me from getting another horse. We have plenty of pasture to both run horses or cattle if we choose to do so plus the unused field needed to harvest hay for winter. It's the back work that has me pinned to the mat. My back, the arthritis and disc problems that I have are the main reason I don't have other livestock other than chickens. I would love to have a couple of dairy goats but once again, it's the bending and the manual labor involved in keeping one that I know I can't handle.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Wait.... there are quantity discounts? I have taken in 7 animals at a time to one vet, and then there are 6 horses and a cat at the barn that the horse vet takes care of (that cat gets his rabies from the horse vet)

We had 12 kittens plus their two mothers. (I think it was) We got a volume discount for that.

I can see the fun part of owning goats! I do love seeing the pics of everyone's goats!

I got my dh to go to a livestock auction to see what they were selling for and how many people bought them!
Boy were we surprised! There was one guy in the front that must have bought the first 500+! And no one even tried to out bid him....
After we talked to many goat owners we had to give up the idea of getting any due to the fencing we have around our pasture. There is no way
the two of us could or would want to have to take down all that fencing and buy and put up new fencing.
Right now we have some trouble keeping our cows in our own fence. hahaha our cows jump the fence to go visit the bulls of our neighbor or the bulls in the feed lot.
And our bull ran away from home so many times that the last time which was 2 years ago dh has let him stay put on the feed lot next door.
Dh said we don't have enough cows for him here and he will just keep running off. Dh said he's never been able to keep a bull at home.

I always wanted a goat.

From what I understand they're more personal and inquisitive. And they get into much more trouble...lol. I also think that depends on the breed on how difficult they can be. Boers=yes. Alpines=no...lol. (Very good at climbing/jumping) Just like keeping in Suffolk lambs as opposed to Katahdin lambs. I don't want to speak badly of the Suffolk breed...but I don't know how anyone can keep them in. Very frustrating. They're into everything and they just go everywhere. Their wool acts like an insulator for electric wire. Although they're much easier to herd than Katahdins. Our sheep stay in a two strand electric wire fence or the 3 stand bard wire fence. They're not usually looking to try to get out.

With goats, you have fence issues...and then predator issues.
I don't think we could even keep goats in our sheep fence...

But I'm too afraid to bring diseases in. Some goat diseases are close with sheep.

I actually had two horses, both half Appaloosas. They ate like....well, horses. In all seriously it wasn't and isn't the cost of feeding and vet care that keeps me from getting another horse. We have plenty of pasture to both run horses or cattle if we choose to do so plus the unused field needed to harvest hay for winter. It's the back work that has me pinned to the mat. My back, the arthritis and disc problems that I have are the main reason I don't have other livestock other than chickens. I would love to have a couple of dairy goats but once again, it's the bending and the manual labor involved in keeping one that I know I can't handle.

Yep.

If we can no longer raise chickens...we could raise mice and rats for snake food.

(Now that's something I've learned with my chicken excursions that I didn't know about before!)

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Wish we could find a small animal vet that made house calls. We have seven dogs and the vet is a 50 mile drive to another town. So we have to stagger routine shots and care to make the trip once a month pretty much year around. But, our vet does let us run a tab which is handy. When one of our dogs got bit by a rattle snake you should have seen us trying to not wreck the car driving to the emergency clinic at 10 at night.

Do you or a friend have a trailer? (horse, cattle, probably even an enclosed if it's not hot)

We haul our dogs in to the vets that way.

Two Pyrenees and a large rough/border collie mix.
The vets had mentioned about someone else bringing their LGDs in for shots and the light bulb went off.
I think in their case it was because the dogs weren't...um...easy to handle.

 

[politicalcenter]

Do you or a friend have a trailer? (horse, cattle, probably even an enclosed if it's not hot)

We haul our dogs in to the vets that way.  Two Pyrenees and a large rough/border collie mix.
The vets had mentioned about someone else bringing their LGDs in for shots and the light bulb went off.
I think in their case it was because the dogs weren't...um...easy to handle.:/

I just built a box to put on the back of my pickup. It is framed with wood and covered with 2" x 4" wire fencing.

 

[pennyJo1960]

When we went looking for a new home out of Shelton we kinda
went looking for at least and acre no more than 5 huge our must have
list was fully checked here. Not having enough land at 3/4 of an acre
there is not enough room for more than we have now

dogs 6, cats 8, chickens 21 and us three

 

[Kusanar]

Quote:
My small animal vet doesn't do house calls, but I can fit 6 cats and a dog in my car for a trip without too much trouble.

The large animal vet will also do routine vaccs on barn cats and farm dogs, so I just get her to give the barn cat a rabies shot when she comes out to work on the horses. The look on her face the first time I walked the 17 pound, solid muscle, tom cat out of the barn to her truck in a harness and leash was great! The cat had eaten and was trying to wander off, so I grabbed a harness that came with my dog (13 pound rat thing) but was too big for him, let it out some and put it on the cat, attached a lead rope and tied him to a wall until he was needed!

 

[Wickedchicken6]

I just built a box to put on the back of my pickup. It is framed with wood and covered with 2" x 4" wire fencing.

And that works equally as well!

We have a variety of different sized boxes to fit in various trucks from our sheeping days. For us, it's easiest now just to hook up to the trailer...lol.
I failed to teach the Pyrenees to jump.