Small Farming Lessons
It's been a hard week here on the homestead.
Between not feeling well, housework piling up, work piling up, and some sick animals, it was sometimes hard to know which way was up.
Here's the thing. Sometimes having farm animals is not at all easy.
Most of the time, they are pretty easy, feed, water, quick glances for changes, clean housing, repeat.
But, there are times when things go wrong. Most of those times, it is easy to figure out how to fix. And yes, you do have to fix the issues yourself, a lot of the time.
Being Your Own Vet
Owning farm animals is not the same as a cat or dog. If your house pet gets sick or hurt, you take them to the vet and they figure it out. With farm animals, you are constantly checking for small changes in their behaviour, and going through the forums and books to find out who else has seen that symptom, and what is the best way to treat.
If they happen to be sick enough that you need to call the vet (and good luck finding a vet who is willing to talk chickens btw) it might mean taking them in, or the vet coming to you. But, guess what? the vet is going to tell you what's wrong, and tell you what shots to give, give you the medicine, and leave, the rest is up to you! They don't handhold, they don't really have time, and most large animal vets are used to large scale operations, and your small farm is just not their priority.
Don't get me wrong, we have great vets here in East Hants, they are awesome, and help you thoroughly, but they don't really have the time to come back to check on everyone. Most things are done through phone calls. There is some level of expectation that you know what you got into. And really, you should!
You should be reading up on the animals you are acquiring, possible issues and common illnesses and signs, breed problems, and basic health needs. This is true of any animal, but farm animals especially. You are their primary healthcare provider.
Our Week!
This week, one of our new girls woke up unable to walk. I have learned enough about goats to know that this was most likely a vitamin deficiency, and I also knew this was an automatic call to the vet.
It could have been a few issues. Vitamin deficiency was top of the list, Goat Polio was second, and a potential contagious disease was what I was most scared of (especially with having 2, two week old baby goats here)
When the vet calls you back right, and says they will be there within the hour, you know they also think it could be serious.
It was, as I expected, a vitamin deficiency, with a possibility of temporary trauma from a bigger goat hitting her. She was doing well, just couldn't walk! It was really scary to watch, and the first time I have experienced this, fully knowing it is always a possibility.
Goats can easily get vitamin deficiencies and overloads, and the balance is usually easy, but a change in hay, new green growth, and change from milk to hay (which was part of the case with this girl) can throw that balance off.
Having things like baking soda, loose mineral or a mineral lick, and grain on hand can ensure that whatever they are missing, or had too much of can be fixed easily.
Poor Maple was put on 3 shots a day of Thiamine, and 1 oral dose of steroid.
For 4 days. (We give the shots, it is not helping our bonding with this poor girl)
Within the day. she was doing alot better. By the second evening she was walking fine, and on the third day she was running and hopping like a young goat should!
But now I have 2 sick Chickens!
I was just feeling better about Maple, when I had one chicken looking pale.
If you have been paying attention to the chicken world at all, you know we are at the tail end of an Avian Flu outbreak here in Nova Scotia, so any sick chicken raises alarms.
This girl, I suspect is actually at the natural end of her life. She is 4 years old, has no respiratory problems, no sign of mites or internal worms. She still has her weight, but isn't eating much. It's a hard decision to make, but we will be putting this chicken down. She was isolated and comfortable and once we made sure what she had wasn't contagious we put her in a nice cozy spot in the coop away from everyone else, and tomorrow we will put her down.
As I've mentioned in a previous post, this is chicken life. Tough decisions and putting them down at home is a way of life we are now used to.
Old Hens and Hard Decisions
The second chicken, Carrie, is eggbound. With 40 chickens in the yard, I pride myself on noticing a small change in behaviour pretty quick in my chickens. The importance of handling your chickens regularly lets you see when they have these changes. For Carrie, she was standing like a duck.
So, I brought Carrie in and she had a spa day, 15 minutes in a nice soapy warm bath, 15 minutes out. Rinse and repeat a few times. I gave her some electrolytes, some lubrication around her vent and a good belly massage. Rinse and repeat a few times. We isolated her, we watched her. But, unfortunately, poor Carrie is starting to go into shock.
This tells me that any egg that she had broke inside her, and she has an infection, which would explain her watery belly. There is not really anything we can do for her now, poor Carrie.
Egg binding is common in young birds, fat birds, and old birds.
Carrie is another old bird. She is a Co-op layer and almost 3 years old. She has had a really good life for a commercial bird. So, tomorrow, along with our poor Australorp, Carrie will also be put down.
1 out of 3 will have to do
So, here we are, one saved goat, and two doomed chickens. Oh, and I need to re-seed a lot of my seed starters. They didn't start well....oh well.
But hey, I am finally starting to feel better, and I finished a big sewing project.
This is life on our little homestead, and I love every minute, even when it is sad, and frustrating.
We are Living Simply.