How to Detect Ulcers in Horses

When a horse has an ulcer, it can be very difficult to detect.  The signs are often subtle and can indicate other problems.  If you have been following this blog long, you know that Max has been dealing with diarrhea since the first week of January 2011.  He is still dealing with diarrhea. 

Most horses would have been dead by now, but Max is like the energizer bunny...he just keeps going and going and going!  Until last week, that is...he could no longer walk...he could not lay down, because then he would not get up...he stopped eating...he stopped drinking...I knew this was the end.

I called the vet on her cell.  Yes, I now have a direct line to reach the vet at any time.  I told her that after two hours of trying, I could not get Max to walk.  We broke down the round pen and brought it to the horse.  I also told her that he was stretching in an unusual manner...like a dog!  He would lean WAYYYY FORWARD...and then WAYYYYYY BACKWARDS...as far as he could go.  And then he would lift his head WAYYYY high, like he was trying to see something far off.  Each time he did this, I was so afraid that he was going to fall because he had no coordination.  He honestly was walking like a drunk!

My vet asked how quickly I could get to her office.  My reply:  15 minutes.  She said good.  When I arrived, they handed me a bag of Ulcer Guard.  She instructed me to give him 1/2 a tube each day on an empty stomach.  I knew this was probably our last option.

When I arrived home, I gave him his medicine right away.  Since he had not eaten in over 24 hours, I knew I was giving him the medicine on an empty stomach.  Within 24 hours, I saw some improvement.  I began to hope...again.  From the 24 hour to the 48 hour time span, I saw the MOST improvement!  His coordination improved greatly and his appetite returned with vigor!  He is now eating six pounds of feed per day and cleans his hay up most of the time.  He is beginning to walk with confidence and his poops are solid cow pies!  My only concern now is his water consumption.  He is drinking about a gallon of water per hour.  This has been going on for about two days.  I have sent a message to the vet and I will let you know what she says about his increased water consumption.  For now, he is doing better...and once again, I have great hope that he will make it through this just fine!

Contracts

When I bought my first lamb from a friend of mine, she gave me a receipt. Written on the receipt was the statement 'Sold as is with faults'. I knew the lamb was fine, but she said it was what she wrote on every receipt for every lamb she sold, for just in case something happened to the lamb she would hopefully be held faultless. A buyer-beware thing. At the time I thought it a bit odd. Now, I see the wisdom in that as I watch some friends battling a recent customer who bought a wether goat kid from them, and had no receipt/contract. I personally saw the goat kid hours before he was sold and he was fine. Three days later, the wether is dead and the customer wants his money back...plus all the vet costs. My friends were willing to give him at least half of the money back, and wanted the vet records released so they could know, from the vet, what went wrong with the kid that was healthy when it left their property. The customer has refused to release the vet records unless they pay back the price of the kid and all the vet costs FIRST. They refused, and now, the customer is slandering them on Craiglist and to anyone else who will listen, and sending less than friendly e-mails. Could all this have been prevented with a hold-harmless contract of some sort? Maybe, maybe not. But, I know from now on when any animal leaves my property, there will be a duplicate signed receipt that includes the statement 'Sold to..............as is, with faults.'

Wing Trimming

The Escapee

This White Faced Black Spanish hen has decided that she should be allowed to come and go as she pleases. Hurmpf saith I.

She manages to fly up to the gate (a good 5 feet) and then jump out and gorge herself on bugs, grass, etc. The only problem with her running loose? Predators. They come in many varieties. We have dealt with dogs (domesticated) who decimated our flock - killing off 30 chickens in 3 different attacks. Panthers, (yes panthers) who thought my free ranging hens were a buffet to go. Opossums and raccoons (who managed to snatch my white Aracuna's tail feathers, while she was inside Fort Poultry!

Obviously needed to enhance the Fort, which was done and I will review again this evening, but back to my Fleeing Fowl...I spotted a dog in the yard yesterday afternoon and shooed him off (would have preferred to shoot him) but realized Lady Layer was apt to be safer (somewhat) inside the confines of her yard. So, what to do...trim one wing, then the chickens should not be able to get much 'air' underneath them.

The Culprit

The Wing

The first cut...

...the second cut

Done

I found this on youtube which gives a brief video demonstration.

Hose Repair

We had a canine visitor which 'felt' that my hose was not quite porous enough and decided to 'help.' Someone neglected to tell her the difference between a regular hose and a soaker hose.

The Break

Above we have the break, as hoses can be somewhat pricey, and I happen to have a lot of repair pieces, fixing the hoses is my first option. The piece below is to mend the hose. I opted for this choice over putting a male/female mender piece on. If for some reason this fix does not last (pulls apart) then I will go with the other option.

Cut the hose before and after the break and then you have 2 pieces (or two really short hoses if I chose the male/female mender option).

Next, insert the piece into both portions of the hose. This is not an easy task. Twist, push, pound, seek out strong teenage son to push, twist and finally get the hose as close to the center 'ring' as possible.

Next up...tighten down the brackets which will hold (hopefully) all together:

Test the repair:

Works well...but ah...we have another hose which needs attention:

So begins the spring time repairs, upgrades, changes that are common with this time of year. Getting everything ready for garden/yard time.

Protein x2

Today I am sharing the recipe on how to make your own protein bars. The upside to this method is that you control what ingredients go into them. More importantly what does NOT!

First we start with the ingredients, here is what I used:

Oats - not instant, cranberries, cinnamon, almonds, raisins, hard red whole wheat flour, vanilla protein powder.

The cooking spray or some other method of oiling the pan is not in this picture, but is one of the very necessary items.



Oh, yea...eggs, gotta have eggs - the offering:

After measuring (recipe at end), put all the dry ingredients into the food processor (thank you Lord for such a wonderful tool!)


Mix well, should be coarse, but well chopped.

Next add the wet ingredients. That would be the eggs and honey.

After oiling your pan, pour (well, as close to pouring as one can get ~ LOL) and mash it around to make it as evenly disbursed as possible.

And here we have the protein 'cake' ~ LOL. Once it is cooked and cut into squares, they will be 'bars.'

Energy Bar Recipe ~ Original

Cooking spray

1 cup quick-cooking oats

1/2 cup shelled unsalted raw sunflower seeds

1/2 cup toasted wheat germ

1/4 cup whole-grain pastry flour or whole-wheat flour

1/2 cup dried apricots

1/2 cup raw almonds

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup pitted dried dates

1/2 cup nonfat dry milk

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/3 cup pure maple syrup

2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350. Coat a 9x13 inch baking pan with cooking spray.

Place all ingredients, except maple syrup and eggs, in a food processor and pulse until everything is finely chopped. Add the syrup and eggs and pulse until mixture is well combined. It will resemble a coarse paste.

Transfer to the baking pan and spread evenly to cover the bottom. Bake until lightly browned, about 20 minutes. Allow to cool for 15 minutes, then cut into 24 bars. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for about 3 days or wrap individually and freeze for up to 3 months.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Notes: All ingredients marked in purple I used as is, all ingredients in red were modified. I used 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour. Fresh milled grain contains the wheat germ, thus I should have bumped up the dosage. I used 1/4 cup of vanilla protein powder (instead of dry milk), I probably should have used a 1/2 cup. Instead of maple syrup (which is kinda pricey) I used local raw honey.

These came out well, I thought they were not 'done' enough and left them in the oven (with it off) while I finished up something else and they came out a little dry. Everyone who tasted them said they were quite delicious.

Bird's Eye View

A Bird's Eye View

Remember the chickens I had to cull out due to their feather-less condition? I had one more in this pen which was in the same condition. One of our other posters suggested I check to ensure that the birds did not have lice.

The goal? Catch the bird sans tail feathers, examine her to see if she had any creepy crawlies. So into the pen I crawled, literally.

This pen - affectionately known as Fort Poultry is 2 cinder blocks high, climbing in at this juncture is not quite as difficult as it was in the beginning. :-)

Fort Poultry - The Beginning

This is the beginning of Fort Poultry - notice the bare ground and all the cinder blocks showing.

Climbing into this one was a challenge - added to that one of the corner blocks, which I happened to use *once* was not secure, and I almost fell in.

Stepping into the pen causes my feathered friends to become extremely ALARMED and run as far away from the (cough) intruder as possible.

I am in the pen, everyone is piled up in the corner as far away from me as possible, ahhh, there is the one I want, hunched over, trying very hard NOT to put my knee down in the hay and uhm, droppings, snatch up a hen by the leg. Drag her back, drat, WRONG chicken!

By this time, everyone is flying around inside the pen, or as well as one can fly in limited air space. Realize I am taking up at least 1/3 of the front space, which has the opening to...F-R-E-E-D-O-M!

Release the chicken I did not want...ah, there she is...panicked, who should actually make it past me, up and out the opening to the wild outdoors? The hen I wanted.

Climb out of the pen, place tarp back over to prevent further escapees. Try to guide the hen, who at this juncture just wants to GO HOME...LET ME IN, as she tries to figure out how to get back in with her pen pals.

After a couple of times circling the pens in an attempt to snatch her, she decides to go between the Fort and the portable pen. I had placed the portable pen next to the Fort to provide security and electricity (heat lamp). I'm thinking, oh yeah...go on in between there and you are MINE!

Heh! Cooperative little bugger did just that...wedged in, she can't go up and she can't go forward, snagged.

Bird begins to scream, "HELP! HELP! I've been taken! Other pen pals begin to cackle in sympathy, "We know, we know!"

Okay, that didn't really say that...but it sure sounded like it to me. LOL!

Alright, now I have the hen, examine her, nope, no buggies. I was pretty sure that the reason for their de-frocked state was over crowding which caused the birds to pick at one another. For a standard breed the typical requirements are 2 square feet per bird, bantams are 1.

I put Vet RX on her beak, dust her with DE and put her in the recovery cage. At this stage, she is still not as lively as I would like, but with 4 in a similar state, they are not picking on one another. This is an encouragement to make sure I have the next level up pens ready. Lack of planning on my part cost me 2 pullets and 3 months worth of feed for them.

The Benefits of Culturing When Dealing With Mastitis

If you have lactating animals, sooner or later one of them will come down with mastitis. Usually, treating with penicillin or Bio-Mycin will quickly clear up the infection. If it doesn’t, you could save yourself time, effort, and money…and shorten the time for your animal suffering by having the milk cultured to find out what bacteria type is at the root of the problem.

I had a goat that had a bad case of mastitis, and nothing was working to clear it up. I used penicillin, Bio-Mycin, Today , homeopathic remedies...all to no avail. People told me she would never be over the infection, or that maybe I should even consider amputating that half of her udder! Instead, I had my large animal vet send a sample of the milk off to a lab to be cultured. The results showed that the goat had a staph infection which would only respond to erythromycin. When I began to treat her with it, the infection improved dramatically in a few days...and within 10 days it was gone! I was so excited to have the infection finally cleared up! The goat still has some lumpy scarring in her udder, but other than that she recovered completely and remains one of my best milkers.

So…if you have a milking animal who comes down with mastitis that doesn’t respond quickly to the basic treatments, I would encourage you to have the milk tested to see what kind of bacteria you are dealing with.

Counter Clutter & Creation

I was pondering my next post...and in preparation for my 'creation' part of it, had a chuckle over how my homesteading life tends to infiltrate my house:

We have water bottles (the type

typically used for rabbit cages), fresh eggs, milled flour, flour container, apple cider vinegar, baking soda, bag of potatoes, a tomato and even a bag of popcorn!

Then on this counter we have:

In preparation for making Orange Marmalade ~ oh yum!

Gleaning - we were blessed to have someone donate oranges.

Start with 8 oranges and 3 lemons:

Wash the oranges and lemons (these were natural, no pesticides or other yucky chemicals).

I put my lemons in warm water to help make them juicier.

Next, I stared cutting oranges. I cut these into 8ths.

Each wedge, I made a slight 'V' to cut out the white pulpy part. Then cut into chunks.

Next, into the food processor. The first set of oranges I processed needed to go a tad longer. This was my first time making marmalade and I was on the learning curve.

Definitely want the peels chopped up well!

I picked up this gadget from a thrift store (hey, for 50 cents you can't beat it) but have decided I really DO NOT like it. It has a blade you can add and supposedly works well for grapefruit. I'm not impressed. It did help get the juice out of the lemons.

The recipe did not state why I needed to add lemon, my thought was to prevent browning. If that is the case, next time I will just dissolve a vitamin c tablet in there and be done with it. I have done that in the past with other recipes and it works extremely well.

In the crockpot above, cooking down the marmalade. I made the mistake of adding 2 cups of dry honey, then 4 cups of orange juice, I was supposed to add the juice, oranges, lemon juice cook for a while and then add the sweetener. I like using honey as it sweetens well, without a heavy taste and is more natural. I do not use white processed sugar in anything I cook.

Water boiling...the recipe I used said to keep the marmalade in the fridge for up to 2 months. Another recipe I consulted said to water can for 10 minutes. I opted for the water canning. I see no reason to take up space in the fridge for something that does not need to be in there. :-D

Water at a rapid boil, marmalade hot and into the jars it goes. Wipe down the lips of the jars, put the lids and rings on them and then into the pot.

I boiled these for 15 minutes, just to ensure that the water had gotten back up to a roiling boil.

Jar grabber - a friend bought this for me - WONDERFUL gift. Prior to this I was using a set of metal tongs...not a good idea. They did not grab the jars well at all.

Out of the canner, sitting undisturbed on the counter for up to 24 hours.

Listening for: bing, bing, bing, bing and ta dah, the last bing as the lids pop, letting me know that my seal is good.

The people that gave me the oranges received 2 jars - now that I have tried out the recipe and feel comfortable I will try to get a larger batch of oranges and do this again. Here is the recipe if you'd like to try making your own marmalade.

The Importance of Chilling Goat Milk

So many people have a bad opinion of the taste of goat milk! Usually, they tried it once years ago, and they remember an aftertaste reminiscent of a buck goat in rut on a hot August day! I can’t say I blame them for not wanting to try goat milk again, as I have had bad-tasting goat milk myself and I won’t drink it, either. However, permanently judging the flavor of goat milk because of a bad experience is like deciding all steak is tough because you once had a tough one, or all fish is bad because someone once served it to you less than fresh!

For great tasting goat milk, it must be strained and chilled in ice water immediately after milking. Goat milk has a component called capriotic acid, and many times it is the culprit behind strong tasting goat milk. The longer the milk is kept at a warm temp, the more the ‘goaty’ flavor asserts itself.

When we milk our goats, we milk into a pail, bring it directly in the house, strain it into ½ gallon mason jars, and then immerse the jars in large pitchers of ice-cold water up to the neck of the jar. We then put the pitcher/jar combo in the refrigerator.

I don’t know how many people I have convinced to give goat milk another try. I do know the routine, though! I pour a small amount of fresh goat milk into a glass and give it to them. They tell me again of how bad it tasted before when they tried it. They eyeball the milk suspiciously, looking for floating goat hairs or a dead fly. Finding none, they pick up the glass, and take a sip. Then, they always say the same thing in a shocked tone… “It tastes like MILK!!!”

And that is what goat milk is supposed to taste like! Sweet and fresh and cold…YUM!!

Day 35 of Colitis X

My horse has been through so much and now he is now fighting Colitis X.  This is a fancy way of saying he has sever diarrhea with an unknown cause.  Interestingly enough, it has a fatality rate of 100% after three days.  Max has been fighting this for 35 days so far.  As you can tell, he has forgotten to read the Merck manual!

We have tried every medication on the market.  We are now trying old time remedies.  We have been giving him yogurt with raw eggs.  And we have been giving him buttermilk and eggs.  Last night I gave him dried cabbage leaves which he will not eat, so I guess that is not going to work.  I have been mixing enzymes in his morning yogurt.  I think I will increase that to twice a day.

Is what we are doing working?  Only time will tell.  What we have observed in the past 9 days since Max was discharged from ICU and brought home is he will now eat.  He is now eating 1.5 quarts of oats per feeding.  We are now feeding him three times a day.  He won't eat anything but oats...so oats it is for now.  I do have barley on order and I will introduce that later this week. 

Another improvement:  He only goes potty once an hour to an hour and a half.  It is a LARGE volume that he will pass...like a gallon or two at a time.  Before he had a continuous drip and passing of gas.  Now things are staying in his system longer.  I'm hopeful that is a good sign. 

Today I will be adding Slippery Elm to his morning yogurt.  I'm hopeful that will benefit him.  I will let you know later this week how things are going.  We continue to take this one day at a time.  I'm thankful for each day that I have my horse and I keep praying for his diarrhea to be cured.  If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

Inexpensive Goat Collars

Goat Collars…Progressive Revelation

Sometimes, cheap is best. Or, maybe, ‘ingenuity’ is a better term. If you come to our farm, you will see that our dairy goats have the cheapest collars imaginable. They are strong enough to give good control of the animal when needed, but in the event of an emergency they are likely to break should the animal get hung up on a branch or something. Its amazing how much they look like baling twine. Probably because that is what they are made from! Ugly? Yes! Cheap? Yes! Effective? Yes! My first choice in goat collars? No! But there was another entity that made its opinion known and changed my goat collar program. That would be Maximus, my Great Pyrenees flock guardian dog. I used to have nice-looking nylon web collars. Max did not like them, and chewed off and destroyed almost every collar that I put on the goats! So, I tried the plastic chain link collars. Max again said “Nope!” and ate those, too. I don’t know how he managed to get them off the goats, but I know he did…many times. We never caught him in the act, but found a lot of chewed-up evidence! So, we went to using baling twine. When he chews those off, we just put another one right back on. He seems to have pretty much stopped at this point, though. Maybe he realized that there was no way he could keep up!

Before Breakfast

Before breakfast, I take care of the chickens. Feed, water, move if they are in a portable pen. Went out the other morning and had a dead pullet. I hate stuff like this. I have gotten better about not getting attached to the chickens.

In the beginning I made the mistake of naming some...and they did not make it.

Back to my tale...

'Twas the night before...had gone out to the baby pens and found a dead pullet. I had noticed when I added feed and filled the water containers that several of the pullets in the 1st pen were missing tail feathers and looking a little ragged.

This is not unusual when you have a cockerel (a young rooster) in the mix. He may have been plucking out tail feathers, or the others may out of boredom or overcrowding been 'picking' at one another.

Now I am down 2 pullets - future laying hens - and have 5-6 of them with missing tail feathers and plucked backs.

Was not sure what I was dealing with, had already tried putting DE in the water. That did not seem to help.

After the 2ND pullet's death...decided I needed to be more proactive and quick. Brought over a portable pen my son had just fixed (it had been attacked, more on that in another post). Moved 3 of the girls who looked the worst, out. One by one...after crawling into the baby pen and snatching them up by a leg...listening to them 'hollar' because "HELP! I've been kidnapped!"

Took some VET RX and put that in a water bottle, along with some sweetener, then put a drop on each pullet's beck, rubbing it in. Dusted them with DE. Put a lamp on them to help them stay warm. Made them oatmeal, adding in VET RX and crushed egg shells.

They are all looking a tad better...I am still not sure if it was over crowding which caused the feather problem or a parasite. I am still adding the VET RX to the water (drops into the other pens), feeding oatmeal with VET RX and egg shell (good source of calcium).

I have these chickens in what is affectionately called 'Fort Poultry' and thought I had all my bases covered. NOTHING was going to get them. They thought the Titanic wouldn't sink either.

It has been an encouragement, though we had some losses, to not be too confident in what I am doing and to be more cognizant and aware of how the flock looks and acts.

Buying Area Appropriate Seeds and Plants

Yesterday, I went to my local branch of a national feed and farm supply store, and was amazed to see Concord grapes vines and red raspberry bushes for sale. My amazement was not so much that they were for sale this time of year, as our ground isn’t frozen…but the surprise was that the varieties they were selling would either not survive long down here, or would not produce fruit if they did live. The same thing goes for any major store chain that sells vegetable seeds. Just because they sell a particular type of seed in your area, it does not necessarily mean that it will grow or produce!

Your best bet is to head down to a LOCALLY OWNED hardware store, feed store, or plant nursery. If the owner or employee has a strong local accent…this is a good thing, as it indicates local knowledge! Talk to them…they will probably know best what to plant, when to plant, watering and shade requirements, disease control, etc. Your chances of garden success will be much higher!

Your local County extension office and the Master Gardeners are also good sources of gardening information, if they are available in your area.

For another great source of local planting information that is too often over-looked, seek out elderly people! A nursing home is a wealth of information and stories that a garden book can’t compete with! There are hundreds of years of local experience from people who didn’t necessarily garden in their younger years because they wanted a pastime, but because they needed to eat. An elderly friend of mine who has since passed on was in a nursing home the last couple years of her life. She was happy to share her experiences with me …and memories. Some were sad, some were beautiful, some were useful. She told me about her flock of black chickens that free-ranged during the day, and at night she would call them and they would FLY to her. She said it was a beautiful sight to see them all in the air. The sharing of the memories, and passage of knowledge was a pleasure for both of us.

So…when you have spring fever and see the pretty garden plants and seed displays this spring at the big chain stores, don’t put on your rose-colored glasses and buy what you hope will grow! The big stores will love it, but you will probably be disappointed later on. Instead, arm yourself with knowledge, buy from small, locally owned businesses when possible, and set yourself up for success!

Jerusalem Artichokes/Sunchokes

Jerusalem artichokes, a.k.a. sunchokes, are the crisp, white tubers of a type of sunflower. They grow to heights over seven feet tall and produce numerous black-eyed Susan-type flowers that have a light fragrance reminiscent of chocolate.

They grow well in my sandy southern garden, and I have also dug them growing wild in the thick grass beside the Aroostook River in Northern Maine…these things will grow just about anywhere! They simply need to be planted a couple inches down in decent, well-drained soil, and watered moderately in very dry conditions until established. Then, they just keep self-sowing for a perpetual patch. They can be dug like potatoes from fall through the winter, and they keep much better in the ground where they were grown than in the refrigerator.

They can be eaten raw, boiled, or roasted. I like the flavor of the tuber, though they aren’t my favorite vegetable. I will occasionally throw them in with a pot roast, or throw a few raw chopped tubers into salads. I grow them because they are nutritious and prolific, and in the event of an emergency food situation, they are almost always available to eat!

Jerusalem artichokes are also useful as livestock feed, both plant and tuber. In the summer I will occasionally cut a few stocks 1/3 down and feed them to our goats as a treat, which they seem to appreciate. And, they will eat the tubers as well. Again, it is nice to have these on hand in the event of an emergency food situation.

Several words of caution. #1 Some people do not digest Jerusalem Artichokes very well, and may have an issue with flatulence. I always recommend to the people I give the tubers that they should only have small helpings at first to see how things go. A friend of mine tried a few in a salad, with no ill effects. The next step up was a pot of boiled tubers in a cream sauce. The next morning, I e-mailed her to see how things went. She replied “I don’t want to talk about it. I need to heal!” Wow…that bad, huh? Now she won’t touch them with a ten foot pole as far as eating goes, though still grows them for the flowers. I am a terrible friend, because even as I type I am still laughing so hard tears are coming out!

#2 Warning…only plant them where you know you will want them, as once they are established, it is hard to un-establish them!

I dug the tubers in the picture about an hour ago, and it only took me about a minute. I plan to boil them in with my cabbage, potatoes and ham tonight.