Zeb: he is our three year old buck. When we first got Zeb, no one could touch him and no one could catch him. When we had to worm him, we would have to rope him. Honestly, it was that bad!
Then one day Zeb became ill: VERY ill. Of course, it was during the winter and due to his blood lines, we did not want to lose him so we did what anyone would do...we moved him inside next to the wood stove. At this point, he was two. Yes, that means we moved a two year old buck into the living room. We started out with plastic garbage bags down so the hardwood floors would not get ruined...then newspapers...then towels. There was a LOT of maintenance using this method!! We progressed over time to a sheet of plywood with 2 x 6 sides. We put towels under the plywood so the floors would not get scratched. Then, inside the box, we put plastic garbage bags so the wood would stay dry. Then we filled the box with saw dust. Yep, we made a small stall in the house just for Zeb!
This last method worked VERY well! It was low maintenance and smelled nice. And with the saw dust, we were able to "dig" holes for him to lay in so he would not fall over as he was weak. All said and done, Zeb lived in the house for four months. That really is a long time to have a buck in your house!
We knew he was ready to move out when two days in a row, he met my husband in the hall way early in the morning. He did not like the idea much, but we put him out during the day so he could get some sun. After about two weeks of being out in the day and inside at night, we moved him outside. He lived up by the house for about the next six months before we returned him to the buck pen.
During this time of illness, he lost all fear of people and developed love. Right now, we let him graze the upper ten acres during the night and pen him up during the day. Each morning I wake up and feed the chickens and then the cats. Zeb always enjoys nibbling on the chicken food. I then grab his food and I call him just like a dog and he comes running for his breakfast! Honest, he does! And if he is not penned up when I am working around the house, he is right by my side walking and hanging out with me. He loves to have his head petted. If you come for a visit, you will likely see my GP, Joy, standing ON my right foot and Zeb standing to my left. They are great shadows and I am so thankful that Zeb survived his illness. We have many babies thanks to Zeb and well, I have a goat that thinks he is a dog!
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Saving Goats Milk for Soap
When you are making goats milk soap, it is important that you measure all ingredients accurately. A simply way to save goats milk for future soap making is to freeze it in an ice cube tray. Simply milk your goat; filter the milk; pour into ice trays and freeze. Once the milk is froze, transfer the milk cubes to a gallon sized zip lock baggy. Then once you are making soap, just pull out as many cubes that you need for your recipe. And don't forget to fill some of the cubes in the tray half way or a quarter of the way up. This will help you achieve your exact measurement.
Happy Soaping!
Happy Soaping!
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Pigeon Fever in Horses
Pigeon Fever...what is it? Really, it is something that I have never heard of before. I just happened to see a post on a friend's Facebook and decided to read about it. Then I shared the link. Then I heard that three people that I know personally have horses fighting this illness. Now that was a SHOCK! All of these friends live in Florida, too.
So what is Pigeon Fever? Basically it is CL in horses. CL is a disease that can be transmitted to people through the milk of dairy animals. Due to this, we test all of our dairy animals every year for CL. Boer goats are more prone to CL than the dairy goats and it is due to this, that we have elected not to own Boer goats. One day, I will take time to locate a clean herd of Boer goats and add them to the farm, but not yet.
There are different names for Pigeon Fever: Dryland Distemper and Colorado Strangles. It is more prone in drought areas and out west. However, this year it is in Florida. Here is an article from the Florida Extension telling about some new cases: Pigeon Fever in Florida. I understand that there are many more cases than just the four mentioned in the article. The horse in the pictures now has an opened abscess that is draining well. They have the horse isolated and have to clean the wound regularly with betadine. They plan on burning any material used to clean the wound.
Another really good article that I saw posted on Facebook about this was published by the Quarter Horse News: Pigeon Fever. This really was very informative and shows the abscesses after they have opened up.
It seems that fly control is very important to prevent the spreading of this disease. A very good topical spray for horses is Endure. You can purchase that at Jeffers Livestock. If you are have horses in the infected areas, then you may want to consider a feed through fly control. Now remember, it takes two to four weeks for these to start working, but since we don't know how long this disease is going to be around, you may want to consider one of these. The one that I would recommend is Solitude. Remember, you would need to have all of your horses using this product for it to be effective.
If you are like us and have chickens roaming around, you need to be care and not feed a growth inhibitor fly control. Instead, two products that are natural and effective are Get-Away and Bug Check. Notice that the Get-Away has vitamin B-1 in it. I was speaking with the nutritionist at FRM about a month ago trying to encourage them to put herbs in their horse feed like Seminole does. He asked about the benefits of the herbs and when I mentioned garlic and bug control, he said their research showed that vitamin B-1 was more effective than any other product on the market. That was news to me! He said it is so effective that they actually add it to the deer feed that they produce to help the deer out! So I'm thinking that Get-Away would be a very good bug repellent. Again, remember that it will take more than one week to help protect your horse.
Another product that helps stop the parasite cycle is Diatomaceous Earth. Be sure to get a food grade product, not the stuff for the swimming pools! Here is one that I plan on picking up the next time that I stop by Tractor Supply: Red Lake Diatomaceous Earth. In addition to the DE, it has a natural clay that will have added benefits for your animal. I have not tried this product yet, but it is on my shopping list for the next time I go to town.
I came across another article worth mentioning as I researched this Pigeon Fever. I have used Vetericyn on a calf that had a grapefruit sized abscess at the umbilical cord site. The calf survived and had a complete recovery. We used a combination of products on the calf, but one of them was Vetericyn. So since there was this testimonial of successful treatment of Pigeon Fever with Vetericyn, I thought I should mention this too.
I guess I will end this article by saying the most important part of dealing with Pigeon Fever is knowing that you have it. You need to go out and groom your horse every day. Simply by doing this one daily task, you will be so familiar with your animal that you will notice problems immediately. This is really important with this disease to prevent the spread and to save your animal.
So what is Pigeon Fever? Basically it is CL in horses. CL is a disease that can be transmitted to people through the milk of dairy animals. Due to this, we test all of our dairy animals every year for CL. Boer goats are more prone to CL than the dairy goats and it is due to this, that we have elected not to own Boer goats. One day, I will take time to locate a clean herd of Boer goats and add them to the farm, but not yet.
There are different names for Pigeon Fever: Dryland Distemper and Colorado Strangles. It is more prone in drought areas and out west. However, this year it is in Florida. Here is an article from the Florida Extension telling about some new cases: Pigeon Fever in Florida. I understand that there are many more cases than just the four mentioned in the article. The horse in the pictures now has an opened abscess that is draining well. They have the horse isolated and have to clean the wound regularly with betadine. They plan on burning any material used to clean the wound.
Another really good article that I saw posted on Facebook about this was published by the Quarter Horse News: Pigeon Fever. This really was very informative and shows the abscesses after they have opened up.
It seems that fly control is very important to prevent the spreading of this disease. A very good topical spray for horses is Endure. You can purchase that at Jeffers Livestock. If you are have horses in the infected areas, then you may want to consider a feed through fly control. Now remember, it takes two to four weeks for these to start working, but since we don't know how long this disease is going to be around, you may want to consider one of these. The one that I would recommend is Solitude. Remember, you would need to have all of your horses using this product for it to be effective.
If you are like us and have chickens roaming around, you need to be care and not feed a growth inhibitor fly control. Instead, two products that are natural and effective are Get-Away and Bug Check. Notice that the Get-Away has vitamin B-1 in it. I was speaking with the nutritionist at FRM about a month ago trying to encourage them to put herbs in their horse feed like Seminole does. He asked about the benefits of the herbs and when I mentioned garlic and bug control, he said their research showed that vitamin B-1 was more effective than any other product on the market. That was news to me! He said it is so effective that they actually add it to the deer feed that they produce to help the deer out! So I'm thinking that Get-Away would be a very good bug repellent. Again, remember that it will take more than one week to help protect your horse.
Another product that helps stop the parasite cycle is Diatomaceous Earth. Be sure to get a food grade product, not the stuff for the swimming pools! Here is one that I plan on picking up the next time that I stop by Tractor Supply: Red Lake Diatomaceous Earth. In addition to the DE, it has a natural clay that will have added benefits for your animal. I have not tried this product yet, but it is on my shopping list for the next time I go to town.
I came across another article worth mentioning as I researched this Pigeon Fever. I have used Vetericyn on a calf that had a grapefruit sized abscess at the umbilical cord site. The calf survived and had a complete recovery. We used a combination of products on the calf, but one of them was Vetericyn. So since there was this testimonial of successful treatment of Pigeon Fever with Vetericyn, I thought I should mention this too.
I guess I will end this article by saying the most important part of dealing with Pigeon Fever is knowing that you have it. You need to go out and groom your horse every day. Simply by doing this one daily task, you will be so familiar with your animal that you will notice problems immediately. This is really important with this disease to prevent the spread and to save your animal.
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