The stuff at the bottom of the bucket

Dolly llama has become obsessed with the little bits of hay seed and chaff left over in the bottom of the feed bucket after I give the animals their flakes of hay in the morning:

She gobbles up these seeds, seed husks, and tiny pieces of hay as if they were the tastiest delicacy in the world. Look at that mouth. You don't want to ask her for a kiss after she does this or else you will be enjoying these seeds, seed husks and tiny pieces of hay in your mouth, too. I speak from personal experience:

And I'm certain she won't admit it, but I think she is starting to enjoy it when I do this as I'm leaving:

Baby steps.

The vet visits the big animals

So maybe you're wondering what happened with all the other animals on the day Dr. Sarah, our small town vet, came to visit? Despite the Reggie-the-goat-scur-emergency, and no matter what he may have told you, it wasn't just a Reggie day. The llamas and donkeys needed some attention, too.

The llamas got their annual vaccination against CD&T (clostridium/tetanus). You can see by Toni's face how pleased she was about this:

Dolly, as usual, took everything in stride:

There's no picture of Kai because she is, without a doubt, the most intense and feisty llama of the trio. She spent most of her injection time rearing up on her hind legs and spinning in circles trying to get away from Dr. Sarah. Not fun.
But, we got it done and the llamas are now protected for another year. Phew.

We discussed Toni and Kai's skin condition again. The last time she was out, Dr. Sarah had given them all shots of Dectomax for any internal/external parasite problem. Since then, I had purchased Betadine, washed their backs thoroughly and applied a product called Nu-Stock, purported to be effective against pasture fungus, rain rot, ringworm and saracoptic mange:

I've not seen any improvement as a result of these treatments and the llamas trust me even less now that haltering them up generally means I'm going to touch them and do weird things to their hairless backs. They. do. not. like. this.

Dr. Sarah did say that, while it is possible that they are suffering from some kind of mineral deficiency that began a long time before the girls ever came to me, veterinarians are starting to see more and more llamas and alpacas with this condition. Skin tests sent to the lab return nothing conclusive and treatments are hit and miss. Finding a diagnosis for this is apparently much like finding a needle in a haystack.

I will do more research on mineral deficiencies and possibly give Kai and Toni a shot of long-acting antibiotic based on the advice of Claire, who has a llama with a very similar skin condition who has since made a very good recovery.

When Sarah and I were finished with the llamas and I took off their halters to let them out of the barn, they didn't run off in their normal "every-gal-for-herself" high-tailing style, rather, they hung around, quietly watching what was going on with everyone else still locked in the barn:

Now it was Chester and Beau's turn. The donkey boys were due for their Equine 5-way and West Nile virus shots. Here is Dr. Sarah loading up her syringes and Chester watching her every move. He's always watching what everyone is doing around him, even when he's pretending not to:

After his shot, he, too, like the llamas, was released to the other side of the fence. But he still watched Dr. Sarah's every move:

Next up was Beau. He got his shots and was very brave about the whole thing. Then it was time to check his eye. It had been dripping and tearing excessively. Dr. Sarah was concerned about a possible ulcer, so she squirted a fluoroscine stain into his eye so she could take a look. Anything abnormal on his eye would stay bright green:

Fortunately, she saw nothing out of the ordinary, which left her to conclude that his problem was a clogged tear duct:

She was going to try to flush the duct so that it would drain freely again and got the tubing ready for the procedure:

Chet commiserated with Beau through the fence:

The llama ladies continued to provide backup support,though they had moved down the hill a bit since Chet had joined them:

This was the scene fifteen minutes later when Dr. Sarah couldn't find Beau's gland: Dr. Sarah was on the phone with the clinic, Beau was waiting patiently, and Chester kept nagging me to explain to him what was going on:

We found out a day later that the nasolacrimal duct in a donkey is located in a much different place than in a horse. See all the important, new stuff Dr. Sarah is learning about DONKEYS by coming to visit me?

Just in case anyone is interested in the location of the nasolacrimal duct in donkeys:
"The rostral aperture of the naso-lacrimal duct of the donkey is located in a different area of the nostril flare than that of the horse. In the horse, the opening can be found at the muco-cutaneous junction on the floor of the nostril, slightly medially. In the donkey, the opening of the naso-lacrimal duct is located laterally on the flare of the nostril, and is slightly dorsal. It is usually necessary to use a penlight and light sedation to locate this opening because of the very small size of the nostril of the donkey and his resentment of its handling."

Before she left, Dr. Sarah provided me with something new for my animal first-aid/medicine kit:

This is a potent, non-narcotic equine painkiller with anti-inflammatory and fever-reducing properties - good to have on-hand for any of those unexpected emergencies when a vet can't immediately get to you.

I'm thinking I really should have become a vet.

Reggie's Scurs

WARNING: There are a few pictures of Reggie's injury and blood included below. If you're squeamish, consider yourself warned.

You might recall in my post, My Romantic Life on the Farm last week, I mentioned - among other farm animal health challenges - my goat Reggie's scur accident. (Scurs are partial horn regrowth that can occur after a goat kid has had their horn buds burned off, a.k.a. been disbudded). Reggie had somehow managed to hurt the top of his head, tearing off one scur and leaving the second one cracked and bloodied.

At the end of that post, we (all the animals and I) were waiting for our small town vet to arrive at 3:00pm. This is what happened from then on...

Prior to the vet's arrival, I had the unpleasant task of trying to wash and disinfect Reggie's sore, little head:

I used a diluted Betadine solution and a soft cloth:

He didn't like me breathing on his head, let alone touching it, so you can imagine the noise he made as I tried to gently clean out the dirt and debris. After a few swipes, I decided it was good enough until the vet arrived. You can see the broken, but still in place, scur on the left. On the right side, the horn bud where he had ripped the scur entirely off is visible:

He was shaking badly again when I finished and so I scooped him back into my lap and held him tightly for a while. The sun provided us some much needed soothing heat:

So soothing, in fact, that my baby fell into a deep sleep:

Earlier, up at the barn, the rest of the animals had been haltered and stalled in preparation for our local vet's (Dr. Sarah) visit:

When Reggie woke up from his nap, I returned him to his goat house. When it was time to take him up to the barn to see Dr. Sarah, he hid from me. I knew his head was bothering him, he never hides. Pretend you don't see him - that's what I did, it seemed to make him feel better:

Once I got Reggie up to the barn, he had a bit more energy and entertained the donkey boys, Chester and Beau, for a bit:

Reggie's enthusiasm was short lived, however. He became very agitated when he heard the sound of the vet's car. Even on a leash, he was bouncing around, trying to get away. This is not his normal style at all:

The vet examined his head, touching -to his dismay- the broken, remaining scur, and it came right off in her hand:

Now he has two exposed, bloody horn buds:

Carrot coin to the rescue. He loves his carrot coins as much as the llamas and donkeys do. Even pain and a bad case of nerves didn't prevent him gobbling it down:

Dr. Sarah explained to me that Reggie was a suitable candidate for a second attempt at disbudding using the disbudding iron. Because his scurs are relatively small, she felt she would be able to kill all the horn cells that would allow regrowth. She emphasized to me that by doing nothing, allowing them to grow back and then trying to manage them through filing and occasional clipping, left Reggie open to injuring himself again as well as to infection.

I had heard that "re-disbudding" couldn't be done, so I was surprised that she was so easy going about this. I asked the same question about fifteen different ways until I was convinced she had successful experience with this and felt comfortable with what she was going to do.

Dr. Sarah then gave Reggie a sedative shot, a long-acting Banamine shot for the pain, and 2 different (long and short-acting) antibiotics in preparation for the disbudding:

Then she had to shave around the horn buds again. He howled so horribly, I teared up and Dr. Sarah gave him another shot of sedative:

After that, he felt no pain. And I was the only one upset about the blood pouring from the top of his little head:

Meanwhile, the disbudding tool was warming up in the background:

Looking back, the worst part of the whole thing was before Dr. Sarah ever got there. Seeing him shake so horribly and clearly be in pain was awful. Once she gave him the appropriate sedation and pain meds, I never heard another peep or saw any sign of discomfort from him:

Reggie was *very* relaxed:

He didn't flinch when Dr. Sarah did the burning:

She was very thorough and is hopeful that she got all the horn cells so that there will be no regrowth:

When we were finished, I carried him down the hill and put him in his cozy crate to recover from the sedation:

Pete insisted on being by his side:

I just love this little guy so much:

And now, more than a week later, although he looks a bit like Franken-goat:

...he is thriving:

Energy and enthusiasm have returned:

along with his extremely affectionate nature:

All is well.

In my pantry

...the potatoes are trying to escape:




Roxy was a bit perplexed at first by the one who came to visit:

But she ultimately decided it was ok to share her spot on the couch: