Thursday, March 20, 2008

But, they're just too cute!

Do these look like killers? No way! Vet said they could have been the culprit of transmitting a disease to Lilly. We're waiting on a culture to tell us for sure but Missy, one of our other horses got sick with the same thing this week. She's pregnant and due any day now and she was also Amanda's first horse. We raced her in to the vet school because we knew how fast Lilly went down. Three days in isolation, two of them under ICU care but she is back home. We are sooo excited. They said the baby was doing bad at first but they checked again today and the baby looks good! Missy is separated from the other horses but she's getting the royal treatment. New water trough, new high dollar hay, extra feed, all her meds, she even gets yogurt to help replenish the good bugs in her gut.
It's possible that a wild bird transmitted something to the chickens and they transmitted it to the horses. But they're just too cute to be horse killers! These are actually brand new ones that we ordered and we know these guys are innocent. A couple of good looking long tailed brown and light brown leghorn roosters, some Americauna pullets (lay blue and green eggs) some puff heads and some other just cool looking birds. Can't wait for them to get big!

On a different animal note... I had two jobs in college that I didn't realize were teaching me parenting skills. One was in junior college - I cleaned out about 40 kennels each day at a dog boarding facility. The second job was at the Swine Center at A&M. I cleaned up after 100-135 hogs every day. How did those teach me parenting skills? Well, Luke walked out the front door and pooped and peed on the front step. Luckily I knew how to wash poop off of concrete, glad I had those jobs. I guess we've house trained Lukamus. Now if we could just house train the chihuahua.

1 comment:

5 Chicks and a Farmer said...

That is crazy and scary. I didn't know that bird diseases could carry over into equine diseases. That is a bit scary.

Jason was telling me that McMurray Hatchery was having lots of problems with chicks and diseases. I think a lot of folks were loosing their chicks in large numbers.

I'm glad to hear this horse is doing well. I'm sorry about the loss of the first one that got sick. It is so hard when that happens. And I know there is an even greater special attachment to horses. They are incredible animals.

Glad to see you guys are posting again! Keep us updated.

Blessings,
Lyns