When It Rains...

Hey teeny tiny farm gang
To be honest, I'm really beat and have to get up early tomorrow to work the election -- a loooong day.  So I'm going to sum this up relatively quickly.

It's been a week.

We went out of town for a long weekend the end of October and, of  course, Gabby came up lame again just before we left.  My farrier, who has known the donks for many years, said she'd swing by while we were gone and take a look.  Found nothing.  I asked the housesitter to keep soaking Gabs in the epsom salt water. When we returned she was looking good, and then she came up lame again... (wait for it) on the other foot.  Farrier out, but this time to trim.  A little heat but nothing else.  Again with the soaking.  Oh yea, and a terrifically weepy eye appeared with a tick on her eyelid.  Rick removed the tick, I gave her some warm compresses and waited a day to see if we needed a vet visit.  It cleared up nicely.

Farrier's advice --  just keep soaking.  

Round 1, after less than 5 minutes Gabs dumps the bucket.

Round 2, I set the bucket down to grab the halter and lead line and found Sugar drinking the epsom salt water.  A wee bit left.  Phooey, we're doing it anyway. 

A couple of days later I take a good look at one of the chicken's feet.  Crap crap crap.  Scaly leg mites.  Chicken feet should be smooth, not scaly and bumpy looking.  Keep looking.  Five of the six new hens are looking bad.  Could we have brought them home like this?  Could I have not noticed?  I'm guessing yes since our original crew look fine.  So now we're treating them.   For 2-3 weeks.

See a trend here?

To conclude here's Pippi (for whatever reason I now call him Pippi poops) showing off his newfound skills. 

Let's hope the election results do not decimate the country, AND, let's hope there are no more critter surprises.

Peace out.