Amber Back Relief

I am participating in a test of a new product, if you follow my blog you know that I love Baltic Amber for pain relief. I wear an amber necklace for my disk problems and arthritis in my neck. I also wear amber bracelets on my wrists when tying horse and goat rope halters.

I was recently contacted by the lady at www.forfinn.com, who I purchase my amber from about testing a new product, an amber belt for lower back pain. Since I have four herniated disks, degenerate disk disease, spinal stenosis and arthritis in my lumbar spine, I was thrilled to help out.

These amber pieces are about the size of a dime and are slightly flattened. So far so good, I am finding it hard to deal with the string but within 20 minutes of putting this on, I noticed a reduction of my back pain. Amber is anti-inflammatory and since I am allergic to NSAIDs like Ibuprofen or Alieve, this is a blessing for me.

Calico Update

Do you think that she might be pregnant? Since her due date was not March 9th, I am guessing that her little rendezvous with Cooter on November 11th has paid off for her. So her official due date is now April 10th.

Paris looks somewhat pregnant but I am still not sure with her. It will still be wait and see. I have never had a single, so I don't know what a doe looks like when pregnant with a single.

My hens are blessing us everyday with 12 to 14 eggs. My little Fleur banty hen has started crowing. She is laying eggs and crowing, I don't know what is up with that. If anyone has any information about why a laying hen crows, I would love to hear it.

Scurs

For those who do not torture themselves by owning goats; (scurs are caused by a gene and they have nothing to do with bad disbudding! Don't argue with me about this because you will be wrong every time!). They either carry a Scur gene or they don't. Even naturally polled goats can have a scur gene. If you buy a naturally polled goat and he develops a scur don't accuse the previous owner of lying about his horn status. If the goat develops a firmly attached horn that does not wiggle then feel free to accuse.

My own dear Cooter has a really nice scur going on right now. Scurs come and go, they are normally somewhat like a loose tooth, you can jiggle them around a little bit. Cooter doesn't like it but we try to loosen them on occasion, he normally knocks them off himself without too much help from us but the one that he has now is getting quite large. 

They are painful when they are dislodged. They can bleed profusely, leaving him looking pretty mistreated. I always try to put a little blue medicine on the open sore, he doesn't like that either but then the only things that he really does like are Does, food, and a good scratching on his neck and horn area. 

When you mention dehorning or disbudding to goat-minded people, they usually have very strong opinions one way or the other. There are those who would never disbud because they feel that nature intended goats to have horns. They also would never ever put a baby animal through that much pain for 60 seconds. However, these same people do sometimes circumcise their male children. They also feel that horns are there for goats to protect themselves and so on... 

 The other side of this issue, which includes yours truly, believes that horns are dangerous to humans, grandchildren, and even the goats themselves. Goats are experts on sticking their heads in unusual places and mine get their heads stuck even without horns to entangle them. They can also injure their herd mates, human caregivers, and human children by accidentally catching them with a horn. 

 As far as goats protecting themselves with horns go, I believe that a pack of dogs or coyotes don't make the distinction, the horned goats taste just as good. Horned goats also run from danger just the same as unhorned goats do. I strongly believe in disbudding, dehorning an adult goat is another matter. I would not purchase a goat with horns but if the occasion did arise that I came into possession of a horned goat, I would not try to dehorn it. I would however attempt to blunt the sharp ends. 

Even a blunted, loose scur can cause you problems, as demonstrated by Cooter and his human caregiver. I had gone out to feed the rascal and he, being his impatient self was trying to help me pour the feed into the feed pan. I was bent over and he is pretty tall and we somehow got our heads together. His thick, hooked, three-inch scur weaved itself into a portion of the front of my hair that was pulled back in a bun. I also had a hair clasp in the front of my hair and the scur was between my tender scalp and the clasp. I tried to straighten up and was attached to Cooter who was by this time trying to inhale the food in the feed pan. I am not much of one to say that animals are kind, gentle, intelligent, and have human emotions but Cooter did feel the pressure on the scur and instead of jerking away like he normally does when we touch his scurs, he actually moved with me. I just knew that at any moment he would pull away to continue eating but he raised his head and let me untangle us without jerking me bald. It took me several seconds to free myself and I was even to the point of trying to take my hair down but I finally got loose. For once, I was impressed by Cooter's kindness, intelligence, gentleness, and human emotions. But what I really believe is that he was in as much of a predicament as I was in and he knew that if he jerked away it would cause him great pain. So, I still give him points for intelligence.

Twister

As far as I know we were not even in a tornado warning area but when the storm hit this afternoon, you could just about feel it in the air. The thunder and lightening, the hard rain followed by dime sized hail, then very strong wind gusts.

When is started to calm down I called the neighbors to check on them and even though they only live a little ways up the road they didn't get the hail. They were not even aware that they had been in any danger at all. They hadn't heard the severe thunderstorm warning.

The small town on the other side of us didn't fair as well. Several homes were destroyed, several injuries but nothing life threatening. We had to drive through the area for an appointment in town. We were nearly late because of the amount of sightseeing traffic. We passed car after car full of people just driving out to see the damage.

The Police closed the roads that were hardest hit, so other than one barn with it's roof peeled back, there wasn't much to see. When we came back through the area tonight after dark, we could see a large area with flood lights and you could still see the flashing lights on the police cars.

The people who decide whether it was a real tornado or not will be here tomorrow but since someone actually got a picture of it, I would say it was.

This is only the second time that we have had one come close to us since we have lived here but I was raised in an area that had them pass through on a regular basis, so I won't let two scare me too bad. Just another sign of Spring in Indiana.

Foaling Anxiety

I am going to try to answer your questions here, Rae. I don't know what is up with all of the problems trying to leave comments, but I wish they would try to get it fixed.

One thing that you said in your comment was: "So who knows???" and that is a great summery. We have been foaling mares for many, many years and I still get nervous and anxious with each one. I lose many hours of sleep and when I do sleep it is so light that the lest noise startles me. Our foaling stall is right outside our living room door, so that makes it very convenient.

My DH just goes to bed and says, "Wake me up when you see feet." He figures I worry enough for both of us. But if he doesn't have to work the next day he does occasionally set his alarm and checks the mare throughout the night to let me get some rest.

We have had mares foal at all hours, day and night. All mares are totally different but I do take notes on each mare and they usually follow the same pattern year after year. We have one mare who stands and eats hay, stops, yawns, then yawns again, then lies down and pops the baby out. She shows no signs of foaling other than yawning.

We have had mares who just turn and look at their bellies on one side, then turn and look at their bellies on the other side, then lay down and foal. We had one mare who would try to destroy the stall. One of our mares was an embryo transplant mare for many years for a popular show stallion and she thinks that it takes a whole crew of people for her to foal. She will definitely let you know when her time has come, she wants you to hold her hoof and tell her to breathe.

People do not understand why we watch our horses so closely and won't leave home if we have one close to foaling but we have had so many times that if we hadn't been there we would have lost both the mare and the foal, we take it seriously because they are our responsibility.

Another sign that you can look for but probably not with Georgia is by opening the vulva. Mares will normally be pink inside but will become very red during or right before labor. Their udder can look tight without being tight also, the only way that you can tell that the udder is strutted to the max is by touching it, again this is probably not possible with your mare.

I would just about bet you that your mare has the same bloodlines as mine. Our mare is a registered TW and she is beautiful but totally nuts, we took her in on trade from someone who rescued her, they thought that she had been mistreated and would come around but she never did and she ended up kicking the lady. From what I have been told about the bloodline they are the smoothest of the smooth but are crazy and very high strung. The good news is that we have had two foals by her and she has not passed this trait down to her foals when bred to a level headed stallion.

We have thirty something horses at the moment and we have had tons of abscesses, we have even had two get abscesses in two feet at once. They are very painful and disturbing to see but they eventually blow out the top of the hoof and all the pain is relieved. You can have a Vet or Farrier open them up but we only did that once because it really didn't help that much.

As for the bute, we don't use it. We do use banamine and it has it's problems too. I have even been told by a Vet that she doesn't recommend the injectable because it can cause a rotting hole at the injection site. We have given a lot of shots and have never had a problem with it but I guess the paste is safer.