So behind

This week was crazy busy and I just haven't had the energy to write much down.

We visited a bull at a farm that works with "organic" principles; for example, they feed organic food to the entire herd and will not treat any of the animals going to market with antibiotics.  However, the bull that had a case of pinkeye was able to be treated with antibiotics injected into the scelera of the eye.  Do to the location of the bull, we had to bring the chute to it for restrain.  I am amazed every time one of the doctors here maneuvers their truck into each of the farms.  This time we had the chute attached to the back of the truck going through rained out fields.  It was a MUD pit.

I snared my first hog last Friday to treat erysipelas in a 4-H hog.  The hog presented with large red welts on his back along with a nasty fever.  The biggest worry for treating this guy was the fact that the fair is coming up and that any treatments we give had to be out of his system by fair.  Luckily, the treatment plan that was chosen gave him a few extra weeks between treatment and the fair.

Natalie and I tag teamed a visit to an alpaca farm and learned more information about alpacas then I will ever need to know.  The owners were amazing at answering all of our ignorant questions including: what is a male alpaca called? (male)  What is cushing? (showing mating behavior) What's the difference between a llama and an alpaca (llamas are bigger and have banana shaped ears).  We helped geld four the the males and restrained a few females to check for pregnancy by ultrasound.

Today, I was volunteered to help float teeth on two horses.  By help float teeth, I held the head of two horses for about an hour each while Dr. Amity floated their teeth.  Floating teeth is the only way to maintain good dental health in horses due to their ever growing hypsodont teeth.  Basically, we file away the sharp points that are produced by the grinding motion of eating grass.

Also one of the highlights of this past week included seeing a Scottish Highland cow in real life because they are the cutest damn cows I have ever seen (even though this one had pinkeye and was feisty as hell.)