Springtime - May 2016!

We finally have those hot humid temperatures, May 26th!  A couple of weeks ago, it was so cold we had to put the furnace on. Some parts of Canada experience snow!  
Such it life in Canada. 

A long time since I have "blogged". Life just gets too busy to sit down and report on it!

We discovered that two calves were born during the night.  Neil finds it amusing when he goes out back to check on the herd and it has increased as if by magic!

Babies are doing well - hopefully we will have very few problems this year. It can be grueling on a hot summer day to ensure your calves are thriving and not just laying down getting lethargic.  Once that happens, the flies take advantage and start to lay their eggs in the
thick highland cattle fur that the calves have as well.  They can do such damage to the 
calf's system it they go too long undetected. 

A couple of years ago, we had to go out back routinely, find this particular calf, clean it off and cover it with "swat" something to deter the flies.  However, day after day, we attended to this calf when I decided to get some of the kids old T Shirts and put them on the calf to help
keep the flies away even better.  Every morning we would find the shirt torn to bits but that
was okay. Put on a fresh one! 

It worked really well.  Anyway, this year we hope we do not have to repeat this process but we are ready if we do!

It is very peaceful out back where the cows roam.  The younger calves are very active and love to gang up together. Sometimes it can be a problem.  In a group, they are braver and tend to explore outside our fence line.  One year they traveled to the neighbour's farm behind us.  The gardener was so surprised to see them. He couldn't figure out what they were and his first thought was baby bison.   They quickly scampered back to our place but it can be worrisome when you can't find them immediately.  We called one group of four "the banditos". They were particularly active!

It is July 13th and the sun is out and shining brightly, and the wind is blowing nicely, hopefully drying the grass that Neil cut yesterday.  We missed the first round of hay-making in June. Neil was booked off on
holidays one week too early!  Since then he has been putting off his July holidays until he was sure he could make good use of them.

All over Facebook, friends were applauding themselves for their great success in cutting, baling and storing wonderful quality hay in their barns before the next rainfall.  We continued to watch the weather forecasts for another good opportunity and couldn't get three nice days strung together with no chance of rain.
These are the difficulties you face when you make your own hay!  But now it is our chance!

The mere suggestion of "making hay while the sun shines" causes all sorts of arguments and bad feelings
around this house. Neil telling the the kids how important the hay is to all of us, although they can't quite see it. The kids telling Neil they need plenty of warning as they have their own lives and plans. And him telling Kathryn that he is only making square bales (which are way more labor intensive) for HER horses.  HIS cows only use rounds bales. Alex doesn't have any investment in the farm, in the way of animals, so he gets paid for his work.

Mom (me) gets to drives the tractor, another sticking point, while Neil and the kids stack the hay on the wagon as it comes out of the baler.  Unfortunately, to do hay, you need a hot dry day but that makes it miserable to be out working in. When you sweat you tend to get covered in pieces of loose hay which tickles and scratches.  It is very uncomfortable!    Here are some photos from 2009!

I've gotten better managing the tractor over the years. I have to watch the baler while I am driving up and down hills to make sure it doesn't get jammed. If so, I have to hit the clutch then the brake. All the while concerned that the folks on the wagon aren't launched off it!  I started carrying a whistle to alert them in
the event of a sudden stop, but that was too much to manage in an emergency situation.

We are all so looking forward to heading out to the field this year, but we are short one person. Kathryn is on holidays in Scotland for two weeks! Not sure how this will work out but I am sure she is rubbing her hands in glee at her good fortune in not being home just now!

I was told many times that if you have "livestock" you will then have "deadstock".
Life and death on the farm is so apparent and "in your face".   The little calf that Polly had did not survive the weekend!  Now we need to take a good look at Polly.  She appeared to be caring for her baby, like the good mom she is, and it certainly looked like the baby was nursing effortlessly. But that must not have been the case. :-(
Her front two teats were large and full of milk and the back two shrivelled as if the baby had been nursing regularly.  We are not sure, but perhaps they were actually non-functioning. Neil doesn't want to take the risk just now to approach Polly and check her out. She is very skittish.  Hasn't been a very good year so far. Kileedy had a baby which we had to pass on to Mark to care for as she cannot nurse at all and now Polly.
Neil has decided to cross breed our Highlands with one of Dave's Angus.  They do not have horns, making them a bit easier to handle. We don't have any bulls on our property just now.  We have loaned our big, black bull Rembrandt,  to Joanne and I am happy he is not here anyway. He is too hard to control and loves to go wherever he wants, through fences at will. 

The weather is finally becoming more spring-like with temperatures expected to be in the low twenties this afternoon.  But with the warm temperatures comes rain! Oh well, better than freezing rain and snow!

Highland Cattle are amazing!  One minute you have twenty cows and the next twenty-one!  The moms do it all by themselves.  Today, Polly had a baby boy!  He is sooo cute.  (Aren't all baby animals cute though.)  

It is still rathar cool out so hopefully Polly will keep the baby sheltered a bit. But he does seem energetic. We watched him nurse a few times so we know, he knows what to do!

The Saturday before Easter, Neil decided that we needed a night away from the farm. He had spoken with his sister earlier and arranged a hotel room at Four Points by Sherton in Niagara Falls.  It is attached to Casino Niagara.  The booking included a show that evening and we were looking forward to it and some gambling and a nice meal out.

I was supposed to be getting things ready to go while Neil took Alex to the club. Kathryn would be driving him home later.  When I went to the barn, I found Rascal to be really subdued.  For a kitten, this can be quite obvious.  I was concerned so when Neil arrived home, I gave him a "puppy dog" face and said I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving her at home without getting her checked out.  After speaking to the folks at the Copetown Vet - they directed us to the Brant Emergency Animal Hospital.  Off we went, Rascal stowed in a makeshift cat-carrier. (A rubbermaid container with holes drilled in the top.)  I was convinced she wasn't getting enough hair so I can removing the lid a bit and then she would stick her paws out!   I started speaking to her to try and comfort her and she answered back, until Neil had had enough of all the meowing and asked me to stop.

We were glad they could see her right away, since we were supposed to be on our way to Niagara Falls to meet up with Moira and Robi!  Turns out she was bitten by a cat!  Not likely one of her litter mates but she got an abscess and had a high fever.   They shaved the area and cleaned the wound.  They also gave her antibiotics and some pain reliever. The total cost around $225.00!  (I knew then that I better not spend much at the Casino!)  They did not have a rabies shot on hand so we have still not got that done yet, nor got her spayed yet.   Anyway, we brought her home and put her in a rabbit cage and got on our way to the Falls!   Kathryn was given instructions on the whole
situation.

Poor Rascal - hope she gets her hair back soon!

Mother Midnight and her three baby girls: Rascal, Mulan & Patches.
Yes, they are feral and we named them...and feed them regularly....hmm...

So after pondering all the nasty possibilites that could be afflicting my little feral kitten, Rascal I think I have zeroed in on one or two, a bit closer to the truth.

When I went to take another look at her in the afternoon yesterday, she was rolling around on her back wanting me to pet her!  I felt her backside again but this time it felt more like dried blood or even tree sap!  Nothing was obvious on the fur on top, but a bit of fluffed of hair.  There would be no way she could move around like she was doing if she had broken any bones. *phew*

Today I rubbed a bit harder trying to ascertain the reason for the clotted hair when she
meowed and complained as if it were somewhat painful. So now I think she must have been bitten or injured on her back somehow.  I will keep an eye on her but I think I will still make an appointment for her at the vet next week to be neutered as well as have a good "going over".

The more animals you have the more likely you will have "issues".
Seems to me that we have had quite a run of "issues" lately.

Last Saturday, I was looking outside watching the horses standing around in the sun.
Hannah's head began to droop down as if she was falling asleep. I was alarmed to
see her legs buckle as she wobbled about. She did catch herself before she fell to the ground. Then she did it a couple more times!  She was keeping her usual watch over Hercules who was lying down lounging in the sun. Hannah NEVER lays down willingly outside. (The one time I caught her down - she was suffering from Heaves and exhausted from coughing.) 

Off to the internet I went and discovered that horses can suffer from a lack of sleep!
REM sleep in particular.   Apparently they need about 30 to 60 minutes of REM sleep each night and to achieve this, they must lay down in their stalls at some point during the night.  It appeared Hannah hasn't had a good night sleep for quite some time.
This problem is more common that I thought and their were loads of examples of horses doing this and just as many people looking for answers, which are not equally available! 

I did some more research to see what sorts of things could be happening to cause this.
If a horse is anxious or on high alert, they find it hard to relax.  Hannah is an Egyptian Arabian who has always been highly excitable...to put it nicely.

A few weeks earlier, as a huge, heavy snowfall had begun to melt, Hannah's stall became flooded. There was no way she could stay there.  We moved her to the next stall over which was adjacent to Tango.  There is no love lost between these two mares but when they are outside, Hannah is clearly the boss.  Tango has discovered that she can take revenge on Hannah from the safety of her stall.  She sticks her head out and towards Hannah attempting to bite her.  Hannah squeals and tries to bite back.
No contact has ever been made but Hannah doesn't like it and ends up kicking at the back wall of her stall.  This is why we always had a stall between them...just to save the wood in the barn if nothing else.  We never thought there could be a more serious problem during the night since Hannah just had to step away from the gate. 

However, we had to assume she was bothered and so much so, that she did not lie down and relax as usual.  In addtion, I learned that if the horse is suffering aches and pains they might also be reluctant to lie down since it is painful to get up. 
Or if they have some type of stomach problem that cause them discomfort lying down.
We had her like this for ten days when I noticed her unsteadiness.

So the next night, Hannah went back to her stall, filled with lots of hay to encourage her to lie down.  I also gave her a small amount of bute in her feed in case she had any pain, she is almost 28 years old afterall.

In the morning, I carefully surveyed her body for any signs of laying down. But since I had so much hay strewn about - it was hard to tell.   Another tell-tale sign of a problem is if your horse does not roll about in the field.  Hannah ALWAYS rolls out side to scratch her itchy back. Then she gets up and coughs all the morning pghlem out.
Sure enough, when I put her outside, I watched for a few minutes but went back to the barn to clean stalls. When I heard her coughing, I ran outside to check on her. Although she was back up on all fours - her back was quite damp from having rolled in the snow. Well at least that wasn't a problem!
It has been a few days of the old routine and it seems to have worked!  Some folks have stated that they have now found a solution to their horse's falling down problem.
They change paddock- mates around and see what works. I do not have the luxury of doing that so I am thankful the problem seems to have been fixed fairly simply.

This morning, when I went to the barn to feed the horses, I stopped to pet
Rascal, the runt of the feral kitty litter.  She let me pick her up and I began
to pet her like usual. She meowed and I was sure I felt something on her back.
I took off my glove and ran my hand along her spine.  Yup, there was something
hard that just didn't belong in that place.  It felt like a piece of straw stuck under
the hair on her back.    I did some research online and I think she
has had some sort of injury, perhaps breaking her pelvis or hip bones. 
I have not taken her into be fixed yet - since Christmas I have been trying to get together some money to have it done. 
However, she is walking around, even running and doesn't appear to be hindered
in anyway. I can't decide whether to call Copetown Vet or not. They fixed "Patches" for me and although I got the "feral cat" rate, it was still almost $300.00.

Now that I have some money - we sold two steers to Fenwood Farms - I was planning to get the another one fixed next week.  (I have two left to do.) They only like to do spaying or neutering from Mondays to Wednesdays.  I will have to give this further thought and keep an eye on her. I wouldn't like to think she is in any pain.