Spring Cleaning

Today was spring cleaning.  No, no, not the house.  This was the day for my wonderful vet, Dr. Mike Ridlin of Colorado Valley Veterinary Services, to lay his hands on my animals.  Dawn, Sarah and Jose came along to catch and hold the animals and keep all the appropriate records.  There are annual shots and weight assessment to be done.  Sheaths to be cleaned, teeth to be floated.  This is a much more important spring cleaning than worrying about vacuuming the curtains or fluffing anything.  Now I know the animals are ready for our long hot summer.

The goats.... all got their CDT and rabies shots.  I have said before that I live in "rabies central" for Colorado County and as a result all the animals get rabies shots.  The CDT is a tetanus shot (types C and D).  We also doused them with a pour-on pyrethrin for flies, mites and lice.  I'll douse them again in 10 days and maybe again 10 days after that.

The llamas and alpacas... have already gotten their CDT shots and been wormed by my wonderful shearer, Sean Price of Figment Ranch Llamas.  Today they each got a rabies shot and the once over.  Shiraz had a significant fungal infection last summer which we treated by washing and washing and washing with iodine soap.  His hair had grown thick and full so we couldn't see what his skin looked like until he was sheared a couple of weeks ago.  My vet agreed with my evaluation - Shiraz has some scarring but no infection and we will just keep an eye on his back until the hair has again covered that area.  Rascal, one of my alpacas had a lump on his left side.  Bless my vet because I hadn't noticed it at all.  He opened up the area and drained it.  Our best hope is that it's just a simple abscess which will go away now that it has been drained.  If it continues to be a problem it may be something that needs to be cut out.  We are hoping not but will watch it for the next couple of weeks to be sure it's healing properly.

The horses.... all got their normal annual shots including rabies, rhyno-flu and strangles.  We also drew blood for a Coggins test.  A current Coggins is needed if they are hauled across state lines or go to any horse shows.  Our ponies are all retired from showing and travel in general.  We could probably get away without the Coggins but I'm sure if we didn't have them some reason would present itself that required us to move them.  It's just easier to keep it as part the annual plan.  Neither Jazz or Steele needed to have their teeth floated so didn't need to be tranquilized.  Eclipse had his teeth floated which is sort of funny.  He's the oldest and has the fewest teeth of any of the ponies. 

So we are all caught up for now.  All the animals are healthy and their weight looks good.  Yea!