Spring Cleaning for the Herd

Every spring my wonderful vet, Dr. Michael Ridlen, comes out to take a look at the herd.  All the animals gets their rabies shots, the goats get their CD-T shots. 

The pony gets vaccinated against a whole host of diseases including Strangles, Eastern and Western equine encephalomyelitis, West Nile virus, Tetanus along with the rabies - I may be forgetting something - and has blood drawn for a Coggins test to check for equine infectious anemia.  Fortunately, many of those are given together otherwise poor Steele really would feel like a pincushion.

A negative Coggins test for EIA is required to transport a horse here in Texas.  I seriously doubt that Steele will leave my property between now and his ultimate demise but to not have it current would be problem is we had to move him.

In addition to all the inoculations, we pull fecal samples on the llamas and goats to check for parasite load. We did it fairly recently but in the spring the parasites can jump up and multiply like mad so it's good to check again.  This time we had two llamas at +1 but everyone else was negative.  I love it when the answer is - nope.  No need to treat anyone.  That's a huge win for us.

I'm pleased that all the animals are now ready for the new year but most of all I'm pleased to have my vet put his hands on each and every one of my animals.  It's a touch point so that I know as of today we are all good.

My question this time was about Fitz's horn.  He only has the one horn and it curls around his ear and lays next to his jaw bone.  As it has grown larger and longer, the horn has grown closer to Fitz's head.  I needed to hear that it's not a problem and that exactly what I heard.  No need to worry about removing that horn right now.  We will check again next year to verify.

The vet arrived bright and early on Friday morning with a back-up crew of two helpers.  I had two helpers of my own.  My grandsons were here for several days while they were off school for Spring Break.  They love it when something is going on with my animals beyond just feeding them.  They love it when the shearers are here or when the vet comes.

This year my 9 year old grandson was our official photographer.  All the pictures in this blog were taken my him.