Spring Cleaning

Our official spring cleaning is scheduled for this coming Wednesday.  That is the afternoon my wonderful vet, Dr. Michael Ridlen, and his helpers will be out here.  The agenda is fairly long and includes rabies shots for all livestock, CDT shots for the goats, the normal yearly vaccinations for the pony plus drawing blood for a Coggins test and checking teeth and sheath.  They will also pull fecal samples from the alpaca, llamas and goats to check for parasite load.

This is the one time each year when my vet lays his hands on each and every one of my animals.  I could buy and give most of the vaccinations myself although the rabies shots must be given by a vet.  It costs me a bit more to have the vet give all the shots but I really appreciate him looking closely at each animal.  The rest of the year he only sees the ones who are having issues.

Our Welsh pony, Steele, is currently being treated for arthritis in his back legs.  Poor baby was walking very slowly and tentatively until we put him on medication.  I'm sure he will continue on it for the rest of his life.  I ran out last week and it took 5 days to replace it.  Steele was already uncomfortable so we won't let that happen again.  He is shedding out by the handful.  There are tufts of white hair everywhere.

The timing worked out well this spring.  My goat shearer, Stephen Franco, was here yesterday so all four Angora goats look like they are running around in their skivvies and all the goats had their feet trimmed.  It's good that the vet will be able to see them without fleece.