Second Opinion

Tags

animals, dogs, pets

I took Kingsley to a different vet today for a second opinion.  At first, I felt like a total douchebag calling his old vet clinic and asking them to fax over his file, but now I’m glad I did.

I took him to the vet that does chiro on Ziggy – Dr. Orchard.  She’s an expert on pain management, and at the very least, I hoped she might be able to recommend some other sort of treatment that just a course of steroids.  He’s still in a lot of pain.

She did even better than that.  She found pain in his ribs and back, probably from a wipe out on an icy sidewalk this winter (I think I remember him falling a couple of times, actually.  He likes to dig tunnels in the snowbanks and sometimes digs right off the edge of a yard).  This explains why he hasn’t been jumping up on things, or doing tricks.  He’s also had difficulty sleeping, probably due to this pain.  The vet prescribed Metacam for a week to see if that helps resolve the soreness.  If not, she thinks it can be fixed with one or two chiro appointments.

Then she asked if he was treated for the infection in his teeth.  Bwuh?  That was never even mentioned.  Yes, at least two of his teeth have very bad infections.  This is *possibly* the cause of the mascatory myositis.  She said a long-term, severe infection could cause an autoimmune disease.  She put him on antibiotics for two weeks.  It’s longer course of antibiotic treatment because she’s hoping to knock out the infection 100%.  It’s not safe for him at the moment to have any dental work done, so if it can be healed with antibiotics, that would be the best solution.

She also told me to put him back on his regular food, and not bother switching his diet.  I had started switching him to a higher-calorie dry food, as recommended by his previous vet.  I went to Critters, and they told me to try Satori.  Turns out, Satori is extremely rich and hard on a dog’s GI track, especially a pup like Kingsley who’s had GI track issues in the past.  I found out today that the reason they recommend this food is because the store, Critters, owns half the company that manufactures Satori.  Grrrrrrrr.  Buyer beware.  So I bought some doggie probiotics to sprinkle on his food while his gut recovers from my stupid mistake.  This will also help his gut while he’s on the antibiotics.

I feel so relieved.  I feel like there’s hope that he’ll get better now.  I know the muscle waste is permanent, but I don’t want him to be in pain.  He’s 13 years old, and he’s a small dog.  He could live for another three or four years yet.  I have hope that he’ll be restored to his former playful self and spend his remaining years free from chronic pain.  Before today, I was seriously starting to think I would have to euthanize him soon because I couldn’t stand to see him hurting so much.

Always get a second opinion.  Lesson learned.

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New Job

Tags

animals, cats, dogs, jobs, muffins, pet sitting, Zucchini

Sorry for the lack of post on Wednesday this week. I got a new job! Possibly my dream job. Possibly even better than acting.

I am a Pet Sitter with Animal Crackers. Basically, this means that I get paid to spend time with cats and dogs all day. I visit them, play with them, cuddle them, walk them, and feed them, and I get PAID to do this! The hours are flexible, but most of my shifts are between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., which means I get to sleep in and I get off early. Best part? No customer service. I don’t have to deal with people – just animals! It’s awesome.

I also made the best zucchini oatmeal muffins. You can find the recipe here. I modified it a bit. I used red fife flour instead of oatmeal flour, and I didn’t have any lemon zest on hand. But they are hands down the best muffins I’ve ever made. Period. Makes me want to throw out the batch I made last week. Yuck.

I enjoyed a couple while soaking up the last of the warm temperatures on the patio a couple days ago.

Have a great weekend!

Winterizing the Coop

Tags

animals, backyard chickens, chickens, pets, Poultry, winter, winterize the coop

The first question most people ask when they find out we have chickens is, “How do you keep them warm in the winter?”  We have serious winters here.  It has been known to drop below -50 Celsius (sometimes even -60 with the wind chill).  The normal temperature in January is about -25 C.  Getting stuck outside during a Saskatchewan winter can kill you.

So I totally understand why people are concerned with how our chickens stay warm.  I certainly was when we first got them.

Then I realized . . . they’re chickens.

The pioneers and homesteaders did not have electricity, but they had chickens.  Also, chickens are not mammals.  Just because you wouldn’t want to be outside in the winter wearing a feather sweater doesn’t mean that a chicken is freezing to death, or even uncomfortable.

We winterize our coop, but we do not heat it.  Some people do, and that’s totally their choice.  We specifically chose cold-hardy breeds of chickens that can handle low winter temperatures.  If you do choose to heat the coop, and the power goes out, the chickens will die for sure.  We decided to not take that risk.  Also, having a heat lamp in the coop is a fire hazard.

Here’s what we’ve done to make the girls comfortable for the winter:

• insulate the coop and fill the bottom with a thick layer of wood chips;
• give them lots of straw in the nesting boxes to snuggle into;
• use a flat 2×4 as their roosting bar so that they can cover their feet with their feathers when they sleep;
• put a fluorescent light in the coop on a timer so that they get 16 hours of light per day;
• use a heated water dish to keep their water from freezing;
• staple a plastic barrier around the bottom of the coop to give them a shelter from the wind;
• tarp the run to keep the snow out;
• feed them cracked-corn scratch in the late afternoon (their body temperature goes up as they digest the corn);
• have enough chickens so that they can keep each other warm.

The most important thing we’ve found is to make sure there is enough ventilation in the coop.  We close the window, but we never put anything in front of the door – it stays open all winter.  Chickens can withstand the cold, but if the coop is humid, they will get frostbite.  So even though it goes against all my instincts, we make sure there is plenty of airflow in the coop all winter.

The girls don’t seem to mind winter at all.  In fact, they love to be let out to scratch in the snow and peck at the frozen soil and plants.  Besides, there’s nothing cuter than chicken paw prints in the snow.

Tiny Little Rototillers

Tags

animals, backyard chickens, Chicken, chickens, garden, Home and Garden, pets

A few weeks ago, we corralled the chickens into the garden and let them scratch away at the soil to their hearts’ content.  Little did they know they were actually breaking up clumps of dirt and spreading compost.

Last week, after we had finished most of the harvest, we released the girls again, but this time we let them free-range all day.  As Will turned the soil over with a shovel, they immediately jumped in and started scratching away.  Sometimes, they didn’t even wait for the shovel to get out of the way.  They scratched, they pooped, they dirt-bathed, they stood at the garage and begged for scratch, and finally, they went to bed exhausted.  It was fantastic.

Dog Days

Tags

animals, dogs, off-leash park, pets

Okay, the title of this post is a bit misleading.  It wasn’t a full day at the dog park, more like “An Hour at the Dog Park.”  I wish it had been longer, but it did the trick.   The weather was gorgeous, and the dogs were exhausted when we got home.  They slept all night.

I’ve always believed that a good dog is a tired dog.

The boys have been a bit wild lately.  Lack of attention, I think, and lack of exercise.  I have no time to walk them, and they’re used to daily walks.  They’re going a bit stir-crazy being cooped up inside the house all day.  Thank goodness for off-leash parks!

Put Your Chickens to Work Day

Tags

animals, backyard chickens, Gardens, pets

We decided to let the girls do some of our dirty work this fall.

According to the book Free Range Chicken Gardens: How to Create a Beautiful Chicken-Friendly Backyard; chickens can be wonderful garden helpers – ummmm, yeah.  It’s pretty obvious to anyone within a few hours of having chickens in their backyard that they love to scratch in the soil, looking for bugs and worms, and will turn the soil over and aerate it.  And destroy any living plant in their path.  However, if you stick them in the garden after harvest, they’ll also clean up any left over plants bit or roots (or, let’s be honest, weeds).

So today, the girls went to work.  We used a snow fence to corral them into a part of the garden that was finished (peas and beans, thank you very much), and away they went.  They weren’t too interested at first, but then Will turned some of the soil over with a pitch fork, and that got them going.  They love scratching in newly-turned soil.  They happily scratched away for almost three hours.  I really wanted to stay and watch them, but alas, I had to go to rehearsal.

(What is it about watching chickens!?  I could seriously watch them for hours.  They’re better than TV.)

 

Birds of a Feather

Tags

animals, backyard chickens, Chicken, pets, pullet

Little by little, the new chicken (Scruffy/Black Betty) has started to become part of the flock.

She’s still very skittish around humans, but this morning as I was cleaning the run, she came out of the coop, ate with the other girls, and didn’t run away while I was in there.  When I got home from work, Will reported, very happily, that he was able to get close enough to touch her.  Just for a moment.

We get a little closer every day.

It’s a good feeling when the flock becomes one, and you know all your girls are healthy and getting along.  Love my chickens.

Happy Labour Day

New Girl

Tags

animals, backyard chickens, Chicken, Coop, Poultry, pullets

Last Thursday, I packed Marianne into a cardboard box and drove her out of town to Pop’s Coops.  He toured me around the place (totally awesome!) and traded Marianne for Scruffy aka Oh Black Betty (Bam A Lam).  She’s an Ameracauna (like Liesl) and will lay blue eggs.

Even though it was only three months ago that I introduced two new hens into the flock, I had completely forgotten what a ruckus Greta and Liesl make when a new girl enters the coop.  Even Ginger was very vocal about it, and she’s usually so quiet.  Scruffy isn’t having an easy time with this transition.  She mostly stays in the coop or roosts or hides in a box. Friday morning was a mess.  All the girls had to lay at the same time and Scruffy was in one of the nesting boxes.  Oh the noise!  I took my iPod dock outside and blared music to cover the squawking, and actually, the music calmed the girls down.

Please, please, please let this transition be smooth.  Come on, girls.  Make friends fast!

The Story of Kings

Tags

animals, dogs, pets, rescue dogs, SPCA

The Kings.  Kingsman.  Kingsbert.  Kingslerama.  Full name: Kingsley Windermere Brooks.  We met Kingsley in October 2005, three months after Will and I were married, five months after we bought our house, two years after I told Will I couldn’t be with someone who didn’t want dogs, and thankfully, he relented.

We find ourselves at the SPCA.  I see Kingsley, then known as “Dodge.”  He’s quiet, doesn’t bark like the others, but there’s sign on his cage – “I’ve been adopted!”  We go home without a dog.  Next week, we try again.  Lo and behold, he’s still there.  His adoption didn’t go through.  We take him for a walk and when we come back, I sit on the floor and he rolls overs into my arms.  Done.

On his behavioural assessment it says he is a “submissive peer,” which I take to mean that he’s not the dominant dog of the pack.  When we get home, I find out it should have read “submissive pee-er,” meaning when he feels dominated or threatened, he rolls over on his back and pees.  It takes a few months, but that behaviour eventually recedes, and a happy, confident, smart, and loving dog emerges.

He even became an actor, like his mama, appearing onstage as Crab in The Two Gentlemen of Verona (and got the part after crying during the audition and peeing on the director – actors, take note!)

The Kings.  King of the Yard.  King of my Heart.

The Story of Zig

Tags

animals, Bichon Frise, dogs, pets, rescue dog, SPCA

This is Ziggy.  His full name is Zigfried Albert Phinneus.  He came into our lives during October 2007.  In a moment of incredible love, utter weakness, and perhaps, slight ignorance, Will said to me, “Let’s go to the SPCA.”  (Will has since learned never to say that to me because now he knows it will always result in another animal entering our home).

When we met, Ziggy was known as “Cage 86.”  He had been picked up as a stray, wandering the city with a red nylon collar on, but no tags.  No one had come to claim him at the pound, and so he was put up for adoption.  We took him for a walk, and when we went to put him back in his cage, he simply wouldn’t have it.  Every time I tried to close the door, he ran back to me.  I knew he was mine.

He came home with us.  He was a chubby, filthy little creature.  He couldn’t have been on the mean streets for too long – he had fat to spare.  Little Sausage was his nickname.  And, lord, was he dirty.  A bath, and a visit to the groomers soon remedied that situation, and my little, white, fluffy angel appeared.

As his true outside appearance became visible, so did his rather . . . umm . . . “headstrong” personality (i.e. he’s a bit of a jerk).  He doesn’t show much affection, but on the rare occasion that he gets so excited that he forgets himself, he’ll give me a kiss.

He’s dumb as a doorknob, but clever and cunning when it comes to food.  He has a gargantuan appetite and guts of steel.  He can eat anything.  And he does.  He loves to dig up carrots from the garden, or steal peas off the vine, and come sauntering out proudly, with his prize between his teeth.  He pulls loaves of bread off the kitchen counter and devours them in minutes.  Not even a sealed plastic container can stop The Zig.  He’ll chew through it, leaving a scene of carnage, bits of plastic strewn all over the floor.

The best thing about Zig?  Nothing phases him.  He doesn’t know the meaning of “grudge” or “depression” or even “pain”.  He’s the happiest dog I’ve ever met.  Not the friendliest, but certainly the happiest.  He’s got a bad back and bum hip, which means he’s in pain most of the time.  Regular trips to the chiropractor help somewhat, but it never completely goes away.  But he’s happy nonetheless.  Zig is the best example I know of living in the moment.  And that moment is always complete and perfect unto itself.  Got a treat?  Excellent!  Don’t have a treat?  Still excellent!  Everything is perfect just as it is in Zig’s world.