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Infectious Diseases and Warm Weather

In our area of the Country we have seen an abundance of rainy weather increasing the risk of mosquitos being a huge problem. Hot weather can bring on an increase risk of infectious diseases that involve mosquito transmission. Important diseases in this area that are transmitted by mosquitos are West Nile Virus and Eastern / Western Encephalomyelitis.

Symptoms of Eastern Equine Encephalomyelitis: Since the virus spreads through the central nervous system symptoms include: severe depression, blindness, staggering and seizures accompanied by high fever. Most infected horses die within a few days.

Symptoms of Western Equine Encephalomyelitis: Depression, anorexia, high fever, paralysis, incoordination and lying down unable to stand.

Symptoms of West Nile Virus: The effects of West Nile virus can be mild to fatal. Some horses may not show any symptoms at all. Symptoms can include: fever, stumbling, falling, weakness, drooping lips, abnormal response to touch or sound, severe cases include brain swelling that leads to death.

All of the above viruses can be prevented through yearly vaccinations. Make sure you are staying current on vaccines. Contact Dr. Thames to get on the schedule to get your horses, ponies and donkeys vaccinated. Foals should begin their vaccinations at 3 months of age here in the Southeast due to early mosquito presence.

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16 Facts About Donkeys

  1. A donkey is stronger than a horse of the same size.
  2. Donkey’s can see all four feet at the same time.
  3. Donkey’s can vary wildly in size, fro, 26″ to 68″ tall.
  4. A donkey’s bray can carry up to 60 miles in the desert.
  5. Donkey’s have an incredibly efficient digestive system, using 95% of what they eat.
  6. Donkey’s don’t like to be in the rain for long periods of time because their hair isn’t waterproof.
  7. Donkey’s have been used as draft animals for at least 5000 years and they are still a lifeline for families in parts of Europe, Asia, Africa and South America.
  8. Healthy donkeys can live into their 50’s.
  9. A blind donkey often bonds with a sighted donkey who will act as a guide.
  10. Donkey’s can have a calming influence on other animals
  11. Donkey’s are highly intelligent with a keen sense of curiosity.
  12. Donkey’s are not stubborn but can be reluctant to do anything that could be dangerous, they think things through before deciding what to do.
  13. Donkey’s are extremely agile and can traverse difficult terrain.
  14. Donkey’s are very social and form strong bonds
  15. Donkey’s are different from horses in their physiology, communication, thinking and behavior.
  16. Donkey’s require a different sedation regimen than do horses of the same size.
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The Eyes Have It, Chicken Eyes That Is.

I’m sure most of you are not like me and wonder about the craziest things.  However; I do and one thing I have wondered about is how do chickens see their world?  I decided to do a little research and I must say….Amazing is the only word that comes to mind!!  The chicken is an incredible and awesomely made creature of God.  Let me tell you a little about what I found out.

As far as their color sight—they see colors better than us humans and they see shades of color better than us humans.  They have something called a third eyelid which they can close.  It operates from front to back.  They use this as protection when dust bathing and it moistens the eye.  That’s neat but that’s not the neatest thing you’re about to read….

The chickens use their color vision of course to find insects, seeds and other edibles.  But, the hens use their color vision to check the health of their chicks.   The hen uses her wavelengths of ultraviolet light to check the chicks’ feathers.  If the chick has shiny feathers, this means that they are healthy and if not the hen knows this chicks chance of survival may be slim.  She will then give more of her attention to the healthier chicks to greatly ensure their survival.  This sounds cruel but is a very efficient way of ensuring your offspring survive to grow and have babies of their own.

Before a chick hatches out of the egg it will turn within the shell so that their right eye is next to the shell and their left eye is covered by their bodies.  This maneuver causes the right-eye to develop near-sightedness and the left- eye to develop far-sightedness.  In having both eyes differently it allows them to simultaneously search for food with their right eye using their near sightedness while watching for predators with their left eyes which are far-sighted.   If you watch chickens while they are out foraging if a predatory bird flies overhead they will turn their left eyes toward the sky.  Each and everyone of them will do it.  Is that not the coolest thing?

Chickens also use their light vision to keep track of the sun and light.  It tells them when to go back to roost for the night and tells them when to get up and out to start foraging in the morning.

Chickens are truly amazing beings.  Their uniqueness is something very amazing.  Come out to the farm sometime and just watch them for a while.  We would love it and you would too.

 

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Yep, I picked it up!!

There are so many things that seem like a good idea, but you find out they were not.  This little tale begins on a very cold morning here on the farm.  Kent and I are doing the morning chores and because it’s so early in the morning we of course are doing them in the dark.  By all accounts everything is going smoothly and we have been steadily getting all the morning tasks knocked out one by one.  It was also a day that we needed to breed one of the sows that was in heat.  

We use artificial insemination on our sows to get them bred.  This allows us access to diverse genetics from all over the country.  We can choose a boar(male) that will compliment which ever sow we are breeding to either enhance particular traits we like or add traits that the boar is noted for.  We always look at “meat quality” when picking each boar.  Now back to my story.

We had finished the feeding and watering and now it was time to breed the sow.  We do this out in the pasture with her.  With pigs artificial insemination is not difficult it just takes the right eye to spot when the best time is.  Like I said it was still dark that morning.  Kent was getting his equipment together that he needed to inseminate the sow when he said to me…. “Ooops , I just dropped my glove.”  Me, being a loving wife precede to reach around on the ground trying to find his glove.  Before you ask , yes we had a flashlight but it was in Kent’s hand pointing at the sow.  I’m fumbling around on the ground with my hand and finally pick up what I thought was his glove.  Eureka! I thought.  But, to my surprise it was not his glove……..it was a nice sized pig poop.

Yes, I eventually found the real glove and we successfully got the sow bred.   Times on the farm can be funny and gross all in the same instance.  I love this life even when I have pig poop in my hands on a cold, dark morning.

Farmer Amy

 

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All About Ears

One of the questions I always get when I am either giving a farm tour or showing new customers around the pigs is “What’s wrong with their ears?”  As you can see in the above picture their ears are funny looking.  No, they were not born that way.  Let me share our system with you.

We use a universal ear-notching system.  This provides us a means to identify each pig without a lot of expense.  It gives each pig an individual identity so that we can follow the life of that pig from the time it was born until the time it goes into the freezer.  If we have a pig that gets sick or injured for some reason and we have to use medications on that pig, we can cull that pig at the sale barn and not use it for our pork production.  We have been very lucky on that front and have had to cull out only a few pigs.

Each coordinate of the ear represents a number and each ear represents the litter and the individual piglet.  Here is a picture to help explain…

We use a special tool to notch the ears and we do this when the piglets are no more than 3 days old.  At the same time we will castrate the males, remove the incisor teeth (we’ll get into that later) and check for hernias, get weights and look for any birth defects.  They receive an injection of iron to boost their immune system.

Here is a picture of the notcher….

About removing the incisor teeth on the piglets.  We do this for a few reasons.  The reason the piglets are born with such sharp incisor teeth is because sows can have litters that have more piglets in them than they do teats to nurse the babies.  In nature this allows the strong to fight for their teat to nurse on and survive.  We strive for all our piglets to survive so if we have an issue with too many piglets we will remove the piglet and bottle raise it or if we have another sow with the piglets the same age we may try to get her to adopt it.  Piglets are born highly competitive and fight for the best teats which are toward the front of the sow and give the most milk.  After about 4-5 days the piglets will establish ownership of their particular teat and the fighting will subside.

Neither procedure is harmful, stressful or painful to the piglets.  The most stress is from being held for the procedures.  We do this while the sow is eating so that we don’t stress her over taking her piglets away from her.

It’s all a process and everything has a reason and a purpose.    I enjoy picking the little piglets up and cuddling them before we get started.

As always if you have any questions or comments please let me know!!

Farmer Amy