Savingdogs-Saving the chickens

[glenolam]

INTERESTING! Go Bandit!!

I only use Frontline on my dogs (I buy it on-line, though, and to my knowledge have yet to be scammed, but I know it could happen) and can only use Advantage on my cats. Well, only one of my cats, anyway so I just use it on both. Sylvie gets a major burn mark and looses her fur if I use Frontline on her.

I only apply the flea/tick stuff from September - November and keep it on hand for the spring months. Not optimal, I know, but my girls only really have problems during that time so IMO why waste money?

 

[savingdogs]

I love Advantage for both dogs and cats but it is for fleas. The company came out with "Advantix" to compete with the market that Frontline Plus was stealing from them as a tick product as well. Plain Frontline does not kill ticks. I had to sit through endless marketing seminars with the makers so I'm fairly familiar, more than I want to be.

Advantage is a little cheaper so if you are hoping to treat fleas not ticks I would use that. Advantage does not make a cat product for ticks. They will say to apply these thing monthly to each animal but I've seen much less be effective, such as treating only one animal in the environment or using it less often than monthly, like just during the peak months of problems.

Another product is Revolution, which is just plain old good ivermectin which y'all are quite familiar with under the name Ivomec. However, it was described to me that ivermectin kills around 80 percent of most parasites in animals, but never 100 percent. Usually when people want a flea product they want 100 percent effectiveness. Revolution does not market itself as a tick product however.

Although I was listening to the makers of the products, I do believe them that Frontline, Revolution and Advantage are not harmful to animals (or humans) when used correctly. I have only seen two cases of allergic reaction despite seeing many, many, many animals being treated with these things (only to Advantage, never Frontline or Revolution). And just like people, some folks and some animals are allergic to medications and things that are a miracle for other folks.

Meanwhile, the old products used for fighting fleas and ticks from 20 to 30 years ago WERE extremely toxic and harmful to both humans and pets. The products marked "pyrethrens" are the nasty ones to avoid. I might have that spelling wrong.

I HAVE seen animals overreacting to "natural" products used to treat parasites, including tea tree oil and garlic, and have seen dogs and cats near death because of fleas, ticks and worms. I saw a golden retriever who had lost ALL of his hair because of a soothing medicated bath used by a groomer for fleas (he was allergic). Luckily, the hair grew back with conventional veterinary treatments.

You guys know me, I do things on the cheap. But I do buy Frontline plus.

 

[Farmfresh]

So how does Hartz stay in business?

I have heard about LOTS of problems associated with their products. In addition to the bad dog and cat products, their small animal food has been responsible for some deaths as well. Evidently rabbits eating their blend often die from constipation.

 

[savingdogs]

I watched a cat die from an owner applying dog Hartz flea killer to it. Owner was VERY upset. It is too easy to confuse products, not worth it to have one like that around if you own cats.

I see Hartz products for sale in lots of pet stores, I guess people must buy them. I believe they contain pyrethrens, but perhaps someone else has more technical information. But I do know the over the counter stuff isn't as safe as the vet office stuff and it seems like it should be the OTHER way around.

 

[savingdogs]

Lovely day here today. It did rain and hail for awhile this morning, but the sun came bursting through the clouds, the steam rose from the roof and the animals came out to enjoy the sun. :bun The mud even dried a bit. By afternoon, I was able to go out and work in the garden a while, and got a good deal of area ready to plant and some ground cover type things planted. I don't have the true garden row area set up yet so I'm just planting the things that can blend into the landscaping. I did buy some clover, but most everything I planted today was sent to me by all of you, my SS friends. I still have a whole sequence of things to set out per my research and calender. My indoor seedlngs are doing poorly and they are not ready to transplant outside yet. My house is just so COLD, it is hard to keep a spot sunny and warm indoors. I noticed that today it was much warmer outside than it was in my silly old house. I tell you, one of these days we will just push this house down the hill.

I may have to use outdoor space instead to start my food growing. I am going to make an outdoor greenhouse kind of thing as my next project.

Hubby stocked up at the store yesterday and we had such yummy things to eat today, I had chicken with fresh basil and crunchy homemade bread for lunch. I love basil! I have to plant a lot. I have eight starts going but it isn't enough. I could just munch on basil straight I think.

The milking is going excellent. I found if I milk the goats first thing in the morning before the other chores, they are so hungry they cooperate best. Ginger is getting easier to milk and I can milk Molly pretty fast now too. I only get about two cups total from the two of them, this morning I got about two and a half cups so it was my record. NO LAUGHING. We gotta start somewhere. But that way I also get to start my day with a goat milk latte.

I'm slooooooowly collecting for making cheese, I think I have enough to make my first cheese tomorrow. I keep drinking the milk because I like it so much, and I have been feeling healthy (for me) so I think it has been doing me good.

Sebastian has grown larger than the other two kids by quite a bit. I'm not sure why as Molly is a good deal smaller than Ginger so it should be the other way around. He has been growing skittish and I had to vaccinate him. I felt so bad, he was so scared. I held him for a little while afterward. He was cold and liked me warming him up. He relaxed finally and I was delighted when I looked down and saw he had fallen asleep with his little brown head against my chest! I sure wish he was a doeling. I feel so rewarded when I win over a skittish animal, I wonder why that is?

Course I'm pretty happy with my doeling as well, who is not a single bit skittish. Hubby was laughing at me because she and I were practicing milking on the stanchion this morning, right after her mom. I let her eat her grain up there and pretended to milk her. Hubby rolled his eyes but Holy cow, she is a tiny little thing, she better cooperate on the stand or it won't be worth it. She most definitely has only two teats. I can tell already she is going to be my favorite goat.

Looking forward to the moon rising....should happen any time now..... Here it comes!

 

[framing fowl]

So, how was the moon? Couldn't see it here tonight. So what kind of cheese are you going to make first?

 

[savingdogs]

I don't see anything, and I'm just making farmer's cheese with basil. But still.....

 

[framing fowl]

I'm just making farmers cheese... Hey, it's cheese and you're making it. No "just" about that. Way to go! Can't wait to hear how it tastes.

 

[Farmfresh]

As usual with most astronomical wonders that are there to be viewed, it was cloudy and rained hard at our house! Never saw the moon a bit.

Hubby used to subscribe to Astronomy magazine, but eventually dropped his subscription. He would discover and especially interesting thing to view, wait for the proper day and time to come and then be repeatedly disappointed by clouds or rain. :/

 

[savingdogs]

Happy Spring! Yay! We survived!

Farmfresh, I believe this "moon" will be big like that for a few days, it was not a one-night event, I think I read there should be three days of viewing? We are often similarly dissapointed. We lived in Los Angeles county a long time so we are used to seeing no sky (hee hee) but we thought here on the mountain we would see more stars. But we have a huge canopy of trees so even seeing a sunrise or sunset is not the same as somewhere you can view the horizon. The only nice thing about winter here is that we see more skyline. I did get to view a big, bright round awesome moon in the middle of the night last night.

I need to go and scrub down my kitchen top to bottom and then I'm going to make the farmer cheese. I sure hope it comes out, I bought a bunch of crackers! We are going for a spread cheese type of thing and I bought some fresh basil to give it some real nice flavor, was thinking of making it garlic and basil. Worst comes to worst and I'll try melting it on burritos or worse, feed it to dogs and chickens. I'm thinking I need to add the herbs and flavors at the end, this recipe does not say to add it earlier so I guess that will be the finisher. I guess I shouldn't celebrate till I taste it, but

It was almost TWO YEARS ago that we started on our "goat" journey and decided we wanted to make our own cheese and dairy products, so it has been a long time coming for us. Some people advise going out and buying a good dairy goat in milk to start out and I can see why. Personally, I'm glad we did it the way we did as small steps were easier for us to learn, and being from the city, none of this stuff was secondhand knowledge for us at all. I feel like Molly and Ginger and I are a good team because we have forged a bond of trust over their lifetimes since we bought them as babies.

I'm SURE hoping for a second day for gardening. I woke with a monster migraine but my pills actually WORKED and made it go away so I'm hoping to make the cheese and then dig in the dirt a little today afterwards, get some more seeds in the ground and start erecting my pseudogreenhouse. I doubt I'll actually get that far!

But it sure is exciting it is spring.