Savingdogs-Saving the chickens

[savingdogs]

I think salt makes an inhospitable environment, but doesn't KILL them. They appear to be jumping around more, because they are trying to find a different place, so they seem like superfleas. I know what you both mean though, you are both right.

Sunsaver are you sure that miracle liquid wasn't Frontline plus?

 

[sunsaver]

I tried frontline plus, hartz, some prescription stuff from the vet, bombed the house with Raid, Bug-be-gone, Bengal, permethrin. I spread flea and tick powder everywhere. I tried them all. I don't know what this stuff is, but its oderless, and just a tiny bit goes a long way. This stuff is super deadly to fleas. The guy told me that "it hates fleas!" I think it's maybe the next generation of. something like frontline plus, and it hasn't been released to the public yet. It could also be something so nasty that it has been banned by the EPA. But it did'nt seem to hurt me or the cats at all. I'm so glad i have it if i ever get fleas again. I've never seen anything remotely as effective as this stuff. I put just one oz. in a gallon of water, and just lightly sprayed some of it on every floor. Fleas were gone completely in just a few hours. This secret poison is scary good at getting rid of fleas!

 

[Farmfresh]

I think salt makes an inhospitable environment, but doesn't KILL them. They appear to be jumping around more, because they are trying to find a different place, so they seem like superfleas. I know what you both mean though, you are both right.

Sunsaver are you sure that miracle liquid wasn't Frontline plus?

Exactly right SD. Salt breaks the life cycle. The little living bast turds just keep on a hoppin'. The best cure for them is very similar to what a friend of mine suggested for safely removing bugs from the garden - VACUUM and then vacuum and vacuum some more. Be sure to keep cleaning out the vacuum bag or canister. Placing it in a Ziplock bag and sending it to the garbage man works well as does putting some soapy water into the canister of the shop vac. Die bugs die!!

They also say fleas are attracted to light. They sell glue traps that you could place under a light bulb at night to catch some of them as well or even place the light above a cookie sheet filled with some soapy water.

 

[savingdogs]

Sunny, hot and clear here at Dizzy Dog Ranch.

I spent the morning going through some old paperwork about my former foster dogs, trying to find a few of the owners of the ones I wrote stories about. I realize there are more stories I haven't told. I thought I had gone through the best ones, but I have several missing still. I tried to contact about 10 adopter/owners and we'll see how many of them I find. Should be interesting. I've never had a reason to contact them before, except curiosity.

Things are pretty calm on the farm. The chickens don't like it when it hits over 80 degrees (I know, they are spoiled chickens) but to them that is extreme heat so they have almost all stopped laying. I am unfortunately thinking I have two more ROOS than I thought. I'm rather disappointed with the "sexing" they did on those EEs. Looks like 1/2 of my sexed pullets are male. I have to take a lot of photos for BYC and see what they all say. But pretty much all the pretty ones are looking male.

My two remaining ducks are fine, the silly female keeps trying to sit on (unfertilized) chicken eggs and avoids the drake, and isn't laying any on her own. I tried putting her with Don and nada pasa.

I think Nana the rabbit with probable cancer is going downhill. She is thinner and not moving around much. I think I'm gonna tell Hubby that this weekend (if not sooner) we should end it for her. She seems calm today so I don't feel it is urgent, but I think she must be starting to feel some pain. Or else why wouldn't she move more?
Junior, the one that I think has hay allergy, has a terrible looking coat all of a sudden. He was shedding heavily before. I think his allergy must be affecting more than his eye. I removed the hay from his cage and he is opposite where the goat feeder is now, not next to it, so he should be pretty protected from floating hay, but so far I don't see much improvement.

The baby rabbits are adorable now, of course.

I took the goats out for a goat walk today. They have chewed down the grass in the main field to about six inches all over so I think I need to free range them more for a few weeks and let that grass grow up. Emilee is such a love, when I take them for walks, if I sit down in a "good" spot for them to eat, she will stop eating and come over for snuggles. Our brush has grown so much, I couldn't even make it down the trail. There are too many nettles. Who was it that wanted nettles sent to them to start them growing?

We still have no foster dog. No one from border collie rescue contacted me, they must be really short handed or no one active in my area. I saw the all-breed rescue had a PB Border collie last week, so they are not giving them to any border collie rescue apparently. I'll have to try some other breed rescues. I have thought before about starting a lab rescue in the area, simply because there isn't an active group here and there are so darn many labs, lab mixes, etc., in the rescue market, and such a huge market for them. Labs generally make good family dogs and are easy to understand so they are nicer to work with than some breeds. I've known many great labs, more than I can count. But starting a rescue group isn't something I would attempt on my own anymore. I have other breeds that interest me however that I might contact....

 

[Javamama]

Ugh, sorry to hear about your roo problem. That stinks big time!

I hope Nana goes peacefully. Poor thing.

Guess what? My goats are in heat! I never would have noticed if Perdy hadn't had hay and stuff sticking to her hiney parts. I'm going to hold them off until late fall though. I think

 

[savingdogs]

Isn't that early? I thought manchas went into heat in the fall.....

Yea, I'm not happy about Nana, but such is life.

 

[Javamama]

I'm thinking it's about a month early for this area - last year mine were bred in mid-september. I am soooo not ready to think about it yet.

 

[savingdogs]

I want to breed mine in September and November for better due dates.

I've been working on my dog stories most of the day. It is hot here so it is nicer to work inside. I know, you guys would love to have 82 degrees.....but for us, this is hot. My chickens stopped laying eggs. And we don't have any AC....

A mosquito got inside and bit me about 10 times last night. It is keeping my immune system busy and I feel GREAT. Too bad I can't hear worth a darn today. But it goes along with the theory that my problem is an immune system thing. They were working on ways to keep the immune system busy, and it does seem that when something else is wrong, the meniere's dies down, I almost never have it along with anything else (one exception was during kidney stone attack....possibly the worst moments of my life!).

But if I have to itch and scratch to feel good, I guess I'll walk around without bug spray all the time. We are having a really bad year for mosquitos. The long, wet spring we had really gave them plenty of places to hatch. I noticed today that they are attracted to my goats. I hope goats cannot get diseases that way.

I have so many roos in this new group, I feel like calling the feed store and giving them a piece of my mind. Good thing I can't hear or I would have called and been impolite. It looks like THREE of my five are male. And of course I bought a male too, so I have four pretty cockerels. Yay me.
*waves chicken flag weakly*

 

[AL]

I always say I am going to volunteer for the Lab rescue. There is a huge one that does the whole state of Florida though and I laugh at their requirements.... they'd never let me adopt much less foster. So I foster horses instead (well, Buddy was my first and only foster.. he is still here )

 

[savingdogs]

Here is the picture of Violet as a puppy.

And that is her now....

And for good measure, this is Cora now at her new home....

This is Freddy and Tank, the two that got adopted to the same home at different times. Freddy is from the litter we bottle fed along with his four sisters.

Here is a better one of just Tank. I have an awesome one of them with the kids of the family, but don't want to put pictures of their children on the internet.

Here is the cat from The Story of Smoke, his name is Smokey now:

This was Thunder:

After Thunder died, I helped guide the family to adopt Sage, the shepherd in the photo, although he wasn't my foster.

I realize I didn't insert these pictures where they belong in the stories, but I'll have to go back and add them there later, but you all are probably not going back to reread the old pages in my journal so I put the pictures here.