Farm Hand

First of all, I did want to apologize for not being as up-to-date on my posts as I have been in the past. It has been one rough semester for me, and while I post when I can, it's nowhere near what I'd like to!

Some updates about the new job:

I went on Saturday to follow around the current farm hand for feeding time and see what needed to be done. My duties are basically to feed and water the cows, hogs, sheep and poultry (both broilers and layers), gather eggs, and (surprise, surprise) scoop poop. Builds character I have heard. I certainly don't mind it, especially since right now there are tons of baby animals on the farm! They have about 20 head of cattle, 7 hogs (and 9 piglets!), probably 100 chickens and tons of sheep, as well as two sheep dogs, and two barn cats. The entire farm isn't "organic" but it is sustainable; they do everything as close to organic as they can while still being able to make some money. Basically, they buy non-organic hay because their neighbor sells hay and it's cheaper and easier. The farm is absolutely beautiful, and at the top barn you get a gorgeous view of the valley and the nearby horse stables of the farm one over. The animals are taken care of really well (besides the minimal vaccines and vet work, which I'm not a fan of, but it's not my place), have tons of space and pens are cleaned daily. Even the hogs are allowed to nurse their piglets freely (which unfortunately results in squished piglets).  I'm excited to be there, even if it is only on a farm hand capacity. We did find the first dead lamb of the season; no visible marks, but just dead in the paddock. The main sheep dog was really depressed about it, and wouldn't even look at her food. She is a Great Pyrenees, and the sweetest thing I have met. The other farm dog is a 8-month old mixed-breed puppy with no manners who jumped all over me and was absolutely ridiculous. We will have to have some talks because I hate being jumped on by huge obnoxious animals, especially when it results in my butt landing in sheep poop.

I start next weekend for my first full-time day, and then skip a week because I am going to VMRCVM's Open House! Taking whoever wants to go from the club, and I think my mother is going to go down with us/drive us since she wants to go too.

This morning we moved my horses back to my mom's (quite a feat). I will miss them, but not the added responsibilities of stall muckings, getting feed and shavings, and scrubbing out the water tubs! They have a much larger pasture there and acres to run in and have a grand ole time. They certainly were happy when we dropped them off!

Shadowing this weekend was pretty busy. There is some dissension in the ranks between the admin and the staff, which made me feel kinda uncomfortable, but I still enjoyed myself. We saw a strange lump on a dog's toe (possibly a bone infection), diagnosed a huge mass in a very sweet, young dog, patched up two dog-bite victims (both of the same breed, ironically).  Saw a small puppy who ingested a couple pills of mucinex and was extremely drunk-acting. And euthanized an old, old cat.

Similar to the toe; our dog was missing it's complete claw as well (and had been for months): (From brooklynvetgroup.com)

~Melissa