Blizzard / Pond / Mastitis
Posted: Monday 12 July, 2021
Monday 5th July
Heavy rain showers and I had a bit of a duvet day. After the chores were done, of course. Blizz is lame again, off hind. Again. My guess is a recurrence of the abscess.
Wee Donald, our Poland cockerel, looks a bit over whelmed, so he’s gone to Tara for a wee while, until he’s bigger and more mature. He and Tilly, her Serama, have hit it off.
Tuesday 6th July
Showery and cooler today. Quick trip to Harbro and the supermarket for some bits and bobs.
Other than that, it was a pottering, tidy-uppy day. I brought Blizz and Rora in, vet tomorrow. It’s time Rora was weaned anyway – she’s eight months old and needs to start learning her lessons. Bruises imminent – for me.
.jpg)
Blizzard having breakfast in bed.
Dan strimmed the apiary and a man came to see us about our pond plans. However, he thinks he can improve the drainage – there appears to be a compacted pan (I thought sand was sand but apparently there are different kinds, and some can compact) that can be broken with the right machinery. This is good news.
Wednesday 7th July
Showery, very warm when the sun came out. I pulled some flowering brassicas for Blizzard and Rora, which they enjoyed.
There’s rhubarb, peas, courgettes, cucumber and calabrese ready in the veg garden. I picked and cooked rhubarb and picked, podded and froze peas. Knocked another two things off my list by cleaning out a freezer and trimming the dead bits of a pyracantha
The vet doesn’t think there’s any infection and that the problem is physical – part healed abscess, then the block that Nik put on has come off. He’s trimmed her and we’ll see how she goes.
Dan’s decided we should sort through our thousands of photos. This will be a great project – hopefully, we’ll still be speaking to each other by the end.
Thursday 8th July
Fab poppies in the fruit garden. Blackcurrants and gooseberries are nearly ready.
Poppies.
Rora is now in her own pen, but with her mum next to her, there’s not much bawling. Blizzard seems completely chilled.
.jpg)
Rora's pen.
Friday 9th July
Vet came back to Blizzard today and she’s still hirpling; block on and Metacam. And Blizzard’s Johne’s faecal test came back negative, so I’m going ahead with the health accreditation.
And now I’m looking for a bull.
Saturday 10th July
Unexpected heavy rain this morning so Dan got into the polytunnel to weed and tidy up the tomato plants, while I did some baking.
Blizzard seems a bit better. I spent some time with Rora, just getting her comfortable with being stroked – I’m trying to mimic the slow strokes her mother would give her when grooming. She was much calmer than I expected. Very pleased.
Rora's first handling.
The rain cleared at lunchtime so Dan went strimming. I fed the polytunnel and pots and cleared out some shrubs that we had in pots, which were now dead.
I need to waterproof my boots or I’m going to get trench foot.
Oh, and Donald’s back. He found his crow at Tara’s and they have neighbours.
Sunday 11th July
Just when it’s all going swimmingly…
The wet weather means there are loads of flies. So I fed and haltered Annie, Rosie and Ace to put spot-on on them. One quarter of Annie’s udder (off fore) was swollen. Summer mastitis can be very serious, so I brought her and Baby, her calf, in and called the vet. We stripped her out by hand – the milk was clear of blood, flakes and lumps – and the vet put some antibiotic in the quarter, gave her an injectable AB (which will be repeated for another four days) and some Metacam. Thankfully, she seems fine in herself – no raised temperature or dehydration – and the calf is bouncing. So fingers crossed for a full recovery.
Meanwhile, we applied Clik to all the sheep. Than I did a bit more work with Rora and managed to get a halter on her. Pleased with the progress.
Halter on.
We had slow-cooked Ryeland lamb shanks, with our own potatoes, calabrese and French beans for dinner. Not very summery, but utterly delicious.
Delicious dinner.
