[Photos: Top: May 7th, Lucy looks haggard; Middle: June 3rd, Janet displays pink skin; Bottom: June 7th, Lucy's condition improved]On Friday morning, May 22, Miss Lissamy Lucy made a new best friend: our local large animal veterinarian, Dr. Kinslow. When I had bedded all down for the evening on Thursday, an extremely hot and humid day, I noticed that little Janet was behaving sluggishly and choosing to lie in filth, and that the “rain rot” bare patched around her joints seemed swollen. After sunup I called the Kinslow Clinic (where we had taken April when she had pneumonia) and finally made the acquaintance of the much-lauded man himself.
Within the hour, Dr. Kinslow and his assistant were in our pasture, making a house call. I immediately took to the straight-talking gentleman, a self-described redneck—yet another in a line of rednecks I’ve come to cherish since moving here. I greatly appreciate that he speaks directly, without sugar-coating his words for his clients. (A trait valued by his repeat clients, if not those who’ve been, to paraphrase his words, chased away.) After considering the horses, our pasture (what little there is of it just now), and my answers to his questions his diagnosis was a photosensitivity resulting from Lucy’s ingestion of wild buttercups while on the front acres, passed along to little Janet through her milk. This sun sensitivity was compounded by some bacteria the gals had picked up.
Treatment involved intramuscular injections of the Pfizer ceftiofur sodium broad-spectrum antibiotic Naxcel for the filly beginning immediately and continuing daily for ten days. (The ten days quickly turned into five when I allowed the little glass vial to slip from my grasp and crash on the stones outside the pasture’s upper gate creating a spiderweb of cracks around the container. Only Dr. Kinslow’s quick thinking saved the remaining five doses from the rapidly-draining little vial.) Additionally, Janet was to be bathed every few days with the chlorhexidine disinfectant shampoo Novalsan and to have her exposed skin smeared daily with a Novalsan cream salve.
The dermatological issue addressed, Dr. Kinslow turned his attention to general fitness and diet. Lucy had yet to recover from birthing Janet two weeks earlier, attested to by her prominent hips and ribs. Probably the worst of the few remaining bales of the prior year’s hay—very dry and brittle by now—filled the pasture hayrack; Dr. Kinslow allowed that I could continue feeding that hay for bulk but that Lucy needed a daily flake of good alfalfa hay as well as 10 – 12 lbs. of the Mare & Foal textured feed I could get at Edward’s Feeds. In fact, by using Edward’s Feeds I could obtain coordinated nutrition for all of our animals because the good doctor works closely in concert with Timmy & Randy at Edward’s.
When asked if I could save money by buying medicines through Edward’s as well (after all, TSC and the Farmer’s Co-op carry medicines), the good doctor explained why I ought to buy medicines directly through him: each purchase I make through his clinic is noted on the record of the particular animal to be treated, providing him with a complete record of treatments whenever I might have a health question about any of the animals. How logical! Why had I never made that connection before?
When we discussed worming schedules for all of the animals, I was pleased that the good doctor preferred to worm based on the results of fecal inspections rather than on a calendar-based schedule. This will actually treat the condition without allowing parasites to build up a resistance to any wormer. I liked that I was encouraged to drop by the clinic any time with questions and concerns, and to get to know the staff well. However, I also foresaw a rising vet bill if I were to have the clinic run fecals on all of our animals (even spot-checking the goat herd). When I asked about being trained to run the fecals myself (after all I used to run fecals for small animals at the El Camino Veterinary Clinic in Palo Alto some thirty years ago), I was told that I’d have to get a microscope. Duh! (I know we have at least one somewhere around here, still packed of course.) We finally reached a level of agreement when I said that I would run tests in concert with the clinic’s tests until it was obvious that I could achieve the same results (although I’m not convinced that the good doctor believed I might actually be educable).
After the housecall, Lucy and Janet were relegated to the barn on sunny days for about a week. Eventually I managed to move Lucy and Janet across the driveway into the most heavily-treed pasture. There I place their food deep in the shade and replenish the hay any time I see them soaking in the sun
The farm is long overdue for building a good relationship with a veterinarian. That we managed to find a practice “just around the corner” (about 8 miles away, in town) that treats camelids as well as equines, canines, and caprines is quite a stroke of good luck. Since the good doctor’s visit, Miss Lissamy Lucy has regained most of the weight she lost and little Miss Janet has lost her rough scabby coat. The smooth skin she now sports ought to be recovered with fresh hair within about four weeks.
And, oh!, I almost forgot: the world’s most awesome neighbors were even amenable to managing the filly’s care so that we might get away that weekend! (Indeed, Tony is a champion shot-giver—far better than I, the wimp, am—-and Theresa is so gentle with the filly that Janet trusts her easily.)
As usual, two of my assignments from the good vet have yet to be completed: (1) to gather & deliver fecal samples from each of the dogs, horses & alpacas, and a representative sample from the goats, and (2) to learn about coccydiosis for the good of our goats and alpacas. Even so, I have remained fairly busy with farm management chores and have accomplished several other tasks since then. Most notably, every animal's diet has improved with the on-site blended feeds from Edward's Feed Mill & Hatchery. The textured Mare & Foal feed looks good enough that I've considered trying it for breakfast and the dogs try to get to it when they can. Dr. Kinslow had stated that feeding the pelletized composite feeds I had been using are a prescription for choking; Lucy, especially, likes her diet since the doctor's visit.
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