Blog Posts to Go Biweekly

To all who enjoy reading my posts, which are mostly about animals. I am working on a book right now, and posting every week has and is taking away from my writing. I will post every other week now (Biweekly). Upcoming posts will include - Chicken Fever, Baby Peeps 101, Animals with Disabilities, Demodectic Mange, Honeybee Keeping, and more. Please come back next week for a new post. Thank you for understanding and come back.

Photo by adamr www.freedigitalphotos.net

Skunks 101

How many of you have noticed more skunks dead along side the roads in February? They are out roaming more, looking for their mate, but they have poor vision, only able to see what is in front of them. This is why they don't see vehicles coming toward them when they are trying to cross a road.

(With Valentine's Day and mating season in February, this is a reason you see skunks on Valentine cards.)

The gestation period is seven to ten weeks, with kits born in May. There can be two to ten kits born in a litter. Like puppies and kittens, kits are born toothless and blind. A kit is several weeks old before its eyes open. It is just before their eyes open that their spraying ability develops. The kits stay with their momma until fall.

In the United States, there are four different kinds of skunks. The two main skunks people see are the spotted and striped ones. There are also hood and hog-nose skunks. No two skunks are marked exactly alike. They are each unique just like snowflakes.

Skunks are non-aggressive, and work hard to stay out of harms way. If a skunk feels threatened, it will stomp its feet, raise its tail, and lurch its back. If you see any of these signs, it would be best to back away quietly.

Skunks love to eat bugs, many of which are pest to humans, so they can be beneficial to have around. They also eat plant material, fruits, mice, and eggs from ground nesting birds.

Lastly, another name for a skunk is polecat. That's it for Skunks 101.

Silver Laced Wyandotte Chicken

Living on a small farm with farm animals means there is life, but along with life there can be death. This past week the Midwest has experienced extremely cold temperatures, with some days in the single digits. Winds have been blowing the temps below zero, as far as wind chill factor.

Golden Laced Wyandotte Hen
Photo by Tracey R. Simmons 2016

 The Hens Nest Inn has a small door for the hens. Whenever I close that door, I go inside the fenced pen and pull open the bigger door to count my girls. I got six chicks – the minimum sold; and fortunately, all six grew into beautiful Silver Laced and Golden Laced Wyandotte hens. On Tuesday, I only counted five. I thought maybe one was sitting in one of two nest boxes, but no.

Rolling the big door closed so the girls wouldn’t get too chilled, I looked under the Inn, since it is up on legs that are up on blocks. This design allowed me to put a rectangular sandbox underneath with dusting materials in it – dry sand, dirt, and some wood ashes. In the summer, this area allows the girls to get out of the sun. When there is snow on the ground, this is a snow free zone for the girls to walk around in. 

"The Hens Nest Inn"
(Chicken House)
Photo by Tracey R. Simmons 2016

When I looked, there in the dusting box laid my hen. She was gone. This caused me to remember an event that occurred when I was eight or nine and lived on a small farm for three years. Our farm was surrounded by a couple of housing editions and an apartment complex, all of which had been pastures just a few years before. For me it was paradise.

Our farm was a place for horses and a multitude of cats that found their way to our barn. Grandpa got us a Holstein (black and white) calf, which had to be fed from a big bottle. I remember trying to hanging onto that bottle with both hands and arms wrapped around it as “Duke” sucked away, nearly pulling me off my feet and the bottle away from me. Grandpa had gotten us another calf – a brown and white one. I don’t remember the breed type, but he was mean, and we didn’t mess with him. My siblings and I did fall in love with Duke, though.

As time past and Duke grew, he was so tame that we could stick a thumb into his mouth and he would follow us around. One day, both calves got out, but we didn’t know it. With Dad’s business on the main level of our house, he was home when a deputy sheriff came to ask if we owned some calves, which were down the road tromping through the large cemetery.

Dad left, taking one lead line with him to the cemetery. It went around the brown and white calf’s neck to lead him home. It was easier to bring Duke home. He didn’t need a lead line. He walked home following Dad while sucking his “pacifier” – Dad’s thumb.

As time past, the calves were taken to the butcher to be made into meat. Our family’s finances were not great, so we didn’t have steaks – a luxury food item, prior to having the calves. After the calves left, any kind of beef that was sat on the table in front of my siblings and I for supper – be it hamburgers, chuck roasts, and now steaks, was refused. We didn’t care about the brown and white - nameless calf, but we had loved our Duke and we sure weren’t going to take the chance of eating him!

We just hadn’t been raised from the beginning of our lives to take care of farm animals and then send them off to be made into meat for our meals. We never raised any other animals for meat, nor did farm life last for us, although I wanted it too as a child.

Silver Lace Wyandotte Hen
Photo by Tracey R. Simmons 2016

Fast forward to the present day and back on a small farm, not as grand, and without a huge wooden barn, but it's a place in the country - a dream come true. It's a "Little Bit of Paradise." There’s still the dead chicken situation. Since this is not a typical farm where farm animals are raised for meat, I was not going to make chicken noodle soup out of her or homemade chiken nuggets. She was a pet who gave great eggs. She needed to be buried, but how can that be done when the ground is frozen? Well for now, she is frozen by Mother Earth and laying in the "Chick Condo" - the small summer chicken house where predators can’t get to her. Hopefullty, she can be buried soon.

Deaf Dog Hope and EPI

Hope was adopted a few days after Christmas 2013. Hope is a mostly white, Border collie husky mix who was born deaf. She gave hope on a visit to a nearby humane society while dealing with our black lab – Worf’s hospice care, which explains her name. Ten and a half months later, Hope was extremely sick with severe, gag a maggot smelling diarrhea. First, she was diagnosed with giardia, a parasite that humans can get, and in which can be transmitted through mud puddles and even municipal water. Three rounds of medications and extra food did nothing to stop the diarrhea and quick weight loss.

Another veterinarian became involved along with another test that revealed a microscopic parasite called cryptosporidium, which is worse than giardia. Both of these parasites are zoonosis – a disease that can be transmitted from animals to humans. More medications, various food recipes tried, and extra food were given to Hope in vain.

Hope while so sick.
Photo By Tracey R. Simmons 2015

Endless days and nights of constant diarrhea took its toll. I felt like I was losing the dog who had given so much hope over the loss of another beloved dog. Hope looked like a dog being neglected through starvation as her weight continued to slip away.

 A third veterinarian was consulted who said Hope’s immune system might be compromised by something which was not allowing the medications to work. Hope’s adoption paperwork showed she’d tested positive for ehrlichia, a disease caused by ticks. The vet also thought there might be a disease connected to Hope being part Border collie, but this could only be determine with another test, a test which cost several hundreds of dollars, and which had to be sent to a lab at Texas A&M University.

On Friday, February 13, 2015, faced with more medical bills, the information I read on the Internet about ehrlichia, the possible time span Hope had ehrlichia without treatment and that end result, there seemed little reason to continue fighting a battle which appeared already lost. Fighting tears and putting on a false front so the children and adults I worked with wouldn’t know, I dealt with the dread of putting down a young beautiful dog, who already had strikes against her being born deaf…

…It has nearly been a year since that fateful and dread filled day. After finding out that ehrlichia can show up positive in a dog for two years even after successful treatment, I opted to have the expensive blood and stool test sent to Texas A&M. In the mean time, I asked if Hope could be started on the enzymes for the disease Hope was being tested for just in case. On February 14, Hope’s battle with diarrhea for more than three months finally ended. She had a solid stool, the best Valentine’s present I could have gotten.

What was the diagnosis? EPI which is Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency. It means the pancreas is not working properly to release enzymes the body needs to digest food and absorb the nutrients within the food. This caused the severe diarrhea, which contain undigested food, causing Hope’s body to starve and appear very anorexic despite being feed extra food. The lack of proper nourishment, along with the lack of nutrients can cause organs to fail. If left untreated, a dog suffers greatly and would die a painful death.

EPI is a disease not all veterinarians know about, and it’s frequently misdiagnosed. It can be very frustrating to the affected dog’s human, who takes the dog from vet to vet trying desperately to help the dog. (In rare cases, cats can have EPI too.) It is a disease, which can show up at anytime in a dog’s life - from puppy-hood to older adult. German Shepherds use to be the most affected breed, with collies next. Now it is showing up in mixed breeds.

Hope’s symptoms:

·      * Constant diarrhea

·      * Extremely smelly gas

·      * Rumbling sounds in her abdomen

·      * Severe weigh loss despite extra food being given

·      * Endless hunger

·      *  Coprophagia (eating feces)

·      *  Pica – eating sticks, licking dust, etc.

·      * Dull, dry coat

Hope could have EPI because of being part Border collie, but she may have it because the  parasite -cryptosporidium may have damaged her pancreas. We will never know the cause, but after five months, Hope’s weight was back to her adoptive weight.

The blood test sent to Texas was called TLI. Hope’s blood was drawn after fasting for twelve hours. Healthy dogs should have numbers from 5.7 to 45.2. Hope’s number was 1.4.

With Hope having EPI, porcine pancreatic enzymes must be mixed into her food, which is wetted down and allowed to sit at room temperature for at least twenty minutes. I made the mistake of not waiting the full twenty minutes, which caused Hope to have diarrhea in the middle of the night. Lesson learned! She’s also on a grain-free diet, with low carbohydrates.

Pippin & Hope, who is so much healthier.
Photo by Tracey R. Simmons 2015

The enzymes contain lipase, which helps digest fats & oils, protease, which digests proteins, and amylase, which digests carbohydrates. I get mine through EnzymeDiane, at about half the cost of the prescription enzymes, and have had better results. Go to her website and read, because she is not out there like the drug companies who want to line their pockets with lots of cash, she just wants to save dogs who might otherwise be put down. She has helped me and Hope with this life long financial expense, and I am grateful!

If you have a dog who has symptoms like Hope’s and aren’t getting any answers, have the dog (or cat) test for EPI.

For more information about EPI, a very helpful website is:

 EPI4Dogs website

Enzyme Diane's website