Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

A busy day on the holding that included a visit from the vet!! It was all a lot drier (until the end of the day) so once again we opened the pop-hole for the poultry and opened all doors for the goats and sheep. The alpacas were on guard duty as usual and as the sun shone we managed to get ALL the birds to venture into the paddock and enjoy the warmth. Some coped better than others - we do have a few that have become very 'barn-bound' and don't really go out much at all, some of these had to be picked up and put through the pop-hole!! The rain spat a bit and then by corn time the hail and sleet began again but as the photo shows, it had been lovely and the birds did have a good time.
We had to call the vet for Cheddar (right hand goat below), Camilla (our female 'slate' coloured turkey), as well as a couple of our dogs. Cheddar had a swollen bottom eye lid which fortunately turned out to be simply caused by a small infected spot, possibly the result of a knock or bang. In the vet's words: 'the eye itself is totally unaffected as we have caught the swelling early'. This shows how crucial it is to check your animals regularly: the vet gave the eye a quick clean and a squirt of antibiotic cream (to be continued for a few more days) and hopefully now all should be well.
Camilla has a rattily chest so we had to check the dosage of antibiotic with the vet. We popped some apple cider vinegar in the poultry water initially: mentioned before as a great tonic for the birds! We will then see how Camilla is in a day or so - we don't want to give her antibiotics if we don't have to. It is better for her if her own immune system plus the apple cider vinegar can fight the germs. Dogs okay apart from sore ears for which we have some antibiotics.
Otherwise all is well although more rain and wind is forecast so a few days inside might now be on the cards!! Just for a change!!