Friday, July 22

Friday, July 22nd ...Hard Lesson Abound For Us Here On The Farm......

AGAIN......

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Yesterday, another hard learned lesson... Another loss of a bunny, but not from the heat...for we have air conditioned the bunny brothel. Now it’s a fly problem! Cool in there and the flies loving it, they came through the cracks in the wall to escape the outside heat. We have been battling the problem, but the lesson yesterday, came with a realization that we weren’t aggressive enough. Lucy obviously go wet on her back by going under the water bottle and her fiber which was shearing length (3”) got wet and a fly laid eggs in it, next to her skin.
We never knew and you could not see a thing. How long a go this might have happened, but yesterday she was a bit lethargic in the morning and since she was so plump...and her fiber so luxurious...we decided to shear her and give her added relief from the heat...even though it is air conditioned in there and stays at 75° to 80° all the time. Later, when we began shearing, we took long luscious fiber from her neck and back area. Then suddenly, I ran into dark brown, wet fiber near her lower back and like out of a horror movie, maggots began pouring from her skin and fiber. Completely concealed beneath her coat, she was raw on the rear portion of her rump and terribly infested with maggots. She quickly became more lethargic so we called the Vet to see what he wanted to do. He said to bring her in immediately, but she died before we could get her to the vet. I knew that bunnies were very fragile, but was unaware that they could have such an infestation without our seeing or knowing anything was wrong until it is almost always too late.
Now we have taken a vigilant attack action toward the flies, placing more sticky strips up and placing a container of Golden Malrin granules in a closed container with a small hole in the lid. We will also close the cracks in the wall with battens as soon as the heat breaks a little.
We have declined our usual Friday trip to Vermont and northern New York, due to the heat. We fear we will have a small turnout for the market tomorrow anyway, and there is no reason to buy a bunch of cheese we will be stuck with anyway. We will save around $45.00 To $50.00 in gas...right up front too. Instead, we will deliver an exercise machine that belongs to Isabelle and take her out to lunch somewhere cool. After that, we’ll return home and get ready for our company which will arrive sometime this afternoon or evening from Long Island.
Last evening after enjoying sweet corn with our friend Judy, putting the animals in for the night and Judy left for home, Vick and I got into the swimming pool for a half hour. Upon exiting there, we went into the bathroom and crawled into the hot tub and lounged for 15 minutes in the 100° bubbling water, before retiring to the bedroom...a decent ending to an otherwise miserable, hot, sad day here on the farm.



040984 Cluckin' "A" Critter Farm, LLC

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