Monday, May 05, 2014

Interesting day

I spent my day off castrating stallions. (The vet castrated, I was just an assistant.)  Wow, what a tense job that can be.  Especially with older stallions who are very concerned about where the mares are, and don't get much handling. These guys will be better off now though.

I also spent my day nauseated, and haven't stepped out of the house since I got home.  I'll have to go feed the hayburners at some point, but I'm not quite ready for that yet.

(Whining warning)  I need a few more days in the week.  I'm sick of being too busy.  I lost my whole weekend this week, and it looks like next weekend is quickly disappearing in mother's day and work plans.  I am going to make time tomorrow.  I have a trail ride planned for next week and I have to get more than 2 rides in the round pen before I tackle the trail.  I wonder if Jasper would let me use clippers on his mane too.  Hmm, might have to get some really super yummy treats and try that.

In regards to the fly spray issue I brought up last time, I decided to buy chemical fly spray again because I know it works and I don't have to order it online.  I like Endure or Tri-Tec.  Some of the cheaper sprays seem to attract bugs.  I have tried feeding apple cider vinegar as well.  It didn't make a difference.  I'm not comfortable with feed through fly products.  It feels bad enough spraying them with pesticide, I don't want to feed it to them.

Speaking of pests - the ticks have been driving me crazy!  My dogs are very fluffy.  They have a very dense, fine undercoat.  I search them all over (in the guise of a thorough petting) for ticks at least twice a day.  I put Frontline on them, and it does help, but isn't really a cure-all.  With my past dogs Frontline has worked really well, but not with my fluffy Aussies.  I think the fine undercoat wicks up the stuff and it doesn't spread on the skin like it should.  Winston, the hairless wonder (not really, he sheds more than the Aussies) doesn't spend much time running free and has yet to get a tick this year. 

Anyway, I'm just babbling to pass the time.  No interesting news to impart.  Just a bit of enforced cabin fever, even though it's not winter anymore.  I'm getting outside tomorrow, no matter what!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

If it makes you feel even a little bit better....everyone in my house was sick most of the weekend. Plus a lot of people I know are sick right now too.

Still sucks though

Kara said...

Have you tried the frontline spray?

Andrea -Mustang Saga said...

I didn't know there was a Frontline spray. I'll have to look into that!

froglander said...

Have you ever tried Preventic collars? When we found a few ticks on our little dog a few years back (one of those ticks we didn't find soon enough and he ended up with Erlichia but is fine) we did a bunch of reading on tick prevention and those collars came up as the most suggested thing.

Andrea -Mustang Saga said...

I haven't tried any type of collar. You ask the doctors I work with, and any type of collar is only good for cutting up and putting in your vacuum bag. I did talk to one of our drug reps about them, and they sounded good. So I'm not sure if our doctors are prejudiced from so many years of useless and cheap tick collars, or if they really aren't much good. I also don't like the idea of a tick collar on my dogs, but maybe just because I've never had one. I don't keep collars on the fluffy dogs at all. Just don't need to, unless we go somewhere. If I keep finding a lot of ticks on them (haven't found any in a few days) I'll have to come up with something.