hastyreply

When I was growing up one of the ranchers had a border collie who'd follow us home. He would retrieve rocks - same one we threw in- from the bottom of the creek. Creek was 3-4 ft deep. He was really amazing.

Is it just the ALT thats out of wack? There should be other ones as well, like AST. A real lab will do a dilution to get the result if it's high out of lineity. Hang in there.

When I first went to work for a vet back in 1988 one of the cases he had was a yearling who'd mistepped and broken her front leg. We tried fixing it but didn't have the technology they have today. This horse was just running and playing in the field. On a horse board, an number of people have spoken of horses with fused joints. I don't think any of their injuries occured on the track. Because these surgeries were first down on racehorses - whose owners could afford the high costs- the techniques have been perfected and refined so that they are availble to people who love their horses but don't have unlimited funds to spend.

Horses like Barbaro wouldn't even exist if it weren't for horse racing. There would be no reason to breed them. I've had horses for over 45 years. While none of them have done much of note except make me and my family happy, they are decended from horses like Barbaro (going back far enough) and they benefit from the progress in vet care/animal health made possible from the finacing and research provided by the horse racing industry and the other horse industries that make money. I think there is abuse going on in horse racing but no more than anywhere else, in the horse or dog world. Doing that sort of surgery on Barbaro was a giant leap forward in learning how to deal with injuries like that. They don't just happen to race horses. The more it's done the more affordable it becomes and new methods are developed that one day will save my horse or yours.

The advice my husband gave one of the Doctors he works with, who'd just bought some ranch land was: When asked should he get cattle for it, my husband told him to go work cattle one weekend with one of the other Docs who had cattle and see how he liked it. He did that, didn't like it and leased his land out. So maybe if you can go help someone work their sheep one weekend and see just what is involved that'll help you out.

SO maybe someone was celebrating the Queen's birthday aday late. Or the Prince had some left over fireworks so set them off in your neighborhood.

When you go to A&M you need to have a limit set in your mind. They tend to want to do whatever they can because they are a teaching/learning facility. They can get carried away with the idea of learning at your expense. Just because they are A&M doesn't make them gods (this from an Aggie). There are some very good vets in the Houston area that can give you just as good results. Several times in my life I've had to make decisions as to the care of my animals on a monetary bases. What was best for my family at the time. I didn't always like them but I did know I had to put my family first. Last year my little border collie Maggie ruptured a disc in her back when she hit a pole while running full out after a ball. She was paralysed. I had surgery done on her and she slowly recovered. She will never be the same and her life has definitely been shorten. She has good days and not so good days but she doesn't seem to be in pain. I could restrict her a lot more than I do but I'd rather her be happy for a shorter while than unhappy for a longer one. My husband was not thrill at the amount I spent. I'm not sure he even knows the exact amount but I knew it wouldn't hurt us finacially so I did it. She's my little buddy and she keeps me company. She misses being able to herd and do other active things. It's been hard for her not to be "the one who gets to go and do everything dog" anymore. She's only just now turning 7 so she wasn't ready for the retired life. I know her time is limited, I won't put her through more surgeries, so I enjoy her every day I have her. To me the MRI is a confirmatory sort of test. The x-rays give a pretty good idea of what's going on if they didn't then maybe. They did a myelogram on Maggie but that was to pinpoint for surgery. If doing surgery is not a viable option. In many cases it will only add months to his life. I would focus on what you can do to treat his symptoms, to keep him comfortable and give him the best quality of life for the remander of his life.

Did anyone mention the joys of going into a public restroom with your dog and having them crawl under the stalls to visit the other people who are there. Or having other visitors poke their nose under my stall partition. Of course I have seen children do the same thing.

Wendy is one of the bouvs I was speaking of. I've watched Karen come along way with her. I think the border collie way of herding has become the expected norm esp in the "show world". In the practical world of everyday getting it done I think many of these other breeds are still useful and perfered by their original owners.

Bouviers are herding dogs not guard dogs. I have some friends who herd with some nice ones. They are very fun to watch. Sheep learn quick not to mess with the big black dogs. They do it all a relaxed pace. Reindeer are herded with dogs but they are more gatherer type dogs. They are from the spitz family. In Norway it's called a Nowegian Buhund.They have other names in Sweden and Finland FYI Norwegian Elkhounds are actually moose herding dogs. Their name is really Elghund. Elg is moose in norwegian. They track, gather and hold the moose for the hunters. All the spitz breeds that herd do it with a lot of barking. Not silent like the border collie. The border collie's style of herding is really pretty unique.

One of myhorses will chase the sheep till they are out of the pasture. It's like she thinks she's a border collie. She'll get upset seeing the out grazing in the yard. I have friend whose sheep run with her horses and they sheep will go hide under the horses. Can make it tricky for the dogs to bring the sheep in because they have to manuver them out from under and away from the horses.

I'm not having much luck selling his daddy and uncle for eating. Noone around here that I can find eats mutton/lamb. I certainly don't. I barely eat beef. I had someone stop and ask about them about 6 months ago but I didn't get their name. But I figured I'd just leave him be and cull him later.

Ok, got someone to help me catch the little rascal. (I have an injured shoulder so can't grab lambs to easily). So on closer examination, he appears to have normal size testes, but his scrotum is full of fluid. Like a hydrocoel in people. It's not closed off from the abdominal wall like most scrotums. I didn't band him because I thought it might be to dangerous. ANY suggestions? He's not worth taking to the vet.

Well it is in the upper 90's here so it's hot out. I am only going by what I can observe when I'm watching them.

These are 6 weeks old now and the one has larger, 4inch long testes. The other's are still the same size they were at birth. I know that with cattle the way their placenta's are you can have "cross hormonal contamination" between different sexed calves. Usually it's the female who will have an incomplete reproduction tract due to the heavy influence of testosterone from the male twin. I don't remember this being the same with sheep but must admitt it's been 30 years and I didn't much pay attention to the sheep stuff back then. Someone said it might be breed related. These are something of a mismash of breeds. One of the sires is half suffolk and half katadin(maybe a cross), the other ram is by the same katadin(cross?) out of a texel cross ewe. Just thought it was interesting.