Half Full or Half Empty?

For those following the honey bee saga, there is good news and bad news.  The good news is that one of the hives is so full of bees it is bursting at the seems (especially when it is 90 degrees and 1000% humidity)...

The bees have been making honey recently, which I know because the air smells wonderfully of honey all around the hive.

If you look closely at the bees on the bottom board, they are lined up facing the entrance, butts in the air and beating their wings furiously. They do this to create a breeze inside the hive to cool it and to move air over the nectar they have gathered so that it will ripen into honey.

It wouldn't seem like a few bees fanning their wings could do much, but if you were to put your hand in front of the hive entrance, you would be able to feel the breeze they create.

 A very busy, very full, very beautiful hive.

I opened the hive very briefly, just to give them some more hive boxes so they will have more room to hang out and to (hopefully) make more honey in the fall Golden Rod bloom.

These bees are quiet, productive and easy to work with.

We've had a terribly hot summer and last weekend was just brutal, which is why everyone was hanging out on the porch all afternoon.

As for the other hive....it is dead.

I don't know what happened to it, the bees are simply gone.  They left behind two frames filled with fresh eggs and larva as well as the beginnings of their honey stores.  There is no sign of disease, they had fresh eggs so they could have tried to raise a new queen if the needed to and they had food.  But, there is not a single bee left in the hive, alive or dead.

And that is the way of beekeeping - joyous, vibrant, frenetically, beautifully alive.  Or not.  

The Fungus Among Us

Miss Drama Llama

Hello,

Here comes another llama update from me, FB!  However, first I must wish my buddy, Connor, happy birthday!  He is two, two, too good to be true!!! 

Okay, back to Caterina; she is doing spectacular!  

She goes in and out with the sheep, and I don’t even have to put the halter on her anymore, which makes her happy (me too).  She hangs out with the sheep and seems content and happy.  

On Tuesday, I had a genuine llama vet (she also does other animals) come out to the farm to check Caterina out.  She gave her Dectomax to prevent meningeal worm, and she also gave her a rabies shot.  Caterina was not thrilled, but she was pretty cooperative.  This worm shot has to be given on a monthly basis, so I am told, but I am not worried, as I am going to get Kris to give it to her!!  Isn’t that a brilliant plan?  

Right now, Caterina and the sheep are going outside for about three hours in the morning and four hours in the late afternoon.  I have 100 Freedom Ranger meat chickens, and they hang out in the barn and outside, as they please.  They are scheduled to be processed on September 17^th, and after they have left, I am going to let Caterina and the sheep go in and out of the barn whenever they like during the daytime.  

Right now, the bratty lambs try too hard to steal the chicks’ food and knock over their many water containers.  Then it will be cooler too, so I am hoping that they will be happy to spend a large portion of the day outside.  

I find it amazing how things can turn around.  Ten days ago, I never would have thought that Caterina would ever be happy here, but I think she is, and we are all happy to have her living here!

Two Good

The tiny, crazy, shark puppy that I brought home about five minutes ago turns two today.  That doesn't seem possible.  Connor has grown into a lovely dog though.  He is still super high energy, demanding and sensitive, but he is also watchful, thoughtful and eager to help.  He has grown into an outstanding farm dog.  He is good with all livestock, he has a very clear sense of boundaries never leaves my sight and he is an excellent guardian.

Connor is still not a cuddly dog.  At least, not during "working" hours.  When we finally go to bed, he becomes very snugly and thoroughly enjoys a good belly rub as his evening nightcap.

He and Bess are still best friends and they both get upset if they go too many days without seeing each other.

Connor occasionally helps out with livestock guardian duties and he and Bess make a formidable team.

The rest of the time, they spend honing their skills on each other.

Connor remains one of the most intriguing dogs I have known and raising him has been an interesting challenge, but he has grown into an awfully nice dog.  He is very insistent that the farm be run properly and he permits no slacking, which is just as it should be.  That is a Border Collie's job.

Happy birthday Connor, and yes, I know it's time to throw the frisbee.  Again.  

The Daily Regimen

I wrote about our big canker adventure in my last post.

I have been doing daily bandage changes/medicating since last Thursday and this is what things look like now....

The white stuff is a remnant of the powdered antibiotic. The crevice right in the center is the normal sulcus, although there is a bit of thrush in it.  That is being treated as well.

The curved crevice just to the left of the central sulcus is where the canker was.  The wedge shaped piece between the crevices is the healthy frog tissue.  It looks rather naked as it is normally covered by thick, callused frog.  Hopefully it will be again.

I have never treated canker before and there is no real data about what to expect from this treatment so I can't really say if this is progressing well or not.  The first couple of days after surgery, I could still detect some of the odd, musty odor that comes with canker, but I can't any longer.  I am taking that as a good sign.

Each day, I pack the area with the crushed antibiotic pills and I pack it down into those crevices as far as I can.

I cover this with gauze soaked in the acetone/benzoyl peroxide mixture and wrap the whole thing with elastikon.  I never use vetwrap for wrapping feet anymore as it won't stay on in the field unless you cover the coronary band as well.  I don't like to do that, it is not good for the foot.  Elastikon is a bit more expensive, but it stays where I put it and can take a lot more abuse.

Ben is still sound on the foot and doesn't seem to know there is any problem with it.  He is still feeling good and is very well behaved about the whole wrapping procedure.  He gives me very mournful, long-suffering looks when I start messing about with his foot again then stands stoically with a deep martyred air about him.  He generally gets a cookie when all is done though and the martyrdom miraculously disappears and all is forgiven.

The Canker

I've been meaning to write more about the canker issue in Ben's foot and answer some of the questions I've had about it.  At the same time, I have been trying desperately hard not to dwell on it and make myself crazy worrying about it.  I have already done everything it is humanly possible to do to get Ben the care he needs.  Writing about it and not dwelling on it have become mutually exclusive.  However, today was the day for the vet to come out so we could try to tackle this so it is time to address the issue on all fronts.

The most common question about canker is: what is it?

The answer to that is, despite what you may read, no one really knows.  When I was in college, studying equine science, I was taught that it was a type of cancer.  These days, many researchers believe it is a type of bacterial infection that triggers out-of-control growth.  The problem with this theory is that it does not respond to antibiotics and canker can't be reproduced even when the suspected bacteria are injected into a foot.

There is also an environmental component, although it is not hygiene (despite that often being cited, canker occurs in the most immaculate settings as well as dirty ones).  I had never heard of canker occurring in donkeys, but clearly it does.  Canker can occur in any horse, of any size, but it most often occurs in draft horses and is seen most frequently in the southeast US.   Because of this, it seems there has to be some kind of environmental factor, but no one knows what that is.  Ben did spend time in North Carolina before coming to New York, for what that is worth.

Fiona asked if canker is related to sarcoids and there is some evidence to support that, but again, no one yet knows.  There is speculation that both sarcoids and canker may be triggered by bovine papiloma virus.  There is an interesting article about the correlation between sarcoids, canker and BPV that can be found here along with a discussion about using chemotherapy to treat canker.  It has shown some success.

When I ever bother to think about canker (which was very rare up until Ben entered my life) I take a more practical view of the problem: if it looks like cancer, acts like cancer and has to be treated like cancer, maybe we should just call it cancer until someone figures out what the hell it really is.

The reality is that canker is a rare, mysterious, bizarre hoof disease that has semi-randomly plagued horses (and donkeys) for centuries and will likely continue to do.

The next question everyone asks is:  how do you treat it?

That too is a topic of great debate.  Fortunately, despite not knowing exactly what it is, there has been some progress on this front.  Canker often used to be a death sentence.  Canker still has a guarded prognosis, but the success rate for treating it is now about 70%.  What it really comes down to for successful treatment, is that the canker has to be gotten rid of entirely.  How that is done is (of course) a matter of controversy.

Just about every chemical you can imagine (and some I'm sure you haven't) has been used to try to treat canker.  Sometimes they work.  However, the miracle cure for one horse often has no effect whatsoever on another, making topical treatments a frustrating matter of guess work, anecdotal stories and hope.

The treatment that has the most consistent and highest success rate so far, is radical excision of the canker followed by topical treatment.  The most important aspect is to make sure that all of the canker has been removed with a clear margin all around it - just like cutting out a tumor.

There are various protocols for this as well.  The one with the highest documented success rate involves excision followed by cryo or laser therapy to kill any missed cells.  That is then followed by daily topical application of a drug (metronidazole) that is both an antibiotic and anti-protozoal combined with benzoyl peroxide (the acne medicine) mixed in acetone.  It is a bizarre combination that certainly covers all the bases.  It is hard to imagine a bacteria, fungus or protozoa that would survive this combined onslaught.  The full protocol can be found at: 
http://www.equipodiatry.com/canker1.htm 

Like cancer, early detection greatly increases the likelihood of successful treatment.  Unfortunately, canker often hides under healthy seeming tissue and is usually only discovered when the animal shows lameness.  By the time this happens, the canker has grown large enough to invade the inner structures of the hoof.  Even if successfully excised and treated, it may have caused too much damage for the animal to recover.

Maybe it is fate, destiny, luck or a guardian angel that brought Ben to the home of a true hoof nerd because I did catch it fairly early.  Hopefully, it will make a difference.  

On first acquaintance, Ben's foot looked very normal with the exception of a small, narrow crevice in the center of the frog.  It looked exactly like sulcus thrush, which is what I assumed it was when I first saw it.  

Ben had a complete veterinary checkup two days before coming to my house, he is not lame and he has always had regular farrier care.  I don't hold the previous owner responsible for this as he had no way of knowing it existed.  I certainly missed it until I took a knife to the foot.  

I do think the previous farrier should have at least seen that there was some kind of issue, but I know the farrier in question and this is just out of his depth.  He does a fair job on healthy feet, but just does not have the skills to deal with odd problems like this.  I could rage against that, but there is no point.  He is what he is.  As are we all.  

My first real hint that something was seriously wrong came when I used my hoof knife to open that sulcus crack up a bit to expose the area to air.  This is what I found....

That wet, grey, nasty looking area right in the top center of the hoof is canker in it's oozing, smelly, gross state.

Be warned, the pictures get more gross from here.

The canker is a fleshy, damp growth that bleeds profusely with the tiniest of scratch.

It has a very odd, musty, fungal sort of smell.

At this point, I trimmed Ben's feet and wrapped the affected hoof with a liberal dose of Magic Cushion, which is my go-to cure-all for hoof problems.  I love that stuff.

A week later, I removed the bandage and you can get a much clearer picture of the canker itself.  The Magic Cushion cleaned up the nasty, grey ooze and now you can see the white canker growing in the center of the frog.  There is a small amount of blood because I just barely scraped it with my knife.

By the time the vet got here yesterday, I had had the foot wrapped with the Magic Cushion for two weeks and the canker had actually shrunk because, hey, it's magic.  I am even more fond of Magic Cushion now.  Although, I will in no way say that this topical treatment will work on all cankers because it helped on this one.  I am a big fan of Magic Cushion, but it would be remiss of me to say it will work on every case.  It would certainly be worth trying, but remember what I said earlier about topical treatments either working or not with no obvious rhyme or reason.

Despite some progress with the Magic Cushion, we proceeded with the excision and cryo-therapy.  Ben was sedated, given a nerve block to the foot and a tourniquet was wrapped tightly just above the hoof because cankers bleed like crazy. I don't have many photos as I was holding the foot and wielding the hoof knife, but this was taken after we cut out the canker and done the cryo treatment. The white is actually frost from the freeze spray.

This was followed by application of the crushed metronidazole pills.  That was covered by gauze soaked in the benzoyl peroxide/acetone mixture and the whole wrapped in a pressure bandage.  As long as the weather stays clear and the ground dry, Ben does not have to be locked in.  The foot has to stay bandaged and dry, but exercise is a vital part of healthy hoof growth and he is better off outside.  He is still not lame and is, in fact, feeling quite well and full of himself.

From here, I will be doing daily bandage changes to medicate the foot.  If we start to see healthy tissue taking over, I will continue the medication for one-two weeks and then switch back to the Magic Cushion until the area is completely healed.  If that happens, then we can put this whole crazy episode behind us and ride into the sunset.

If the canker comes back.........?

Drama Queens

Hello,

Yet another llama update from me, FB! This morning, I let Caterina outside again, and this time I made sure that the perimeter fence in the area where I had her was hot. See, the other day when I lost her, the cows were on the hayfield, and I had fixed the fence so that it was only hot in that section to make it super secure, as the hayfield is adjacent to the road. Anyway, although Caterina did not stay with the sheep, she stayed inside the fence!!! Great improvement! 

I was able to go get her at about noon and put her back in the barn with the sheep during the hot part of the day. Then this afternoon at five o’clock, I let Caterina outside with the sheep again, and wonders of wonders, she grazed for three hours right alongside of the sheep!!! Oh happy day!! Tonight, they are all safely in the barn resting. 

Now, to answer Shelley’s question about how llamas and livestock guardian dogs protect livestock from predators….Well different livestock guardian dog breeds have different methods, as do, of course, individual dogs. Bess is a Maremma, and Maremmas mostly just try to protect through bluffing! They bark in a ferocious manner, and if they see a predator, their ruff sticks up like a lion’s mane, and they charge the predator. They look very big and scary, and usually that will be enough to make the predator run away. Supposedly, if push comes to shove, they will escalate their tactics as needed, even killing predators. 

Of course, Bess is not fully mature yet, and I don’t know if she would really attack a coyote, although she is certainly good at looking particularly fierce. All I care about is that she does not get hurt because I love her!!!!!! 

Now again with llamas, their tactics can differ with different llamas, as I understand it. What I notice about Caterina is that she always seems to be on red alert and is constantly scanning around for anything unusual. I think that her large size (she is taller than me) and unusual appearance would be enough to terrify a coyote, at least I hope it would be. Llamas most likely would not be effective in protecting the sheep against a pack of dogs or coyotes, but I feel that that is highly unlikely to happen in the daytime. I have only seen single coyotes in the day. 

Apparently, some super guard llamas will charge at coyotes and even try to stomp them. Good guard llamas will also get between the predator and the sheep. I think Caterina is going to be great at protecting my sheep while they are grazing during the day, and Bess will continue to let all predators know that they better stay away from our farm. Of course, if you asked the border collies to take care of security, they would install land mines around the perimeter and hire a bunch of guys to patrol the farm with assault rifles! Therefore, I am going to keep the border collies in charge of herding and take the more peaceful approach!