Tonight is the full moon. Give your monthly preventatives!
Note: If you have another way to remember to give your preventatives, that’s okay too! Do what works for you. I thought it might be fun for us to all give it together.
I’m writing this after returning from what I think will be our last college tour. We went to Blacksburg, VA to see Virginia Tech. I graduated there with a Bachelor of Science in 1991. They are a little bit further along with spring than we are. The mountains were so beautiful.
It is still cold here today here in Rhode Island and still feels like winter. The wind is biting but the flowers in front of the animal hospital are enjoying their southern exposure.
I made the fried pies I referred to in an earlier newsletter and amazingly they tasted like I remember from my childhood, the ones I remember eating at my Grandmother’s house when we arrived in the middle of the night. Pictures are below. I ordered dried apples from Apple Barn Cider Mill and used that biscuit recipe from the bag of White Lily flour.
The dried apples are mixed with water and cooked down on the stovetop. I added a little cinnamon. The biscuit dough is rolled out thin like pizza or cookie dough and then fried in the frying pan.
On the Friday before we left for Va Tech I arrived to find my mare’s left eye swollen. I sedated her and applied a stain to her eye to discover that she had a scratch on her cornea. We treat dog, cat, and horse eyes the same way. We don’t fool around with eye injuries. They are appointments that need to be seen the same day they occur. The cornea (the clear part of an animal’s eye) has layers like an onion has layers. Scratches need to heal from the bottom up so they don’t get a flap or a layer covering over part of the cornea that hasn’t healed yet. Infection can run under the “onion” layers and delay healing. My daughter and a friend applied antibiotic ointment to her eye three times a day over the weekend and when I arrived home today her ulcer had healed in just a few days. If you notice your dog or cat is squinting or rubbing their eyes, they should be seen right away to check the eye for scratches and start on a topical antibiotic so the eye injury doesn’t get infected and spread. One evening when I was riding I took the following picture, look carefully.
We are starting to see ticks now that the weather is getting warmer.
I will close with a picture of the largest cat (not fat) that I have ever treated. She is Soooo Cool!
Happy Spring (finally)!
Happy full moon gazing!
Remember your monthly heartworm and/or flea and tick prevention!