Lambing; Leap year!

Lambing with my friends Petal + Rose tonight, they've never been Lambing before so hope I was a good teacher! :P

We had a single ewe that had been lambing for an hour, gave her calcium and her cervix wouldn't open. In the end it had been 4 hours and the farmer said we just had to force her cervix open. He had to come out + sort her out.

I spoke to the Vet who does our Equine lectures and asked about pain killers for problem lambings and for prolapses.
She said whenever she has a problem lambing she gives an epidural as pain killer but she could give the farmer some local anaesthetic to use for the sheep. There are none painkillers specifically for sheep so they're all used off-licence. Will have a word with the farmer!

Lamb count: 46 + 7 = 53

Dissection: Mare Reproductive Tract

Last semester we dissected a Mare's reproductive tract, which was interesting because she was on oestrus.
As with all the dissections, we had to write it up but this time we couldn't just use the photos, we had to draw what we saw in the dissections and put them in the assignment ... was actually quite hard to draw them so had to try + trace it, esp in the proper scientific style! Looking at them now I think they look quite good once they were scanned in, didn't think so at the time!

So we started off with the tract, cut away the fat and bits we didn't need and got:

Dissected the vulva and vagina distally to see the interior + the cervix which is a folded smooth muscle with an interior cervical canal down the middle!

Dissected Mare reproductive tract:

 Cervix:

Then, moving proximally (up!) we found the oviducts and the utero-tubal junction + infundibulum:

Then we get to the ovaries, there were 2, one in oestrus and one in anoestrus.

So first the outside of the ovary:

Then a cross section of an ovary in oestrus (reproductively active mare) - you can see the follicles and corpus luteum:

BHWT Rehoming

I volunteer for the BHWT, British Hen Welfare Trust, and we had a rehoming day in Northants today
We rehomed 537 ex-commercial battery hens which would all be going to slaughter because of the 2012 cage ban coming in next week.

I came back with 5 poorlies to look after - 2 baldies, a badly twisted beak and 2 skinnies.

Hens ready to be rehomed:

My 3:

 Tracy Beaker with her twisted beak:

I was only having 2 but she's too cute so came home too!
Needs help eating and prefers to eat from a higher up coop cup.

2 baldies:

2 skinnies:

Out with the Old, In with the New... Dinner Chickens

So, as we've got the 3 new hybrids, the cockerels have to go :(

I was going to do it yesterday but left it too late so just got the stuff ready; bin for the feathers, small broomstick pole and a chair!
Let the 3 cockerels out for a free range in the snow earlier but restricted their food so that they're easier to gut etc.

Got Little Miss Meaty (the name stuck for him) in the eglu so I could pick him up and took him to the side passage.
I was alright in doing it 'cos have know since they were cute little chicks under Hilary that I'd have to do it:

Was alright doing 'the deed' but you always get paranoid from the nervous responses that you haven't done it properly even though I knew he was dead, and I had to double and triple check :/

Plucking was alright. It took about an hour to do, which is way longer than the huge turkeys at the farm! but tbf I haven't done it for a while, and the turkeys are hung so that makes it a lot easier. Ripped the skin a couple of times by the breast but thats not a problem.

Just got Mr Meaty to do next!
Was going to do him tonight but he's still not very muscly + mature, and it would leave Mr Dinosaur on his own in the eglu. Mr Meaty doesn't really crow, although he probably will now Little Miss has gone, but will see. I can always do it in the next couple of days.

Poultry Red Mite - Dermanyssus Gallinae

I found Poultry Red Mite (Dermanyssus gallinae) in the chicken coops earlier in the year, and me being me decided I needed to get some High Res photos of them, and then have a look at them under my USB digital microscope!

Got a few photos, some of the best ones are here...
(Click to enlarge)

Will be used for Uni work so please don't use them without my permission ;)

National Poultry Show 2011

Have had a busy weekend at The National Poultry Show 2011!
Got home on Thursday to go to work on Friday, set up the stand with Jude and then stopped at hers. Had the show on Saturday, went to the Poultry Club social, stopped in a Travelodge and then the show on Sunday.
Then when its all over for the public we take everything back down and load up the van!

We were busy all weekend on the Cotswold Chickens stand which was good but I could hardly talk at the end of Sunday! Everyone lived our Wychwood Hen Arch house, took orders for a few and even sold the one we had at the show!

I managed to get a Second Place for one of my photos...

... I did enter the photo of me in a chicken suit for "Any Poultry Subject" but it didn't place ;)

I met Jamie from Poultry Talk and had a good chat with Sandra from Chicken Vet who was really nice, she said anything they can do to help, and help with my dissertation etc, just to let them know :) Will be seeing them at a couple more shows so can have more of a talk.

Product Testing new Omlet Qute

Omlet asked me to preview and test their new small animal house, the "Qute" and so far I'm really impressed!

Its like a contemporary piece of furniture that doubles as a functioning small animal house!

It seems well built and robust like the Classic and Cube are, really chunky piece of furniture, well thought out and the gerbils seem to like it! Nowhere for them to gnaw at edges like some cages either so it should last ages – even the tube has a metal rim so they can’t chew it!
Its easy to keep the pets in the top or bottom with the “Lift ‘n’ Twist” tube to be able to clean out the bottom drawer, or to fill up food and water. I added a couple of tubes into the bottom draw so they were running though those and making tunnels.

One thing with it being solid on top is how dark it is inside the top ... good with nocturnal animals!

The drawer comes out to empty it to clean ... or use as a "Mobile Play Pen" and take it around the house, as the advert says.

 Looks good next to ma bed and perfect height to use as a bedside table to put my alarm clock on!

Only bad things are – its really heavy! 

I struggled to carry it upstairs so a child would have no chance moving it. They can easily use it to take small furries out and to clean out though. You do need a big deep sink to put it under the tap like photos show with the massive double sink! Its easy to take the top apart and give it all a wipe down too, just 2 clips at the top and it slides out.

 Top opens down to clean it out...

 And the tray comes out to give it all a proper clean...

I think it could do with being a bit taller as they like to climb which they can’t really do so if the top section was taller you could put in shelves, hang in hammocks and wooden ladders – could be used for degu then! The draw is also a really good idea but could be a bit bigger to fit a hamster ball or bigger bag of food in.

As great as it is, I do think its a steep price tag. Have seen a few people comment to say similar, I paid around £50 for my Gerbilarium which is similar and thought that was expensive.

So, I’d definitely get one, would look great, be easy to use and the gerbils would love it ...  just not on ma Student budget! 

Meet Sherlock and Alexander

We went to the CoOp to buy milk, went into Pets at Home just to have a look ... and now have 2 rabbits ... and no milk ;)

Have said for ages I want a Uni rabbit but thought I should be sensible, then we saw this litter of four lops, 12 weeks old, up for adoption on Wednesday ;)

Went back the next day (yesterday) and bought their cage and everything and just the one rabbit ... I went back an hour later to get his brother!

I have one and my housemate has another, living together atm but will be separated (and neutered in a few months) to another cage. Housemate lives in Bulgaria so I have offered to have them both over the holidays!

Mine's called Sherlock 'cos we live on Baker St ...don't know why he's called Alexander, he was going to be called BMW?!

Me + Sherlock...

 Sherlock...

 Sherlock + Alexander

Dairy photos

Got some photos on the Dairy Farm so thought I'd pop them on here!

Calves nomming on my hand...


Sid! My favourite calf :)

 Little red calf


 Lesbanim calves kissing each other


 Inside the milking parlour...


 Cow being milked


 Clusters / Milking unit on a cows udder


 Cow on antibiotics being milked out into a dump bucket


 Milked out mastitic milk

And last but not least!

Me with my arm up a cow...