Country Farm Animals and Pets

in Animals on the Farm

Life on the farm with animals is glorious. Saddening. Frustrating. Never dull!

Between your family dog (keeping you company doing your farm chores), the horse you break to ride, the cattle, goats, pigs or sheep you raise - there is much to learn and understand about livestock and pets on the farm.

For instance, here in northern Ontario, we're short on large animal veterinarians. We've learned to do a lot of minor vet care ourselves as a result.

Can you imagine giving a horse it's first needle? (In fact it's not the first one that's hard, it's the second one - after they've learned how much they dislike them!)

When we need a veterinarian to come down these back roads we team up with other farms in the neighborhood with livestock. This way we can then split the cost of the mileage charge our veterinarians charge.

That is, if the animal vet can or even will come...

Most of the time you're praying you don't have an emergency. Or that you're capable enough of handling some of your own farm animal care yourself - with the help of a neighbor or a book.

One or two emergencies with your best livestock could put you out of business on a small farm.

So before you take on livestock (or extra pets) on a remotely located farm consider some of the questions below. Each one has been on my list of personal challenges in the last 10 years.

What to do when your dog has been mauled by a bear and probably won't live long enough to make it to the vet's office in the morning?
Your new filly cut her leg on the first trailer ride two days ago and now it's infected! Plus, she's fresh off the field and away from her mother. She's never been handled by humans...
You go to the barn to do your chores and find 30 of your new batch of day old chicks ripped apart...
There's a fox in your yard and it looks mangy, rabid...
The coyotes are howling and yipping just inside the tree line at night and you've got newborn calves in the field.
The bears have once again ripped apart your hive boxes.

I won't tell you all my solutions or even try to pass myself off as some expert on these matters. I may one day share these tales of woe with you. In the meantime please find the article you're most interested in regarding farm animals by surfing the links at right.

Above all, enjoy your stay here at GoodByeCityLife's Country Living!