CockadoodleMoo Blog | CockadoodleMoo.org | Mark Robison

Dolly gets a little cheesy

Fri, 20 May 2011 14:18:58 -0700

The vet came out today to look at a sudden lump on Dolly the goat's neck. She said it was an abscess and looked like a "rogue lymph node" rather than anything getting stuck in there. Apparently this happens sometimes. She lanced it with a scapel and then squeezed and milked out what she called "cheesy pus". There was a lot. It didn't smell or otherwise it would've been gag inducing. We've got to use a syringe to squeeze sodium chloride into the wound and milk out more cheesy pus for the next two to three days. Dolly doesn't need any antibiotics or other medicine. It's supposed to heal on its own.

The vet said Dolly would hate us for doing the wound cleansings so we need to give her lots and lots of treats and her favorite foods. Won't be a problem.

Lots of vet visits and some deaths

Sat, 30 Apr 2011 10:25:16 -0700

Not a happy blog post but spring has been a little rough.

Merle the turkey died. Not sure what happened

No friend for Chagall, still worried about Rembrandt and thanks to Melissa!

Sun, 23 Jan 2011 19:57:21 -0800

A productive weekend. Very special thanks to Melissa for coming out and helping us with grooming Dolly the goat, cleaning turkeys and multiple rabbit chores!

We took Rembrandt to the vet this week after discovering she had a cyst near her genitals last weekend. The vet gave us antibiotics (oral liquid, twice daily) in hopes it might affect the cyst because otherwise surgery in a delicate and potentially infection-likely area of the body might be required. After five days, there didn't seem to be much improvement. (To be clear, the vet is hoping it's NOT a real cyst but some sort of infection.)

And Chagall is still grieving and not eating much after the death of her partner, Monet, last weekend. After the failed attempt at putting the male Artemisia in her pen last weekend, we tried moving her to his place today. It was not good. He chased her relentlessly, biting pieces of fluff out of her bum. We made sure nothing too bad happened but after about an hour, it was clear they weren't meant to be together and we moved her back to her solo pen.

Surprise, Artemisia is a boy - plus thanks to Kristy and Mike

Sun, 16 Jan 2011 18:26:59 -0800

Productive day today. Volunteers Kristy and Mike came out and were a big help doing chicken and rabbit health checks, fixing donkey fencing and doing other tasks. Thanks!

Kristy and I did health checks and one of the things we discovered is that the rabbit Artemisia (in photo) is a boy! He was given to us by a Reno shelter that'd sexed him (and I think they performed the neutering) and determined he was a girl. Although rabbit genitals of both sexes can look similar, Artemisia definitely revealed himself as a boy while we cleaned urine crystals.

We thought this was good news. Rabbits generally need to be paired as opposite sexes in pens or else they fight too much. The male Monet died Saturday, leaving the female Kahlo alone. She was grieving and not eating today so we thought that introducing Artemisia might help her move on. But apparently, it was too soon. Although Artemisia is twice as big as Kahlo, she chased him around for about an hour until he found refuge atop a tunnel going into their hutch where she couldn't reach him. So we put him back in his old pen. Later, we spotted Kahlo eating so maybe the introduction helped.

R.I.P. Monet

Sat, 15 Jan 2011 12:20:31 -0800

Monet died last night, and today he was buried at the top of the hill overlooking the sanctuary.

He came to us with six other rabbits who were part of the Great Reno Rabbit Rescue by Best Friends Animal Society when about 1,600 rabbits were caught, spayed-neutered and found homes after getting out of control in a Reno woman's backyard. These seven were ones the woman was allowed to keep, and when she died, they came here.

Monet was a particular favorite because of his airplane ears and his deep love for his pen-mate, Chagall. He spent much of his life loving on her and grooming her. As I was patting the mud down on his grave (it's a warm winter day), I couldn't help but think how special it is to have lived a life where you truly loved another and made that other person happy. Monet had that life.

Coincidentally, Dianne is working on a painting of the image below of Monet and Chagall.

— Mark

Rabbit named Monet's trip to the vet - plus no spinach or bananas for rabbits - rabbits can't burp

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:46:34 -0800

We took Monet the rabbit to the vet today. Before getting to his troubles, our vet said that rabbits should not get spinach and probably not kale because of the high calcium content. She also recommended against bananas as treats because of their high sugar content. Aside from the excess calories, this can cause gas and rabbits can't burp (or vomit) so this can be painful, especially for older rabbits. We sometimes feed them a "parrot mix" that includes dried fruit. The vet said this wasn't good either. She said that for treats, she would recommend fresh berries: strawberries, raspberries, blueberries.

As for Monet, he is an older fellow with not many days left but he has a friend named Kahlo whom he loves very much and we want to keep them together as long as possible. X-rays showed that he was severe arthritis in his back knees, especially his left. He's also got an upper respiratory infection. So he'll be going home with some antiobiotics and pain meds (both liquids that he'll need twice a day). It's possible these will be for life.

2010 year in review

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:37:14 -0800

CockadoodleMoo 2010 Year in Review

This is a note to let all of CockadoodleMoo's friends know about activities at the sanctuary in 2010.

Three-footed goat

In April, we were contacted about a goat who was found along a Northern California highway with a freshly amputated foot. There was one other goat with her, and a kindwoman named Ginny contacted us. She could take the other goat but wanted to know if we could take the three-footed one. We could.

We named her Dolly and kept her isolated for a few weeks to make sure she didn't have any illnesses that could be spread. We contacted a specialist about getting her a prosthetic foot. He said that it would be very expensive with no guarantees of working because there wasn't a good method for keeping a fake foot attached.

Being smaller and gimpy, Dolly got picked on a little by the other goats, who would steal her food. So we built her a small isolation area where she could eat in peace; this turned out to be a good spot for doing individual health checks and hoof trimming free from the curiosity of others. We did experiments with dog boots and found a long one for athletic snow dogs that helped Dolly but it kept falling off. Our vet suggested putting a piece of sheet insulation in the bottom of the toe and wrapping the boot into place over the elbow with bandage tape called Elastikon. So far, this has worked well and given her better mobility.

Latest site updates

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 12:41:15 -0800

We've redone the front page of the site to acknowledge the fact that as much as we love working on the site — writing blog entries, adding recipes, displaying photos, making videos, etc. — we often run out of time to do regular updates. The animals come first and, what with our day jobs on top of sanctuary duties, sometimes we're just too tuckered out to do things on the newsletter and the web site. Bottom line: Look to this blog for when the site has major updates. I'll try to chronicle them here instead.

Latest updates:

Blog entries from Dianne on losing a rooster and a look back at 2009. See entries below.

New volunteer information here.

Some new quotes here.

A quickie vegan blog post here.

~ Mark

Roosters, fighting, crowing and losing one

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 11:28:57 -0800

January has been a very eventful time in the upper coop.

First I went to feed one evening and found Curtis and Fritz involved in a battle through the 2" holes of the inside wire fence. Both birds were bloody and furious. I spent the next hour adding a new layer of 1/2 inch fencing to prevent this from happening again.

When it is below freezing, I leave a 60 watt bulb on inside the coop for extra heat. Apparently this is very confusing to roosters who follow the sun for wake up and sleeping times. I woke up at 2 am one evening and was shocked to her a cacophony of crows coming from the shed. By 6:30 the next morning, there were some pretty hoarse crows from the boys and a shellshocked Ginger.

During a wind and snow storm, the kennel that is the outside play area for Miyagi, Fritz and Buster moved, and a gap was left about 3 inches wide between it and the tunnel into the coop. Before we had a chance to fix it, another crazy storm hit and Buster disappeared. After days of searching and crowing for him (he loved to respond to our calls), we have resigned ourselves that he is gone for good. I hope that he just snuck out the gap to explore his world but I know that more than likely a predator snatched him, but Buster was a fighter so I am sure he got in a few pecks and spurs first. (The gap is now fixed.)

2009 The year that flew by....

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 10:51:09 -0800

We are so sorry for our long absence from the website, it seems that once summer starts there are so many chores.

Here is a look back at 2009.

January: After some kung-fu fighting in the bunny pens, we decide to pair up the rabbits and section the pen into three living areas for male-female couples: Rembrandt and Rivera, Monet and Chagall, and Mattise and Rivera. These pairings seem to work pretty well and the fighting stops.

February: Ginger goes to the vet for her egg laying problems. After seeing X-rays, we decide to add more vitamins and protein to her diet. She has problems with the cold and is found trembling after a day outside with the other chickens so she is put on indoor rest.

March: After being stuck indoors for months, Ginger starts receiving visits from some of the bantam roosters in order to enliven her days. Before we know it, she is brooding over four eggs. We realize that she has been brooding too long but I am sure that her eggs are not fertile. Apparently Miyagi is not the scared gentleman he seemed to be and soon Ginger is a mommy. She has two chicks who eventually turn into beautiful roosters Seeger and Curtis.

Ozu the curly haired rooster

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:05:24 -0700

We were not supposed to be taking any more roosters because of space restrictions. But a neighbor and I got to talking a while back about a little bantam rooster she had named Angel. He was named this in declaration of his gentle temperament. He and two other chicks had turned out to be roosters and they already had a few roosters in with their hens so they let him and his fowl mates run loose around their property. The birds had a few safe places to nest and hide but as time went on and coyotes carried off his two friends, they made the choice to put him in the pen with the flock.

The problem was that not only the roosters but the hens had decided he didn't fit in. They bullied the little guy, plucking all of his curly feathers and terrorizing him day and night.

Mark and I discussed it and although we would like to take in every needy animal, we knew that we weren't equipped for another rooster.

A few months later, I was talking to my neighbor again and she said that Angel was doing badly, that he was almost bald and had been cowering in the corner of the pen. That night I told Mark that we could put this new bird in with Ginger and her kids (both roosters) and I felt like he deserved a chance. We made arrangements and a few days later he arrived.

Goodbye Ally Cat

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:43:37 -0700

It had been a hard week at work, I had just pulled a six-day run with a couple of 12-hour shifts thrown in. We were having an audit and being the only person in my department, I was feeling pretty stressed. I had only four hours of sleep the night before because I had to be in the store at 5:00 am. So far the morning had gone smoothly and then the call came.

Mark rarely called me at work, but since I had left in the middle of the night with very little sleep, I figured he was checking to make sure I had made it okay. He started the conversation in the usual way with pleasantries and listening to me go on about how things had gone so far. When I asked how his morning was going, he hesitated. Then he told me about Ally.

There are some animals you have a special bond with, and Ally was one of the chickens I had become very attached to. When I asked what had happened, he said that there was an accident, he had found her in the coop bleeding and injured. He had not found blood on anyone else so he thought she had somehow landed wrong and broken her wing.

Things we love about Andy

Sun, 24 May 2009 18:40:47 -0700

Our turkey Andy has a lot of personality. So I thought that I would compile a list of some of my favorite Andy things to date.

DANCING: Andy does a lot of dancing and puffing, and to some people this might make you believe that he is being aggressive. His dance reminds me of a Japanese fan dance — lots of prancing then posing with a swish of his fan-like wings. But the truth of the dance is in his colors, he has a beautiful head of color that he wears like an ever-changing '70s mood ring.

COLORS — OF HIS HEAD: Red means agitation, this should be obvious, but it took a while to sink in. The darker the red the more agitated and the more likely he is going to peck or spur his agitator. If you wear red or dark orange, you appear to be asking for a fight and Andy will take you down.

Blue means curious and interested. He is checking things out and making sure that they are all right. He also turns blue if you calmly sing or whistle to him while he dances all around you.

White means calm and at peace. When Andy gets his breakfast he is white and pale blue — just looking at him makes me feel calm. In the evenings after the chickens are in bed, he nests under the trees and serenely looks around all in pale blues.

Super Pet Adoption Event

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 11:58:08 -0700

By Mark:

We handed out vegan literature and our new newsletter (#6) at the second annual Super Pet Adoption Event, held in the Wal-Mart parking lot on Kietzke Lane. Thousands of people passed through and nearly 150 animals were adopted (none by us, everybody gets a forever home who comes here).

We had pamphlets from HumaneMyth.org and Farm Sanctuary (especially vegan info aimed at kids) as well as Vegetarian Food for Thought podcast sampler CDs.

The Nevada Air National Guard collected money from the public during the event and then, at the end, looked for a worthy organization to give it to — and that turned out to be us! It was very much appreciated. We had quite an expensive surgery for the angora rabbit named Chagall recently and had to get many bails of hay for the donkeys and goats so it couldn't have come at a better time.

Our table was right next to the hot dog stand so there was an interesting bit of cognitive dissonance going on. The first person to visit us — and who started by looking at the poster board of photos showing all the new animals at CockadoodleMoo — said in all seriousness: "Oh, I love goat. I had some at a Mexican restaurant last week. Do you sell them?"

Seeing red — turkey gone wild

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 12:21:09 -0800

Mark:

So it was evening and I was doing the normal routine of locking the chickens and turkey up for the night in their coop. And, as usual, Andy Bell didn't want to go to bed yet so he was wandering around in the dwindling light. I leaned over and put both hands on his back and guide him slowly toward the coop door.

I love these thoughtful walks with Andy. He's such a presence and it's so still with everyone else in bed and we move so slowly as his normally lumbering steps come with a pause between each one like walking with a hospital patient pulling a rolling IV stand.

The path to the coop's side door is narrow and single file. I could feel a strange tension in Andy so I moved quickly. I reached past him and pushed open the door. He looked at me with fury in his eyes and lunged at me and snapped at my forearm. Fortunately, I'd worn a padded red flannel shirt so it didn't hurt too much — the strength of his bites is insanely forceful compared to the light bites of chickens, like the difference in power between the bite of a house cat and a mountain lion. I believe the story of the woman who surrendered Andy to us when she recalled how a turkey fought off a coyote to save her chickens.

Goodbye, Honey and Goya

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 08:24:39 -0800

It was a hard week here at CockadoodleMoo, we suffered two losses. I get teary eyed still remembering our lost friends, but it is important to grieve, for us and the animals.

Last week my dear sweet Honey started looking off. She would listlessly stand in the doorway of a crate or in the corner of the isolation pen when I would go to bring her and Ginger inside at night. Honey is usually the kind of girl who runs to the fence when you call her. She races Ginger to be the first inside, and this new behavior was alarming. I decided that maybe the cold was too much for her, so I put her and Ginger in my bathroom and moved my toothbrush to Mark's bathroom.

For the first couple of days it was normal Honey, I would spend time with them in the evenings mopping up the bathroom floor (chickens poop a lot), they would peck, scratch and gobble up the scratch and creamed corn I gave them for a treat. The two girls acted as though they were at a spa basking in the heat lamp and lounging on the children's race car rug on the bathroom floor.

The Magnificent Seven ... rabbits, that is

Sun, 07 Dec 2008 21:15:50 -0800

When I was a little girl, my dad nicknamed me “Bugs”. I thought it was because I collected insects but, no, later he told me it was because I loved Bugs Bunny. Over the years, I longed to have a sweet little rabbit I could cuddle and love. When in my 20s my girlfriend adopted a shiny black bunny and named him Steve, I would jealously listen to her stories about Steve’s escapades and his amazing learning skills.

How was it that I had never been able to convince my father or anyone I lived with that a bunny was just as good as a cat? In my homes, dogs and cats lived together but I was told that bunnies would not fit into this mixture.

When Mark was a boy he had a bunny and a cat and so I thought he might one day want another rabbit. But when he came home from his week learning at Farm Sanctuary, he announced we would not be rescuing rabbits because they were fierce fighters and had too many health issues. He was very convincing and I agreed that with just us two doing all of the caretaking, it was probably best not to take on rabbits. Then things changed.

Honey with the swaying crop

Sun, 07 Dec 2008 20:42:55 -0800

Dianne:

Honey arrived at the Nevada Humane Society with a story, no name but a story. Now you may be thinking everyone (even an animal) has a story but it is amazing how many animals are dropped off without anyone telling their story. It may be embarrassment or maybe it’s too time consuming but for the animals left without a story or even a name, I apologize now for my fellow human beings.

We named Honey after her golden red feathers. She is a young bird and was turned in because, at her previous home, the other chickens were being mean to her and the human caretaker felt she was starving to death. She was starving — Honey was so hungry that she had started eating rocks. Chickens do eat small amounts of grit to help in the digestion process but Honey was eating gravel.

The first sign that something was wrong was her large, swaying crop; it was so large that she stooped forward when she walked and the crop almost dragged the ground. At first we thought she was a new breed of chicken and maybe she would grow into her crop. Then one day her crop became huge and she started open-mouth breathing so we got her to a vet.

Annabelle the turkey turns out to be Andy Bell

Sun, 07 Dec 2008 16:19:48 -0800

Dianne:

It’s kind of funny how these things happen, one day you’re telling that big beautiful turkey what a pretty girl she is, and the next you’re questioning her gender.

Anna or Andy has been with us since the middle of summer and we have watched the bird grow from a timid disobedient teenager into a self-confident, defiant young adult.

When things started getting blurry for us was when he/she started to “show” like male turkeys do — meaning that they puff up, fan their tail feathers, and stomp about like a sumo wrestler looking for a fight. We went about our business remarking how pretty she was when her head was all purple and how fluffy she looked when she showed and my what a long snood she had.

When threatened Andy would put on a show, which made sense. After all, when threatened, a female dog will raise her hackles and hump a new dog showing the new intruder that she is “top dog”. This fall Andy was showing more often, he would show for Al the rooster, he would show for me but mostly he would show for the hens.

Introducing Annabelle the turkey

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:40:05 -0700

Dianne:

Someone once told me that a turkey is like a dog and a chicken is like a cat. Being a "dog person," I was drawn to the turkeys more then I was the chickens. Although I have become very attached to Ginger, the other chickens still aren't as friendly or affectionate. When I volunteered at Farm Sanctuary this spring I had a chance to spend more time with the big girls and they were very calming and curious — their barks and prehistoric sounding calls made me smile.

When Mark called home a few weeks ago saying he had talked to a woman who needed to place a turkey and her chicken companion that she had rescued I was very excited.

After many days of hits and misses, this last weekend the turkey arrived — unfortunately the turkey's chicken companion did not. The woman had decided to keep the chicken, but we were very happy to welcome Annabelle the turkey to our farm.

Annabelle's first few days were lonely, she seemed to be looking for her little friend, calling out and searching. It was very sad and we can only hope that when she is done being isolated, she will find a new kinship within our chicken flock.