Weekend in Review

It's been a good weekend so far.  Midday on Sunday and I just got done running errands. I am pleased to report that I can leave the puppies unattended for short stints now without them tearing things up or getting into things they shouldn't.  In fact, when I got home today, I returned to find Charli and Juliett sound asleep in their crates which was totally voluntary as they were snoozing on the bed when I left.  Tango and Emma were napping on the bedroom floor.  Nothing out of place - such good dogs. I got them new toys at Costco and they seem to be a hit - all three are playing away as I type. They also got new banana peanut butter cookies which Winston has taste tested and approved.

Everyone seems happy and healthy. Violet continues to do well and Oliver is lively and ornery as ever - showing no signs of anything being amiss. Winston is a happy piggy in that we have had much nicer weather and he is spending the bulk of his days outside.  Today - not so much - its raining.  He did go out for a bit and get some grazing in before it started to sprinkle.  The rest of the ferrets and kitties are well.  This week I hope to tackle some spring cleaning in their rooms - getting rid of old, torn up toys, doing a deep clean to include windows, baseboards, etc and rearranging their rooms - they do love it when things are a bit different than the same old thing.

Next up for vet visits will be Charli and Tango next month - I haven't scheduled them yet. Then we will get the home visit for Winston and the ferrets - everyone but Madison needs their adrenal disease prevention pellet updated.  Since she has active adrenal disease she already got hers updated a couple of months ago. Then it will be time for a checkup for Aggie and Emma - it never stops!

I never posted the camera trap photos from the past week - there was one bird pic and a BUNCH of deer photos - they are prolific this time of year.  I will only post the good ones. It's also been windy - I the camera captured the windy leaves in kind of a cool shot - I will post that one as well.  While I am in critterland this week I will try to take some shots of the kitties and ferrets and post them as well.

Vet Visits and Other Stuff

As I type - Charli is barking wildly at the ferrets who are playing in their room - she watches them through the sliding glass door and wants to play so bad.  They are all chasing each other through the dryer tube having a grand time. Winston is 'bitching' at his bedroom door - he wants to be outside but it's rainy. The puppies are outside - they don't care if it rains - in fact, I think they kind of enjoy it.

This week has been crazy so far for the humans.  Phoebe and Oliver had their every six-month vet visit on Monday.  We did all the regular stuff - physical, fecal, blood work, etc.  Both of them look pretty good considering that Ollie will be 16 and Phoebe will be 13 (my zoo is getting old).  We didn't get the bloodwork results back until yesterday. 

Phoebe is perfect - not one number out of whack.  Her thyroid number was perfect - no need to adjust her medications and we got her prescription renewed.  Oliver wasn't quite perfect - but nothing was too whacky.  His white blood cell count was one digit outside of normal.  Last time he was at the top of the range so its basically no change and the vet wasn't all that concerned.  His BUN number was elevated - top of the normal range is 37 - he was 41.  BUN is associated with the kidneys and can indicate the start of kidney disease when elevated - but - his Creatinine was low - 0.9 is the start of the normal range and Ollie was 0.8.  So - since both kidney numbers were not elevated - it's likely not kidney disease.  His calcium number was also slightly elevated - 11.2 was the top of normal and he was 11.5.  There is a second calcium test we can do to get more details.  I will take Oliver along in April when I take Tango and Charli in for their annual stuff and they can do a quick blood draw.  Until then we are going to watch him closely.  Inflated calcium can be a sign of something more serious - but typically the number would be much higher than .3 above normal if we had something icky going on.

In the meantime - we are going to keep Ollie from stealing the ferret's raw diet cat food because it is very high in calcium and just keep an eye on him and make sure he is not showing any signs of illness.  At the moment his is his same ornery, active self.

Here are a few pics from the vet:

That's about it from here - I feel like this week has been 17 days long already...happy hump day!

Month in Review and Camera Traps

I can't believe its already March - I know I say this every month but geez - I swear last Tuesday it was Thanksgiving week.  February was a pretty good critter month.  Violet is well - as are all the little ferrets - crazy little bunch.  Kitties seem to be doing pretty well. Piglet seems happy and healthy.  The puppies are well - we did have the lump on Juliett's head - which turned out to be a hematoma.  It's much smaller, albeit still present, but getting better.  Healthwise - we are good to go I think.

We also had the dog on pig violence incident.  Tango went after Winston in the house.  Since then we have had no issues. Of course - they have not had much opportunity to have another incident.  They are on super lockdown and closer than every supervision.

We set up the camera traps in February and are really enjoying the results.

Looking forward to March - the kitties go to the vet on Monday.  I would also like to get Tango and Charli in for their annual stuff (Juliett's was done when she got checked out for the lump).

Here are the latest pics from the camera traps - I still think that is a fox and not a coyote - based on the blogs I have checked out and of course - the deer...