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How Hot Is Too Hot?
11 February 2009
Summer is wonderful. I love summer. Sunny blue skies, trees in full leaf, ripening fruit, birds singing, animals frolicking, and wonderfully warm days.
But something’s gone wrong with this summer. The temperatures are soaring. It seems to me the average daily temperature for the last couple of weeks has been about 30, with the highest being 34 last Sunday. 34?!? What the hell? Throw in humidity between 80 and 100% and just the act of sitting becomes exhausting.
I wouldn’t have a problem with it if I was living in the city and spending my days at the beach. I’m not though. Instead Aaron and I are trying desperately to get through our summer task list and finding ourselves collapsing with exhaustion after just minutes.
The sun is fierce and unrelenting and despite lashings of sunscreen I’m burning. I try to cover up in a desperate attempt to fend off any future skin cancer episodes but I overheat so much I end up making myself feel sick. Sunstroke and heatstroke are becoming familiar companions.
There’s so much to do and I feel slightly panicked as we get further and further behind.
Trying to get up early is all very well but when the temperature’s in the mid 20s by 9am and there’s no cloud in the sky I can see my day slipping by with little progress.
The pigs have been spending virtually all day in their wallows and the sheep and cattle just sit under trees for hours on end.
Last Thursday Aaron noticed Joy only ate half the dinner he’d prepared for her. The piglets on the other hand have well and truly adjusted to solids and leapt into the troughs on mass, gobbling cheese and fruit as fast as their little mouths would allow.
Perhaps the piglets were less interested in their mother’s milk and so Joy did not feel the need to eat so much?
Thursday morning I fed out Phyllis and Arthur. Joy was strangely quiet, usually she grunts madly at me to hurry up and fill her trough.
I went into Joy’s paddock and put food in the troughs. The piglets appeared out of the darkness and leapt into the troughs. Joy on the other hand wandered slowly down from the back of the paddock, sniffed the food and just stood there not doing anything.
She walked shakily over to the water trough and took a couple of sips and then shakily walked back to the troughs. She didn’t eat and only grunted lightly. I tried giving her a light body massage but she moved away. She wasn’t well. My first thought was Erysipelas.
She slowly staggered off back into the darkness.
If it was Erysipelas we had just the day to take action. I had to go to work, there was no choice with Friday being Waitangi Day.
I arrived at work sick with worry. It was 2 hours before the vet opened and all I could do was wait.
I took half a day’s leave and met the vet at home at 1.
Our homeopathic vet had the day off so we had to get in a standard vet. He arrived and stayed for maybe half an hour, taking her temperature, listening to her heart and stomach, checking her gums, etc. It wasn’t erysipelas but that was all he could tell me. And therein lays our frustration with vets. They don’t know pigs. No one it seems actually knows pigs.
He could give her general antibiotics but he wasn’t prepared to do that unless she was tied up or in a crush. We didn’t have a crush.
Alternatively I could do it myself if I wanted to. I ummed and ahhed and felt quite unsure about the situation. Tying Joy up was absolutely not an option. And antibiotics? Well, my views on antibiotics are not exactly positive.
The vet suggested she may have a stomach upset. Her tummy was gurgling and her stools were soft.
I was worried she had heatstroke but with ready access to water, wallow and shade the vet wasn’t convinced.
I ummed and ahhed some more and then decided to use the wait and see method. If she wasn’t about to drop dead on me I’d leave things as they were and call in the homeopathic vet if things didn’t improve. The vet left.
Call me stupid, but if I was struggling with the heat surely it wasn’t unreasonable to assume Joy was suffering from heatstroke? When I think about how I feel when I get heatstroke Joy was displaying some very similar symptoms. I’m not an expert though so it scares me to make a diagnosis. Even scarier is that my knowledge of pigs seems to be more advanced than the average vet.
Still, sometimes you just have to trust your instincts. With the vet gone I poured buckets of cold stream water over Joy until she got annoyed with me.
She seemed to perk up as the day progressed and ate some dinner. By Friday evening she was back to her normal self but then Saturday morning she seemed off colour again.
Monday night we experienced 100% humidity and Tuesday morning all but the piglets were disinterested in breakfast and even Coppa refused to eat. Phyllis and Arthur had spent the night submerged in the pond.
That was enough evidence for me.
At work several staff suggested I either put a fan next to my pigs or turn on my garden sprinkler for them to play in. While these were both excellent ideas I’m not sure how I was meant to achieve either of these in the paddocks they currently reside in. Where did these people think I kept my pigs? I was afraid to ask…
As of today the pigs all seem fine.
Rhooky and Sarah Visit
Waitangi weekend Rhooky and Sarah cruised up North for the long weekend, returning Saturday to spend a night with us.
We enjoy their company a lot and each time we meet Aaron and I can’t help think what a shame it is that we moved north and they moved south. Still, the move away from Auckland has done us all a world of good so I shouldn’t complain.
I decided to try out some new vegetarian recipes on them and they seemed to go down well. Who knew potato and pea croquettes could be so tasty?!
Sunday morning Rhooky helped Aaron put wooden barriers around our fruit trees. We needed to put Joy and the piglets in the orchards and the last thing we wanted was for Joy to dig all the trees up. And so the boys hammered and sawed while I scrubcut paths through the waist high kikuyu.
Rhooky was forced to stop when he got to the plum tree as a German wasp flew inside his singlet and started to attack. I had noticed wasps buzzing around some of the fallen plums. I felt a bit bad, wasp stings aren’t unusual on our block, although to be fair, it’s usually paper wasp stings and Aaron and I are usually the recipients.
Rhooky doused himself with vinegar and Stingose but he still had to deal with 2 big, burning welts on his side.
Too Much Testosterone
Ever since Whisky and Coppa turned 2 back in October their testosterone levels seem to have hiked up a level. We were used to playful fights for dominance but now it’s turned aggressive, resulting in at least one vicious, snarling attack a week. It can be started by either one of them but while Whisky is all for a quick fight in which Coppa quickly submits, Coppa now has other ideas and pretty much loses the plot.
We usually know it’s coming as Coppa nearly always starts growling and glaring at Whisky. That often gives us time to grab a dog each and shut Coppa in the bar to calm down for 5 or 10 minutes.
The problems start when it’s just me around and I have to separate them by myself. Not only are they heavy but I worry I’ll accidentally get a hand stuck in the middle of the fray. My best option is to grab Coppa and drag him kicking and snarling away while Whisky stands and tries to look intimidating.
Monday, at home I heard Coppa growl. I rushed outside and for some reason grabbed Whisky. Coppa launched his attack as I ran inside with Whisky. It was all so quick and as I started across the livingroom floor I felt an intense pain in the back of my thigh. I dropped Whisky and the 2 dogs ran outside and fought. I grabbed Coppa and dragged him through the house into the bar and shut him in.
I checked my thigh. There was a massive purple bruise already with 2 puncture wounds in the middle. I was shaking, a mixture of rage and relief I think. It was bad, the pain was awful, but it could have so easily been worse. I covered the bite in antiseptic ointment and then sat down and tried to calm down.
The problem is obvious, we have 2 unneutered male dogs. What to do? The idea of neutering makes Aaron squeamish and we wanted to breed from our boys, but dogs biting humans wasn’t acceptable. The bite wasn’t aimed at me but that’s not the point, if it had been a guest or a child in my place we would be in a much worse situation. As we made the decision not to neuter I have to accept the blame for this accident but can I honestly expect someone else to feel the same?
I’m torn. We got good pedigree dogs so we could breed and recoup our costs. Now what?
Aaron and I talked it over and we’ve decided we need professional advice. If we can neuter just one that will be the best option. The dogs are due a vet visit so we’ll ask then.
The sun is fierce and unrelenting and despite lashings of sunscreen I’m burning. I try to cover up in a desperate attempt to fend off any future skin cancer episodes but I overheat so much I end up making myself feel sick. Sunstroke and heatstroke are becoming familiar companions.
There’s so much to do and I feel slightly panicked as we get further and further behind.
Trying to get up early is all very well but when the temperature’s in the mid 20s by 9am and there’s no cloud in the sky I can see my day slipping by with little progress.
The pigs have been spending virtually all day in their wallows and the sheep and cattle just sit under trees for hours on end.
Last Thursday Aaron noticed Joy only ate half the dinner he’d prepared for her. The piglets on the other hand have well and truly adjusted to solids and leapt into the troughs on mass, gobbling cheese and fruit as fast as their little mouths would allow.
Perhaps the piglets were less interested in their mother’s milk and so Joy did not feel the need to eat so much?
Thursday morning I fed out Phyllis and Arthur. Joy was strangely quiet, usually she grunts madly at me to hurry up and fill her trough.
I went into Joy’s paddock and put food in the troughs. The piglets appeared out of the darkness and leapt into the troughs. Joy on the other hand wandered slowly down from the back of the paddock, sniffed the food and just stood there not doing anything.
She walked shakily over to the water trough and took a couple of sips and then shakily walked back to the troughs. She didn’t eat and only grunted lightly. I tried giving her a light body massage but she moved away. She wasn’t well. My first thought was Erysipelas.
She slowly staggered off back into the darkness.
If it was Erysipelas we had just the day to take action. I had to go to work, there was no choice with Friday being Waitangi Day.
I arrived at work sick with worry. It was 2 hours before the vet opened and all I could do was wait.
I took half a day’s leave and met the vet at home at 1.
Our homeopathic vet had the day off so we had to get in a standard vet. He arrived and stayed for maybe half an hour, taking her temperature, listening to her heart and stomach, checking her gums, etc. It wasn’t erysipelas but that was all he could tell me. And therein lays our frustration with vets. They don’t know pigs. No one it seems actually knows pigs.
He could give her general antibiotics but he wasn’t prepared to do that unless she was tied up or in a crush. We didn’t have a crush.
Alternatively I could do it myself if I wanted to. I ummed and ahhed and felt quite unsure about the situation. Tying Joy up was absolutely not an option. And antibiotics? Well, my views on antibiotics are not exactly positive.
The vet suggested she may have a stomach upset. Her tummy was gurgling and her stools were soft.
I was worried she had heatstroke but with ready access to water, wallow and shade the vet wasn’t convinced.
I ummed and ahhed some more and then decided to use the wait and see method. If she wasn’t about to drop dead on me I’d leave things as they were and call in the homeopathic vet if things didn’t improve. The vet left.
Call me stupid, but if I was struggling with the heat surely it wasn’t unreasonable to assume Joy was suffering from heatstroke? When I think about how I feel when I get heatstroke Joy was displaying some very similar symptoms. I’m not an expert though so it scares me to make a diagnosis. Even scarier is that my knowledge of pigs seems to be more advanced than the average vet.
Still, sometimes you just have to trust your instincts. With the vet gone I poured buckets of cold stream water over Joy until she got annoyed with me.
She seemed to perk up as the day progressed and ate some dinner. By Friday evening she was back to her normal self but then Saturday morning she seemed off colour again.
Monday night we experienced 100% humidity and Tuesday morning all but the piglets were disinterested in breakfast and even Coppa refused to eat. Phyllis and Arthur had spent the night submerged in the pond.
That was enough evidence for me.
At work several staff suggested I either put a fan next to my pigs or turn on my garden sprinkler for them to play in. While these were both excellent ideas I’m not sure how I was meant to achieve either of these in the paddocks they currently reside in. Where did these people think I kept my pigs? I was afraid to ask…
As of today the pigs all seem fine.
Rhooky and Sarah Visit
Waitangi weekend Rhooky and Sarah cruised up North for the long weekend, returning Saturday to spend a night with us.
We enjoy their company a lot and each time we meet Aaron and I can’t help think what a shame it is that we moved north and they moved south. Still, the move away from Auckland has done us all a world of good so I shouldn’t complain.
I decided to try out some new vegetarian recipes on them and they seemed to go down well. Who knew potato and pea croquettes could be so tasty?!
Sunday morning Rhooky helped Aaron put wooden barriers around our fruit trees. We needed to put Joy and the piglets in the orchards and the last thing we wanted was for Joy to dig all the trees up. And so the boys hammered and sawed while I scrubcut paths through the waist high kikuyu.
Rhooky was forced to stop when he got to the plum tree as a German wasp flew inside his singlet and started to attack. I had noticed wasps buzzing around some of the fallen plums. I felt a bit bad, wasp stings aren’t unusual on our block, although to be fair, it’s usually paper wasp stings and Aaron and I are usually the recipients.
Rhooky doused himself with vinegar and Stingose but he still had to deal with 2 big, burning welts on his side.
Too Much Testosterone
Ever since Whisky and Coppa turned 2 back in October their testosterone levels seem to have hiked up a level. We were used to playful fights for dominance but now it’s turned aggressive, resulting in at least one vicious, snarling attack a week. It can be started by either one of them but while Whisky is all for a quick fight in which Coppa quickly submits, Coppa now has other ideas and pretty much loses the plot.
We usually know it’s coming as Coppa nearly always starts growling and glaring at Whisky. That often gives us time to grab a dog each and shut Coppa in the bar to calm down for 5 or 10 minutes.
The problems start when it’s just me around and I have to separate them by myself. Not only are they heavy but I worry I’ll accidentally get a hand stuck in the middle of the fray. My best option is to grab Coppa and drag him kicking and snarling away while Whisky stands and tries to look intimidating.
Monday, at home I heard Coppa growl. I rushed outside and for some reason grabbed Whisky. Coppa launched his attack as I ran inside with Whisky. It was all so quick and as I started across the livingroom floor I felt an intense pain in the back of my thigh. I dropped Whisky and the 2 dogs ran outside and fought. I grabbed Coppa and dragged him through the house into the bar and shut him in.
I checked my thigh. There was a massive purple bruise already with 2 puncture wounds in the middle. I was shaking, a mixture of rage and relief I think. It was bad, the pain was awful, but it could have so easily been worse. I covered the bite in antiseptic ointment and then sat down and tried to calm down.
The problem is obvious, we have 2 unneutered male dogs. What to do? The idea of neutering makes Aaron squeamish and we wanted to breed from our boys, but dogs biting humans wasn’t acceptable. The bite wasn’t aimed at me but that’s not the point, if it had been a guest or a child in my place we would be in a much worse situation. As we made the decision not to neuter I have to accept the blame for this accident but can I honestly expect someone else to feel the same?
I’m torn. We got good pedigree dogs so we could breed and recoup our costs. Now what?
Aaron and I talked it over and we’ve decided we need professional advice. If we can neuter just one that will be the best option. The dogs are due a vet visit so we’ll ask then.
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