A rufous hummingbird sighting;
rethinking the healing of livestock

By Bebe and Sissy Fenstermaker

I read the book about Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand and thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact, I found it fascinating. Being the baby boomer that I am, it gave me insight of a time in this country's past that was as difficult as one could imagine. Horse racing at that time was hair raising. Some of the people who were mentioned were names I recognized as a kid listening to the Kentucky Derby on the radio. The story of Seabiscuit rolls along, gathering up character after character, incident upon incident. I recommend it even to those not particularly interested in horse racing. I was amused when our farrier came the other day. I asked him if he had read "the book." As an afterthought, I said, "Seabiscuit." He chuckled because he knew exactly what book. Yes he had read it, and had I seen the movie? No, I had not and neither had he. We both had plans to, however.
The electrician and I were working at the back of the house when we spotted a beautiful sorrel-colored hummingbird flitting amongst the salvias. I looked at it, intently remembering one just like it from last summer. This time I called Georgina Schwartz, a longtime birder and longtime member of the San Antonio Audubon Society. From my description, she immediately identified the bird as a rufous hummingbird. I told her that last year we had refused to believe that was what we saw. She said now was the time to look for unusual hummingbirds not normally found here. Evidently they are already heading south.
Stickerburrs are a pain covering my socks every time I have to go to the back gate or to water the greenhouse. I have a regimen of spending at least an hour each day pulling up the plants and throwing them in the trashcan. It's when I find them in the "front yard" that I get really irritated. I figure the grey goats are the culprits, bringing them in and depositing them there. I dream of scattering a dose of the chemical that prevents seeds from germinating, but then I think of all the beneficial seeds that would also be affected. So, I guess I will just have to dream of some critter with a cast iron mouth that will just love scrunching those stickers into oblivion. I know where stickerburr plants are so tall they wave in the breeze and come up above the knee. Bebe and I visited our neighbor's new land holding near Mason and we were agog at the height of those suckers. I had to admit I was thankful, for once, for what we had here.

Sissy Fenstermaker

If you live on a ranch, sooner or later the vet will arrive. If your ranch is fairly close to an urban population, sooner or later your vet bills will become very expensive. Then, pretty soon, there will be few vets who handle horses and almost none who will speak to you about cattle. I don't know about goats but the last time I called a vet to look at a ewe (female sheep for urbanites), he was insulted. I can also remember what happened at the vet's office years ago when I took in a hen with an eye problem. So, by now we're starting to get the idea most vets in this area think the money is in kitty cats and dogs and that people don't have any other kind of animals. This requires the livestock owner to rethink how to heal her animals in many cases. I have found a way to do this so that, with guidance, I am beginning to understand situations and be able to help my animals myself; I can deal with some emergencies and minor wounds.
Several years ago, our neighbor who is deeply into homeopathy for animals worked a miracle for one of my dogs and made a believer of me. Red Lee, young Border collie road dog, began collapsing not long after I took him in. He was diagnosed with anemia and was dying from it. The (expensive dog) vet said no new red blood cells were being made. She said it would be an expensive proposition to find the cause, many things could be causing the anemia, and that he didn't have that kind of time. In fact, she turned her thumb downward and said to let her know when I felt he should be put down. When I reported Red's diagnosis to our neighbor she asked me to let her try to help him. (I will call our neighbor SS because she has begun school to become a homeopath and does not take cases until she has completed her four-year course.) We discussed his condition, the vet's report, and she began to research his symptoms for a remedy. I must say that we did have a bit of additional "help." Another friend was in contact with someone who was able to sort of divine what had caused Red's problem. This may be hard for some to believe, but at that point, I wasn't turning down any help. It was "felt" that he had eaten something that had poisoned him, making a hole in his intestines which was causing the anemia (this happening on the road before I found him). I gave SS that information which, if true, narrowed the remedies down to one and cut down the time it would have taken to try a couple of different remedies in order to get the right one. By that time, Red was so weak he hardly could walk. Lo and behold, SS hit it right on the head. Red immediately began manufacturing those little red cells again and started back on the road to health. The vet was amazed, said so, and even called me a year later for SS's phone number to talk to her about a similar case. Today Red is fine, a big continual harassment, and I am very thankful for him.
I had quite a time earlier this summer when Sug-rawa, the buckskin mare, got her usual cut just below her pastern (the ankle, you all). It wasn't very nice and required penning and vet work. I knew the drill, had had the vet for this many times, and this time chose homeopathy. Long healing short, the mare is well but at a final point I did call in the local vet to look at the scarring. We like this man very much personally but his office workers are dreadful. They made me regret ever calling him in, sneering that my call was about a horse, refusing to call him to the phone, and making me drive to Boerne three times in one day. "A horse!" the woman said, "Oh, well, you should have said!!" How that made the matter a criminal one is beyond me. am certainly even more enthusiastic about homeopathy now.
Combining veterinary work and homeopathy works if strong drugs aren't involved. This spring a heifer lamed by a huge cedar splinter jammed sideways just above her hoof cornet (where hoof joins foot) gave just this opportunity. The vet, on arrival, said most people would have sent her to the stockyards. You sometimes have to try, we replied (especially if she is an important part of your breeding herd) and then we had to do some real work. We were in a place with no pen or headgates and she had to be darted to get her calm and in a workable position -- flat. He did an outstanding darting job, Sissy and I held her down, and he dug in and got the splinter out. Mentioning her becoming toast, he went on to say he thought her hoof would probably drop off. He gave her some penicillin, got the wound dressed, and I gave her a remedy for puncture wounds. Here I want to mention how smart cattle are. It took about two hours for the anesthetic to wear off and it was getting dark. I planned to stay with her until I felt she would not fall over on her side and suffocate. I saw I wasn't needed when her sisters stepped in and took charge. Two of them lay down at angles to her on the side on which she might have gone down. They literally held her up that night. Afterwards, I put the puncture wound remedy in the water trough and poured it over their daily cow cake. They were all getting the remedy but it was the only way I was sure she was getting it. I kept neighbor SS appraised of my work throughout. In the later healing stages, the heifer had difficulty walking. Since her wound had mended, I changed to a remedy for trauma and bruising. About two months later, she was in good shape, having healed slowly and completely. She had not lost weight throughout her ordeal. Her hoof is growing out, there is a small hole and crack where the splinter was, and a small part of the hoof below is bluish. The important thing is that the hoof above is pink and healthy and she keeps right up with the herd. To get good things to happen, often it just takes a bit of thinking, some time and patience, and an unusually good neighbor.

Bebe Fenstermaker