Good Morning

[Farrier1987]

Odd question. Apparently when you get twin calves of different sexes the female is a freemartin. I guess the same doesn't happen in sheep and goats?

Doesnt seem to be a problem with goats. First goats we had were twins, Bubble and Squeek. I dont know their background. Outwardly they were girls, but never got bred, and when I put Squeek down for medical reasons, we did an autopsy and she had internal testicles too.

WLL could probably enlighten us in this subject if she would.

[Farrier1987]

And then I read Lolotsung's reply (thanks) and we don't have to ask WLL although her input would also be welcome.

[WLLady]

freemartinism can happen in goats and sheep. first off, freemartinism is different from hermaphrodite-in the hermaphrodite the individual has both male and female parts. In freemartinism the masculinizing hormones produced by the male embryo manage to get to the twin female embryo and prevent the female organs from developing by "overriding" the hormones of the female embryo with male signals. It all depends on whether there is a link between the circulation of each of the developing embryos. Cattle twins tend to share the same placenta or grow blood vessel bridges across 2 separate placentas very easily and as such freemartinism is common. Goats and sheep don't tend to, so the freemartinism is much rarer-but can happen. so there you go.

had an adventure on sunday. dog found a wet spot in the field (we've been talking about turning it into a pond). well, it appears that the wet spot already has wildlife living and swimming in it (a muskrat family) that didn't take kindly to the dog. many hours later and a very quick drive to london while holding a dogs face together to try and stop the bleeding....sigh. antibiotics for a week, many stitches, and one doped up dog....ug. life with pets. but i think that whole adventure sealed the fate of the wet spot. i see an excavator in the future, and a deeper pond with trees and stuff. no point trying to plant through if the muskrats can actually SWIM in the field.....and have been for a while judging by the complex of housing they'd built. I must try to remember next time to make sure we don't look like axe murderers when we stop at timmies for a coffee next time something like this happens. Sally's doing fine. a little tired, and can't understand why the world beat her up, and hate hate HATES the cone....but she only has to wear that if we are both busy with work. Getting some short walks in, but i don't want to risk it getting swelled up again as this silly dog can't take antiinflammatories without severe reactions! go figure.

[Killerbunny]

Oh boy I had never realised that muskrats were so violent. Mind you they do have those teeth and she did invade!

[ross]

Yu need a guard dog breed Kathy not a “go
fetch “type . Rat didn’t want to be fetched lol

[WLLady]

i actually think she was just trying to play with it....she wants to play with every critter she meets! the skunk day will come....

[Ontario Chick]

I worry more about the baby porcupines in May, very expensive play mates !

[Brebis]

Yes, no fun with porcupines, one of our Great Pyrenees LGD’s said hello to one on the Saturday of a long weekend,
luckily one of our friends was the vet at the weekend clinic that day!
Hope she recovers and keeps out of trouble!

[WLLady]

Thank goodness i havenever seen a porcupine down here. When we go north of montreal she is leashed for precisely the porcupine risk

[Shnookie]

One of my female German Shepherds killed a pregnant female muskrat. I didn't see it happen, but I found the body after the fact. The muskrat was on land near the dugout. I suspect the dog was only able to catch it because she came around the trees and surprised it. The dog was not hurt at all.