2/27/19

2/13/19

Today was a whirlwind!  After taking care of the animals, we had a pretty major Farm Fusion lesson.  Last week, the kids saw that one of our lamancha does had been injured.  We separated her from the herd so she could rest and heal.  The vet is due to come out on Friday, and so I separated her and planned to get the vet to check her out when she came for the big farm checkup.  Well, the doe started to get worse instead of better.  I told the class that I was laying in bed a few nights ago thinking about her.  I thought, "It's odd that she's not improving.  I expected improvement by now.  I don't think an injury would get worse like that.  It's almost like she has some kind of neurologica…."  Then, it hit me like a ton of bricks.  


I jumped out of bed at almost 1am, woke up my husband, and shouted, "It's not an injury!  It's meningeal worms!"  I had never seen a meningeal worm infection for myself, but I am constantly reading and filing away information.  A long while ago, I read an article about how wet weather increases the rate of meningeal worm infection.  This parasite is found in areas with white-tailed deer populations.  The meningeal worm requires small snails or slugs to serve as intermediate hosts. White-tailed deer become infected by eating the snails or slugs that contain the larvae. The larvae enter the deer and travel to the central nervous system. Here they mature and produce eggs.  The eggs are excreted in the deer's feces.  If livestock (or even outdoor dogs) accidently ingest the snail or slug, then the larvae travel to the brain of these animals.  Unlike other worms that we encounter, this one doesn't live and make eggs and continue the life cycle within the goat, but just infects the animal and causes damage.  Because of this, meningeal worms cannot be diagnosed by a fecal study (the eggs aren't there).  


So, I flew out of bed with this realization and bolted out the door and back to the barn.  I went ahead and treated with an injection of ivermectin, gave some Nutridrench, and used the last of the Safeguard that I had on hand.  The class knows about wormers and the typical parasites that farmers encounter, but this one is different.  Meningeal worms aren't killed by a single dose.  Usually, you would give either ivermectin or Safeguard.  In this case, a dose of ivermectin is given in addition to 5 days in a row of high dosages of Safeguard.  Thankfully, this is safe for pregnant does.  Unfortunately, I didn't realize that it wasn't an injury until she could no longer stand at all.  It could mean permanent spinal cord damage.  


I started treatment in the middle of the night and called my vet the next day.  Sure enough, she confirmed what I thought and told me to continue the wormers and to also give molasses water and continue Nutridrench in effort to prevent pregnancy ketosis.  I talked to the kids about all of this, about the differences in wormers, and about the need to keep ruminant animals up and moving.  This led to an awesome discussion!  There were questions about which illnesses are passed through the placenta to the embryos, and how the placenta connects the doe's blood vessels to the kids'.  There were questions about twinning, so we talked about  twins that are identical or fraternal, but also about types of twinning where they share amniotic sacs or placentas versus twins that do not.  This led to students' questions about conjoined twins and absorbed twins and all sorts of scenarios.  This is definitely why I prefer to let the farm dictate my ag lessons when I can!  

 Literature: In the spirit of Ernest Shackleton, the class came up with their own expedition.  They wrote advertisements for their crew.  There were some amazing ideas.  The imaginations were running over time on this one!   We will be reading more over winter break, and the class will be working in both their reader's journals and in their field guides. 

In science, the kids were able to see the changes that took place over the week in our carnation.  They have learned about the differences between vascular and non-vascular plants, but it was great to be able to get a visual!  They made observations in their notebooks.  We also took turns reading about gymnosperm plants.  The class will be learning more about cycads and conifers at home, and we will be doing a cool activity involving non-flowering vascular plants next time we have class.

Art- The class is still baby-stepping through the process of pysanky egg dying.  They are using kistkas, candles, and beeswax to work through a traditional Ukrainian design.





The group is working a little on essay writing in our geography class.  Although writing isn't actually a "class" this year, I did want to take some time to point out the differences between essay writing and creative or informal writing.  Sometimes, at this age, it can be difficult to know how to write towards different audiences.  Parents may be working on writing curricula at home, and this is in no way meant to override or change any method being taught!  This is simply a way to help those who are in need of assistance with paragraph and essay writing.  The group has come a long way this year with their essay questions, and I just wanted to take it a step further! 

We had our Valentine's Day party today!  The class will be off for winter break next week, but I'll see you back on February 27th!

2/6/19