This message is from: Amy Goodloe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
At 9:22 PM -0400 9/21/04, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Guineas and cats help keep the snakes away.
Yes, except they both attract coyotes, which then means you have to get guard donkeys or llamas, so your peaceful little farm quickly becomes a zoo! We've had better luck with the cats than the guineas, because the cats were smarter about coming into the shed at night (we lock them in at night). And the cats are smarter about looking over their shoulders during the day, too. The guineas didn't last a week out here.
As for keeping bits of rubber hose or other similar objects to keep a horse's nasal passages open, we'd heard about doing that as well, but when the time came that we needed them, there was NO WAY the horse was going to let us shove something up her very tender, very swollen nose. And the very worst thing you can do for a horse (or anything) that's been bitten is make it excited, as that just pumps the venom through the bloodstream faster. According to my vet that's how many horse die of rattlesnake bites, b/c they are bitten and then get excited (either by running around or, in one case, by well meaning neighbors trying to get the horse into a trailer it was afraid of).
I suppose the tubes in the nose might work well if you put them in just moments after the horse is bitten, but by the time the swelling sets in, they generally don't want anything around that tender nose. We didn't even try with the second horse that was bitten and just kept her calm until the vet arrived. (Thankfully, she was calm by nature.)
--Amy
