What pets/animals do you currently have?

It would have to be a "house" zorilla, and I'm not that stupid...

 

Psshh, why would you pay attention to the Zorilla? It's the knockoff version of this masterpiece.

 

I'll soon be acquiring another rabbit to use as a companion for Spooky, my current rabbit.

I've also got some sad news. I had to euthanize my White's Tree Frog two weeks ago due to untreatable abscesses in their stomach. It's very sad, but it happens when working with animals

 

Pets I have currently are
2 British Bulldogs both females
1 Dogue De Bordeaux He is a boy
1 Common Pleco
1 Tiger Oscar
1 Budgerigar
1 Ball Python and
1 western hognose snake
I will soon be hopefully acquiring a Leopard Tortoise and maybe a Sulcata tortoise and a Map turtle.

 

Unfortunately I have since that post lost two of my chickens.

Recently one of my brown laying hens suddenly died although having previously appeared healthy. I had the other brown laying hen, who is still doing well, checked out by the vet and she was generally healthy, but did show signs of a viral respiratory infection. Perhaps that combined with last week's heat caused the sudden death of the other hen. The living hen was checked by my vet and given some medicine and will be on close watch in the coming weeks.

The other chicken I lost was the big grey hybrid hen, whom I mentioned above as having health issues. After doing better for a while after treatment at the vet in early May she recently began to decline again rapidly, and it turned out aside from recurring infections she also had a previously unnoticed (by me and the vet) tumor mass. As a result I had to decide to have her euthanized.

Given the presence of a viral infection (which likely the whole flock already has) I will be watching all chickens closely for the coming weeks and doing regular health checks. I will not be filling the open pen for at least a month. If I get any more chickens I will likely get a few more laying hens and possibly a few more Aracaunas, as those have become my favorite breed. But that will not happen for at least another month.

The other chickens are all doing fine, I do have a little special care to do to ensure two broody hens (without eggs under them) get off the nest to eat, drink and walk around several times per day, until they get tired of this.

My fish are doing well, I recently installed a new and better filter in my fish tank.

 

I just got a young Common Wall Lizard.

 

Cool lizards! Saw wild ones in Cincinnati, do they make good pets?

 

Yes, they are pretty easy to care for. I actually caught it in northern Kentucky, less than a mile from the Ohio River, I could seen Cincinnati. The species is (for whatever reason) illegal to catch in Ohio (despite being an invasive species) but perfectly legal (and probably encouraged) in Kentucky. As far as I can tell there is no captive breeding of the species in the US, so I'm guessing there aren't too many others around in captivity in North America.

 

Possibly in private trade I'd say. Are they touchy animals or animals you observe?

 

No, the one I have at least does not seem touchy in the slightest, except for the issue of food. The little lizard can't fit any of the usual feeder insects into its mouth! Apparently there is a nationwide pinhead cricket and flightless fruit fly shortage. I have resorted to field sweeping, which works for now.

 

I have a leopard gecko named Spring, who I have had for 2 years now. I used to have a dog named Ginger but it makes me cry when I think about her now. She was so sweet, the sweetest dog you could have. She died young, and in a horrible way.

 

If you check Facebook groups you may be able to find other people that are trying to breed that species. You may be able to acquire other individuals and help the captive population by producing captive-born individuals.

 

I have a calico siamese/persian mix cat named Lula.

 

I'll think about it. Mine is very young, probably hatched this year, so breeding is a while into the future, if I even want to attempt it at all.

 

Just fish right now, both fresh and salt.
Dwarf gourami (65l fresh tank)
Harlequin rasbora (65l fresh tank)
Neon tetra (65l fresh tank)
Betta (28l fresh tank)
Green chromis (120l salt tank)
Sixline wrasse (120l salt tank)
Banggai cardinalfish (120l salt tank)

all are currently doing well, with the exception of the betta. he recently started to lie on the bottom of the tank, which he never did before, and became a lot less active. i'm still not sure, but it could either be internal parasites or just old age (i have had him for 18 months, and there is no way to tell how old he was when i bought him). i am treating him for parasite, and his condition seems to be improving.

 

I have a 5 year old female treeing walker coonhound named Roxy

 

When I got Roxy, she was very ill a got pneumonia the week I got her. I had to bring her back to the shelter I got her from, because I couldn’t take care of her properly, I think she got it when she was at the puppy mill the shelter found her from. Everyone around me though she was dead, but I held on hope. She did survive but the shelter wouldn’t let me readopt her, so I got my friend to do it for me. She was very bossy for a while, but she’s pretty calm now.

 

Unfortunately I lost another chicken today. I had to let go of one of my Aracauna hens due to a cloacal prolapse.

The vet thinks there might be an underlying bacterial infection or worm infestation that might have contributed to the prolapse, and my remaining flock will be treated for that. If there is anything viral going on, which is also still possible, there isn't really anything we can do about that.

I am understandably not happy right now, having lost three chickens in two months despite thinking I was taking good care of them. I do think there was some bad luck involved, sure, but I do think that I might have made some mistakes.

I did give my chickens a preventative worm cure earlier this year, but I used an over the counter product that might not have been sufficiently effective, and I shouldn't have done that. I should perhaps also have had the lower egg production of my chickens this year looked into better, in hindsight, although my chickens nearly always seemed otherwise healthy and active. And I should probably change my feeding habits, which involve my chickens often eating a lot of their pellets from the ground.

I don't have much confidence and courage left in my chicken keeping anymore at this point. If I hadn't invested in two new high-quality (and pretty expensive) chicken coops earlier this year I would probably give up on keeping chickens and stop doing so after my current flock dies off. Now I'm not sure, but that is still definitely an option. I don't think I'll be getting anymore chickens anytime soon, if ever.

 

There's no need to put yourself down. Things like this can happen when working with animals. As long as you don't see the same problem cycling through your collection, there's really nothing to worry about. I lost two of my animals in the same month, one from leukemia, one from stomach abscesses. Losing them took a told on my mental state, making me question my care, as well as my future working with animals.

You weren't intentionally trying to harm your animals, you even took them to the vet when they were sick. The average person would say: "Why waste money taking a chicken to the vet?" That proves you aren't ignorant and care for the well-being of your animals. You also acknowledged that you may have made some mistakes with your husbandry, which is okay. As long as you educate yourself and learn from your mistakes, you're doing fine.

In my opinion, you should invest in more chickens when you feel ready.