Wildlife

Baby’s Vet Visit and a Visitor to our Yard

Baby stuck in the back seat

Baby fell in the back seat of the truck on the way to the vet and couldn’t get up. I couldn’t reach her, so she had to stay put till we got there. She was a little tipsy, but was smiling when we got there. Baby loves traveling and visiting exotic locations, especially ones with foreign lizards and frogs to hunt. On a side note, as wobbly as she is in her walking, she managed to get a frog last night in the yard!

Baby’s skin Baby watches something out the window of the door

We were at the vet’s for 3.5 hours on Saturday! That was just too long. We got there on time for our appointment, but due to Baby’s skin problem, which the vet diagnosed as a hot spot (?), there was no acupuncture.

Baby’s xray

Instead, Baby got an x-ray of her chest because she’d been coughing. She had two x-rays actually. Here’s one.

The first thing I flipped out about were the black lumps on the film. Then I found out it was fecal matter making its way down the canal. Baby does have borderline pneumonia. So we started with a neck problem, which seems to mirror Wobblers in my opinion, but the vet says no because Baby would have had symptoms when she was around a year old (?), and we’ve added hot spot and borderline pneumonia. (The vet mentioned Baby’s heart was large, but we couldn’t tell much more than that from the x-ray. It’s not heartworms, that’s for sure.)
Baby is on prednisone, Tramadol, and Methocarbamol for her neck issue. She’s on Cephalexin for her hot spot and borderline penumonia, and taking cough tablets for the latter, as well.

Phew!

Reggie, the vet’s dog Everyone loves me!

Well, no matter what is going on in Baby’s life, she lives it to the fullest. She also attracts friends wherever she goes. At the vet’s office, the office dog, Reggie, was attracted to Baby’s aura. She came over to join us.

We finally made it home, then on Sunday, I went outside to water.

Corn Snake Corn Snake on top of rolled fencing

I figure this is a corn snake. I found an ID close to it here. The reason I have these pictures is when I was watering, the snake came out to visit with me. It wasn’t afraid of me, though I couldn’t return the sentiment. Even though I heard it’s (supposedly) harmless. Though how anything that can cause a person to have a heart attack may be termed harmless is beyond my comprehension. I just hope it doesn’t get into the house.

Helen

P.S.  Sandy from our local extension office wrote the following:  “It is a baby Southern Black Racer.  It is marked like this to protect it from predators. It is a good snake and will take care of a lot of bugs in your yard. I have a few adults that I play hide and seek with in my neighbors and my yard.”

Friday Round-Up

Possum nesting materials Lawn Mower Possum Home

Today I drove really fast within reason going home from work, so I could mow my lawn before it was too late. I wanted to get that out of the way, so I could finish my high jump this weekend. The first thing I needed in order to mow the lawn, was the lawn mower. I pulled it out of the shed, all the way down three steps and do you know what peeked out at the bottom of the steps? A possum! Cute little thing. I was wondering where all the dried leaves were from as I know I didn’t leave them in that shed. She went back under the mower, and I had a time getting her out, but she finally agreed to leave, and I got to mowing. I did sweep out the nesting materials. I don’t know if it’s such a good idea to have a possum using my lawnmower as a place to sack out, but it’s certainly better than having rats in there!

Speaking of rats, when I dropped off the newspapers and some shoe boxes at the Wildlife Center at lunch time, I found that the green lizard that the Fedex driver brought to the center last week and which had been stuck to the glue trap for rats had been released. This was amazing to me. They said they could help little lizards stuck, too. Incredible! I’m glad that came to a happy ending.

Baby munching on grass

Baby ate grass today. I didn’t mow all of it away, so she picked up the slack.

Beautiful Pre-Full-Moon Night

There is a mostly full moon out tonight. Absolutely beautiful! Tomorrow night will be the total full moon. We will be there.

Helen