Animal Teeth

Welcome back!

Your teacher told me that February is Dental Health month in First Grade.

You learned a lot about teeth this month. Strong teeth are very, very important for people and animals. Keeping them clean is an important part of keeping them healthy. Eating properly is also an important part of keeping teeth healthy and strong.

Matt used to work at Timpanogos Animal Hospital in Pleasant Grove. He used to help the techs. One of the things he got to help with was cleaning dog's teeth.

Did you know that it's important to clean your dog's teeth? Most people don't like to brush their dog's teeth because dogs hate it! We use a special treat that cleans the dog's teeth called Dentastix.

People dentists like our dentist, Michelle Jorganson, like to clean people's teeth twice a year. Dogs should get their teeth cleaned once a year.

This dog has dirty teeth. Some of his teeth are infected and broken. Dogs don't take good care of their teeth. Do you see all the yellow stuff near the dog's gums? He also has a broken tooth on his top jaw near the red plastic tie.

Are you wondering what the tube is? It goes down his throat towards his lungs and carries a special gas that keeps the dog asleep. Dogs don't like getting their teeth cleaned. People can sit in a chair and have a hygienist clean their teeth, but a dog won't do that.

Here is the other side of his mouth. Can you see the teeth that are flat towards the back of his mouth? They shouldn't be flat. Sometimes dogs chew on rocks. If one tooth breaks other teeth wear down. All the brown and yellow need to be polished off his teeth.

All clean! Can you see the spot on the right side of the photo that is missing teeth? How many teeth are missing? Check the photo right before this one.
If you look closely you can see stitches where the teeth used to be.Those teeth were infected and needed to come out.

All clean on this side, too!

The next thing that happens is that the tube comes out of his mouth and then the put the dog someplace comfortable while he wakes up.

These are Scout's teeth.
He is a good dog to let us hold his mouth open!

Here are JJ's teeth.
She's a good dog, too.

This is Misty.
She has all her adult teeth.
Misty's teeth look different from JJ and Scout's teeth.

This is Annie.
She has all her adult teeth, too.
Is there a difference between goat teeth and dog teeth?

Annie loves Matt!
She still gives goat hugs after Matt is done holding her mouth open for pictures.

Scout and JJ have pointy teeth because dogs eat meat and dog kibbles. He needs sharp teeth to chew. They have teeth on the top and bottom of his mouth so they can chew his food properly. If you want to learn more about what dog teeth look like you can click here.

Here are River's teeth.
Do you see how small they are?
She's getting ready to loose the two center front teeth.

Adult goats have 8 front teeth on the bottom. They don't have teeth on the top in the front.

Goats have 32 teeth total in their mouth. They have 8 in the front. How many back teeth do they have?

Goats use their back teeth for chewing, just like you. They don't need top teeth in the front because they use their front teeth for biting leaves, branches, and hay. 

Children have 'baby teeth' that fall out. Adult teeth take the place of baby teeth. You've probably already lost at least one tooth!

Baby goats have 'milk teeth' that fall out. Adult teeth take the place of baby teeth. 

If you want to learn more about goat teeth click here.

How many teeth do chickens have? Scroll down for the answer.

Chickens don't have any teeth!
They have a beak!
They need their beak to peck food into small enough pieces for them to eat.

You've learned a lot about teeth this month. Look at the animals you see this week and check out their teeth. Think about what shape and size their teeth are, and what type of food they eat. I'm sure you'll notice that their teeth are just right for the food they eat!

Bloat

Welcome back!

Do you remember last week when I told you it wasn't good for animals to eat foods that they aren't used to because they might get sick?

Echo accidentally got into the barn and found a few bags of sugar that we had tucked away in the back corner of the tack room. She tore one open with her teeth, and ate most of it.

It's really bad for a cow to eat that much sugar!

Animals are like children. They need to be protected from doing things that could hurt them. We have fences to keep them in places that are safe, we have doors to keep them out of the barn where they might get into trouble, we have gates to keep them from wandering around town and getting hit by cars.

We want Echo to be safe.

What a mess!

If an animal like a goat, cow, or sheep gets food they aren't used to they can get really sick. I happened to be in the right place at the right time to notice what Echo had done.

We always have baking soda in the stalls in case the animals have an upset stomach.
It's one of our daily chores to make sure there is some in each feeder.
Farmers call it 'neutralizer' because it neutralizes the acid that may cause bloat.

Even having baking soda in the stalls wouldn't have saved Echo's life. I could tell right away that her stomach was getting very big! She was bloating! That's dangerous for cows. It means that her stomach is making more gas than she can burp or pass quickly. It can cause a cow, goat, or sheep to die.

This is the medicine we give our goats, sheep, and cows if they start to bloat.
It's called TheraBloat.
We mix up the right amount in water, then fill a huge syringe with the mixture.

The long tube you see attached to the syringe gets put in Echo's mouth and down the left side of her throat. It's very important to get the tube down the left side, if it goes down the right side of her throat the medicine will go into her lungs, not her stomach, and that would kill her.

Matt and I worked very quickly to get Echo the medicine. She was a good girl and it wasn't any trouble. We don't have photos because it was just the two of us and there was no one to hold the camera.

It's very important for you to know that if you are passing by a farm and you see cows, goat, sheep, horses, or any other animals that you don't feed them anything unless you ask the owner. You might give the animal something that would make them very sick. If the owner isn't around to check on them, that animal might die.

Our friend has a horse that can't be ridden any more because someone thought it was okay to put grass clippings from a mower over their fence to feed the horse. The horse got very sick. She didn't die, but she can't be ridden anymore because it made her so sick.

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I'm having some problems with photos today so I don't have a video that I planned to share.

Quin and Xander came this week and were helping. I wanted to show you some chores they help with when they are here.

One thing they do is feed the chickens.
Xander is filling the bucket.
Quin is strong enough to lift the bucket and dump it into the feeder.

Quin is also strong enough to help put the milker on Echo. He's not afraid of Echo because she's so nice!

They are strong enough to help carry buckets back into the house, too.
Quin has eggs in his bucket. Xander has dirty washcloths.
Xander isn't careful enough to carry the eggs yet.

Matt feeds the hay to the animals.
Quin and Xander aren't strong enough for that, yet.

There are lots of things that Quin and Xander can help with. They are learning to work hard and help around the farm. They like it most of the time, but sometimes it's hard and they don't want to help.

That's normal, there are times we don't want to do chores, too. They are good boys because they do what needs to be done whether they want to or not.

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Bryon got our Christmas tree planted this week!
We hope it grows tall so that the animals will have shade in the pasture.

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Our old cat, Stinky, is finally friends with Bubs the new cat.
Cats don't make friends very quickly.
Neither do most animals.

People are much better at making friends and being kind to others than animals are. People are smart and can think things through. Animals aren't like that at all, even if we want them to be!

I hope you have a wonderful week! I hope you make friends with someone that you don't know very well. I hope you work hard even when you don't want to.

All of those things will help you grow into a wonderful adult! That's what your parents and your teachers want most for you!

Happy Birthday, Echo!

Welcome back!

Do you know someone with a birthday today? I do!

It's Echo's 3rd birthday today!

She had her first calf when she was a little over 2 years old. She should have her new calf close to the end of the school year. She will be 3 years old when she has her second baby. Animals grow to be adults much faster than people do.

Cows don't get cake for their birthday.

People can eat many different kinds of food.
If animals eat different kinds of food they can get sick.
Echo's birthday treat is a loaf of bread, a few stale rolls,
a cut up banana, and a few carrots.
She gets bread almost every day, so that isn't very different.
She gets banana peels almost every day, too.

Does it look like Echo liked her treat today?

Here's a picture of Echo when she was a baby.

Echo just finished eating a delicious dandelion. 

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It's not a surprise that Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog, is wrong about spring being 6 weeks away. He's wrong most of the time. 

Did you know that there is a tortoise in California that can predict the weather, too? Her name is Maxine. She came out of her burrow on February 7th at 12:06 pm. Maxine thinks winter is over.

We find about 10-12 eggs every day.
We find a duck egg almost every day. I think Quin's duck is laying the duck eggs because she's the youngest girl duck that we have and they usually start laying before the older duck does.

Spring is right around the corner according to the ducks and the chickens!

We'll have to wash these eggs off. Sometimes they are dirty when we pick them up.

One of the good things about Spring is that it's warmer outside.
One of the bad things about Spring is it's muddy in the pasture.
The chickens and the ducks don't mind. They like the puddles.

We like the chickens because they lay eggs. We also like the chickens because they clean up the little bits of grain that get spilled inside the barn, and around the barn yard. Chickens love to scratch the dirt and dig. They help spread the poo around so we don't have to clean it up in the barn yard. 

The turkey helps clean up the grain, too.
Can you see him in the back?
He would much rather share breakfast with the goats because the
grain is easier to get in the feed tub.

The chickens like to share breakfast in the feed tubs, too.

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We plant seeds when we think Spring is close, too.
I planted some herb seeds a few days ago.
I'll let show you some pictures as they grow.

I'll be planting some tomato seeds soon, too. We have special lights and a set of shelves that help us start growing seeds indoors before we can put them in the garden. It's too cold and wet to plant seeds in the garden right now. If we plant them inside then they will be ready to go in the garden about the same time you are out of school.

The goats love to play in the spring. They love to bang their heads together. I'll try to get a video so you can see them playing.

Once in a while one of the goats get hurt when they are playing rough. Clover's leg got hurt this week. She had to spend 2 days resting in a stall by herself until she was strong enough to play outside again.

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No, we don't have any fish right now.

This picture is from last year.
We had fish in the fountain during the summer.

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Stew is 4 years old.

Thank you for the questions!

I hope you have a wonderful week of learning and playing and enjoying the nice weather!

A Few Old Tools

Welcome back!

I hope you enjoyed Parent-Teacher conferences with your family. It's been a busy week for everyone!

It's been more busy than usual for our family so today I have a few photos from the farm that you may enjoy.

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Do you like to build things? Do you like to play with tools?

Quin and Xander like to play with tools, especially the tools in the old tool chest. We don't use these tools very often, but they are a lot of fun to look at!

This is an antique carpenter's chest. It was owned by a carpenter a long time ago.
It is so old that when the chest was built cars hadn't been invented yet!

Do you know what a carpenter is? It's someone who builds things out of wood.

Quin and Xander like to take the tools out of the chest and pretend to build with them.
What is Quin doing?

Quin is using an old folding ruler to see how long the piece of wood is.

Quin is having lots of fun drilling holes with my drill.

I have a nice, small battery-powered screwdriver that I can put drill bits in.

It's just the right size for small jobs, and small children.

Xander likes to use the hammer.

It's a small hammer that's just right for small indoor jobs, 

and it's just right for small children.

Quin and Xander's dad and mom both love to build things with wood. That's why Quin and Xander like pretending to build things. That's why they like using real tools instead of toy tools.

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We hadn't seen the turkey hen for a while.
She showed up again earlier this week.
I think she was living in an old pile of brush and weeds
in the neighbor's yard.

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The chickens ate all the hay in their nesting boxes.
Did you know chickens eat hay, too?

They are so excited to have hay to eat today!

I think they miss scratching around in the grass.

Do you miss playing in the grass?

I filled up their nesting boxes with hay, too.
I'm sure they will eat all of it within a few days,
and I'll fill it up again.
They like eating the hay, and they like laying their eggs in the hay.

The chickens have started laying eggs again so spring must be coming soon. The ducks are laying eggs, too! I know Punxsutawney Phil said we would have 6 more weeks of winter, but the ducks and chickens don't believe him.

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I heard that you enjoyed watching the dogs play in the snow last week. I thought you might like to see what they do every morning. I don't have to whistle very loudly for them to hear it and come running to me. They know when I say, "Ready!" it means to run to the barn because we're ready to do the chores. They run fast!

They don't care if it's warm or cold outside. They love living on a farm!

Next week I'll show you what it's like to do all our morning chores. It's a lot of work, but we enjoy it.