New Baby reindeer to my herd

Our horses, sheep and donkeys also preferred to be outside but did go inside for really bad weather. My mom had a run in shed similar to yours Karen but she also put a gate on it so it was able to converted to a stall if necessary.

 

Boris is in trouble.. yet again - this time not for stealing food! He always puts me through the mill at this time of year.

Two years ago, almost to the day he dropped his antlers just before his first big booking, he was entire then but was young so shouldn't have dropped till January.

Last year he did exactly the same as he is doing now.... stripping his velvet and looking like a blood bath! The girls & babies stripped several weeks ago so their antlers are lovely and clean. Boris looks like something from a horror movie and he still hasn't finished so his antlers will still be red and then pink for several weeks!!! Got to love him or he'd be burgers by now - only joking

This was him in November 2 years ago!!! Grrh!

And how they should look at this time of year!!!! Mischa...

 

Dear Boris, I think he just wants to stand out from the crowd! Mischa is so gorgeous! Just what I've always imagined Santa's friends to look like!

 

You just got to love Boris! He marches to the beat of his own drummer! And like Willow said, Mischa is beautiful! All the best with their outings!

 

Hmmn Mischa is a girl, read below!!! and...
Castrates (Boris) don't lose their antlers BUT, boy do they make life difficult....

 

Hilarious!

 

Too funny, Karen!

 

Very interesting Karen!

 

Storms raged and raged but all field shelters and reindeer absolutely fine... Never worried about reindeer as they always choose to lay in the open... as you can see all happy bunnies!



As you can see, Boris looking a bit scary - when his antlers are wet even more so!! Forget that I didn't post scary on FB so can't share!!!

 

I'm glad all are safe and happy!

 

Great photos as always! Amazing their coats stay so nice even being out in bad weather.

 

Willow, this was a couple of hours after rain finished and I had a couple of wet towels by then !! But must say rain doesn't really soak through coats...

 

Karen, I love your avatar. I agree their coats are beautiful. Do you brush them a lot?

 

Yes I do groom a lot!!!
Still battling with Katya's neck area though as they have 1,500 hairs per square inch and I had a problem with Katya mid summer... Complicated explanation I am afraid..
Katya got very skinny with her greedy calf (Hector) and then she started feeding Lotte too , at the same time flies were driving all reindeer mad and they weren't feeding well. I always use cattle "Spot On" fly repellent early in summer but they still have long winter coats. I tried horse spray repellents and they just didn't work, tried mixing my own, also only worked for about half an hour (next to useless) so I re-applied cattle pour on while they were in short summer coats, (around antlers and as far as withers). While they all seemed slightly concerned (lifting heads/star gazing) it kept the flies at bay but Katya with her more pale pigment it has seemed to have burnt, poor baby but she started eating better and putting weight on... BUT now she has a matt of scabs within her growing winter coat!!!

Not sure how to sort the fly problem next year... Reindeer really hate flies but need to find something that works that doesn't burn them!!
Picture is Katya in foreground but not possible to see the knots in her coat on top of neck.
Still haven't retrieved high def photo's from old dead computer but think I have managed to save loads of baby photo's in low def from FB. So may add a load if you are interested..

 

I feel for the person who had to count how many hairs per square inch!

How about garlic to keep off flies? My dad swore it kept them away from him. Don't know if that was true, but the rest of the family liked to stay upwind of him in summer!

 

Since garlic can be toxic to some animals, I wouldn't recommend it. If you feed your reindeer apples, you could try apple cider vinegar as a feed through. Ask your vet for an appropriate amount. I have heard of people even spraying it on the hair coat but not sure what effect it would have with the sun. If you have lots of money, you could try fly predators although I'm not sure if they would take care of all types of flies, gnats, etc.

 

Thought garlic was only toxic to cats and dogs. Some horse people use it in small quantities in feed as good for respiratory system and as fly repellent - something about making the sweat unappealing to flies. As I don't have horses myself, I'm just passing along what some have said.

What SC has mentioned about vinegar might be safer, and it probably could be used as a spray to keep off flies. Might be worth looking up!

 

I brought up the toxic possibility as I doubt many studies have yet been done on reindeer and they seem to be very sensitive to many things (per reading this thread). I would also like to make it clear that I would only use Apple Cider Vinegar and not White Vinegar.

 

I have tried a home made mix, often used by horse folk of cider vinegar, citronella, tea tree among other things as a spray on. It does seem to work when very first sprayed on but the flies are back within minutes. Haven't tried garlic but pretty sure they wouldn't eat it as they have a very good sense of smell - they won't even eat their breakfast if I have put their food out after using hand cream!

Edit...... Can anyone spot what today's problem may be???

 

red eye? LOL