Sunshine, one of our 12 week old baby goats born on our farm, woke up the other day with ear crusties all over her ear and that whole side of her face. Upon opening up the ear flap I saw that gooey white ooze was seeping out! Perhaps it was not a full on infection because there was no smell, but regardless, whatever was going on was not something that should be happening.
First we cleaned it with salt water, removing all the crusties from the outer ear and side of face. Then we applied mullein/garlic oil inside of the ear and rubbed the ear gently so that the oil could go deep inside of the ear. I also sprayed the ear (on the outside and flap, not really down the ear canal) with some colloidal silver spray and dropped some into her water bucket as well. We did this twice a day 3 times (a day and a half) and it completely cleared up. There is no longer any sign of anything happening with her ear.
I so often see posts on FB by people who say there’s no way to treat things naturally. Those people haven’t even tried; they just parrot off what they have heard. I’m going to work on being better at sharing things that come up on the farm, our treatment, and how many days til success (or if there’s not success, then how long we waited and tried something else perhaps less natural). FWIW we haven’t used chemicals on our farm in 16 months and we did feel we had to that time because we lost a goat and were still in a learning curve. Knowing what we know now, it would not have gotten to the point where we needed chemicals. We live, we learn.
Each animal breed has a learning curve. We must learn a new language for each animal type. We must learn how their bodies work on the farm with what we’ve got (flat land, clay or sandy loam soil, hot/humid conditions, etc). We must learn their needs, of course, too.
We are to the point of knowing goats very well. We can energetically sense when they are “off.” We can also tell by the way they move, the way they sound, the way they are acting. Just like most of us who grew up with dogs can tell when our dogs are off, right? But animals are all different and it requires learning a new language each time. Right now we are learning llama language. Until we are fluent in Llama we will need to be extra careful, staying on top of things, checking and double checking the health of our llama herd, as we don’t yet “feel” the signs when something is amiss.
The same goes for our animals’ names. We have gotten to a point of hearing our animals talking to us. We allow them to choose their names. I always have great ideas–choosing themed baby names, or all the same letter, etc. But in the end the animals tell us what they want to be called. Adults have come to our farm with names that stayed. Adults have come to the farm requesting new names. It really depends on the animals. And would I have picked these names myself? Most of the time absolutely not, haha! But I respect the wishes of the animals.
I had a family farm tour last week and the dad was telling me about his amazing garden; a yard on a corner lot with gardens that wrap around the side of the house with bamboo, tomatoes, herbs, and so many other things. He made it sound easy. Towards the end of the tour I asked him if he could hear plants talking to him. He did not hesitate–he said he could. I had thought this was probably the case. For us we don’t hear plants talking. We don’t have a green thumb. It may be something you can learn up to a certain point but I think a lot of it is a gift you are born with. For us we know our animals. For others they know plants. And I think that’s the point of living in community–we can share our gifts with others in order to thrive as a society. I don’t have to be good at gardening. I don’t have to butcher my animals. I don’t have to master it all.
I talk to animals and animals talk to me. I tend animals with herbs. I follow their lead. I love them, I respect them, and I give them what they need to thrive. That is my gift. My 8th grade English teacher, Ms. Angela Moore, made guesses at the end of the year about what each student would become. Her guess for me? Something that involved animals, of course!
Do you have a gift similar to what I’m talking about or is this a new concept? Perhaps trees speak to you. Perhaps you can read messages in the clouds. Nature does speak to us if only we know how to listen. <3