Hygiene is King: Preventative Care

This goes hand in hand with my post about quarantine. Hygiene and cleanliness are not only important for you, but for your animals! Now, I'm not talking about getting neurotic here, but I am talking about cleaning up after your animals waste, making sure that things are put away so it's less of a hazard in the space you keep your animals and generally keeping things livable and workable for them and for you. If your animals live in a clean, tidy and healthy environment, you will dramatically lessen the amount of times you're treating your animals for illnesses. This is really important if you are looking at raising organic and antibiotic free livestock. Ask any small farmer and homesteader if they feel like a clean habitat will keep the animals healthier.

The subject matter especially comes to mind is because an acquaintance of mine has been attempting to breed birds for some time. Not farm birds, but pet birds. I've watched this person on Facebook and at first, I didn't really pay much mind to it. They had a couple of love birds, or parakeets something of that nature. Then they were posting pictures of eggs, talking about how they were going to be selling the birds to people as pets. But upon further inspection of what they were posting pictures of and talking about, I could see that while they had good intentions, they did not keep the cages or the environment as clean as they should.

Aside from the pictures that they posted, they also mentioned that they had misplaced the birds in the house. They had let them out to fly around and explore their home, and would often get buried under pillows, papers, clothing, et cetera,  because they were left unmonitored, and the house was not in the condition that you would or should let small animals roam free in. They regularly had lots of hatchlings and young birds that often die within a few days or months of being hatched, the birds demise likely related to what was probably poor health issues. Not to make any assumptions or judgments about why so many of their birds are dying.

If you aren't regularly cleaning, and sanitizing your animals' environment, and the environment you're exposing them to, then you you could have severe issues in the ways of livestock. The example I gave is just one extreme case. I believe that this person has no business trying to breed animals as there is a clear lack of understanding of basic animal care. Sometimes love is not enough if you aren't doing the basic and necessary things your animals need to survive. It's not my place to pass judgment, and that's not what I'm trying to do here. But, when that many animals die, and you don't change what you're doing. Then that is negligence. But I digress.

Keeping a daily, weekly and monthly cleaning schedule, will immensely reduce loss in livestock and improve the quality of the health of your animals. It would take very little effort to make small adjustments in your routine if there is an area you could improve upon in your livestock step up and routine. This could be something like incorporating DE to bedding, animal diet and care, or if you notice that instead of cleaning animal substrate just once a week, that you're still finding a substantial waste build up and you want to increase that to two or three times a week. There are lots of options and ways to do things that could improve your present maintenance system. Especially if you find yourself with a few sick animals here and there. Do some research and see what changes fit your farm or homestead best.

Just remember that you don't want to get set in your ways. Part of what will make you a successful homesteader or farmer is that things are always changing and to keep an open mind about how you're doing things. On the other hand, if people have been doing things are certain way for a long long time, there just might be a good reason for that. So research is another tool for you to embrace. ABL! Always Be Learning!

When it all boils down, you'll want to keep in mind that the health and welfare of your animals is what is at risk. If you've invested money, time or energy, then you're liable to take a loss. If you're having problems with your animals' health, don't hesitate to get a second opinion, a seasoned homesteader/farmer, or your veterinarian. Thanks so much for reading you guys! I'd love to hear about some of your own systems for healthy livestock keeping. What do you do to keep your livestock in good health? What are some of your cleaning routines?