Tickless

I arose a little bleary eyed today and as I opened the door to the living room I was attacked by a random swallow flying around wildly and trying to get out! What a start to the day!  Ten minutes of chasing it towards the open windows and we were done and I was able to run to the loo at last!

I stuck the kettle on and went down to let Rambo out and carry out the tick inspection. Hurray! The tick was gone. It suddenly occurred to me that it must still be in the porch and as Rambo went for his morning wee, I inspected the bed.... Yep, it was there, trying to escape. It got as far as my vinegar cup and got doused in some just for good measure. Her is the mouth gripper after overdosing on vinegar,

Mouth tick

Rambo already thinks I am mad, but we danced on the patio together and did a "woohoo" sound just in case he had any doubt. Then he got cuddles, from which he tried in vain to get away from and growled when he thought we were wrestling. Dogs!

Back up to the boiled kettle and I made myself my kick start to the day. I worked for a little while and just before 9am I printed off my request for the vet, using google translate obviously and headed off to see what I could manage. I found it easily after the neighbour sent me the directions on facebook yesterday and was pleasantly surprised that when I struggled to understand, the vet spoke a little English.  I bought a three month supply of drops for Rambo and some powder for the pups as they are not allowed anything too strong until they are six months. Result!

Straight back to the School and it was beyond Rambo's breakfast time. I had done this on purpose as I thought I could put the drops on whilst he was distracted by his food.  As it turns out, he gets a little grumpy when you poke and prod him when he is eating. I'm sure I almost lost a hand when I tried to put the drops on his ears, but we got there.  We made friends before I headed back inside for work.

I have been very busy again this week, which shouldn't be sniffed at, but of course as the warmer weather is arriving it is more difficult to motivate yourself to sit inside all day. I got there in the end.

Today, we had the drainage man turn up for the first time in over a week. He was delivered by two other men who were about to come on onto until they seen Rambo bounding towards them. I did laugh. They are just not used to big dogs being pets here at all.

I worked pretty much all day solidly and only headed out to make sure Rambo wasn't making a nuisance of himself at lunchtime. He was, unsurprisingly, but the workman said he was fine, so that's ok with me.

Work mates

I also took the opportunity to check Rambo's face for any sign of infection, but he's a healthy big lump and looks to be fine again.

Lovely face

No redness

You can see in the second picture the green collar strap. That is the medicated one I bought. I am pretty sure it was next to useless though. In the next shot, I am still undecided whether there is a tick attached to his eyelid. I believe it is an immature one. The females are generally smaller, but this does not seem to be filling up which is very strange. This is why I dropped some of the treatment above his eyebrow in the hope that whatever it is will drop off,

Eye spy

Anyway, I won't bore you all again with my gardening round and my excitement about the growth again, but I have to show you how many onions I will be eating in a few months! Look!

Onions

So, it is almost time for me to pour a beer and switch on the snooker. Tomorrow I have a half day leading into the bank holiday weekend and I am quite excited that the weather is set to be warmer. I had to light the petchka a little while ago!

Leka nosht!

A x

Tickgate

Just a very fast update for you all today as I have been up and working since 5am and have nothing else really to tell you.

The tick situation is as follows:

Last night I had taken some advice and poured some vinegar into a cup, took some cotton buds and went down to see if I could get to the ticks. It is very difficult to get Rambo to sit still. He either thinks you are playing, wants to lick you to death or he is so nosey that he throws his head around to the point of falling off just to get a look at what you are holding. I ended up pinning him down. This is quite an achievement for someone who probably may not even weigh as much as he does. Anyway, I got him lying down with a bit of a fight. With one hand I held his head and he finally remained still enough for me to dab each of the two ticks on his face with the cotton bud. Taking no chances and using my opportunity while I had it, I dabbed again. I kept hold of his head as he got back up and dabbed the other one that has attached itself to the corner of his mouth. Result! Rambo had a treat and looked at me like I was mad. He's probably right.

I woke this morning to a tick free face! Him, not me. Well ok, I had a tick free face too, thankfully! I was delighted and so relieved. However, the determined little bugger at the corner of his mouth remained. Gutted. So off I went again and got the cup, the vinegar and the cotton buds. His tail went between his legs when he saw me coming. I felt so bad. Getting at this one is particularly tricky because of where it is. Again, I pinned him and talked softly to him to calm him down. He responded well after a couple of moments and I was able to actually get right to the tick much better than I did last night. I also took the opportunity whilst he was calm and seemingly happy (and wagging his tail) to check him over and I wanted him to stay there and not lick his lips to wash the vinegar away.  I had a good look at his belly and legs, back, neck and side (only one as he was lying on the other). All clear. I even checked his ears and nothing seems to be hanging around, so that is good news.

As I said, I have been up at 5am and have worked all day so the vets trip didn't happen and I am hoping that tonight will see the end of the stubborn Mr Mouth Tick.

Goodnight all.

A x

Icky!

I had a day off from blogging yesterday and you got to see and hear all about the puppies back in the UK.

I didn't really do anything yesterday except for work. I did manage to get outside for the odd break with Rambo though and I got him playing with the oversized, bottom heavy Kong. Very funny, as he can just about manage to carry it.

Huge Kong

I did a watering round and spent some time in between files to look around at the growing vegetables. Some are coming along better than others, but at least they have not died!

So in this tray I can only remember that there is cabbage and cauliflower and the third lot may be broccoli, if memory serves me right.

Various veg

In the raised hot beds the sweetcorn has really made great progress too.

Corn

The fastest growing thing I have at the moment is the onion bed. I cannot believe how quickly these have shot up. I cannot wait to taste one!

Onions

And of course, let's not forget the one crop I will be especially proud off if they come good.  SPUDS!

Potaaaaatoes

It is surprising that after the winter we have had that anything actually survived at all. This Clematis is still growing strong. It really has come to life in the last week or so.

Clematis

Whilst looking at the Clematis, I noticed something flapping in the wind that seems to insist on blowing every day at the minute. This beautiful and rather large moth, at around two inches.

Beautiful moth

So that was yesterday. Now today, without the men around to keep me on the go I have basically sat at my desk and typed from 7am to 5pm. I did go down again to see Rambo this afternoon and I realised that he had something on his face. At first glance I thought it was mud from his puddle as it looked like drops of clay coloured dried soil. After a closer inspection I realised that it was something more. After some deliberation and finally getting a decent photo, Twitter kindly told me that they were ticks! Excellent. I love being here alone and getting all the icky stuff happen with nobody else to help me deal with it - no, really! He has two on his cheek, one on his lip and I am not sure that there isn't one attached to his eyelid, it looks small but it could be. I am also not sure if they would, could or have burrowed into his inner lip. Good grief, poor Rambo!

Urgh!

I have watched the "How to remove ticks" videos until I could do it blindfolded. The problem isn't really getting them out, it is getting him to sit still in order for me to get them out. No chance. Having had a good look around him I am convinced that there are just too many and mostly in very difficult areas, so tomorrow I will take him to the vets in our local town and he can deal with them. I managed to scoot out earlier this evening to try and find some treatment for them but the best I could find was a tick collar and I am not sure how effective this will be, if at all.

I really cannot work out where he has picked so many up from and my only thought was the lake, but I don't know if they congregate around water or not. I'm not up on tick habitat.

I am feeling very stressed about this, as you can imagine. I am really not good with all of this and would like now for the Mr to come back.

Signing off now and going to try to get an early night.

Leka nosht.

A x