Homestead One Day

Category: Pond

Gator vs goose :( Very sad situation for all involved.

By

On October 13, 2022

In Animal Health, Geese, Livestock, Pond, Wildlife

WARNING: VERY GRAPHIC PICTURES AT BOTTOM!!!!!

A good sized (6 foot plus) gator managed to get into the pond without me noticing. Had I know it was there, I would not have let the geese in the yard-but they were free ranging on the property that day.

The gator snuck up on and grabbed one of my geese! Someone was outside and got me after noticing the goose flapping frantically across the pond…and then noticed the gator following it.

I ran outside and grabbed the goose out of the weeds at the pond’s edge, less than six feet away from the gator who was still coming for its dinner! Too late though…the gator had already torn large chunks of skin off my poor baby. Luckily for me, the gator stayed in the water.

After getting the rest of the flock to go into the fenced area (not an easy task while holding one of them), I took her inside to try and treat her. I sprayed her wounds with Vetericyn Wound Spray and put gauze pads dampened with the same spray over the open areas. She ended up with 2 large areas and several smaller areas down to the muscle

I then wrapped her with vet wrap to hold the gauze in place and put her in a plastic carrier with puppy pads in it (bedding would stick to the wounds). She was in the shower enclosure and I closed the door so she’d stay warm, leaving the light on for her and checking her every 20 min. I offered her a bowl of warm water with a little molasses in it, she drank about half of it during the rest of the day.

A couple hours later on one of my checks I noticed she was breathing heavily. My heart sank as I somehow knew this was the end. I picked her up and held her and comforted her the best I could, tell her what a good girl she is. She laid her head on my shoulder and calmed down…and then shortly passed away.

RIP girl…you were loved.

I hate this part of having animals.

(and no, no animal is allowed to free range any more until I figure out how to keep alligators out of a pond)

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For those who may be trying to figure out what got their animal, I’m including her injury pictures. Please do not share without permission.

Pond muck icky … bacteria good

By

On October 11, 2022

In Pond

In an attempt to help clear the foot…maybe two…of muck at the bottom of my pond , I’ve been using pond bacteria. It’s been over 8 months now and I think it’s helping. I say “think” because I haven’t gone in the pond in a while… but when I first started using this huge clumps of stuff would come up to the surface off the bottom. You also used to be able to sit and watch bubble going blurp blurp and then clumps of decayed stuff would float around.

After a few months of using the pond bacteria and aeration, only rarely do I get the floating clumps of ew and there are no more bottom bubbles coming up. I tried not doing the bacteria and ended up with a scummy film on top of the water….so back to the bacteria I went.

I ended up going with the one I could find on amazon because it was cheaper than anything else for the sizes that I needed. When I spoke to a couple of pond companies, they indicated that it was a good one to use (after telling them I can’t afford theirs!).

The bacteria (HERE) comes in a gallon jug. I just poke the seal (never had a leak in shipping either!) and walk along the bank squirting it in. Other types are in pellet form and you throw them in, and I’ve read about powders but haven’t found any for sale. So if your pond is gross, try out one of the bacteria offerings for a couple of months! Hopefully they keep the pricing down though…some of them are a bit high.

Pond water settling experiment

By

On May 8, 2022

In Pond

In trying to determine why I can’t see anything in the pond, I decided to do a settling test. Below is a fresh jar of pond water (the green is due to blue dye I put in to control algae):

This is after sitting overnight! The water itself is clear…my issue is the organic muck on the bottom of the pond.

I already am running 4 aerators and have been using pond bacteria for a year in an attempt to help clear it up. Our lack of rain isn’t helping as the pond water level shrinks and concentrates the organics.

I’ll be looking into getting estimates of having the pond muck dredged out next….

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