This Is How I Kept My Livestock Alive During The Disaster -

Taking care of livestock during a natural disaster’s fallout is… whew. I’m still sore in places that I didn’t know I could be sore in and, to be brutally honest, I only did about half of the hard work. This is how I kept my livestock alive during the disaster.

My little brother fell in with me and worked himself senseless, too. Is it doable? Sure, if you have access to water.

Is it preferable? That all depends on your outlook. Today, we’ll be looking at a variety of ways to keep your livestock healthy and happy when everything is absolutely destroyed. Let’s get started.

The Hoofstock

Listening to the screams of my sheep in the dark while the wind whipped at 100 mph through my farm, knowing that we were told we were getting 15 mph winds at most, and realizing there was nothing that could be done, sucked.

There’s no other word for it. It sucked. A lot.

Thankfully, we didn’t lose anybody, but some of them were very drawn down. Other than just water, feed, forage (they had SO many delicious tree stars to eat), and hay, some of them were visibly affected just by the really rough weather.

Related: I Wish I Stockpiled These Before The Hurricane Hit

We’d purchased rolls of hay for each pasture the weekend prior to Hurricane Helene, so we lucked up on hay. The troughs were full of water from the storm, so we lucked up there, too. For the first few days, anyway. We buy feed by the pallet, so that was fine.

Our biggest problem was an elderly ram who came out with an enormous worm bloom from the stress of the storm and went down. We dewormed, gave him some Gatorade (always have a few gallons of full-sugar Gatorade around for small ruminants), and boosted him with a couple of pumps of Nutridrench.

Though it took some time in a sling, he did eventually get back up and running around. We also had to do this with a couple of heavily pregnant ewes who tried to go into toxemia on us. Because of course, they did.

Horses

The horses didn’t want to drink, eat, or continue living in this scary and sad world that we had clearly forced them into. That is so mean of me.

We went through a 5lb bucket of peppermints in about a week and a half. Crushing these with a drink muddler in a cup until they were a powder then sprinkling them over their feed brought their interest back up. Getting them to eat forage was a little harder, but we simply walked out and plucked some grass then offered it with a whole candy or two.

Getting them to drink the bitter water we were able to get was an entirely different story. Sure, powdered Gatorade can be used here, too, to help flavor the water and add electrolytes, but it wasn’t enough.

Related: I Visited An Amish Farm. This Is How It Went

We sprinkled in a little cinnamon and the horses went nuts, sucking down gallon after gallon like they hadn’t had a full tub right in front of them the whole time.

Perhaps our biggest problem was that of the destruction the horse fences saw from falling trees, limbs, and debris. Our go-to? Quick cattle panel patching is something that we still have because it’s going to take months to fix all of it.

Absolutely months and months. If you can afford them, keep as many cattle panels on your property as you can. They’re 16 ft long and can create fantastic, rigid fencing as quickly as you can drag them over there and zip-tie them up. I realize a lot of you already know this, but keep in mind that newer homesteaders may not.

Poultry

We had to deal with a chicken that was slung into a fence because, for whatever reason, she poked her fool head out in the middle of the storm and got pitched. She had trouble walking and, while I am not a veterinarian so I don’t know if chickens can get concussions, it sure seems that she had one.

My go-to cure for her was a little crushed aspirin (you can easily buy this at any chain feed store) and a quiet, dark box. We raise dubia roaches for our crested gecko collection, so I’d bring her out of the quiet box and offer her a dozen of those a few times a day as well as tubing her water since she could not drink.

Related: Why You Should Raise Ducks Instead Of Chickens

I am proud to tell you that she came back full force on day 8 (with marked improvement on days 2 and 6) and has been back out with the flock ever since. It is November when I am writing this. She is still laying well into the darker season.

If you do not have some form of insect, I would recommend meat-based baby food. They need protein when they are hurt like this. Give them what they need.

Dogs, Cats, and Everyone Else Around These Parts

While enjoying the homesteading life, we also have a small handful of reptiles that we breed now and then. Keeping them at the correct temperatures was a nightmare and, unfortunately, we did lose a crested gecko. She was very elderly, but it’s still disappointing.

The reptiles primarily received misting (as much as they could stand) as soon as the sun was down. This gave them a big cooling period during the evenings.

The farm cats were rounded up and are currently living in a 20 ft x 25 ft cheap emergency dog pen/chicken coop thing we got off of Amazon as soon as all of that was back up and running.

Related: If You Have Pets, Get Rid Of These Plants Immediately!

Perhaps the hardest part was the dogs and continues to be. Our livestock guardians want to back out with their charges, but the fences are still being repaired.

My suggestion? Take your livestock dogs on a walk now and then so they can see their sheep and goat friends. It does wonders for their minds and lets them know that everything is still okay. It also lets them mark important scent posts to help keep predators away.

Hauling in water in 5-gallon buckets (until we got the well going) was awful, especially considering the hundreds of gallons we needed every day. However, it is doable. Wear gloves. The wire handles will cut into your hands. If you are stuck in a situation like this, know that you can’t stop. Keep going.

They depend on you.

Post in the comments below if you have a similar story; we’d really like to connect with you and hear about what happened. Thanks for reading!

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