A local nursery swears by Milorganite, which they actually place small handfuls of into panty-hose and hang it every 30 feet around the perimeter of the property to keep deer out. Not sure about it's other critter-repelling qualities, though. Here is a link that might be useful: Milorganite Organic Products

How did your duck get injured? You don't by any chance have a pond with snapping turtles do you? It's tough to get vet help for poultry. I have chickens and geese and meat rabbits. The vet in town would look at a rabbit, but I would have to pay for an office visit. Once I asked if I could just get an antibiotic eye ointment for a couple of kits with "nest box eye". Not without an office visit... and that would cost several times what the kits were worth. I doctored them myself with human eye ointment, but the results were far from perfect. However, since the kits were headed for the freezer anyhow in short order, I let it slide. Lesson learned. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I always change the litter in a nest box now just before they kits eyes are due to open. I haven't had many ailing chickens and if one was sick or hurt beyond home remedies I would euthenize it. The geese are a little different. I feel about them the way you do about your duck. I am fortunate that Jason Cain from Performance Poultry (the local hatchery where I buy my birds) is always willing to give advice by email or over the phome -- and has even been known to drop in to check out a gimpy goose. He is a vet tech, so is knowledgeable about illnesses and injuries. So far the geese have been very healthy and although they occasionally do hurt a foot, it has not been anything that rest would not heal. While I've been rambling on here, it came into my mind that there is a website worth bookmarking for future reference. It's a bit technical, but don't let it scare you off... it has lots of information about the kinds of things the backyard animal raiser is likely to see. Another excellent resource are the forums: this one, Homesteading Today and Backyard Chickens are three good ones that come to mind. You soon get to know whose advice to trust, and some of the members are extremely knowledgeable. Here is a link that might be useful: Merck Vet Manual

I have a half acre, all that's left of the original 300 acre farm. I'm surrounded by 1950's raised ranches. We have 2 indoor cats, 9 of 10 koi, and a German Shepherd that thinks the cats are rabbits in the house. Poor kitties live in fear, but he's such a great dog otherwise, I just work around it. We have a few rabbits and squirrels outside, and I've seen an occasional possom and raccoon. The dog tends to keep them all at a distance. Ideally, we'd have at least 2 acres, maybe up to 10 or 20, and I'd get the dog a playmate. My daughter would love to have horses, but she really doesn't understand the work they require. Two acres would give us room for the dog to run, more room for a pool and a basketball court and gardens. Always ;-) Hunzi

Thanks for the link to the furminator and all your tips. I will also look for that charcoal for the litter boxes. I understand why someone may miss the house bc of no lock box, but I can't take the chance that someone would come over without calling me. I do work mornings and would be very upset if one of my critters got out of the house while I was not here. We already lost a cat that way when we remodeled this house. I will have to buy one of those furminators. It looks like it works great. One of my cats is a Persian and I usually get his hair cut in the spring and summer in a lion cut to help keep down the fine hair that floats off him or comes off in clumps. My dog is a 5 lb. toy poodle so he doesn't really shed. He just gets groomed every 4-6 weeks. Because of his size I do not leave him alone outside at all. And I always pick up outside right away, so no worry about stepping in any doggie stuff here. Besides we will probably still have snow on the ground when I sell. I already have an allergic free vaccumm, so I just gotta remember to really go around and vaccuum everything every other day if I can (including the curtains where the cats end up rubbing against). Fortunately, we live in an area in upstate NY where the housing market is still stable. Our houses did go up in price, but did not rise as much as some other areas on the east coast. Also, there is new industry starting to come in here so people are still buying here. Most of the homes for sale near me have already sold this year so I am hoping that next spring will be good still. I think I will stick to appointment only and probably for qualified buyers only as our house although not the most expensive in town, is one of the more expensive and nicer ones. We will be moving out of state into a rental if and when we sell as my new home is yet to be built. So we will have some time to list this home if it doesn't sell right away. We are still working with an architect on the design and the house build is to start at the earliest in fall 08