Garrapatas

My new word of the day, garrapatas (ticks) 🙄 I know fleas and ticks are a problem here. Our dog was covered with fleas when we got her.(a bit of her story here https://blog.thepanamaadventure.com/2017/06/06/our-new-dog/) Her fur is so thick that I had no luck with flea baths, so I ended up getting her a pill which worked. When I took her to be spayed (when she was still living on the street) they said she had tick fever, so I gave her antibiotics every day for a month. Neighbors have also had ticks and have mentioned treatments for tick fever.

Avionetta came to live with us in June, 2017. Once we got all her issues cleared up we have had almost no fleas and ticks. I brought back some of that medicine that you apply to the back of the neck and I think I’ve only used it once. She stays in our yard and doesn’t roam the neighborhood, and our only neighbors with a common boundary are in the house next door with two chihuahuas who don’t spend much time outdoors.

We had some really heavy rains at the end of the rainy season, and we lost part of the wall supporting the fence on the northeast side of the yard. Last week I discovered that Avionetta had figured out that she could go through an opening in the wall and make her way down into the woods. I have a feeling that she got the ticks down there. Joel discovered one on her back, and when we examined her closely we found dozens of the little devils, especially in her armpits behind her front legs. Of course I gave her a dose of the medicine, and we found some more ticks the next day. Today, four days later, we found maybe 5 ticks and they barely move, like they are half dead (which is good, hopefully an indication that the medicine is helping). Before, if you put a tick on the table it would immediately run off.

Researching how to remove ticks and then practicing the skill over and over, this was not in my plans this week. I am very thankful that she is a super good dog and cooperated fully with all our fussing. I am thankful that she is a super good dog in general and she has been a wonderful member of the family. And from now on I’m going to treat her monthly, routinely, so we don’t have any further problems!

in the living room

So, that’s some of the news of the week. Other than that, it’s definitely summer and day after day has been super windy. We have three tall banana trees. One was tipping over into another, so Joel cut those two down. Now we have one tall banana and various pups coming up. Bananas are cool but when they fruit, they make a ton of fruit and we’re forever cleaning off dead leaves because I don’t like the way they look. Maybe at this stage of life, less bananas is a good thing.

The power was out all morning. I’m not surprised in all this wind. This doesn’t happen very often and they always get it going again in a few hours. The water, however, seems to be out almost every day (thankfully it comes back at night). I’m very thankful that we have a tank. Outages seem to be common especially in summer when supplies are low because there is very little rain. I’m also thankful that the power and the water weren’t out at the same time because we need the pump to use the water in the tank. Living here is a lesson in not taking things for granted. Electricity and clean water are luxuries in much of the world.

Now it’s 11PM and the winds have finally calmed. It’s about 72 degrees, very light breeze, and a beautiful time to be outside on the terrace. Many people say David is way too hot. The afternoon sun is definitely intense but the nights are gorgeous! Hopefully next week will bring new words that are more fun than garapatas, but any new words I can learn are always useful. I hope you all have a good weekend free of garapatas, pulgas (fleas), and all other annoying posts!