Goat Troubles and Back to Farming

So, I think Daisy, the one who had triplets, might not have expelled all of the afterbirth.  She is still seeping lots of icky goo and blood.  It's normal for goats to have a bloody discharge for a couple of weeks after the birth of their kids, so I'm used to that.  But Daisy's is different and yesterday it started to stink.   In my mind, stink means infection.

So I called the vet today to ask him about it.  Our vet is great, by the way, he is always happy to give advice over the phone and tries to accommodate my silly notions about animals and their feelings.

As a side note, yesterday I took Buttercup's baby to the vet to get castrated.  It was the worst day of his life, I'm sure, and it might take him a while to trust me again since I'm the one who took him away from his mother (they both screamed bloody murder) and delivered him to that horrible place to be tortured.  Anyway, when I went to pick him up, I was reminded of what a brutal place the large animal clinic is.  As my luck would have it (and it has happened before), someone had a whole truckload of cows there being branded, and their horns cut off, pulled out, or whatever it is they do...it is truly ghastly.  So while I was waiting for someone to take a break and go get my little goat for me, I had to witness all of that and was nearly in tears and sick to my stomach.

Soo, I knew I did not want to take Daisy there.  When the vet suggested I bring her in so he could flush out her womb with an antibiotic wash, I told him that I really had hoped to avoid bringing her in because she is kind of a nervous goat and it would be too traumatic for her.  Without hesitation and without derision, he suggested another way to treat her...a shot of antibiotics that I could give myself and if I would come by the clinic and pick it up, he would show me what to do.

So, that's what I did.  And he was great and he gave me a pep talk, "You can do it!" because I was a bit hesitant having never given an animal a shot before.  And, I did do it and it was a piece of cake.  The hardest part was getting Daisy on the milking stand.  She's not trained to get up there like the other goats are (I'm working on that), so I had to put her front feet up then push and shove and lift her hind end up there.  Turns out it wasn't even necessary because she didn't even flinch.

If the antibiotic doesn't work, I will have to bite the bullet and take her to the clinic, so let's keep our fingers crossed.

On another note, her kid is slowly learning to nurse by himself.  He thinks I am the source of the food since I have been "helping" by holding the teat so that he could get it in his mouth.  Because of that, whenever he sees me, he runs to me expecting milk and he tries to suck on my fingers.  Just today he has been able to get the teat in his mouth without help, but I don't know if he is nursing in between the times that I'm there to see to it.

So, we have a bit of good news mixed in with the bad.

I laid the landscaping cloth on the floor of the greenhouse today, so it is ready for me to get some plants started.  I'll probably get started on that on Monday since we have guests coming this weekend and I am so behind on my house cleaning.  Also, had our teenage handyman come help me spread mulch on the flower beds.  It looks so nice, but I know the chickens are going to get in there and toss it all around and make a mess and I'm going to be mad.