It's Gonna Be a Bumpy Ride

Today is not a good day on the farm.

Tom had to leave for a business trip, which automatically means that something must go wrong.

I was feeding the goats before he left and noticed that one of the Boers wouldn't get up to eat.  It is never a good sign if they don't come running and knocking each other out of the way to get their fair share of sweet feed.

She will only lay on the ground and moan.  I couldn't prod her or pull her up.

Thank goodness Tom was still here at this point so he was able to hook up the livestock trailer and with the help of a friend, drag her by the horns into the trailer and take her to the vet.  My guess was that she had worms and the vet confirmed it.  Worms can kill a goat quickly.  This goat's babies are less than a month old and she wouldn't get up to nurse them even though they were clamouring all over her.

So, the vet gave her a nutritional supplement and gave Tom instructions to worm her and all the other goats today and again next week.  Of course, Tom won't be here and had to come straight home and get ready to catch his flight right away, so the worming and supplement chore is all mine.  Normally, that is not a problem.  I worm the Nubians by myself by locking their head between my knees and squirting the medicine into their mouths.  But the Nubians don't have horns and they are tame and used to me handling them.  The Boers have big long horns and, although they are not aggressive, they won't tolerate me locking their head between my legs and those horns hurt when they hit you.  They are too strong for me to handle myself.

I was able to worm the sick one because she won't get up, but all I could do for the healthy ones is to put the wormer on their food.  They don't like the taste and didn't want to eat it.  When I went back later to check, they had reluctantly eaten it, but I don't know who ate it or if any of them got a full dose.

Another issue is that this momma looks like her milk is drying up and she won't let the kids nurse.  I tried bottle feeding them, but knew it was futile to begin with.  When they are used to nursing, they won't switch to a bottle.  All they did was yell while I was holding them and forcing the bottle in their mouth.

At least Tom killed the snakes that were eating the eggs in the chicken coop last night so that's not something I'm going to have to deal with on my own.

Oh yeah, and if you live near me, come get some eggs.  We are so overrun with eggs that I didn't half mind sharing them with the snakes...creepy as they are.