I am sure many of you have heard the old wives tale that goats will eat tin cans and are extremely hardy, but those apparently are not the same goats that live on my property! Just in the past week I have had a baby with joint ill, two babies that ate something poisonous and were throwing up their cud, an adult with diarrhea and a temperature, a kid with pneumonia and two wethers that got their heads stuck so badly in my daughters stroller that they were screaming. This is all in a herd of only 30 goats!!!!
This is why I stress the importance of having a well stocked first aid kit, because I was able to treat and remedy all of these situations without a vet trip other than the kid with joint ill, she required two kinds of antibiotics for 10 days that I did not have on hand! She was a very interesting case, as she came in from the field one day limping and I assumed she had been stepped on since she did not have a fever. I treated her with pain medication for several days with no improvement, so I assumed she had broken her leg and made a quick vet appointment. After her x-ray the vet did not see anything so we aligned to treat it like a bad case of joint ill. After about 5 days of antibiotics and pain medications, she developed a massive abscess below her hock that drained approximately a quarter cup of puss, that I flushed with peroxide, a few days later she had another abscess develop on the top of her hock, after draining a significant amount of puss from the top of her hock, she was immediately walking better! Thankfully, 5 days later, all that is left is a few scabs and lack of hair, she is a walking, happy bouncing goat.
The next day I walked into the barn and I saw two kids throwing up their cud, and sadly I have been through this before, this is a telltale sign of a goat that ate something poisonous. I suspect poke berries. I jumped into action as I always keep activated charcoal paste on hand, so I went to administer it and it was completely dried out. So I pivoted and thankfully I had activated charcoal pills, which I made into a slurry and administered to the goats, when I went to check on them a few hours later they were significantly better, so I was very thankful for that!
The kid with pneumonia and the adult with diarrhea both reared their heads on the same day, they both received nuflour and probiotics which by the afternoon had rectified their issues.
The very next day, I was taking care of the goats and my wethers got their heads stuck so badly in the bottom of my daughters stroller, that they were both screaming in pain. I was unable to get them unstuck, so I started yelling for my husband, who was able to come out and remove the chair part of the stroller and get the goats unstuck. He turned to me and asked what I would have done had he not been there..... well I would likely not have a functional stroller.... I would have taken the sawsall to the stroller to get them out.
Long story short, I am ready for a few easy days with healthy goats. I hope you all have had more boring weeks than I have, take care, stay cool in this heat wave and happy goating!
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