Wehner Homestead
Herd Master
As many of you know, we basically rescued a Nubian doe two nights ago from slaughter. Unfortunately, she’s in really rough shape and has an approximate survival chance of 50%.
Blossom turned 5 in January and has ADGA papers. After being bought last spring to be a milk goat for bottle lambs, she didn’t produce like they thought she should and nothing was done to find out why. She was taken to a family member’s house and dumped out to be a companion for a horse. Said horse died a few months ago, family member had abdominal surgery, a child in the family was diagnosed with cancer, and one of my 4-H kids called to see if I’d take her so she wasn’t culled. I agreed.
When she got off the trailer, I knew we were in for it. I fell in love at first sight and it was obvious that she was in horrible condition.
As moving is stressful, we placed her in a pen with mineral, water, and hay for the night. She made it clear that she wanted attention and enjoyed it.
Yesterday morning, I started evaluating her more closely and did small things as the day progressed. I knew her body condition score was horrible but getting my hands on her whole body found almost no cover on any of her bones. All of her hooves were overgrown by more than two inches and appeared painful. Her coat was very roughing and shedding crazily.
In an attempt to go slowly and knowing that the road to recovery wouldn’t be a fast one, I fed her a palm full each of beet pulp, dairy goat feed, and alfalfa pellets. I made sure she also had plenty of hay and water.
I also made plans to drop a stool off to the vet to have her evaluated for worms. She was found to have stomach worms and Cydectin was ordered. While there, I was also given BoSe for her.
(Disclaimer: I am not a vet and don’t claim to be. I have used the best judgment possible to try to treat Blossom properly and follow my heart. I do realize that I could lose her at any point and that the treatments could shock her fragile system and kill her just as easily.)
I gave Blossom some red cell to help support her system and gave her BoSe. (I hadn’t given red cell before and didn’t realize how complete the values are. In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have done both.)
My vet said to give my 98# goat (should be 140#) 20 ml cydectin orally. I wasn’t comfortable with this and only gave her a half dose. I realize that it won’t kill all of the worms right away but I don’t think she could survive the shock of a full dose. I plan to wait five days and give her Safeguard as I didn’t have any on hand but will by then. (Her mucosal color was white like paper!)
DH helped me with Blossom since she’s too big for my ND milkstand. He held onto her collar and she stood while I trimmed her hooves. I was thankful to find no fungi or rot under the extra growth. Her hooves aren’t perfect but much better and she seems more comfortable standing now. I’ll continue to monitor them weekly and trim as necessary, as she progresses.
We also gave her a probios bolus to make sure she has plenty of good bacteria in her gut.
Finally, we picked some fresh grass for her since she was eating grass before and gave her some. Blossom seemed to enjoy that. Her quarantine pen is near the front of the barn so she gets lots of attention as everyone walks by.
I bought her some sweet feed as that’s what she was given with the horse before. I gave her about 3/4 cup last night.
This is going to be slow going but we believe that Blossom is worth it. The light is still in her eyes and she loves attention. All three kids are attached and calling her “Mommy’s goat.” DH has made it clear that we will do whatever it takes to help her recover.
I plan to update this thread as frequently as possible so that everyone can follow along.
Pics of Blossom from Thursday evening:
Pics of Blossom from yesterday (Friday):
(I couldn’t find unsweetened beet pulp at the farm store that I went to yesterday so I’ll stop after work today at another.)
DH was going to check her hay and water this morning. He was also going to give her about 3/4 cup of sweet feed.
Blossom turned 5 in January and has ADGA papers. After being bought last spring to be a milk goat for bottle lambs, she didn’t produce like they thought she should and nothing was done to find out why. She was taken to a family member’s house and dumped out to be a companion for a horse. Said horse died a few months ago, family member had abdominal surgery, a child in the family was diagnosed with cancer, and one of my 4-H kids called to see if I’d take her so she wasn’t culled. I agreed.
When she got off the trailer, I knew we were in for it. I fell in love at first sight and it was obvious that she was in horrible condition.
As moving is stressful, we placed her in a pen with mineral, water, and hay for the night. She made it clear that she wanted attention and enjoyed it.
Yesterday morning, I started evaluating her more closely and did small things as the day progressed. I knew her body condition score was horrible but getting my hands on her whole body found almost no cover on any of her bones. All of her hooves were overgrown by more than two inches and appeared painful. Her coat was very roughing and shedding crazily.
In an attempt to go slowly and knowing that the road to recovery wouldn’t be a fast one, I fed her a palm full each of beet pulp, dairy goat feed, and alfalfa pellets. I made sure she also had plenty of hay and water.
I also made plans to drop a stool off to the vet to have her evaluated for worms. She was found to have stomach worms and Cydectin was ordered. While there, I was also given BoSe for her.
(Disclaimer: I am not a vet and don’t claim to be. I have used the best judgment possible to try to treat Blossom properly and follow my heart. I do realize that I could lose her at any point and that the treatments could shock her fragile system and kill her just as easily.)
I gave Blossom some red cell to help support her system and gave her BoSe. (I hadn’t given red cell before and didn’t realize how complete the values are. In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have done both.)
My vet said to give my 98# goat (should be 140#) 20 ml cydectin orally. I wasn’t comfortable with this and only gave her a half dose. I realize that it won’t kill all of the worms right away but I don’t think she could survive the shock of a full dose. I plan to wait five days and give her Safeguard as I didn’t have any on hand but will by then. (Her mucosal color was white like paper!)
DH helped me with Blossom since she’s too big for my ND milkstand. He held onto her collar and she stood while I trimmed her hooves. I was thankful to find no fungi or rot under the extra growth. Her hooves aren’t perfect but much better and she seems more comfortable standing now. I’ll continue to monitor them weekly and trim as necessary, as she progresses.
We also gave her a probios bolus to make sure she has plenty of good bacteria in her gut.
Finally, we picked some fresh grass for her since she was eating grass before and gave her some. Blossom seemed to enjoy that. Her quarantine pen is near the front of the barn so she gets lots of attention as everyone walks by.
I bought her some sweet feed as that’s what she was given with the horse before. I gave her about 3/4 cup last night.
This is going to be slow going but we believe that Blossom is worth it. The light is still in her eyes and she loves attention. All three kids are attached and calling her “Mommy’s goat.” DH has made it clear that we will do whatever it takes to help her recover.
I plan to update this thread as frequently as possible so that everyone can follow along.
Pics of Blossom from Thursday evening:
Pics of Blossom from yesterday (Friday):
(I couldn’t find unsweetened beet pulp at the farm store that I went to yesterday so I’ll stop after work today at another.)
DH was going to check her hay and water this morning. He was also going to give her about 3/4 cup of sweet feed.
She reminds me so much of Ruby. 
