FergusonK's journal - Goodbye Java Jewel.

Goat Whisperer

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Catching up here....

LOVE LOVE that you are helping that lamancha doe! I'm partial to the manchas though :love who knows, she may end up being a great brood doe. I know some folks who bought a very high end Lucky Star doe, she had bad mastitis and ruined her show career. Anyway they got that doe for $100 and treated the mastitis aggressively. She lost the use of half her udder, but even with that she was still a gorgeous girl. I saw her when she was 9 years old and was still going strong. I think they have kept every doeling out of her.

Congrats on the new guy!

Saw your post about your pig, glad she's doing better!
 

Ferguson K

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Thank you! Zinnia is doing well. She's gained a LOT of weight this last week. We're shoving feed and forage down her. Her udder is improving but I'm not holding my breath yet. We plan on breeding her next year to give her a little recovery time. Getting more milk out of her now and it's no longer chunky.

Rita is eating this evening, even fought for food. Her improvement is also one I'm not holding my breath on. We're about to worm them again, the vet thinks the problem may have also been related to her recent worm overload.

Me being sick the last two days has taken a toll on everyones milk production. I haven't been pulling kids and we've only gotten a quart in two days... the piglets and Richard have quickly diminished our supply. He's getting 16oz 3x daily, his first feeding at the house finished off what I had in the fridge. The girls held out on me this evening, and, he's barely going to have enough for breakfast. :fl:hide

Guess I'll pick up milk replacer just in case. With the rain we're expecting through the weekend I don't feel comfortable pulling kids. They stress.
 

babsbag

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Really happy that Zinnia is doing well, she looked pretty bad in the picture on the milk stand. Hope that she continues to improve and gives you many years of silly laMancha antics; they can be real silly.

Your mini nubian is adorable. Is he polled? It is my understanding that in order for a goat to throw polled kids they must be polled. There is no skipping generations or "carrying" the polled gene. I have 6 polled does, I have been collecting them. It started with one doe 7 years ago and I now have 6, two were born this year. I LOVE not dealing with horns.
 

TAH

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Your new ones are so cute and beautiful.
 

backyardbunnies

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I'm looking for a male French lop with pedigree for my sister in Minnesota close to Andover area but willing to drive
 

Baymule

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Poor Zinnia! She is so blessed to have you for her new goat Momma! I know she will be sleek and gorgeous in no time. Glad your pig is doing better too.

Here comes more rain! I hope you can get back and forth to work ok. The water hasn't even gone down much from last week, and here comes more. Stay safe.
 

Ferguson K

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I have really really got to get the fence put back together. Going to go out tomorrow and finish cutting up the tree so I can make the fence hot again. This is the second day in a row the bucks have been in the doe pen chasing the girls. No one acted receptive, and all the girls were running for their lives. I'm hoping this means nobody was bred however I'm still going to mark the calendar.

Karma who normally only gives us a couple ounces at a time gave us almost a full quart this evening. I was really surprised by that but I will take it. She may earn her keep after all. Zinnia has put on so much weight and her coat is so much shinier she looks like a completely different goat. I'm amazed what just a few days a proper feed and care will do. I made my first payment on the pair today, and will not be receiving Damsels paperwork until I make the final payment. But at least I have Zinnia's. Her half-sister got reserve best in show a couple of days ago and also got best-of-breed. I'm hoping that once the mastitis clears up and I breed her again next year I might be able to show her, but I'm leaning more towards showing Damsel as she has the most promise.

Richard is a riot. I may need to bottle raise more babies. I really enjoy the bond that he and I are already sharing.

Let's not forget Simon and all the chaos with the goats in the pigs, little Simon is growing up way too quickly for my liking. He's on solid foods now but still hasn't learned how to use litter box. The other night he took a poop on Johns head, he woke up and was furious. At least it was just on the pillow and not on him himself but it was still funny to me. He is still getting bi-weekly bathes, and is on full time flea medicine now. Like a big boy. I just enjoy keeping that white coat clean so he will continue to get bathes until he stops letting me give them to him.

20160602_095645.jpg
 

babsbag

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Isn't he a beautiful kitten. :love I have raised puppies, goats, doves, rabbits, mice, chicks, and keets but kittens still win my heart. I have done quite a few bottle baby litters and I told my vet that no more right now, too busy building a dairy...unless of course it is a Siamese or better yet a Snowshoe. Yes...I'm a sucker.
 

Ferguson K

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I have always wanted to Siamese, and told myself one day maybe later in life I would purchase one that was pure bred. However life seems to have no problem handing me problem cats, cats that need rescuing, or starving cats on my front porch. All of the cats that I've had in the last ten or twelve years have appeared in my life for no reason. The cat I had for 10 years, I found one morning in my engine. She died of kidney failure about four years ago. Ko-T was found in my engine as well, on the freeway, and survived 30 miles tucked into the spot where my wiper fluid holder was on that car.

Frankie appeared at my driveway as a tiny kitten and was bottle raised. Gator was pulled out of the pipes in my old apartment and she's the most honory cat! Such an attitude. She also thinks it's okay to jump up from the ground climb up your side and ride around on your shoulder like a parrot. Mickey was left at the store by a customer and I took him home.

Before Dyno (whom I had 10+ years) and during her time a few cats appeared and left again. A few special cats, like Annie who we rescued from high rising floor waters with a kitten in her mouth during a hurricane, stayed with us for their lifetime. Or like Tuftywho was born with his littermates on the coldest day of the year outside in the rain. They all survived, but we kept him. Or DeeDee who I had for 2 years before a car ended her life. Titan brought Dee home when she was about 2 days old. Annie cat adopted her and raised her.

The car I had before and slightly overlapping Dyno was Rtse (pronounced Artsy ). My cat eating GSD Chance had him in his doghouse. They were good friends until Chance died (old age), then we got Rtse fixed and he became a fat house cat. One day Rtse went missing and I found him a few days later in the ditch up the road from us with a bullet hole in his leg. He had to have an emergency surgery and lost a leg.

It's like my house attracts the strange and unordinary. Heck, even the dogs I've had and still have are all exceptionally strange in their own way.

But I digress.
 
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