rachels.haven's Journal

[rachels.haven]

We kids didn't check, but he couldn't do his job later when we convinced Mom and Dad to let us have some half dutch babies.
That was the rabbit we'd walk around on a leash and eventually we figured out he didn't need a leash because he'd always come back...to try to hump our shoes. It would not go well for that rabbit if he got loose in the wild.
I wish I could say he learned something from his frozen encounter, but no, he certainly did not.

 

[Baymule]

A rabbit humping a frozen water bottle sure is funny. Humping your shoes is funny too!

 

[Ridgetop]

I love the way after doing his job the buck sort of freezes and then just falls off!

 

[rachels.haven]

I haven't posted in long enough my journal migrated to lower down to page two on my list of watched threads. I guess it's time for an update.

I've had trouble getting enough hay this year, but I think we're set to be squared away now. I was able to pick up some really nice hay for $14.50 earlier, when one of my leads failed I came back and he had this browner 3rd cutting for $9.50 left that looks like it had been rained on and turned, maybe baled slightly damper but still by far nicer than last year. The goats liked the bale they tested. He also had some drier 5th cutting left that I was worried about leaf shatter with. This guy seems to take a lot of pride in producing the soft, fluffy, leaf retaining alfalfa. I would not mind becoming a regular for him but he says his stands are getting old and he may not have any next year. Maybe I'll check back year after next.

Breeding season is done. The two minis I had that I needed bred I took the chance and bred them to lamancha. They are not FF and they are NOT 50:50 and both are well over 100 lbs with rumps almost as wide as a standard doe of the same age or for the smaller one who, she's still wider than a FF (actually one's like 115 and the other I'm afraid to weigh because she is about as big and wide as a standard saanen and I like the illusion of being mini). Hopefully things go okay. I'm excited for elf eared/half earless recorded MDGA grades. The does are 75% standard and 68% standard. I'd be happy to retain a buck from the 68% one, but I'd take one from either and put them over the three 50:50 doelings I have growing out. I'm not very interested in bringing in new blood now (probably from here on out) until I've bred my herd into a corner, so I may be making mini lamanchas out of my mini saanens. Good. Goats are better without ears.

I'm debating putting the does on Kalmbach's milking grain vs mixing the co-op's sweetfeed and milk enhancer and some boss. Their milk enhancer is very high in fiber and doesn't do as well keeping body condition on so it becomes a little expensive to amend it so it works. Boss is for fat. The co-op's feeds are a little low in fat too. I've got time.

Probably milk testing again next year.

Frost is coming probably on Monday.

I may start a new journal for each year. My journal is getting awfully long.

 

[rachels.haven]

Downer day today.
I sold all my nubians except for Dan's Galaxy and this one 9-7ish month old buckling to save my back this year from those clingy, fragile buffoons. I gave the very fancy buckling to a friend. A few days before going he had been treated for coccidia and recovered. At her place he crashed after leaving mine. So she brought him back and now I get to try to put him back together for her. He's going to die. Suddenly between his last fecal for the coccidia and today he became loaded with worms-a horrible fecal. Today after the truck ride from her place he went from nibbling to refusing to eat or drink, so no more poop, I saw pee in the morning but none after that. His temp won't stay up. Shut down rumen, of course. I've done everything I can, all day long. I don't think the vet can do anything. I got him back too late.

I guess I'll take him to Kord in Nashville for a necropsy after he passes and see if I can find out where I went wrong. Waiting on death and its angel is always so depressing. I always feel like everything is wrong and it's all my fault and I'm a terrible failure. And I always wait for more things to start dying...Stupid mortality.

Buckling has been in the quarantine pen and is now in a little pen in the shop, waiting to die. I've been giving him warm electrolytes a quart at a time (okay, a quart slowly by a feeding syringe at a time). His temp will be up for a while, I give water, then it plummets. His system has checked out. We did soaked orchard grass pellet mash too. Same outcome.

This is an awful lot to do for milk. The problem is, I'm not sure what else I'd do.

I think everything else is okay in this freeze we're having now. I hope.

 

[SageHill]

Downer day today.
I sold all my nubians except for Dan's Galaxy and this one 9-7ish month old buckling to save my back this year from those clingy, fragile buffoons. I gave the very fancy buckling to a friend. A few days before going he had been treated for coccidia and recovered. At her place he crashed after leaving mine. So she brought him back and now I get to try to put him back together for her. He's going to die. Suddenly between his last fecal for the coccidia and today he became loaded with worms-a horrible fecal. Today after the truck ride from her place he went from nibbling to refusing to eat or drink, so no more poop, I saw pee in the morning but none after that. His temp won't stay up. Shut down rumen, of course. I've done everything I can, all day long. I don't think the vet can do anything. I got him back too late.

I guess I'll take him to Kord in Nashville for a necropsy after he passes and see if I can find out where I went wrong. Waiting on death and its angel is always so depressing. I always feel like everything is wrong and it's all my fault and I'm a terrible failure. And I always wait for more things to start dying...Stupid mortality.

Buckling has been in the quarantine pen and is now in a little pen in the shop, waiting to die. I've been giving him warm electrolytes a quart at a time (okay, a quart slowly by a feeding syringe at a time). His temp will be up for a while, I give water, then it plummets. His system has checked out. We did soaked orchard grass pellet mash too. Same outcome.

This is an awful lot to do for milk. The problem is, I'm not sure what else I'd do.

I think everything else is okay in this freeze we're having now. I hope.

You’ve done all you can. Don’t beat yourself up. Times like this we all feel there’s something we missed/didn’t do/etc. I think it’s human nature for those who care.

 

[Baymule]

You take the very best care of your goats. Sometimes things happen that we just can’t fix. I’m so sorry for you, your friend and the buckling. You are making him as comfortable as possible and he is back where he was born and raised, he is home.

Yes, it’s an awful lot to do for milk, but it’s not just the milk. It’s teaching your boys about a better life. It’s sharing those precious moments between your boys and the animals and making memories that will last them all their lives. You do this because of all the love in your heart. Days like this breaks your heart but it mends back together when the next baby kid is born.

 

[rachels.haven]

The buckling was euthanized by the vet today and taken to the animal diagnostics lab an hour away for a $25 necropsy and disposal.

I found solace in feeding the does today after it was over. We're on full alfalfa now. They are eating the fescue around the barn I didn't kill off last year for fun. Every doe is fat and happy now. The bucks...eh, too close to rut ending.

 

[Ridgetop]

It will be interesting to see what the necropsy shows.

 

[rachels.haven]

Today while Mr. Youngest Son was sleeping off by day the consequences of a night of croupy cold symptoms and no sleep (since my brain was slag and pre-migraine from the sleep deprivation anyway) I watched this.

And since being sleep deprived and pre-migraine makes me impulsive I decided that I needed to dry treat a few of my does before they got much closer to kidding. So I grabbed the does that I knew had a higher stomatic cell count from milk testing and I also knew had gone uneven (blamed myself and the way I was milking for this earlier because EVERYTHING must always be my fault) and I stripped anything in their udder out and shot them up with tomorrow to stew until freshening date. I hope they have a better tomorrow.
Then I got back in and realized I had not been impulsive enough and I'd skipped one so I'll be shooting up one more tomorrow with Tomorrow also. Now I'm enjoying the migraine's early stages. You know...when I'm still semi- coherent. Sort of.
The first part of the necropsy came back. They're still going to do a few cultures and a fecal and a mineral panel. If it doesn't show anything else I'm afraid I'm going to disagree with my vet on the whole, "no fever, no pneumonia" idea. The buckling had pneumonia, with no fever at any point I was aware of. I checked him at an earlier point in the progression when he first started looking dumpy. I suspect he got it with the weather changes, that caused him to lose resilience to both coccidia and worms and put him in a death spiral. I need to follow my instincts more. Sorry buddy.
I guess I need an SOP for sub clinical pneumonia too a long with everything else. I should draw up a document...you know, when I haven't been kept up all night the night before and now it's evening of the next day.
Good night. (Or not, gotta get through bedtime routine with kids)