Ruby turns 7! - now 9 years old!

[Goat Whisperer]

Part 1

How time has flown! Today is Mrs. Ruby's seventh birthday.

Some of y'all might already know Ruby, but might not know her story and how she ended up at our farm

~3 years ago, I was out at someone's farm looking at a particular Nigerian buck. Long story short, the owner was having severe health issues and had to sell the herd.

So, I'm at the farm and decided against the buck. I didn't really need him and the lady already knew that was the likely outcome. I was however, drawn to this Nubian doe.
Something was special about her. She watched me the whole time I was there and even climbed up on the fence as I walked by. I'm not one to get all sappy and bring home an animal just because I want it. I loathe that.

But something was special about Ruby.

So, talked to the seller for a while and discussed the situation.

I noticed immediately that Ruby's hooves were severely overgrown, some of the worst I've ever seen. Asked the seller if I could trim up the hooves a bit to further evaluate. She said sure… so I did.
Determined that it was bad, but thought it was fixable. (Broke my own rules…)
Everything else looked good ( I do a very thorough evaluation before bringing a goat home)

Called SBC and told her the situation, told her the feet were awful but we can fix them, and that I thought I needed to bring Ruby home. SBC was good with it, so I put Ruby in the back seat of the car and brought her home.

Ruby's hooves were so severely overgrown it caused her bones to shift. That following week we called the vet out to sedate Ruby so we can really work on those hooves. They were painful and needed to be taken care of.

It took over 8 months months to get her hooves looking "normal" but still not perfect. She had a lot of hoof- wall separation and actual holes in her feet.
It took a lot of dedication and strength to get her through this! SBC did/has done most of the "fine turning" while I did daily antibiotic feet wraps on the ol' girl.

Through every she has been through (she had quite a few rough days) she has always been the most gentle, loving goat.

Now, her feet are so much better, and her bones aren't as bad as they were. The first time she was able to play on the spools I had tears in my eyes.

Almost daily I look out and see Ruby dancing and running with the "babies".
She lives with all the 2016 kids and they have grown up with Ruby. She is now one happy goat She is very serious and protects those kids, and I think they are good for her mentally. She is a kid at heart and it shows!

Ruby now walks much smoother, and her feet don't hurt her. She won't have the perfect gait, but she looks pretty darned good! Before Ruby was sold to the lady we purchased her from, she was a show goat.
Let me tell you, that goat still remembers her show days! When you walk her, she holds her head high and sets herself up. She is now one good looking doe once again! We are planning to bring Ruby back into the show ring once again We don't care how she will place, it is more to add another chapter to her "story".

There is more to her story, but will post later. Last year there was a time where life wasn't looking to good for Ruby. I worked on her fiercely, and so thankful Ruby is still with us! Stay tuned for part 2

 

[frustratedearthmother]

 

[BlessedWithGoats]

Happy and Blessed birthday Ruby!!

 

[NH homesteader]

Happy birthday Ruby! She's lovely and I can't wait to hear the rest of her story!

 

[Shorty]

Happy birthday Ruby!! She shares a birthday with my Brittany Ziva!

 

[Goat Whisperer]

Part 2
Earlier last year, I noticed a small knot on Ruby's mandible (on her face). Ruby has been tested by blood for CL several times and was always negative. It wasn't in a CL location, and none of our other goats have CL so it obviously wasn't CL. Looked like it was some sort of infection starting.
After full courses of Penn G, and another antibiotic, it wasn't going down and was starting to get larger in size. Wasn't an abscessed tooth or salivary gland either.
We had X rays taken.... (that was fun.. Ruby would only stand still for me, but I didn't have the appropriate attire- I had to get Ruby setup and RUN )
X rays didn't show much. When the vet did x-rays they were looking for a particular issue caused by a specific kind of bacteria that can affect the bone. Decided to open that sucker up as it was starting to abscess now and we didn't want it bursting around the other goats.
It was lanced, collected the "nastiness" and sent it our for further testing.

This was all going on while SBC's young son was having a severe medical crisis too. Just one more thing SBC needed to worry about

Put Ruby back on Penn G. This is after the previous 10 day course I had given to her, per the vets order. For those that don't know, Penn G needs to be given 2x daily. Not fun. Ruby and I trudged through it and got it over with. I am now probably the best person at administering Penn G to a goat

But the Pen G still wasn't doing much.
Any when we lanced it, the vet didn't put a drain in. Neither of us thought it was needed. I left to do some errands and came back to find Ruby with a HUGE, SWOLLEN face. The whole one side of her face blown up like a balloon going down under her chin. The abscess had sealed back shut but fluid was still leaking- just had nowhere to go. I'm then getting nervous because I was supposed to meet @OneFineAcre at the spring show so I could lend him a hand (never told him about this- he's finding out for the first time too ).

SBC calls the vet and says the vet will come out the next day (while I'm at the show) and put a drain in Ruby. I was about ready to call the whole thing off but SBC convinced me to go. I know she & the vet can handle it, but I have a hard time leaving an animal that isn't doing so well. I arrived back home just after the vet left.

So the drain is put in and now I need to flush Ruby 2x a day.
Let me tell you. IT. SMELLED. SO. BAD! SBC and I about puked the first time I got a really good clean on it. SBC doesn't get grossed out but this time it was all over her hands and we both walked to the grass ready to lose lunch!

I've handled rotten eggs and had them explode next to my face and this was worse.
I have milked a goat with a rotting udder/flesh (Bluebag mastitis) and this was worse.
I've been around some very gross things. I don't get grossed out easily.
I can run a fecal and eat at the same time and it doesn't gross me out.
It was horrific. Can't say I would go through this for many goats

So I flushed her 2x a day for several weeks while we were waiting for results.
She was of course isolated b/c we didn't know what we are dealing with and didn't want to expose the other goats to anything harmful.

Ruby took it all in a stride. She was fine with being alone as long as she had human interaction.

It still wasn't healing up.
We were at a loss. The thought of losing her was terrible, but we still had to be real
SBC loves all of her animals, but she can't talk about Ruby without getting all teary eyed and choked up. Ruby is very special to us all! Lots of tear were shed during this time, so thankful Ruby is still with us!

The results finally came back and turns out, she must have had a piece of hay or browse that punctured the inside of her mouth and caused an infection, that went to the bone The bacteria cultures were positive for 2 types of nasty bacteria, one which can affect the bone.

So now we are trying out how the heck how to treat this. We contemplated taking her to the vet school, but after talking to them they wanted to charge big $$$ for the same thing our vet can do. We decided to hope for the best and treat her here at home with the help of our vet. We were looking at surgery to de-breed and to see if it would then clear up, but there wasn't a guarantee that it would work.
Because it was in the bone, and the area it was in we decided to hit her with several IV treatments with the addition with Nuflor, with the supervision of our vets. Each treatment took about an hour, but it worked and she started healing up almost immediately after the treatment. The treatments were rather scary, after each treatment her head and neck would swell up to almost double the size. It was risky because there is a toxicity risk with the medication, but once the edema goes down they are generally okay.

It was a long, long, process that took several months altogether but I'm happy to say there has been no issues since!

After this, Ruby became very clingy with me. You would think the opposite would have happened, but she became very bonded with me.

I am so thankful she is still with us! It was looking rather shaky at times, but all worked for the good and Ruby is happy and healthy again

Who would have thought... a piece of hay or browse causing such an issue
Its not like we feed stemmy hay anyway... What are the odds of that?

 

[NH homesteader]

Wow that is so scary. She is a very special goat!!

 

[BlessedWithGoats]

I'm glad she is well! Thanks be to God! Good job taking care of her GW and SBC!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

What a story - and what an experience! Her recovery is a true testament to the love and attention you and SBC give to your animals. Congrats - ya'll did an amazing thing!

 

[TAH]

Happy 7-year old Ruby.

Just by looking at that face you can tell she is happy and well cared for.