Livinwright Farm's Journal - Our life with goats

[Livinwright Farm]

The pedigree links are up on our website for RMFarm CHAL HighNote(will be registered once we are sent the "missing" paperwork) and RMFarm MBE Sheba(not registered). Check them out!
RMFarm CHAL HighNote
RMFarm MBE Sheba (same pedigree for our buckling/her brother RMFarm MBE BlackJack)

 

[Livinwright Farm]

Today was a rough day.

Woke up late, had coffee and checked my Facebook, BYH, and our website while the kids' bottles heated up. Before heading out with the bottles, we let our 3 dogs out of their crate to go outside.
Our chihuahua, Scooter, would normally run out of the crate growling and barking all the way to the back door. This morning however, he stayed in the crate until both the other dogs were well out of the crate and then slowly walked out making no sound. We let them out and he carefully lifted a leg, peed faster than he ever has before, and brought his leg back down and slowly came back inside. He would also normally jump up on the couch and hop around trying to make you pet him.... today he did not. My mom picked him up and set him on the couch, and he let out a shriek. He just laid on the couch with a look on his face of "what is happening to me?!". We decided that after feeding the kids we would take him to the vet. We called the vet who is going to be our primary care for the goats(potentially the dogs too), but they were double booked and had an emergency to deal with also. So we fed the kids, carefully picked Scooter up, got in the truck and headed for the closest domestic vet. They too were extremely busy, but scheduled us in for 3:50pm. We had lunch, and went back in. The vet asked us what we had observed, watched him walking around, felt Scooter's hips and up his spine, and then mentioned that he would like to take an X-Ray of Scooter's back. The reason, "Dogs don't shriek/scream unless they are in serious pain, that combined with when Scooter had shrieked in conjunction of where/how he was picked up, it was more than likely a back issue".
Well he came back rather quickly with the X-Ray photo... and here it is:

Diagnosis: Slipped or worn out cartilage between the 1st & 2nd vertebrae just after the ribcage. This problem will never go away on it's own Technically we have 4 options, but having Scooter live with paralyzation from the ribcage back is really not an option, So...
1) Spinal surgery through the Portland, ME Veterinary Neurologist - $2000+
2) Wait for the day when he becomes paralyzed from the ribcage back and go in for emergency spinal surgery
3) Have him go through Class IV Laser Therapy - 6 sessions for $210(assuming this is in addition to an office visit fee, but who knows)

The vet gave him Cortizone & Tramadol (like morphine, only non-addictive) to reduce swelling & alleviate his pain while we decide which route we want to go for him.

 

[elevan]

Ah, poor Scooter.

 

[ksalvagno]

Sorry about that. We have a Rat Terrier mix that has neck problems. She is on 3 drugs when her neck acts up. Rimadyl is one, can't remember the other 2 at the moment. So far they are working. Our other option is to take her to a specialist but we are trying this route first. We really can't put tons of money into an older dog.

 

[Livinwright Farm]

Oh, the bottle feeding is going better now. Today's bottle feeding totals:
High Note- Morning: 12 ounces / Evening: 2 ounces( wonder what's wrong with him? )
Olivia- Morning: 12 ounces / Evening: 11.75 ounces
Sheba- Morning: 8 ounces ( ) / Evening: 8 ounces ( )
Jack- Morning: 8 ounces celebrate ) / Evening: 7.75 ounces celebrate )

 

[Livinwright Farm]

Weighed the kids today.
HighNote= 9.8lbs @ 3 weeks 4 days old
Olivia= 11.2lbs @ 4 weeks old
Jack= 11.2lbs @ roughly 6 weeks old
Sheba= 9.6lbs @ roughly 6 weeks old

 

[Livinwright Farm]

Daisy will be taken to Pup tomorrow morning for another try at being bred by Pup. Not sure what recessive colors might pop up from these two(Pups dam is Momma(white & brown, unsure what his sire looks like)... but definitely curious to see what colors/patterns they create.

Also, it appears that the breeding of Minne to Falkor was successful For those who don't know what this pair looks like:

 

[Livinwright Farm]

Well, Jessica with Healthy Herds in NH is coming to draw blood samples for CAE, CL, and Johnes on the 20th... if she can fit us in with all the other farms she is going to visit.

She is offering a discounted price($32.05/goat to test for CAE, CL, and Johnes, which includes the blood draw fee) because she gets a discounted price for sending in a mass shipment of samples. Much cheaper than running tests through the vet!

 

[Livinwright Farm]

Going to see a lady about trading Marly + $75 for 3 Pygmy does on Sunday!! One of the does is 2 yrs old, the other two are her daughters and are 10-11 months old!! So exciting!!! We may end up taking all three, picking our favorite 2 and letting the woman who took Falkor and bought Pup & Maude have the 3rd doe... MAYBE! Sunday can't come soon enough, IMO.

 

[Livinwright Farm]

Turns out the 3 does we went to look at, had been dehorned. :/ Bummer.

On Monday we brought Jack to our new primary care vet, and brought HighNote along for a check-up. The Vet confirmed that Jack had pneumonia oh joy. She gave him a shot of Vitamin B, and gave us a pouch of "Critical Care" and instructed us to tube feed it to him and continue giving him the PenG Procaine we started on him Sunday night. From the vet, we started looking all over for a feeding tube, or a rubber tube small enough to work as a feeding tube... no luck. We got not even half way back home, and our beloved little Jack passed away. I know the exact moment he died(forever etched into my mind)... he had been crying intermittently the whole trip... then he started bleating over and over, starting off loud and fading to nothing... at his last soft and barely existent bleat, my heart sank. We pulled into the animal hospital that was on our way home and discovered for sure that he was gone. We removed him from the crate(so HighNote could not lick him) and put him respectfully into the bag provided by said animal hospital.

That night we heard Sheba & Olivia hacking. We weren't sure if it was just cud hack or not, so we let it go the night. Come morning we discovered that they were still coughing, so we called the vet. They put a 2 oz bottle of SMZ-TMP aside for us to go down and pick up to treat the 3 remaining kids for cocci. They got their first dose(obviously doubled up) of it last night. We picked up some Red Cell today and will give them their first dose tonight.

Momma apparently was faking us out yesterday, her ligs have firmed back up... She has to go into labor within the week though, as her udder is getting full and pink and her back end is swelling.

We gave Minnie & Daisy their doses of Ivomec 1% Ivermectin after bringing them down to the local humane society to get an accurate weight on them. Minnie(pure pygmy) is 62.8 lbs, Daisy(NigerianXPygmy) is 58.6 lbs.