As you may recall, last weekend I drove to Moran and bought 6 little bottle goats. In hindsight, this was an error in my part. Had I used my brain rather than my heart I would have left there with one goat - the January born wether that has now become Preston’s goat he is calling Jasper. I should have left the others there. Why? Because I know how fragile baby goats are. Particularly ones that have been abandoned by their mothers, and were not given their own mother’s colostrum. Artificial colostrum is just not the same. Waiting until they are over 6-7 weeks old would have been much smarter. Sadly, I knew this but didn’t recall it until I was a$$ deep in a mess. Monday morning, the girls fed all 6 goats at 6:00 am as I was leaving on the bus. Quincy texted to say they all ate fine, were up moving and seemed good. Monday at 1, Evie and I went down to give them a lunch time feeding and the 1 day old was dead. I was sad, and disappointed and told Jim I screwed up bringing one home that was so young. Everything was fine until Thursday. Once again, the girls fed them breakfast while I was on the bus. Once again I went down at 1 with bottles. Preston was with me and as he rounded the corner I heard him say “oh no! Not again!” Brown baby (Saige’s goat they named Mr. Mackey) was flat on the ground. Looked to be dead, but when Preston spoke he poked his little head up. He could not get up, could barely hold his head up, and was floppy and cold. We put him under the heat lamp (because if goats get sick you can bet they will absolutely not go lay under the heat lamp) and hurriedly fed the others.
I brought him into the house and Preston set up a space heater. We managed to warm him up and when he was warm, he started acting hungry. He downed his milk. But he could not put weight on his legs and could not really hold his head up very well. I racked my brain, gave him nutri-drench and I told Preston to keep an eye on him and left to drive the bus. When I got home, I called the local vet. I love our vet, but he will tell you he is not a goat doctor. He works a lot of cats, dogs, and cattle in this part of the country. He made a few suggestion and I ran in and got an anti-parasitic medication. And a shot of penicillin. He sold me some more electrolytes. We picked his brain and his wife’s.
We have now given the goat every single home remedy, medication, parasitic and mineral I can get my hands on. He is still very weak, but he does eat. If I stand him on his legs, he will stand up but cannot get himself up. Tonight he took a few steps. I’m taking it as progress. I hope he lives, but if not, I know we tried absolutely everything except taking him to an emergency vet, which I am not sure I want to spend the money to do.
Blitz has adopted him as her new baby. She has cleaned him, and won’t go too far away from the box we have him in. She’s a good momma dog. I am not a vet, but I will try hard to nurse him back to health. I just hope it works.
He is such a sweet/cute little baby- at this point we are all pretty invested. If you’re a “pray for a goat” type of person, we would welcome a few on Mr. Mackey’s behalf.
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