Soooo, two days before Thanksgiving, Ella made it clear that she was not, in fact, in the family way. She paced back and forth in the pen and made all kinds of bleating desperate noises and encouraged Zinnia to join in. Luckily, I was off work on Wednesday and took her out to the farm, where her original beau had already left, but we introduced her to a very nice buck named War Dust and commenced with the kid making. It seems to have gone well. I think we must have gotten her too close to the end of her cycle last time. For that wee mistake we bottle feed for an additional month. THAT will teach us for sure. DAMMIT!
In other news, the fecal report came back on Zinnia showing no parasites. Whaaaaaa? Does that even happen with goats? No parasites? Really? I talked to my goat mentor, and she suggested it might be some kind of shipping fever rather than a parasite problem. Which kinda makes sense. In that case, I don't know if the iron supplements helped or if the issue had just resolved on its own.
Just when you think you are catching on, you get another curve ball....
Monday, November 26, 2012
Friday, November 9, 2012
Knocked up
So I took the goats out to their birth farm. There they met their baby daddy and we hope that both are knocked up. I guess we'll know in a week or so when they will go into heat if they aren't pregnant and won't if they are. Cross your fingers.
You want to know where I screwed this up? I'll tell you so you don't do it.... I wormed the goats a couple of weeks before the scheduled breeding. Unfortunately, the wormer I am using - Safeguard - doesn't seem to be effective any longer. So with the stress of the breeding and the car travel really impacted Zinnia. Stress can make the worm problem a lot worse. So she came back to me lethargic and with her eyelids very pale. I called and the vet said not to use any wormer for a month to give the wee embryo(s) a chance. With a LOT of advice and guidance, I think we have her on a stable track until we can get her wormed.
The barber pole worm makes the goats anemic. So I have been giving them molasses water (1c. to 1.5 gallons warm water), free choice kelp, raisin treats and for Zinnia, 2.5 ml of Geritol each morning for 5 days. She has gotten her frisk back. She is head butting Ella as usual and now reliably jumping up on the trash can that holds the grain. This is a big change from when I got her back and it feels pretty good to know that we were able to bring her back from the edge of what could have been pretty serious illness.
We'll cross our fingers that all will continue to be well until we get her on the right wormer. For now, I am happy to not be waking up in the middle of the night worrying about her.
You want to know where I screwed this up? I'll tell you so you don't do it.... I wormed the goats a couple of weeks before the scheduled breeding. Unfortunately, the wormer I am using - Safeguard - doesn't seem to be effective any longer. So with the stress of the breeding and the car travel really impacted Zinnia. Stress can make the worm problem a lot worse. So she came back to me lethargic and with her eyelids very pale. I called and the vet said not to use any wormer for a month to give the wee embryo(s) a chance. With a LOT of advice and guidance, I think we have her on a stable track until we can get her wormed.
The barber pole worm makes the goats anemic. So I have been giving them molasses water (1c. to 1.5 gallons warm water), free choice kelp, raisin treats and for Zinnia, 2.5 ml of Geritol each morning for 5 days. She has gotten her frisk back. She is head butting Ella as usual and now reliably jumping up on the trash can that holds the grain. This is a big change from when I got her back and it feels pretty good to know that we were able to bring her back from the edge of what could have been pretty serious illness.
We'll cross our fingers that all will continue to be well until we get her on the right wormer. For now, I am happy to not be waking up in the middle of the night worrying about her.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)