More Goat News

Yesterday was another rough day on the farm.  One of Nellie's boys died during the night, so now we've lost six of the ten babies.  Then I had to turn my attention to Marla, the mama who lost all three of her babies.  She separated herself from the herd on Sunday and spent the day laying down in the stall.  She showed some signs of an upper-respiratory infection so I dosed her with penicillin.  First thing in the morning, I called the vet.  Upon examining Marla, the vet said the pregnancy probably took too much calcium, magnesium, etc. from her.  In addition, when goats are down they become suseptible to pneumonia.  He gave her a couple of shots of antibiotics then started an IV to quickly replace some of the missing nutrients.  Unfortunately, it was too late.  We lost Marla just before the IV was empty.  Marla was one of our best goats.  She was sweet and friendly, without being obnoxious or a bully.  We'll miss her.

In the afternoon, I checked the other pregnant goats in the herd.  Four are supposed to be pregnant - two are definitely showing.  However, they don't look like they're due any time soon so we'll get a bit of a break until the next round of deliveries.