Saturday, February 21, 2015

Farm Update

RIP Pearl
Last night, after I posted Farm Friday, I'm sorry to say we lost little Pearl. She was fine when I gave her lunch around 1:00 and then later, when Bill was doing chores, she was her usual spunky self. However, when we went to the barn for the night feeding, the bottle babies heard me approaching and called out as usual, but something wasn't right. Neo was waiting at one of the stall doors, eager to be let out for his bottle. I kept hearing Pearl (I called her my St. Pearly Girl after the beer brand) but I didn't see her which was unusual as she was always waiting with Neo. We finally realized she was laying down in a corner of one of the stalls but wasn't getting up nor did she want her bottle. We ended up bringing her in the house to make her comfortable and to see what might be wrong. About 90 minutes later, she was gone. 

In some ways, losing Pearl wasn't a surprise. We have never raised a rejected baby to maturity. Never. And their deaths are always sudden. However, mother goats know best; they know when there is something wrong with a kid and will not waste energy on a baby that will not survive. Sad, but the reality of nature. It still hurts. We'll miss our little girl.

2 comments:

David said...

Cherie, very sorry to hear about Pearl. I know you mentioned that when she was first born that you had never raised a bottle fed rejected baby goat. I had hoped that this would be a first since she seemed to be doing so well. It's still sad even through you kind of knew this would be the most likely outcome. Are your goats done with birthing or do you still have some left?

Have a great goat raising day.

Cherie said...

David, they're done with birthing for this season. They all seem to want to kid in the worst weather. :)