RIP Cupcake

As the title of this blog post suggests, it was a sad morning on Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.  When I walked out to milk Clarabelle this morning before church, I found Cupcake dead by the garden gate that leads into the pasture.  You might remember our posting about Cupcake, our disabled goat.  You can click the hyperlink and read about her disability.  She was about 10 months old.

Frankly, I don't know what caused her death.  Other than her front two legs which didn't work normally, she was the picture of health.  Tricia spent hours splinting her legs and doing 'rehab' with her.  Here lately, she was walking on her own (bowlegged, of course and limping) about 300 feet to eat grass in the pasture.

Although she didn't really need to, it became an afternoon tradition that Tricia would walk out across the pasture each afternoon, pick up her little Cupcake, and carry her back to the barn.  Last night was the first night in months and months that she didn't do it.  We are guessing that perhaps one of the other animals (one of the milk cows, or Buckwheat, the buck goat) head-butted her and fatally injured her.  They were really rough with her at times, and Tricia would rescue her and put her in one of the stalls in the barn to segregate her from the others.  For the most part, she made it just fine on her own.  She and Tricia were closely attached.

I hated to tell Tricia this morning, but she said, "I'm a farm girl.  This kind of stuff happens.  Before you bury her, I want to tell her goodbye.  She had such a cute little head."  We had church today and caroling for shut-ins this afternoon, so it was after dark before I could tend to Cupcake.  I got a shovel and measured her footprint and dug a 2 1/2 foot deep hole in the very back of the garden.

As Tricia watched, we laid little Cupcake to rest.

I heard a rustling behind me and turned around to see the saddest thing.  Agnes, Cupcake's mom, had come by to bid her farewells to her little girl at the impromptu ceremony.  It was kind of touching.

We'll miss little Cupcake.  She was a fighter and determined not to let her disability keep her from living a somewhat normal life.  It will be different without her on the pasture.  But, newsflash!:  The does are all getting fat.  I think they are all bred and we'll be having a lot of baby goats on the farm this spring.

Cupcake Earned a Nickname!

“Or if his sin, wherein he hath sinned, come to his knowledge; he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a male without blemish:”  Leviticus 4:23

I've often thought about the magnitude of slaughtered farm animals in Old Testament times under the sacrificial system.  The amount of blood, dead animals, flies.  I am so thankful that we don't live in those times any more!  If you read the book of Leviticus, there were very strict rules for the types of sacrifices, how the sacrifices should be made and what were acceptable sacrifices.  For one thing, sacrifices must be males, the firstborn, and those without blemish.

Cupcake is Agnes' firstborn goat.  However, she would be fortunate had she lived in Old Testament times, for she is a female AND she is blemished.  She would NOT have been put on an altar - however she may have been eaten.  From birth, both of Cupcake's front legs have been handicapped.  It is a condition where the tendons are super-tight and as such, she is unable to straighten her legs.

The poor critter crawled around on her knees.  It was very sad to watch her.  My wife decided to take Cupcake under her wing and give her physical therapy.  We talked about this in previous posts.  Here's an update:  Tricia cut paint rollers in half and made splints.  Then, using a tape called "Dragon Skin," each day she would tighten the splint on each legs to pull the leg closer to the straight position.  In a few weeks, one of the legs is straight, and the other is getting pretty close.

Cupcake is able now to stand up.  When she falls down, however, she is unable to get back up on her own.  The poor creature scratches a big hole trying desperately to get up.  She is able to walk, sort of.  She takes steps with her splinted left leg, but drags her slightly bent right leg behind her.

Now if you take the splints off, her legs are very weak.  This is going to be a long-term project, but little Cupcake has made improvement and we're proud of her.  You may be able to see the look of pride in Cupcake's face as well.  She is happy to not be crawling around on the ground anymore.

Watching her walk around on her "peg-legs" this evening, I began to call her "Peg" or "Peggy."  Who knows, "Peggy" might stick.

The Tale of Cupcake, Our Disabled Goat

On February 27th Cupcake was born to Agnes.  Agnes is part Nubian and part LaMancha.  It was a happy day.  Cupcake was the first doeling born this early spring and was Agnes' first baby.  All seemed good.

Except there was a problem.  Cupcake's two front legs were disabled.  One leg was locked at about a 60 degree angle and the other was locked at a 40 degree angle.  They would not straighten out!  No matter how much we pulled, the tendons were just too tight.  It hurt Cupcake to try to fix her.  I hated to even post about it.  When difficulties arise and problems surface, sometimes it's hard to write about them, so I've been a little silent on Cupcake up to this point.  So Tricia read that this condition is caused by a Selenium deficiency.  We first got Selenium paste and then gave injections.

But here we are 2 and a half months down the road and no progress.  Tricia works with Cupcake daily, doing physical therapy on her, trying to pull the legs straight, but we were seeing no improvement.  All the other goats are out on the pasture, but poor cupcake crawls on her knees and can't join the others.  It is sad and pitiful to watch.  The other goats sense her handicap and are very mean to her.  Even though my wife is very attached to her, she confided in me that we might have to butcher her.  Tricia said, "Let's give it one more try."  

She cut a paint roller in half and used that to make a splint.  Using "Dragon Skin" duct tape, over the course of a week, she was able to move the leg frozen at the 60 degree angle to straight by slowly tightening the tape to pull the leg straight with the splint on either side of the leg!  It is now straightened out (though bow-legged).  The other leg is a different story.  Because it is bent at less than a 45 degree angle, it is very hard to pull it straight, but she's working on it.  Here is Cupcake with her splints on:

Because Cupcake can no longer crawl around on her knees like she was doing, she is even LESS mobile.  It is sad.  She lays in the barn in the corral.  Her momma, Agnes, comes and gives her encouraging words.

"Dr" Tricia and her little patient have a lot of work remaining, but we've seen remarkable progress in a week.  Today, Cupcake was standing on her front splinted leg!  That is a first.  She clumsily was trying to walk on it, but was having difficulty.  If we could get that other leg a little more straightened out, she would be able to get around better.

Cupcake still has a long road, but we feel good about her prognosis now and have taken the slaughterhouse option off the table, I think.  I'll report back on her continued improvement.  I think as she gets more practice, she'll get around great.  Even if the other leg is unable to be straightened, we can just change her name to "Tri-pod" and all will be well.

Cupcake & Popcorn

Just a brief update tonight on the kids.  Annie had a buckling last week that we named Popcorn.  Agnes had a doeling last week that we named Cupcake.  Cupcake was born with trouble in the tendons in her front legs, making her unable to stand.  It has improved slightly, but she has a ways to go.  She'll get better according to everything we read.  For now we hare helping her so that she is able to nurse on Agnes.  That is going well.  We think that she's even finding it on her own now.  Tricia goes out several times a day to make sure Cupcake is getting what she needs to grow and get stronger.

Popcorn is another story.  That little dude is the picture of health.  We named him popcorn because he jumps around like a popcorn kernel in hot oil.  The trouble is with his Momma, Annie.  Annie is a big, beautiful goat (as goats go), but over the years her bag has degraded with mastitis to the point at which this year, no milk comes out.  Her bag is enormous, but there must be lots of scar tissue or things messed up inside that makes it impossible for Popcorn to nurse.

So Popcorn must be bottle fed.  Fortunately, we have a pretty good bit of cow colostrum and milk frozen expressly for this purpose.  Tricia makes up bottles every day, several times a day to feed Popcorn.  Here's her baby:

As a result of not getting a lot of nurturing from Annie, Popcorn has gotten very attached to us.  When he sees us, he knows he'll get milk.  He was sucking on Russ' finger in this one.

I even join in on the action at night sometimes.  Popcorn makes that bottle disappear!

If we can get Cupcake healed up, it would certainly make things a lot easier in the barn.

I'm Not Kidding - But Agnes and Annie Are

Early spring.  It's kidding time.  Buckwheat did his job and bred Agnes and Annie.  On February 25th, Tricia let me know that Agnes would be the first to kid.  Here bag was growing larger by the minute.  Sure enough, in the evening Agnes starting acting funny, making strange noises.  We got her into the barn where she could be isolated from the others.  Soon she was laying in the corner crying.  It's her first kidding and it I can gather from all the racket that it is not a pleasant experience for her.

Soon things started moving, we could see something coming out.  Trouble was, we couldn't see anything.  Agnes was really crying with each push.  It didn't seem like there was any movement in the delivery.  We didn't know if the baby was positioned correctly or if we'd need to pull the baby out.

We've learned to be patient and let things take its course.  In most instances, they can (and will) handle most things on their own just fine, thank you very much.  We saw the head first and could see the tongue moving.  Once the head was out, the delivery progressed quickly.  

The baby seemed to be healthy and Agnes seemed calm and relaxed again.  It was a happy, peaceful time in the barn.  Most times we've had triplets or twins, this time only a single.  And it's a doeling.  We decided to name her Cupcake.

We'll have better photos a little later.  There is a problem with Cupcake, though.  She has a deficiency in Selenium and Vitamin E.  This results in really tight tendons on the front legs.  They are curled and she stands on her knees.  If you try to straighten her bent legs, they are very tight.  Tricia purchased some selenium paste and vitamin E and has been treating her.  This deficiency also contributes to an issue with nursing.  So Tricia is being the country vet to Cupcake and is also bottle feeding her with colostrum we have stored in the freezer.  Cupcake's getting better.  She was nursing on her own today, so Tricia will soon stop bottle feeding her.  We'll have updates and reports later.

Two days later, on February 27th, Annie gave birth to a single buckling.  He is a healthy little fellow, tall and playful, energetic and strong.  We haven't named him yet.  While he's healthy, unfortunately, Annie is not.  Annie is a big goat, a pretty goat - but she has had mastitis issues in her bag over the years.  She is 8 years old and her bag, although enormous, will yield no milk. 

So Tricia is bottle feeding the little guy several times a day.  He is strong.  Sadly, because Annie is unable to provide milk, he cannot nurse and considers Tricia to be his momma.  He's not really bonded with Annie.

Two little goats on the pasture.  You've "goat" to be kidding me!