A Quick Update on the Baby Spotted Goat

Callie gave birth to a beautiful spotted doeling.  A new kid on the block just a few days old.  Unfortunately, the baby that we haven't named yet has a condition we've seen on Our Maker's Acres Farm previously - selenium deficiency.  Selenium deficiency presents itself, at least in our limited experience with it, with a couple of symptoms: weak tendons in the legs making it difficult to walk or stand.  Between the hoof and the "knee" on the front legs, there is no strength.  No rigidity.  In the past, we made braces, but that's just treating the symptom.  

The other issue is a failure to thrive.  The little goat just doesn't have a strong sucking reflex, making it difficult to nurse and get nourishment from Callie.  As a result, Tricia is having to milk Callie and collect the milk in a bottle.  Then she works to bottle-feed the little baby goat.  She'll drink with encouragement and as a result, she's had meconium poops and has energy.  We gave an injection of BoSe the day she was born and another smaller shot the next day.

We will keep working with her.  Ahem... I better correct that.  Tricia will continue working with her.  You can see she's got the little girl with her in some grass outside the pasture and she has her morning bottle.

The other baby goat that Mocha had the day before is strong and jumping around and growing.  It's sad to see the difference in the two.  Things often don't go as planned.  We'll see what happens in the upcoming days for the little spotted girl of Callie.

Popcorn For Sale

Matthew 25:31-46 King James Version

31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

There comes a time of separation, of dividing, of judgment.  As Matthew 25 tells us, this will occur.  Nations, peoples will be separated in which the godly and the ungodly are distinguished and parted from one another.  Where previously, they had dwelt together, at that time a judgment will take place.  The sheep (an innocent, mild, docile animal) will go to the right (favored) and the goats (wild, unruly creature) will go to the left (disfavor).

On Our Maker's Acres Family Farm there is a less apocalytical time, in which we must separate some animals from others.  We only have 5 acres of land.  This means that in springtime when the goats kid and the cows calve, we discover we don't have the land capacity to handle all these creatures.  Not enough grass, not enough time to manage them.  So decisions must be made to cull the herd.

In this case, we've decided to sell Popcorn.  We don't mean that we will be going door to door selling Orville Reddenbacher's Best.  Popcorn is our baby buckling.  We are currently bottle feeding him since his momma (Annie) has mastitis-damaged bags that no longer produce milk.  Annie produces beautiful babies, but no milk.  Tricia will put Popcorn up for sale this week.

It will be sad to see him go.  We hope a good family purchases him.  He is spunky, full of energy, healthy and is always jumping around.  That's why we call him Popcorn.  Any time he sees us, he comes up to us and puts his front feet up on us to beg for another bottle.  

We'll miss him, but we still have the little doeling, "Cupcake."  I'll post about her a little later.  Popcorn, anyone?

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.