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.