The Road Home

The Road Home
There is no place like home.

Friday, May 3, 2019

Goat Tales & the Stench

We have reduced our goat herd quite a bit recently. It's part of our downsizing to reasonable levels in the animal kingdom. We're also downsizing in many other areas, too. This year we had five does give birth resulting in 14 kids, which was way too many. One, we don't like keeping up with that many kids, and two, we don't need to milk five does. That is way too much milk.
 

We always debate whether to keep any young does and if so, how many. This year we went from thinking about keeping one, then two, then three. In the end? We sold them all and are glad we did.

Patch

One tale for this year is that our four year old doe, Patch, had triplets. She is a good mom and everything was going great until her kids were about ten days old. She went off her feed in the morning and by evening wouldn't get up. Turns out she had a retained placenta, which we had never had happen before. We thought she was going to die, called the vet, got antibiotics and anti-inflammatory shots, force fed electrolytes, vitamins and probiotics with a syringe and held the babies up to her teat to nurse as she lay there. She got up very weak after a few days, the babies were nursing, but not enough, so we enlisted the help of Patch's older sister, Copper, who was also raising her own triplets.
 
Copper

At two weeks of age we started penning Copper's babies at night to keep her milk. But instead of us getting the milk, I brought Patch's two little does in on the milk stand and let them nurse from Copper each morning. Their brother was getting most of the milk from Patch because after her time down she ended up with mastitis on one side of her udder, another experience we have never had before. To make this long story shorter, we continued with this routine until all of the kids were either weaned or sold. We also sold Copper this year. She is six years old, born here, and a little hard to let go of, but she went to a couple that really appreciated the milk supply.

Copper had to have her ear fixed when she was born.

Now, I am still milking Patch on both sides of her udder, discarding the mastitis side and keeping the small amount from the good side. I have turned her in with the buck in hopes she would breed and give us winter milk, so far no luck. The vet thinks her udder will recover and be productive on both sides after she births again. We hope so, and will just have to wait and see. 

The boys - buck and wethers

We have one older wether and three younger wethers that need to be butchered and put in the freezer, along with four new young wethers that were born this year. When we were banning the young wethers, on one of them we missed one testicle, which is now up in the body cavity since the scrotum is gone. He will have to be butchered this year since he is still able to breed. Once we get these five animals in the freezer, that will be a good reduction in the male herd, as well as more meat to eat.

We have placed our current buck for sale since we recently bought a new one. That purchase is a tale all by itself. In some ways it seems like a tall tale, but happened this way, none the less.

We had been checking Craigslist every so often looking for a new buck. We didn't keep any of our current buck's daughters, so there was no big hurry getting a new one, we could use him for another year, he is only two years old. But as we checked Craigslist a few weeks ago, we saw a young buck we were interested in, made contact, arranged a day, and drove the two hours to look at him. We liked what we saw, bought him and brought him home.
 
Gerty

As per our usual routine when bringing a new animal onto our land, we isolated him right away, gave him worm medicine, a copper bolus and an antibiotic shot. The next morning we went to the vet and picked up a vaccine shot which we gave and will give another booster in a month. Over the next few days he got two more antibiotic shots and continued in isolation, with the company of one of the young wethers, to finish out his quarantine time.

Well, the day after we brought him home, we got a voice mail from a lady that said we were in possession of her property. That her husband sold us her young buck while she was out of town and that he shouldn't have. She wanted her property back. What??? We were very surprised. I've never heard of such a thing, let alone experienced this. We didn't call her back, and the next morning we received a text message from another phone number insisting return of the animal with the offer of reimbursement of the purchase price and gas money for the return. Our response? I'm sorry. The sale is final.

Not only was the whole situation strange, in some ways I felt like this was some kind of scam. I'm sorry the man sold his wife's goat while she was out of town, but that is between the two of them, if that is actually what happened. I really have my doubts, but that doesn't mean I'm right. This is just another example of you never know what may happen in any situation. Something that appeared to be a normal everyday transaction that occurs all over the country everyday, turned out to be very strange indeed. We're still not quite sure what to make of it.

So, now we have two bucks, eight wethers, three does and one old lady goat, One Stripe. We get enough milk for our needs and to make some cheese every so often, and that is enough.

I think the lesson I have had reinforced from this tale is to beware the unexpected, whether it is a retained placenta and mastitis, or a shady deal from an unexpected source. Always remember, things are not always as they seem, from strangers, from people in positions of power, even from people you think you know. 

The wolves are howling all across the country, from every walk of life, position in society and cultural background. There are people now that will run you down with their car, punch you in the face, throw your food across the restaurant, or stage screaming mobs outside of your front door, not to mention shoot you while you worship. Things are not as they seem. The veneer is cracking and the seething, maggot ridden rot underneath is coming to the surface. It stinks. It's spreading. Spraying foo-foo dust on it and covering it with a pretty shiny veneer will not deter it's festering growth or dissipate the stench. This is now. What comes next?

Until next time - Fern
 

16 comments:

  1. Wow! Ya'll had a lot of goats at one time. The daily care and milking must have been time consuming and tiring. Sometimes what you think is a great idea (we've all had them) turns out to be not so great in reality. Your Craiglist purchase is a good example of that. You just never know. The health problems your goats developed were troubling, I'm sure. So glad things have gotten better. Health problems can affect you, your livestock, and your pets. One of our cats (13 years old) developed diabetes, had to be given daily insulin injections, but did not respond to vet care and had to be euthanized. It was a real eye opener. Proper care of pets and livestock can be costly, time consuming, and emotionally challenging. It cost over $2000 over the course of 3 months, trying to manage our pet's health needs, and in the end, all to no avail and much heartache. Moral of the story, be prepared to dig deep and be responsible for any living being under your care. Can you imagine what it will be like when things go south? No vet/dr care, no rx's, no money, no time, etc? What we take for granted now most certainly will no longer be available. What then? We need to prepare now for those events, along with all the other MAJOR troubles that will rear their ugly heads. God bless us all.

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    1. So, now Mary, we have curly top affecting the tomatoes which we haven't had before. Any recommendations? I cut out the curled parts hoping the suckers that grow out won't be affected, or not as badly. It seems to only be affecting some types of tomatoes, but not all of them. Maybe some are resistant, I don't know. I planted some store bought, which are affected, grew some from our saved seeds and some from store bought seeds, but I don't know which ones are which. I think I'll poke a few more seeds in the ground and see if I can get some more healthy plants growing.

      I'm sorry to hear about your cat. We have stocked up on as many animal health items as we can, just in case we can't get them anymore. We have lots of dewormers, syringes, antibiotics, etc. We got the kind that can be used on humans as well.

      Good to hear from you. Fern

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    2. Hi Fern, you just never know what Mother Nature is going to throw at you. I haven't experienced curly top affected tomatoes either, so I did a little research. Here are a few links with helpful info:
      http://entoweb.okstate.edu/ddd/diseases/curlytop.htm
      https://homeguides.sfgate.com/remedies-leaf-curl-tomato-plants-39900.html
      https://www.veggiegardener.com/diseases/curly-top-virus/
      After reading these articles, I learned quite a bit more about tomatoes than before. Sometimes it seems, it's just the weather. So good luck with your tomatoes. I hope they recover so that you can jar up enough for your family's needs. This will be the first year I hope to have enough to can them for our family, too. If we get curly top here, I'll at least have a little info on how to treat. Thanks for the chance to learn and help a bit.

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    3. I looked it up in my gardening books and the only thing I found there was to destroy the plants, which I didn't do. We'll see. Thanks for the research and sources. Hope your crop does well.

      Fern

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    4. Fern, this is in regards to your curly top tomatoes. I had this happen to my tomatoes a few years ago - huge plants - all new growth was curled. Turns out I had over fertilized them. Don't be to quick to destroy them sometimes it's the simple things that cause this. I also cut off the curly parts which took with it the new growth for more tomatoes. Never again will I cut off the curly tops. The tomatoes that were below this new growth did just great, however, there were no new tomatoes from those plants. I had removed the curly tops before reading that over fertilization would cause this too. I haven't read the referenced article above but wanted to throw in this possibility. BJ in GA

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    5. Good information, BJ, thank you very much. We put barnyard on it about a month before we planted. I wonder if that is the case. Time will tell.

      Thanks again, Fern

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  2. Thank you for the wonderful article! Your goat tales is a reminder that more is not always better. I like your approach to downsizing...sensible and flexible. I try to keep my preparedness efforts as realistic as possible. My age and physical limitations are serious considerations when planning and making purchases. I spend time each day doing tasks that may give my family a better chance at surviving whatever nastiness is coming. I can feel it and smell it drifting closer and closer...CWfromIowa

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    1. There are a number of people saying they can 'feel' something coming, CW. I would like to think it's only summer coming around the corner, but the constant barrage of negative news and behavior we read about everyday tells me otherwise. You are an inspiration in preparing for your family.

      Fern

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    2. CW and Fern,
      I agree that something is coming, and I'm preparing for my family. I love homesteading, but I'm getting tired of being laughed at for it. After all, everything I grow and raise "can be bought at the store." I think we all believe that this won't always be the case. He who laughs last, laughs loudest.

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    3. We rarely, rarely talk to anyone about preparing anymore, Grammy. Shrug off the laughter and go about your business. There is so much animosity in the world today when people don't see eye to eye. Don't waste your energy even thinking about it.

      Fern

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  3. A buckling and wether just left today with a little girl. They're going to be her 4-H projects, and she was so happy when they picked them up. Her little brother would baa loudly every time the kids did. It was hilarious. I think their half-hour drive home is going to be very loud.

    I still need to reduce the herd by one wether and a doe. I advertised them on Facebook and Craigslist. I think every crazy person and scam artist has contacted me. They're good goats, but I'm wondering if I'm ever going to sell them. Lots of people say they want them, but they don't have the money. Seriously? Then why are they wasting my time? I'm starting to get frustrated.

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    1. When we sold our kids this year the last line on our Craigslist ad was: Serious inquiries only. Don't waste our time.

      We also only allow contact through emails through the Craigslist format. We don't put a phone number. Then, the really stupid emails we just delete or give short replies.

      Life is too short to waste it on frivolous nonsense. If our buck doesn't sell, we will butcher him and make dog food.

      Fern

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  4. Your goat tales are interesting . Downsizing was the good route to take , as we age, we are older than you two, the energy levels seem to get smaller as the age numbers get bigger.It looks like you have things figured out and under control .
    Boy, dealing with people can be interesting, frustrating and downright crazy at times . The unexpected does raise it's head when least expected . Hopefully that fiasco is over and done with.
    The wolves are indeed howling and prowling about the countryside. An ill wind is in the air. Apparently it is blowing from D.C. across the whole land because folks all over are complaining of the smell. Something is in the wind , we know not what and we may not change the way the wind is blowing but we can prepare for the storm to follow.
    Bluesman

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    1. You're right about the energy levels, Bluesman. We keep asking each other why we are so tired.

      Now if we could just figure out why our chicks keep killing each other...…

      Some storms are more scary than others. I would take a good thunder storm any day over the coming anarchy we expect.

      Always good to hear from you, Fern

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  5. read that to stop chickens picking each other put a tsp of aple cider vinegar in the drinking water

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    1. We tried a splash of vinegar in their water this morning, Deb. Hope it works! Thanks for the idea.

      Fern

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