Illness and injury

I knew I’d be talking about this, but I didn’t expect it to be so soon.  When you have a bunch of animals, and we’ve 19 angora goats, 6 cats, 3 alpacas, 2 livestock guardian dogs, a pet dog, and 2 tortoises, injuries and illness happen.  And, we have been struck again.

SMART GOATS

We have good quality show goats and our goats have won ribbons at some west coast Angora goat shows.  Last summer, our herd was growing.  Five of our does, those are the female goats while the males are bucks, gave birth to a total of seven babies.  This significantly increased our herd size from 10 to 17 and we found ourselves needing additional feeders.  We opted for feeders with lids, in order to keep the hay dry in the rain.  While we bought these feeders from a reputable company, stuff happens, right?  It turns out that the only hay that tastes good is the hay that is at the TOP of the feeder.  This is likely because it is unreachable.  However, goats are smart, and we had a young goat, named Magic Mike, that figured out how to open the lid with his head, slide his head under the lid, take a bite, slide his head out, and repeat endlessly.  He was so nice to his fellow goats, that he taught some of them where to get the BEST hay too.

Champion goats

FEEDER LOCKS

Initially, we didn’t think too much of this, other than the sound of the lids slamming shut annoying us.  However, it wasn’t long before we realized Mike’s horns looked a bit like a peeled carrot.  My BFG thought it was because he was rubbing his horns on a tree or the barn, and I couldn’t disagree, as I had no evidence either way.  I watched the goats and realized that each time a goat stuck its head in the top of the feeder, its horns ran across the steel edge of the feeder lid.  We checked the lid and, sure enough, that sucker was sharp!  It had slowly filed away Mike’s horns.  We checked the other goats and all of the goats that had thought the yummiest hay was at the top had some of their horns abraded away.  No one was hurt, so my BFG put locks on the lids and we didn’t think about it again.

WEAKNESS

We noticed by the spring that three of our does had horns that the bases had flaked off and they were weak.  And, the inevitable happened.  One of the goats, Rylah, head-butted another and she broke her horn.  I don’t know how much you know about goats, but there is a LOT of blood that flows through those horns and to break one is a horrible mess.  The vet was urgently rung up, and she treated the horn.  Well, now it has happened again.  This time to Koralee, and her horn was broken at the base.  I try to take care of a lot of things here myself, so I covered the wound in cornstarch to stop the bleeding, bandaged it up, and went to bed.  Of course it happened at night.  Don’t freak out!  I checked her a couple of times before I went to bed, and did get up in the night and check on her.  I took her to the vet the next day.  She was treated, medicated, and bandaged.  And, the vet said I did a great job of taking care of it.

       

Weakened horns                                             Treated broken horn.  Of course it’s at night!

GUARDIANS

Livestock guardian dogs are not like regular dogs.  They aren’t pets.  They have been bred for thousands of years to bond to their livestock, not to people.  We have two of them, Tannin and Ebony.

Tannin                                                          Ebony

                 

Tannin with Bonfire                                        Ebony and her friend Sisko

They are wonderful animals and while they like us well enough, they prefer the company of their goats.  When it rains, it pours, and Tannin developed an abscess in his jaw.  We took him to the vet, and almost $1,000 later, he had drains installed and was ordered to stay inside.  For a true guardian dog, nothing is worse than being inside, away from his animals.  We were told to keep him in for two weeks.  That was going to be two weeks of torture for both Tannin and us.

RECOVERY

We managed to keep Tannin inside for five days.  It was awful and we actually had to give him anti-anxiety medication.  The drain came out, but the abscess wouldn’t heal.  As the abscess began to grow again, we noticed another goat with a cracked horn.  Not fully broken, but definitely on its way.  The hits just keep on coming.  Tannin went back to the vet.  He would require surgery to remove the abscess and the goat with the cracked horn would require the vet to remove her horn.  These things are tough, not just because they are expensive, but it is heart-wrenching to watch your friends suffer.  And these animals are definitely my friends.

                 

Tannin’s incision on his jaw and neck.            Tannin isn’t happy inside.

The farm vet, a wonderful vet named Sara Lynn Specht, came out to the house and took care of the doe with the cracked horn, and while she was here, removed a couple of other horns that were going to break in the future.  Three goats taken care of and Tannin getting operated on.  His recovery this time would be two weeks in the house.  He had an antibiotic resistant staph infection, and it was tough to get it all out.  Hopefully they got it all.

Of course a dog needs to go outside to pee, and on the third day after the surgery, Tannin scratched his face and ripped open his incision.  What a mess!  Direct pressure and an emergency run to the vet.  A livestock guardian does not like to be restrained, and Tannin had a fit all the way to the vet, which is a 30-minute ride from the house.  They drained his face, which had filled with fluid, stapled him up, and gave him some stronger anti-anxiety drugs because he cried every moment.  This meant no sleep for either of us!

One other thing about guardian dogs, they refuse to be told what to do.  This meant that I could not get Tannin to take a pill.  And, of course, he had to take 2 antibiotic pills and a pain pill twice a day, and 4 anti-anxiety pills at night.  This led to a lot of creativity, some arguments, and a bit of danger!  Tannin wouldn’t actually attack me, although he once tried, he was not about to be told what to do.  What a giant pain.  Luckily, I am even more stubborn than Tannin, and I have gotten all the pills in him.  I’ll admit that it has usually taken more than one try.  If you’ve any tips, pass them on!

He will need to go back to the vet to get his face drained every couple of days, so we’ll see how that goes.  I’ll also need to remove the bandage from Rylah’s horn and give her antibiotic shots.  Koralee will also need antibiotics to deal with her broken horn.  Unfortunately, Koralee, Rylah, and the third goat that had her horns taken, Crystal Magic, can no longer be shown, as angoras are judged not just on their fleece and conformation, but also on their horns.  What a bummer.  I told you, life here isn’t boring!

Fortunately, everyone will recover and life will go on for all of them.  Thank goodness.