Sugar's buckling

[Taffy]

Shock and sadness hit on Sunday. Sugar was fine after kidding Friday but by late Saturday wasn't eating or drinking. I treated her with everything I had for everything I thought could be wrong. By Sunday morning she was sliding downhill rapidly. She was in pain, grinding her teeth and moaning. It was horrible. The vet did a full exam and gave her more CMPK via IV. I'd given her some orally before he arrived. She never rallied. I made the decision to euthanize her.

I chose to do a necropsy to see if we could figure out what went wrong. The vet went through everything and there was absolutely nothing wrong he could see. The rumen was completely empty but all of the other organs were normal. We buried Sugar next to her dam, Fuzzy.

My friend, Debbi Otta, was instrumental in helping me with Sugar. She had a doe in early labor while I was working on Sugar. We live about 3 miles apart and she would go back and forth to check on her doe in between helping me with Sugar. Her doe began having hard contractions just before the vet arrived so she didn't get to stay for his exam and the necropsy.

I'd milked colostrum from Sugar on Saturday morning so have been feeding that to the buckling. This afternoon I began mixing it with goat milk.

No more breeding does for me. I'm just going to enjoy my packgoat wethers.