Chat
05-19-2023, 11:14 AM
Yes, this has been a rough kidding season. Marmaduke crashed again last night and went toxic. After the meconium on Wednesday morning, he never passed much of anything solid for the next two days. A small amount of milk poop came out the first day and after that just liquid. His sister passed a lot of pasty stuff over two days and just got better and better, so I think her brother was struggling with toxic stuff in his gut that just wouldn't move. He went toxic last night after midnight and passed away at 5:00 this morning. He had all the symptoms of enterotoxemia and of course I didn't have C&D antitoxin on hand like I normally do. I had meant to order some with my vaccines back in March but forgot to add it. Shipping is so expensive on those vaccines and it's one of those things I rarely use. Most of the time it eventually expires and I have to toss it, so I decided to wait until I order more vaccines. Still, even if it prevented entero, it might not have saved him in the end. The vet wonders if he had a birth defect where part of his gut lacked motility. Or he might have had a huge undigested cheese log stuck up there somewhere that wasn't letting anything but liquid go past it. Either way, I feel like I did just about everything I could do for him and it wasn't meant to be. Luckily he didn't seem to suffer too much. He started crying when he went toxic because his gut hurt. A dose of activated charcoal and milk of magnesia quieted his gut immediately and he felt better and went to sleep most of the night. He didn't let me sleep much though. He was quiet as long as I rocked him in the reclining chair, but if I fell asleep and stopped rocking he would cry until I started rocking again. I'm glad rocking him made him comfortable. At least that was something I could do that objectively seemed to help even if it wasn't a cure. So much better than poking him with needles to administer fluids, which we had to do several times to keep him hydrated since nothing was absorbing or moving through his gut except watery diarrhea. Poor little buddy.
But Maya is doing grand. She was hopping all over our basement this morning and had a great time playing with Balto while I milked Sapphire. Balto is a little rough, but Maya seemed excited to try to keep up with him and even challenged him to a head-butting contest, which was comical. There's nothing like watching healthy, happy babies play and bounce around to help ease us through the inevitable tragedies. We've had such a long streak of good luck with healthy baby goats and now we've had two losses in one year. Strange how that happens.
Balto and Pongo are doing great. Balto is a big, robust kid with bottomless energy and a pretty big rough-n-tough streak. I'll be interested to see how he treats Maya when I can put her out in the goat pen. We're having some incredibly wet weather right now which means she'll probably have to stay in the house for a few days until things dry out. I don't want her catching pneumonia now that she's over the digestive crisis. Balto loves to come in the house but he's a true wild man. He's also the cleanest baby we've ever had. He's got this lovely, sleek coat that seems to repel dirt, and his mama was so attentive when he was little that he was never messy even as a little tyke. He's quite the dashing fellow and I'm confident he's going to be a star packer. He'll probably be one of those ones that gives his owner heart attacks at his derring-do like Finn does to us. He may also be a bit of a handful and have an attitude at people if he's not properly disciplined. He started head-butting me when he was two weeks old, and he's very assertive about climbing all over me and jumping on me whether he's been invited or not. He seems to be under the impression that he's automatically welcome to do anything he wants because he's adorable and he knows it. Part of his problem might actually be Pongo.
Let me tell you about Pongo. That little guy is something special. I've never seen a baby quite like him. I used to believe that inside every goat is a demon waiting to come out and terrorize anything smaller and weaker than them. Big kids are notorious for bullying and harassing younger kids. Pongo is two months older than Balto so the size difference is incredible. Yet when they play, Pongo does not press his advantage. Balto's mama, Sapphire, is often a bit frantic because Balto sleeps next to Pongo with Snowball and her clan. Snowball hates Sapphire so Sapphire is rarely welcome to join her baby. When the kids play on rocks or tires, Pongo gently spars back and forth with Balto and doesn't knock him off things. I was vaguely aware of this until last night when Phil and I were playing with the two of them on the tires. Balto would claim a tire, but if Pongo wanted on it he would try to get up very carefully so as not to knock Balto down. Pongo is huge so there's not much hope of his sharing a single tire with anyone! A couple of times Pongo was stretched between tires because he wouldn't commit. Jumping all the way up would mean knocking Balto off! It was absolutely adorable. If Molly got up on a tire, though, Pongo would try to knock her down. Molly is big sister and she and Pongo enjoy being rough. It was a bit one-sided for a while, but Pongo is getting bigger by the day and now he's got horns so he's starting to give Molly a run for her money! It will be interesting to see how all these relationships develop over the summer.
But Maya is doing grand. She was hopping all over our basement this morning and had a great time playing with Balto while I milked Sapphire. Balto is a little rough, but Maya seemed excited to try to keep up with him and even challenged him to a head-butting contest, which was comical. There's nothing like watching healthy, happy babies play and bounce around to help ease us through the inevitable tragedies. We've had such a long streak of good luck with healthy baby goats and now we've had two losses in one year. Strange how that happens.
Balto and Pongo are doing great. Balto is a big, robust kid with bottomless energy and a pretty big rough-n-tough streak. I'll be interested to see how he treats Maya when I can put her out in the goat pen. We're having some incredibly wet weather right now which means she'll probably have to stay in the house for a few days until things dry out. I don't want her catching pneumonia now that she's over the digestive crisis. Balto loves to come in the house but he's a true wild man. He's also the cleanest baby we've ever had. He's got this lovely, sleek coat that seems to repel dirt, and his mama was so attentive when he was little that he was never messy even as a little tyke. He's quite the dashing fellow and I'm confident he's going to be a star packer. He'll probably be one of those ones that gives his owner heart attacks at his derring-do like Finn does to us. He may also be a bit of a handful and have an attitude at people if he's not properly disciplined. He started head-butting me when he was two weeks old, and he's very assertive about climbing all over me and jumping on me whether he's been invited or not. He seems to be under the impression that he's automatically welcome to do anything he wants because he's adorable and he knows it. Part of his problem might actually be Pongo.
Let me tell you about Pongo. That little guy is something special. I've never seen a baby quite like him. I used to believe that inside every goat is a demon waiting to come out and terrorize anything smaller and weaker than them. Big kids are notorious for bullying and harassing younger kids. Pongo is two months older than Balto so the size difference is incredible. Yet when they play, Pongo does not press his advantage. Balto's mama, Sapphire, is often a bit frantic because Balto sleeps next to Pongo with Snowball and her clan. Snowball hates Sapphire so Sapphire is rarely welcome to join her baby. When the kids play on rocks or tires, Pongo gently spars back and forth with Balto and doesn't knock him off things. I was vaguely aware of this until last night when Phil and I were playing with the two of them on the tires. Balto would claim a tire, but if Pongo wanted on it he would try to get up very carefully so as not to knock Balto down. Pongo is huge so there's not much hope of his sharing a single tire with anyone! A couple of times Pongo was stretched between tires because he wouldn't commit. Jumping all the way up would mean knocking Balto off! It was absolutely adorable. If Molly got up on a tire, though, Pongo would try to knock her down. Molly is big sister and she and Pongo enjoy being rough. It was a bit one-sided for a while, but Pongo is getting bigger by the day and now he's got horns so he's starting to give Molly a run for her money! It will be interesting to see how all these relationships develop over the summer.