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As I've mentioned before - this animal husbandry mullarky is tough going. In just a little over 3 weeks we've had:
- Travel Tetany - Gwedolyn. Sub-cutaneous calcium and intramuscular broad spectrum anti-biotic
- Mastitis - Margo (pictured). Intra muscular antibiotic and injections up the udder.
- The runs - A goatling (they all look alike to me) - salt & sugar solution
- Itchy neck (the same goatling) - ointment - we started with calendula but Ti tree seems to be working better. Itchy neck might not sound much but she was scratching it to raw. We think it started with a horse fly bite - she's certainly afraid of flies. We don't think it was mites and as she's responding to ointment we're probably right.
- The runs - Falvia - Several attempts to rectify diet and salt/sugar but eventually cured with a few doses of stuff to boost the rumen.
- Lethargy and just plain unwell. Bonnie. We thought this was hypocalcaemia and did the subcutaneous calcium solution. As the only milker we take a lot of effort to see that she eats well but now she's not eating at all and looking very unhappy. The calcium solution hasn't worked and we are awaiting another visit from the vet soon.
I think the goats are still settling in and getting used to new surroundings and diets. There are also psychological battles going on - Gwendolyn is fighting to keep her place as the matriarch but Margo is challenging her and Bonnie is still struggling to be in the group. Meanwhile Flavia will rarely venture far from Bonnie. All these battles take their toll.
My fear is that things haven't settled come winter. It will be a hard winter for them and they need to be tip top to get through it. I need them to be tip top for me to get through the winter too.....
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