Margo

Margo is a Saanen, mother of Matilda. When we collected her on Sunday the previous owner milked her before we left. There was clearly a problem - clots in the milk. The previous owner didn't seem too worried.

But milking Margo has been difficult and yesterday Jussi was in Thurso and so checked in at the vets to ask their advice. Their diagnosis was mastitis which needed treating immediately. So Jussi returned with a heap of pharmaceuticals.

Treatment goes like this. We put a collar on Margo which I grip and then with my legs I push her into a wall to keep her still. This is so we can 'milk' her and this degree of force is needed because having mastitis is making the milking uncomfortable. Yesterday we had to give her an intramuscular shot of antibiotics. Jussi had seen the vet do this to Gwendolyn, and we also have a video showing how to do it and with the war cry "I am my father's daughter" (Jussi's father is a doctor) she plunges the syringe in. I was pinning the goat so I couldn't move and Jussi waving the hyperdermic about was quite scary.

Then we have to insert a syringe (no needles this time) up the teat and squirt in another antibiotic solution. This is very difficult, not least because the application is made for cows and I think they have bigger teats - but so far Jussi has been reasonably successful and is getting better at it. I asked Ailsa to take piccies of all this but all she managed was a few interesting piccies of assorted bottoms.

After all this unwelcome attention we molly cuddle her for a bit and give her some treats.

The milk we got this morning was better than we got last night - so the antibiotics are doing the job and all should be fine by the end of the week.