Sometimes I wonder what people think when they read my blogs, do they think I romanticize things, or just really exaggerate things? But no, this is my real life goat experience and I am sharing it to help others with goats learn from my experiences.Last week was absolutely hectic, between my new much more demanding position at work, to Rob's side hustle that I had been helping with and MJ still not being her self, by the end of each day I did not have anything left in the tank. Thursday morning, I awoke with a pit in my stomach, my vet had come to listen to her lungs and just do a recheck on her Wednesday night. MJ's temperature had been stable for four days, but she simply was still acting like she wasn't feeling well. When the vet took her temperature it was 106, so she asked for me to take it with my thermometer, which indicated 105.5. Either way it was too high, so we jumped into action and gave her .2 ccs of banamine and said a prayer. I had knots in my stomach all night long and when I went to check MJ the following morning her temperature had dropped down to 98.8. I immediately ran to get my heating pad and blow dryer and a blanket for her. As I set about warming her I called my vet. She agreed with what I was doing and suggested I continue warming her to 101 and then give the additional dose of Draxxin. While doing this I called OSU to see if there was anything else they could do for her. They ran down a laundry list of things they could do for her, so without hesitation I began preparing to load her and take her and her mother to OSU. Within 30 minutes I had made myself presentable for human eyes, loaded the cage and some feed into the truck and loaded both Moots and MJ and we were off on the three hour drive to OSU.
During the drive MJ had several instances where she laid her head down and I was so nervous that I shook her awake, until she could get to the hospital to be evaluated. After what felt like the longest most stressful three hours of a very long period of my life we arrived at OSU. I had called during the drive to have x-rays that Rainbow took there when I arrived, as the vets wanted to compare the x-rays from last week to this week to see if we were moving in the right direction. The team evaluated MJ and decided to keep her and Moots for fluids, and testing of her proteins to see is she had a failure of passive transfer right after birth. They wanted to hold off on giving her any more antibiotics to see if the Draxxin I gave her right before we left would be enough to do the trick. I called my vet, who called to give the detailed series of therapies we had been giving her, and my husband to let him know what the latest news was.
On the drive home I reflected deeply on why I had goats, if I wanted to continue breeding and showing, or if I just wanted to enjoy my current goats for their lifespan. After much deep thought, I came to the conclusion that I love goats for their personalities, and I want to continue to better the breed that I love and teach and provide other people with goats to spread the love and joy that goat ownership can provide! Thankfully, when OSU called Friday morning MJ had stabilized and her temperature had come down with the anti- inflammatory Meloxicam, they wanted to keep her another day, to which I readily agreed. Saturday and Sunday mornings also had great news with better lung sounds, behavior, as she was eating grain again for the first time in weeks! The vets said we could come get her Sunday evening, so I went to get her yesterday and I was absolutely overjoyed with what I saw. She was jumping and squirming and eating and being MJ! We arrived home around 9 PM yesterday and the rest of the herd were happy to see MJ and Moots! I am happy to report that after an evening home resting in her stall MJ seems to be back to her old self, playing with Godiva and just generally being spunky! We will continue to monitor her and restrict her activity, but for now, it seems like after significant stress our MJ is a happy and healthy member of the Udderly Wicked Family! Have a wonderful week and Happy Goating!
