Last week started off in a way that I should have known would be a common thread across the week. I had just finished unpacking from our wonderfully fun trip to Columbus for Quarter horse congress over the weekend. We always enjoy taking a get away to shop and look at the horse trailers and the best part is watching the congress super sale!
On our way home I had been texting with my friend who has goats near us and was monitoring her goat in labor, she finally started pushing around 4:30 PM and by 5:30 there was no progress. My hard and fast rule is if there is no progress by 30 minutes there is likely an issue and you need to go in and check. So I asked her if she wanted me to come over, which I did. I immediately gloved up, went in and checked her, I found the front legs immediately and determined that the head was back. After a good 45 minutes of trying to reposition the kid, I was unsuccessful, so the vet was called. The vet arrived after a tense 40 minutes or so, she gloved up, gave the doe an epidural, and went in to check. She worked for what felt like hours, but in reality was probably no more than an hour, we tried every trick that we knew, from lube to lifting the does hind end up and I called every breeder that I knew to see if they had any other tips or tricks, but we were not able to get the baby out. This was mentally and physically exhausting, listening to the poor doe and working to hold her for the vet to try to manipulate the kid. This vet called another vet who came out about 20 mins later who checked the doe again and decided the only other option was a c- section. At this point we had been working on the doe for close to four hours, so we knew the likely-hood of the kid being alive was not high. The vets got to work as my friend and I assisted, and after a short while they pulled out a beautiful chocolate buckskin kid, it was a doe with blue eyes, and we worked hard to revive her rubbing her vigorously, clearing her airways with a nose frida, giving her epi and even trying acupuncture in the middle of her lips and under her nose and to no avail. The vets quickly sewed the doe up dosed her with pain meds and left. I hugged my friend, gathered my supplies, and headed home, filthy, blood stained and mentally exhausted. I did on my way home purchase another kid puller that was suggested by another good friend of mine with a ton of goat delivery experience. I believe if the vet had that puller, we would have been able to avoid the c section.
The work week went without much excitement, and we were able to make progress on some of our tasks, but as Friday rolled around our dog started to go downhill it started innocuous enough an accident in the house, which she hasn't done since she was a puppy, then a bought of heavy breathing at night which all culminated on Friday with her not moving, eating and vomiting in the house. We immediately called PVSEC and they were not able to see any patients due to low staffing and too many cases. We were thankfully able to get an appointment at Rainbow Vet hospital for 12:30 AM and they admitted her to the hospital for fluids and ice packs because her temperature was 105! That night we did not get home until after 3 AM. Thankfully, they were able to get Sadie' temperature down and discuss with the internal medicine Dr. at PVSEC what next steps should be. She was put on a liver supplement, because her liver values were elevated due to the Prednisone, a new immuno-suppressant called lefludimide, and a new antibiotic Doxycycline along with her Gabapentin and her Prednisone. Thankfully, by Sunday afternoon she had rebounded and we were able to take her home.
But in this time our truck decided to add insult to injury. Back over a month ago we left our truck out of the garage and on the concrete pad and the goats chewed two sensor wires. It was our fault as we knew better, the goats have done this before if you are an avid reader of my blog. Thankfully, Rob was able to replace one sensor and repair the other and eliminated the codes when it initially happened and we thought all was well! Just Friday on our way home from our investment property the code came on again which puts the truck into limp mode after 150 miles. Well, we were a good 40 miles from home at the time, so by the time we got home we had about 100 miles prior to the truck, our only vehicle would go only 5 miles per hour. To say I was distraught was an understatement. It felt like the world was crumbling around me between our dog being so ill and us not having a vehicle that functioned. The part was ordered but it would not be here until Tuesday, so we racked our brain and decided to go purchase a code reader, to clear the codes from our vehicle in order to get more miles. Thankfully, that worked, but as we pulled into our driveway I saw my old mare Elle laying down sleeping, flat out which she rarely does, and I thought she had passed away. This broke me, all of the stress of the week culminated and I broke down in uncontrollable tears when I saw she was O.K. I am thankful that things are looking up, we have the part for the truck, the code is gone, and our dog is home and doing better. I am looking forward to getting our automatic waters in this weekend, as my dad and all of the equipment are coming Saturday. I hope you are all having an amazing week, take care and know when things are not looking so good, there is always brightness around the corner of every dark day. Happy Goating all!!
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