Ernie's On The Mend

Most of you know that our little goat, Ernie has been under the weather for a couple days. It started because I'm a bad goat owner that didn't switch his blanket to the bigger size soon enough. The dog blankets I use have elastic leg straps and poor Ernie's inner thigh got an abrasion and small cut before I noticed it digging in last weekend.

As soon as I noticed, I switched him to the bigger blanket and stopped using the leg straps. I cleaned it and put blue spray on it and kept an eye on it. Of course, he wouldn't leave it alone and picked at it until it got quite a bit bigger. It never looked weepy or infected... I used my horse clippers and trimmed the hair away to make it easier to clean and so hopefully it wouldn't itch him quite as much.

I also started taking his temp once or twice a day, just in case. Well, as animals always know the least convenient time to need vet attention, Saturday morning his temp was up. Now in all fairness, it wasn't *quite* a fever yet, it was 103.9 F. Goats normal temp is between 102.5 and 104 F. But I do take their temps somewhat regularly, just for a baseline, and 103.9 is high for HIM. He also was not that interested in eating his grain, which is very unusual for him.

So I called the vet clinic and told them what was going on... normally, I might've just waited it out a couple days... but goats are really susceptible to infection and die quickly... they also get pneumonia easily and die quickly. Since I wanted to avoid that, I wanted to act quickly. I called at 11:45 am and they said they could see him at 12:20pm, so I agreed and quick loaded Ernie into the dog crate and into the van. Jess and Shawn stayed home with Bert to keep him company.

Both goats screamed for about 5 minutes when they were first separated, but then both settled down just fine. Ernie traveled very well in the car.

One of the less obvious big problems with moving far away from home is the fact that you no longer have any relationship with a vet. They don't know your experience or anything.... this becomes a problem when something like this comes up and you just want to pick up a bottle of penicillin and get the dosage and a few needles and syringes from them. They aren't real quick to agree to do that. Hence the in person goat visit.

Now the regular goat vet was out of town, so we saw the dog vet. She told me she'd never given a goat a shot before... oh great, we are in the same boat! She gave him a tetanus booster and a shot of penicillin and we went over how to give IM shots. Its the same as giving horses shots, so nothing much different, but I wanted to be sure, also. I don't want to make anything worse!!

Ernie, of course, had the biggest, longest pee in goat history on the floor of the exam room. I managed to pull him away from the heat duct before he peed down the duct... no one wants to smell THAT forever!! He also left a big pile of goat pellets that I used the urine soaked paper towels to push into a pile. Charming animal. :)

He was a really good boy though... he was nervous about being there and wanted to stay very close to me. At one point, one of the clinic cats came over to him. I was a little worried that the cat might scratch him or scare him or something, but the cat just sniffed the goat and the goat just looked at the cat.... then suddenly, Ernie opened his mouth and bit the cat right on its spine near its shoulders!! The cat went "YOW" and jumped straight up in the air and then ran off. The goat jumped. I jumped. The receptionist jumped and peeked over her desk and shrugged her shoulders. I mostly tried to keep from laughing hysterically.

Anyhow, so we were all done there and headed home. The goats weren't as frantic to see each other as I thought they might be, but seemed happy enough to be back together. Ernie's temp was back to normal this morning and has been normal all day.

*break in posting to watch tv*

It's now almost midnight, we're just in from doing night feed. Checked Ernie's temp again and he's bang on normal still and was very excited to get his beet pulp and grain tonight. A couple hours ago there was a thick fog and it was really creepy out. Now its windy and the fog is gone and the full moon is shining so brightly its like daylight out. Crazy extremes.

It's still wet out, but no longer raining and the wet parts are starting to freeze. There's actually a flash freeze warning for most of the province tonight. Its an odd combination.. .some of it is just wet... some is ice and some is slush that's getting crusty. I already put out some sand/salt so when I walk out the back door in the morning I hopefully won't go flying!

Anyhow, it turns out I still need to do some Christmas shopping tomorrow and I'm hoping to pick up a bottle of epinephrine from the vet to have on hand, just in case... hope I don't ever need it. Goodness knows if you ever do need it after giving a shot, your day is gonna suck. But at least if you have it on hand (in case of an adverse reaction to a shot of penicillin, for instance) you have a chance of saving your animal. Otherwise, you'll never even get the call to the vet *placed* before they are gone.

I know many people give shots without having it on hand and never have a problem, but if you've ever seen a reaction, you know how horrible and how friggen fast it happens and how glad you are to have it in your pocket. The equine vet I used before we moved out here used to keep a syringe of it drawn up everytime she gave any shot. She had experienced reactions before and she estimates that you rarely have more than about 90 seconds to administer it and still have a good chance of a good outcome. She always said that for every 10 seconds after the 90 seconds, the chance of a full recovery dropped dramatically. That's always stayed with me and now it creeps me out to give shots without it being handy.

So that's the plan for tomorrow... Christmas shopping and a bottle of epi. Super fun :)

Another little tidbit that I was reminded of today... Pa, (my mother's father) used to keep some beef cattle and we were as involved as we could get, as kids! Sometimes, Pa used to stand at the gate and just stand there and look at the cattle. As a kid, this seemed really stupid and boring and why couldn't we do something more fun. I remember asking him what he was doing and he said "I'm listening to the herd". For years as a kid, that never made any sense. As I got older though, it made lots of sense. Just by standing, listening, observing, you could tell if anyone was in distress, off their feed, coming in heat, ready to calve, etc.

I know it seems really obvious, spend time with your animals, know what they are normally like and then its easy to tell when they are "off" or not quite right, etc. But for me, it has always been something really profound... perhaps more so since I thought it was so cryptic and stupid when I first heard it. But with my little goat being ill this weekend, it served me well... I noticed he was not quite right before the situation became life or death... just by listening, noticing and paying attention. Thanks Pa!

Oh and my sister and her family bought a herd of 29 Boer goats today. They arrived safe and sound! I'm so happy for her and I hope she ends up liking her goaties as much as I like mine! Congratulations on the new herd guys!!

I guess we should head to bed, its late... I know I'll have a hard time sleeping tonight with the bright moonlight on the snow AND the wild wind.... some sleep is better than none, I think.