Rest in peace

As you can tell by the title of this post, today did not go well.  I was able to get Hiccup, my goat, an appointment to get some x-rays done.  This morning, I fed him a bottle at 530 am.  He was not showing any improvement from last night.  By 11 am he was worse.  I could tell that he was not getting the fluid and nutrition that he needed.  He was starving to death.  I still kept the appointment for the x-ray because I wanted to know what happened.

By the time he arrived at the hospital his body temperature had dropped and he was very sluggish.  I knew that I would not be bringing him home.  He was deteriorating quickly.  The vet took 5 different x-rays.  None of them provided any answers.  Even without answers, I knew that putting him down was the right thing to do.

Life is complicated.  Death is even more complicated. I hated making the decision, but I am very thankful that he is not suffering anymore.  While they are with me, I love them, I do the best that I can to care for them and pray for wisdom. There comes a point where we have to hand it over to God and Nature.  There are many factors that I just can not control.

Hiccup was a year and a half.  He was full of life and had a wonderful personality.  I hope and pray that I can learn from my time with him to better my care of my other goats.  Rest in Peace my friend.

This just stinks!

Farming is not easy.  There is a direct connection between life and death.  We raise animals for food.  Animals that we raise from a baby and then end up butchering.  That is not easy, but we understand from the beginning what the animal is used for and you are always emotionally preparing yourself for that.  Even those animals, if they die before the butcher day, it is very upsetting.  We have some animals on the farm that have a purpose, but are not going to be butchered for food.  Our whethered goats are an example of that.  They are spoiled rotten lawn mowers.  They keep the milking goats company and they keep the back pasture mowed. Other than that, they have no purpose.  All of our goats were hand raised as bottle babies.   It makes them so much easier to handle and overly friendly.  So yes, they are basically pets that eat grass, but they are cute pets that eat grass.

We had a family situation that pulled us away from the farm for 8 days.  Luckily we have amazing friends that took care of the farm and the animals.  However, while we were gone one of the goats became ill.   No one is sure what happened, but the vet believes that he has a broken jaw.  We have tried everything that we can do here, and we now have to take him to a hospital for x-rays and sedation.  There is probably less than a 10% chance that he is going to make it.

Searching for answers and trying to save a life and not torturing the animals while going bankrupt at the same time if a fine line.  We want to do everything that we can, but we want him to have a quality of life too AND he is just a lawn mower!  We don’t have thousands of dollars to put into this guy.  BUT, we raised him from a baby and he is part of the family.  No matter how you look at it, it just stinks. I hate having to make the decision to end a life, it just stinks.  I will keep you posted about what happens today and what we find out.

Jawbreaker

Do you ever go to bed at night and think to yourself that you better not leave anything for tomorrow because you never know what tomorrow might bring? I had that feeling last night, blew it off and it bit me in the butt! Woke up this morning to a goat foaming at the mouth an lethargic. Called the vet ASAP. Vet examined the goat, ruled out all illnesses and worms and found the problem is the goats jaw and jaw alone. His tongue works, no other neurological symptoms, his bottom jaw just does not close all the way. There is a possibility that it could be dislocated or broken. Not something we were expecting. Never leave stuff to do tomorrow that can be do today!