Savingdogs-Saving the chickens

[savingdogs]

I just made my first batch of Chevre (it is sitting right now) and my second batch of yogurt this morning......I feel so domestic, I may go make some homemade bread! So far the Chevre is incredibly easy. I'm just waiting for this evening and a "clean break."

 

[Icu4dzs]

Well, I am learning more about goats than I had imagined by reading this journal, SD. Your boy is certainly "all there" from the photos you published. Tell me more about this buck odor thing. Why does it spoil the milk in your doe?

Today, I talked to the gal who is selling me the doe. She says she isn't sure that she is bred because she isn't showing much and won't bag up till she is ready to kid so I won't know. Then she says "Do you need any chickens?" And I said, "How did you know?"
She wants to give me a whole bunch of them and I said, "But of course, only I can't take them till I get the coop finished and am back from DD28's wedding in the end of October. She agreed to this so now I have a source to replace my hens...hurray!
Trim sends
//bt//

 

[savingdogs]

Well my goat milk has not been spoiled YET, but I've heard that the reason some people think goat milk tastes "goaty" is because the does are running with the bucks. I expect his smell will be all over Molly tonight....but she is drying off so there won't be much waste. That is why I chose to breed her first, Ginger is still milking nicely although just once a day now. About the amount of milk we drink.

Buck smell is a VERY strong unpleasant odor. It kind of permeates the air .......floats on the breeze and lingers on your hands, your clothes, anything they rub up against, like my fence smells. You may wonder, how could urine smell so bad? I truly, truly don't know how plain old pee can smell so awful.

I have been washing my hands several times and the udders of the does really really well in the last few days after being around him, changing my clothes, and the milk is fine. However the does themselves have a faint buck odor, I think from rubbing heads with him through the chain link. I am supposing the trick is to make sure no buck "cooties" get near those udders or on my hands.

It is rather convenient that I learned to pay attention to where my hands are from working in a surgical environment all those years.

 

[savingdogs]

Well I finally made it to my doctor's office yesterday, it had been almost a year since I had seen him (the ear specialist). They tested my ear and my hearing is worse (surprise surprise) especially with speech recognition (again, surprise, surprise). But he was more concerned about my falls, I am into a different stage of Meniere's disease now, not a good stage. So I'm now a candidate for a surgery I had been avoiding, http://www.ghorayeb.com/EndolymphaticShunt.html (don't look if you have a weak stomach, it is the technical explanation and why it helps sometimes). But the basic idea is that my ear has an area that is too full of fluid which causes my problems, and this is to have a shunt installed internally to drain off that fluid to the right place. There are risks and benefits, and it has reached the point that the benefits outweigh the risks. It isn't a cure, and it won't help my hearing. It will help only the vertigo. There is a chance it could take AWAY the rest of my hearing, which is why I have avoided this for years. But now I have so little hearing left, there is little to risk, and that would make me an immediate candidate for a cochlear implant, which would be a hearing improvement for me. It will probably make me "sick" for awhile with vertigo too, but then afterwards I could have one to three years with less vertigo or possibly none. So not working helps make this possible, I don't have to worry about being layed up. I will have to have Trouble milk the goats for me and take care of the animals. The doctor is doing me as a charity case so the bill isn't a problem anymore, so I'm not as worried that this only helps for three years or so and therefore being a wasted effort. After that scar tissue generally grows over the tube.

I'm not a happy camper, but what can I do? They wanted to schedule it on my BIRTHDAY but I declined and it is now the day AFTER. A cochlear implant does not allow one to listen to music, so I could potentially be giving up that chance to have a "good" day happen when I can hear music again. But I've only had a couple days like that this year, risking my neck isn't worth them. The benefit outweighs the risk, see?

But I'm hoping to lessen that type of vertigo that I get when I have those sudden falls. One of these days it will happen at the wrong place and time and I could break my neck, I don't really have a choice. Dr. Kim was very worried about that symptom, and I've been having it for 7-8 months already, he didn't really want to talk about anything BUT having the shunt surgery. He says that there is a percentage of people in which this fails, but HIS numbers are different and he has had a lot of success with it. So I have it scheduled for Thursday.

 

[Javamama]

I'm so sorry you are between a rock a and hard place. Wish I could help.

 

[abifae]

 

[freemotion]

Wow. Keep us posted.

 

[i_am2bz]

Good luck SD...and remember, technology is always changing & a new procedure may come along that does allow some hearing at another point, so who know? Keep the faith & stay hopeful!

 

[Farmfresh]

We do what we gotta do right? Surgery is never a fun option and always has risks involved, but this does sound like the risks are outweighed by the benefits. Falling flat the way that you do is never a picnic and you are right you could really be seriously injured depending on where and when you fell.

I was wondering if a coating of Vaseline on those udders would help keep the buck smell off?

 

[savingdogs]

Thanks you guys, and you are right, Iam2bz, technology improves. I hope cochlear implants can be improved before I get one. I know that is probably in my future but they really aren't that great yet. I think the results would disappoint me at this point. But this current operation isn't about hearing, it is about being dizzy with so many types of vertigo now. One of the types causes sudden unexpected falls and I HAVE been falling and hurting myself. So I pretty much have to do this, it isn't really a choice.