The Trout Pond - Chicks, Chicks & more chicks

No, I'm in the barn every day at least once, it's like my man cave :cool: I do the evening feeding and check everything out incase DS missed something during the morning feeding.

We've heard them up in the hay loft for a while, maybe a month or so, but the momma cat had them hid pretty good, my kids couldn't find them after an extensive search!!!! It was driving them nuts :P

There are actually 5 kittens in that pile, and 2 ran off b/4 I could take the picture, and there's another group a little younger still up in the loft, and we haven't gotten an accurate count, it goes back and forth between 2-4
:idunno
 
Rerun is really tiny. She only weighs about 6 lbs. Most people think she's a kitten, but she's 5 and 1/2 now.
 
Well, it started out as not a very productive week-end :/ But finished strong!!

Thursday AM our DS came in from doing the morning feeding, and told us that our herd Queen Precious wouldn't eat. We normally have to tie her in place so she doesn't eat everybody elses food (that's what I did Wed night, and she chowed down like usual).

I came home that night and she still wouldn't eat, was running a slight fever, and was just standing in place shivering and grinding her teeth. After talking w/ a goat friend we gave her a shot of penicilin. Friday morning no changes, but she wasn't shivering and she was walking around a little bit, but still not eating. We called our vet and he said he'd come out that evening. He got there around 3-3:30, I was working in the garage and could hear Precious in the barn when they pulled into the drive, we walked out to the barn and by the time we got into the barn she had died.

He wasn't sure what COD was, but thought it could have been complications from the birth of her kids in late March. It took almost a week for her to finally pass the afterbirth, and he thought it could have been something to do w/ that. He offered to do an autopsy, but I didn't want the mess, and didn't want the kids to walk in the barn and see that going on, it was bad enough.

The worst part of the whole ordeal was dealing w/ the 2 doelings that she had. They were nuzzling her and trying to nurse as we were trying to remove the corpse, so that was pretty sad to see. All week-end long you could hear them calling for their momma and walking around looking, but they are 8wks old and doing pretty good now. They had just started eating pellets a couple of weeks ago, and they've been munching on hay for quite a while now, so we're watching them and making sure they're eating and not getting picked on by the other momma goats.

We did have a good Mother's Day, all the kids helped me make lunch after church.

We made a nice toosed salad w/ cucumbers, celery, tomates and cheese. the girls all peeled and diced the veggies while I peeled and sliced potatoes. We took the potatoes and put them in an aluminum foil "burrito" w/ salt, pepper and butter and put them on the grill. Then DS and I cooked some Ribeyes on the grill. It was FANTASTIC!!! For desert we had picked out an ice cream cake, too good to describe!!! Momma was thrilled, the girls took turns getting her things while we cooked and wouldn't let her do anything.

After lunch, the kids took her outside and planted Momma's flower beds, while I worked in the garage on a 4H box for our fair supplies. They would let her set the flowers in the bed were she wanted them, then the girls would plant them and DS put the mulch on after they were done. A GOOD time was had by all!!!
 
:hugs So sorry about Precious. The doelings should be just fine, as many people wean at 8 weeks. And they have each other. They may need some private time in a stall until they get bigger so they don't get too beat up. Depends on your other goats. They may get chased away from food and water and the draft-free sleeping spots.
 
Bummer! I'm sorry to hear about that...it does seem as though she may have had an infection from the retained placenta. Are you going to keep her kids?
 
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