It's been a very long week. Hard to believe that things changed so rapidly on Monday for us on our little farm. In two weeks we went from 10 acres of land to a real, live farm. With that came problems, issues, and reality. Since our last update, we went from a herd of 10 goats to a herd of 9. Sadly our little buckling from the second set of twins that were born early Tuesday morning died early Friday morning. While we are unsure of what happened, some research has led us to believe that it might have been floppy kid syndrome. In a nutshell, this is extreme muscular weakness or paralysis in very, very young kid goats. The cure can be quite simple by removing the kid from drinking milk and giving electrolytes and sodium bicarbonate. We thought we had a kid that was having trouble getting used to his new legs. It's very frustrating to know that we could have saved this little guy, but you have to shake it off and move forward. You learn. You live. You have 9 other members of your herd that need care. Life must go on. This little doeling is surviving and doing well. She goes to "kid"ergarten every day and hangs out with the herd and plays with the other kids. At night she sleeps in a box in our garage. It's very weird to have this little thing attached to us as her mom. She follows us wherever we go and is growing stronger every day. We are also learning about herd hierarchy. The mamma of the other set of twins has placed herself as the queen. She rules the group with her horns and her mouth. She's quick to nudge a nosey kid and smack another goat in the ribs so that she can get something to eat. She's very curious and very beautiful. Her daughter is going to ascend to royalty as well. We'll be back in a day or so with the October wrap up and some more detailed posts about our herd and the other progress we are making on the farm.//tr
1 Comment
lisa
11/6/2014 06:32:37 am
I pray the little kid is well.
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About UsIn 2014 a couple of 40-somethings decided to make a change. The purchase of 10 raw, pine scrub acres along Florida's Nature Coast started it all. This is that story. Archives
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