Happy New Year!
I don't know about everyone else, but 2016 was just not the best year for me. I am happy that it is a new year and am hoping for the best. I haven't updated since October so there are a few new things going on.
First, I got a miniature horse. He is a 20 year old Stallion and we named him Herschel. He got his name from The Walking Dead character.
He came to us very skinny. We took him to the vet and got his teeth floated and he was already dewormed. We put him on some senior horse feed and he slowly started improving.
Below is what he looks like now after almost 3 months since we got him. I feel that he has filled out quite nicely. He is a sweet boy but reminds me a lot of a moody teenager. Sometimes he wants to be loved on and sometimes he doesn't. He isn't mean by any means, but can get an attitude and avoids us so we can't touch him. Lately he has been in my pocket; always near by and talking to me.
Next thing up is breeding season!!! A lot of my does should be pregnant. The month of march is going to be a busy month for me. February 25th is supposed to be the first kidding day but of course you all know how that goes. Most of my does are bred to Beards & Tales Iceman, only 2 are bred to Zanzabeez Caffeine High. I'm very anxious to see what my babies look like this year since I am using a new buck.
The next thing is about my precious Faith. We ended up losing her. Faith was my first mini lamancha and a bottle baby. She got sick about a week before Thanksgiving. She slowly started losing the ability to walk. We ended up taking her to a vet who advised me that it had to be a bacterial infection. Her eyelids were bright pink which indicated no worm load. She had a slightly elevated temp at 103.5. She was given a shot of penicillin. The next day she lost the ability to walk completely.
I had called the same vet back and asked him if it could be polio. He advised it could be and gave me Vitamin B Complex to give her. She didn't get any better. I did a lot of searching online and asking my goat friends. We eventually thought maybe it was Meningeal Worms. I started treating her for that as well but no improvement.
I finally took her to another vet for a second opinion. She said that it didn't look like Meningeal Worms or Polio and more like a trauma injury. She gave me 3 doses of steroids and a bottle of Thiamine and advised that her survival/recovery rate is extremely low.
That night after the first shot, my Faith was able to stand somewhat and stay standing for a few minutes. It was progress. She got better each day she got a steroid shot.
When I ran out of shots, she started going back down hill and the vet did not want to give me anymore because of the chance of the side effects. I ended up calling OSU Vet and they advised I could bring her in but with her being down for so long (it had been about a month of her not walking), her recovery rate was really low. I asked for prices on the procedures they wanted to do and it was going to be too much. About $1000 and then there was the low recovery rate.
The next day she was worse then she had ever been and we decided to put her down. It was the hardest decision I've ever had to make but I know it was the right one. She is buried in the back of our property where I can go see her if I want to.
I miss her everyday and it shocks me how much I miss her. She was so sweet and loving, very laid back. I couldn't stand not seeing her in the yard running around.
I think I lasted a week before going out and buying another mini lamancha. This new goat won't ever replace my Faith but it helps heal and make it not hurt as bad. We named her Jasmine and she kidded a beautiful buckling on Christmas Day.
In other news, I have started doing my own fecals. I have a microscope and I finally got myself a McMaster slide to actually do a fecal count. It is the neatest thing! I'm hoping this will help out, especially if I try to do fecals at least once a month.
I think that's it for this post. Not much else going on. I'm hoping by next month we will have some babies to post! Catch yall next time!
