If ever a month could drive me to get rid of all the animals and never have them again, this is the month. Don’t worry, it hasn’t, and I’m not really challenging fate or nature or anyone else to try and make me.
It started with Coral losing her baby and having a C-section. She will get her stitches out soon.
Coral Blackboer
About two days later, the vet came back to check out Coral’s mother Pistol. She had a soft lump on her side, which turned out to be a hernia. You can see the lump on her side.
She is confined to the Love Shack so nobody can pick on her any more (hernia is likely due to a horn to her gut) and hopefully the hernia doesn’t get worse. Once her babies arrive, we will fix the hernia.
Pistol Osboer
Until then, I’ll listen to her hollering to be let out. 😦
Helen’s little girl that she rejected is growing and big and full of energy, and I’m giving her Pepto Bismol and probiotics, and she’s still not pooping solid. She had another bath today. I do think she’s better, but this is really getting old after two weeks.
Cindy Lou Van de Yell
The cat has not been himself lately. He saw the vet when he started drooling. They checked him over and couldn’t really find anything, but he got antibiotics in case there was an infection they couldn’t yet see. He really didn’t improve, so he went back about ten days later and they drew blood. It was perfect! A week or so later, his lower jaw swelled and the drooling was horrible. He was in intense pain.
Snickers
He went back, and they did an x-ray and could see the ulcer in his mouth. He’s on antibiotics, and he is improving, but there is still a possibility that the infection was a secondary issue and he has cancer.
Only time will tell. At least for now, he’s not in severe pain.
Millie got run down and seemed to have an infection in her lung. Being run down raising a big kid and being sick caused her to pick up worms. She was horribly ill, but she’s on the mend. She still has a long way to go. I’ve been giving her all kinds of drugs and probiotics and cutting grass. To make things worse, while she has been shut in, her kid was killed by predators.
Millie Ann Saanen
Annie surprised me with having her kids nine days early, which caused her to lose one when she couldn’t give birth. If I hadn’t found her when I did, I don’t think she would have made it. She was completely exhausted and in a lot of pain from being in hard labor for who knows how many hours. Now she has mastitis, probably from having that swollen udder on the ground while she was trying to give birth for so long.
Annie Belle O’Boera
She’s on antibiotics and pain killers and probiotics, but she’s still miserable. Her little boy is doing amazing! Of course, he is now another bottle kid. I’d show you how well he’s filling out, but he was napping under the bench. Just think, he’s not due for another six days.
Hershey Osboer
Today’s heat makes it even harder for her and all the pregnant ones, and even the not pregnant ones are panting.
Linking to SOOC Sunday and Your Sunday Best.
Teresa
Eden Hills 
you are definitely paying your dues. no fun! and expensive, i’m sure!
It is expensive, but it’s so frustrating because I don’t think there’s anything I could do to prevent any of these things.
Wow! You’ve had more than your share of health/safety issues with your babies. You must be exhausted physically and emotionally. Hang in there! By the way, that photo of Cindy Lou is adorable 🙂
I am exhausted, but I’m also grateful that my mother has been here to help me when I’ve been at work. Cindy Lou is a doll!
Teresa! You went with Hershey!!! Awww I feel like he is my unofficial kiddie. God bless you for what you do. xo
He’s my little Hershey Bear! Don’t ask me about the bear; that’s just what came out. 🙂
Whew! I hope that all is behind you and every critter stays well and on the mend. I can just imagine how wore out you must be .Remembering you and all your animals in my prayers!
Thank you. I do keep telling myself it’s going to be better. I hope so since we are starting round four of kidding in about a week.
Dang girl, you truly have had a bad month with all your critters! I’m glad Millie is doing better and I hope Annie and Snickers start feeling better too! {{HUGS}} to you and everyone at Eden Hills!
That picture of little Cindy Lou needs to be on some cards or next year’s calendar or something, it is soooo cute! 🙂
Cindy Lou is such a cutie! She is sweet.
You and your animals have certainly had your share of troubles…and then some. I really hope June’s a much better month for you all!
Me too, especially since I have about 18 girls due to have kids. 🙂
So here’s my question– what will it take. At the peak of my immersion in loving animals as a way of life I had a parvo break-out in three litters of puppies– after they had been vaccinated. I was up every night for days plugging them up and keeping them hydrated.Even then I kept going and then lost one more stud dog to an intestinal blockage– he ate a washcloth– even missed by the vet– a beautiful Arab mare colicked on her due date; I had her induced and ultimately we lost both of them with a 3,000 dollar emergency vet bill involved. I couldn’t take being horseless and got myself an older beautiful mare. On my first ride the saddle slipped and I blew my tibial plateau and was in a nursing home for six months; the thing mishealed and my right leg is now bowed out, chronically swollen and braced; my left hip has begun to painfully pop in and out of the socket because my body is now skewed. I can only ambulate with a walker to go anywhere, and the rest of the time have to either use a wheel chair or a cane. Two years ago the mare colicked– I decided to spare her any of my desperate triage and had her euthanized, and finally– finally– I came to the conclusion that it was over for me. At one point in time we had twelve goats, four horses and a kennel of Golden Retrievers. It wasn’t all bad, it’s just that it nearly killed me. Needless to say I got no writing done, and tubed my career. All of this stuff was choices I made that had terrible consequences not only for me, but my animals. When people try to do too much, bad things happen. I now live alone in a manageable apartment with one dog but my companion has yet to surrender to his inability to deal with four litters of cats without having kittens fall ill and die in the middle of the room. His house, that used to be our house, reeks of cat pee; he has young cats that hide from him and that he can’t catch. I’m so angry with him at the moment for blowing off potential barn homes from an ad on Craig’s List I went to the trouble of posting I’m about to report him to the local humane society for animal hoarding– and he will deserve the trouble he will be in. But my limits aren’t anyone else’s limits– I just think that sane people would have thrown in the old towel years before we did. All best to you and your critters, Theresa. xj
I must say it offends me that you would turn this insensitive comment into a post on your blog. I shared that this has been a rough month because there are times like this on a farm. It doesn’t matter what great care you give animals, sometimes things happen. Your insensitive way of referring to my dear Miranda that I just lost and shed tears for is reprehensible. I live on a farm where animals are bred and raised, and your comment about the “group plan” is a bit ignorant. I do not appreciate your judgmental attitude. If you want to whine about your situation and feel sorry for your loss of mobility in a riding accident, fine. If you want to rant about the cat mess of your companion, fine. If you want to be bitter about your writing career being placed aside, fine. But please do not be disrespectful to me and my family.
Honestly, I didn’t send Mr. Murphy to you. Maybe he has a twin. Or a cousin. At any rate, let’s send them both off to Siberia or somewhere. What do you say?
I do think Mr. Murphy has a one-way ticket off my farm! 🙂
By the way, is it possible Snickers has an abcessed tooth? I say that because we had a dachsund once that developed this hole in her muzzle and it drained. No vets could figure it out until I finally took her to one that said he thought it was an abcessed tooth. He pulled it and it cleared up.
They checked his mouth. The draining is from an ulcer where his tooth was rubbing. The blood work a week ago didn’t have an elevated white count, so the infection is probably not the main cause. It might be a bad tooth, but they didn’t think so. I’ll talk to them next week and see if they need to look again when he isn’t so swollen and in pain.
Poor guy. I hope it clears up right away! One-way ticket for Mr Murphy! YES!!!!!!!!!!!! 🙂
He is doing much better, so I’m optimistic that the right antibiotics and time will have him back to himself. 🙂
These is the life cycle, which we, both human and animals, have to go through.
The better will come.
I know it will. It’s just been a long hard month.
I wish I could come and give you a great big goat hug.
I’ve had so much love from all the wonderful goat/bloggy friends. I feel like I’ve been hugged. 🙂
As you’ve shared your wonderful animals with us through this blog, I share your heartache when times are tough. I pray this is just a bad spell and things will be better soon.
The tough times do always end. I don’t know anyone with a farm that hasn’t had one of those years. Thank you.
Seems you had more than enough this month. Sadly it tends to be like that, one bad thing follows another. I just love the actionshot of cindy! wish i had her in my backyard 🙂 . fingers crossed for a much better next month
Thanks. She is such a sweet happy little girl.
Honey…honey………what tasks you’ve been given these weeks………. xo
I am lovin’ Helen’s Girl! Her photo says: Weeeeeee!
I have to go with an absessed tooth on poor pussy cat. Roots go deep…….and the *rubbing* might be a secondary cause. But that’s just me thinking.
So, so hard when our animals age.
Hershey reminds me of a brown Fionn. You have the LONGEST goats of any one I know.
The Goddess Bless your farm in these coming weeks…….
And you get a full night’s sleep and a glass (or 3!) od wine!
*hugs*
It’s the Saanen in them that gives them their length. I can only imagine how big that boy would have been if he’d waited another nine days.
Egads! Just went back and read comments after I posted this!
My gods!
How insensitive!
Kudos to you for your sharp (yet oh, so elegant!) cutlass thrust!
I’m sure any true Sister knew exactly what you meant.
Tough month and sharing….that’s all………..
You are loved.
xoxoxox
At Mimi: you think it’s a “cutlass thrust” to have someone tell you you’re whining about the loss of your mobility? I’d say it’s a remark worthy of a bottom-feeding you know what.
I am so sorry you have had such a rough month, (and also that someone would disrespect you!)…loving animals is such a wonderful thing, and although painful at times, I have always believed that the love outweighs the difficulties. I enjoy reading about your life on the farm, good and bad! Have a great day!
Thanks! It’s true that the good and the bad go together. Soon this month will be a memory of getting through the tough times by dedication, hard work, and some well-paid vets. 🙂
Oh my goodness- you have had a rough one! I’m so sorry that your animals have been ill. I hope everything ends up ok. Kittie makes my heart hurt- hope that turns out to just be an ulcer!
He is doing better. Hopefully, the source is just an infected tooth.
Wow, It is a good thing you have a reliable Vet. It is amazing what happens that one would never expect. There is so much hard work but I think it gets offset by the joy. Yesterday I snuggled two newborn lambs and played in the goat pen with 4 young kids, it makes me smile just thinking about it. I hope your babies get better soon.
I really have come to realize how lucky I am to have good vets that are available to me.
Goodness thats so much to deal with in one month… I thinkin I’d sit myself down & have alittle cry. I really do hope next month is better for ya on your farm. The heat is in the 90s here, the animals come out & free range in the mornings, then lounge around during they day (dont blame em), then the fun really begins around 4:30 when the barnyard starts to get shaded…. kids running & bouncing everywhere. Its heaven on earth 🙂
I agree that the evenings are fun! They get so wound up and race and bounce. I love it when the big girls play like kids too!
Although I love seeing your newborn kids and read about your adventures, it is beneficial to me to know I’m not up for this at my age. People always say we should have a horse where we live — but I know how expensive horses are and I wasn’t raised on a ranch, so a horse would be just another expense.
I hope things take a turn for the better for you, Teresa — it’s really hard sometimes.
Thank you for sharing at Your Sunday Best this week. xoxo
It is a lot of work, and I am working to make improvements on the farm to make it easier. Horses do require a lot of work too, so I don’t blame you for not having one.
Theresa,
I am so sorry for your misfortunes with your sweet animals. As much as I would love to have goats, I know that I would not have the fortitude at my age to deal with them. Three house dogs is all I am up to. But I admire you for being so good for your goats….they need you. Hope all gets better soon and you get some much needed rest.
♥charlotte
Now that I’m done teaching for the summer, it will make it much easier to take care of the animals. Hopefully, we’ve seen the last of illnesses for a while.
Mrs. Andrews, although I am sorry that you’ve had some unfortunate happenings in your life, it was not appropriate to state what you did about Miranda or Teresa.
I for one know that Teresa takes very, very good care of her farm and her animals. Farm life is not easy. No matter what you do to try to curtail illness or emergency things do happen, whether you have one animal or 100. Teresa and her veterinarian team are always there for her animals and she’s had many a sleepless night caring for them. It’s what she does, what anyone does who truly cares.
Teresa…..xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Thanks. 🙂
Yikes! You have your hands full!
Yes, and I’m grateful that I have a wonderful family to help me out. It will be much better now that I’m done teaching for the year.
My Dear Mrs Andrews-
Aye. I DO think Teresa’s comment was a most flawless verbal thrust.
I can not, for the life of me, think how in the Goddesses name you think that you can waltz your sorry self over here and begin attacking the owner of this blog and then use it for your own selfish purposes. Your comment above is only a small bit of your venom. Others should know that you went back to your sad little blog and proceeded to broadside Teresa, her animals and her farm. That’s the part you sort of left out, eh…?
Your *true* disability, it would seem, is a lack of compassion.
You have not a whit of an idea how Teresa runs her farm, for if you did you would know that no one works harder, knows more or cares deeper than she. She is one of the most professional and loving people I know.
It pains me to have to address your seriously pathetic comments as you seem to be the sort of person who thrives on this type of exchange and we are ultimately only feeding your hunger for negative attention-but here in Happy Blog Land….we have each other’s backs. The way it should be. The way it is.
So sayeth Foxmorton-