Ongoing Copper Issues

It took eight years for my diagnosis of copper deficiency.  I’ve been giving the goats copper for five years.  I am still struggling with copper issues.

Bubbles almost has a rat tail and didn’t settle this year.

Cupid’s patches are really supposed to be much more orange.

In good news, Daisy is doing much better.  She’s still thin, but the diarrhea is gone and she has more energy.  She is picking up weight, and I expect she will fully recover.

Daisy

Her girls are also doing well.  They just come running and gobble down the sweet feed.

Daisy is in back; Blanche and Cotton under the log

They chew their cuds and are doing well.

Blanche and Cotton

Friday while I was doing chores, Cutie came running to the milk room door.  I immediately saw that she has a horrible case of bottle jaw.

Cutie

That’s what happened last year and why she was supposed to retire. Except for the whole Benji jumping out and breeding her.  Interestingly, Cutie and Daisy were born the same year.

BJ (Benji Jr)

Anyhow, I weaned BJ and put Cutie up north with Daisy.

Cutie (behind) with BJ (2.5 months) and Heidi (11 1/2 months)

They should both be fine.  And, dang it, Cutie is darn well retiring!  I already have several kids looking like they are getting low on copper, so I’ll need to divide some capsules in half and give to those kids.

Ivory and Q-Tip (you can see their hair is getting thin)

I already gave copper to Sidney’s kids.  Their noses were bare.  About two days after I started hemming and hawing because they didn’t weigh enough to give them a copper capsule, Jay went lame.  His front legs were just wonky–like rubber.  That’s when I immediately gave both boys half of a capsule.

I don’t know how he could eat like that.

I ended up calling the vet to put him down because, even though he started growing new hair on his nose about a day after getting copper, he was still just struggling to walk.

Jay with new hair growing on that nose that was completely bare.

Then, when I got home from work and caught him for the vet, I couldn’t believe my eyes.  He had one leg pretty straight and mostly standing.  So we decided to wait.

He’s about the same.  I will give him the other half of his capsule pretty soon, and hopefully that will finish his recovery.

There’s Always One

I swear every time I think the herd is all healthy, there’s one that just has to step in and try to die.

Hilda is improving now that she doesn’t have kids on her.

Now it’s Daisy.  For some reason she just suddenly got really skinny and had diarrhea.

Daisy and her girls

It’s a good thing I got the bucks off the north paddock so it could grow.

Frodo and Xerxes are getting along well since they are not in rut.

Because I put Daisy and her girls up there.  The two littles are starting to chew their cuds, so I’ll wean them soon.

Blanche, Cotton, and Daisy

Daisy got an extra copper capsule and was wormed.  They are all getting sweet feed to help put weight on Daisy and keep the two girls growing.

The whole eight years to get a diagnosis of copper is still a bit overwhelming to deal with.

Some Updates

I haven’t said much about my water situation–the hydrant not working and not getting replaced before the ground froze.  Well, I am grateful for my cattle tank.  It’s done its job all winter.

Antigone getting a drink from the cattle tank.

I can’t believe how long Anita’s eye clip stayed on.  I finally took it off  because I didn’t want it to start irritating because it was in there for so long.  Her eye still looks good.

Anita just before her eye clip came off.

I still can’t get Hilda’s boys to take a good bottle.  I still keep trying and squeezing it in their mouths until they just let it drool out.

Jasper by big sister, Purl

It does make me happy to say I’ve seen Horace and Jasper out nibbling new green grass with their mom.  I hope they can keep going until their rumens start functioning and they can get what they need from food other than milk. I think Hilda even looks a little better.

Horace nibbling grass with maa, Hilda

Moxie is doing well.  Her mom is feeding her, but she will still take an occasional bottle when I’m trying to feed the boys.  I am all good with that because it keeps her sweet.

Moxie

Things are mostly calm with the two bucks.  I’ve only seen Xerxes try to kill Frodo once.

Xerxes

Frodo was foolish enough to be fighting back.  I suggested he just run because he’s faster than Xerxes.  That could be his super power.  Unfortunately, he’s been a little pushy with me.  I keep warning him he better be nice like his grandpa Fionn and not mean like his dad because I won’t keep someone who tries to kill me.

Frodo

Chiffon’s second baby was pretty small and weak when he was born.  They were five days early.  When I went out for a middle of the night check that night, he was horribly rattly in his breathing.  So at 3:30 am I started him on meds to try and help clear his lungs.  He got really bad, but he is doing better now.

Silas

Her other boy has been bouncy from the start.  You’d never know he was early.

Sammie

It’s time for copper again–I see the same streak of hair loss on Athena that her mom used to get.

Athena

It’s never ending chores on the farm.

But now, I have new spring muck boots.  Yes, I know that shouldn’t be a big deal, but look–they are clean. They’ll never, ever be clean again.

And I wish all of my updates could be happy, but we lost one of Ava’s triplets.  Her boy that looked like Benji got hurt and couldn’t be saved.