Just to Make Things More Fun

Tuesday after work, my mom and I went and picked several more buckets of tomatoes from the garden.

When I got home, I drove the Ranger in the garage.

When I went to start unloading the tomatoes, I tripped.  Seriously.  I tripped walking in the garage, and I thought I was going to die.  Mostly because the toe I tripped with was the one I had surgery on several years ago.  It really doesn’t move well, and it was bent farther than it has bent in probably twenty years.

I decided I should have it checked out because I couldn’t bear any weight on the toe.  Luckily, I didn’t break it, but I am in a fun shoe for the next three weeks.

Of course, that makes it a challenge.  Insurance companies don’t issue one shoe for the barnyard and one for the rest of my life.  That means I had to get creative.

It worked.

(Fuzzy photo because Betty Lou was trying for seconds on her peanut butter cracker.)

Actually, it worked better than I thought it might.

I even managed to climb over the gate with Penny’s meds.

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A Horrible Season

I keep telling you that I hate “the end of summer.” It’s the worst season because of the goats’ health. I swear it’s the time that everyone gets sick.  You might remember that it was a year ago tomorrow that Pluto had to go to ISU for a blood transfusion because of the anemia caused by worms and copper deficiency and stomach issues from the coccidia.  I can’t believe he actually came through it and is my sweet little wether now.  I am glad.

Pluto

This year, Penny’s knees are bothering.

Penny

Gidget, Bonnie and her girl, Socks, all had bottle jaw.  They were treated for worms, and Socks also got copper.

Bonnie

Now I can’t sell Socks, so I was waiting to take the rest of the March kids together, but then Tink had diarrhea.  I treated her for worms and gave her some copper.

Tink

Clover didn’t get bottle jaw or diarrhea, but she is completely anemic and tired, so I moved her up north.

Clover and Moira

I’m debating on whether or not it’s time for more copper for everyone with all these problems.  I need to give copper to any of the kids who haven’t had it yet because I don’t know when I’ll get around to selling them now.

Vinnie and Venus

Cupid has gotten a tiny bit of color back in her spots, but she’s not anywhere near as orange as she was.

I might be ready for winter.

Scurs

You might recall that Antigone had really weak horns that she kept ripping off.  I do think it was a genetic trait from her dad because a couple of her half-sisters also have those weird horns.  They just aren’t anywhere near as bad as Antigone’s.  That’s probably a result of her being an inbred oopsie baby.  Anyhow, I had the vets remove those horribly weak horns.  She was really older than one would typically dehorn, but it was medically necessary in her case.

Antigone

Well, one reason I don’t routinely dehorn my goats is scurs.

They tend to still get little horn growths that are loose and eventually fall off just to start the process all over again.  But with Antigone, there really wasn’t much of a choice.  She’s spent all summer growing loose scurs.

Often, when the scur comes off, it’s a bloody mess; although not as bad as what it was when Antigone was ripping her whole horn off.

Cows don’t do that as badly.  You remove a cow’s horn, and it’s just gone.  MJ, my steer, was actually born scurred; he had little sorta horns that were weak and didn’t really amount to much.  They were removed, and that was it.  Now, most farmers have selectively bred horns out of their cattle because being polled (without horns) is the dominant trait.

MJ (from 2013)

Unfortunatley, in goats there tends to be other undesirable genetic traits (such as hermaphrodites) that are paired with being polled that makes this less of a desirable option.

Bambi “I have no undesirable traits.”

Anyhow, back to Antigone.  I’m happy to say that Antigone’s longer scur fell off.

Even though I had prepared by purchasing blood stop powder, cotton pads, and vet wrap, it was completely bloodless and pain free.

Hopefully, that trend continues because she’s had enough pain from those horns.