Browsing the Pasture

Deer are not the only ones out in pasture.  The goats spend a lot of time out there browsing all they can eat.

Victoria and Onyx

Zora

Perdita

Heidi and Flora leading a bunch of kids

Cupid and Tansy with Pepper in front; Wanda in back

my old man Casey

Xerxes

Popcorn

Maisie

Antigone chewing cud

Trace (who is getting round!)

Then they come up and chew their cuds like crazy.

Just the Goats

The nice weather has been really enjoyable.  I’m enjoying it, and so are the animals.

Chiffon

Daine, Cy

Heidi

Onyx

Bun Bun is not a goat, but still…

Bella

Hilda (doesn’t she look better!)

Nonnie and Nannie

BJ right before he was weaned

Pretzel

Cy, Salter, and Pepper

Wilson and Slim

Popcorn

Triscuit and Tassie

Hope you are getting some good weather as well.

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.