Finally Friday!

[fiberaddict]

Let's see..yesterday's was short by necessity, so today's will be random. :lol:

Doc visit: Went well. All my parts are there, boobies were smashed, gave blood to the vampires, and got a tetnus shot. (Which HURT, and still does!) Doc said everything looked great, I'm boring, see ya next year. :whew:

Water Softener is working again. $143 for the parts/labor - it was some sort of switch-thingy. The water is loverly soft again - and my soap? Suds up loverly! The dishes are starting to lose the film the hard water had deposited on them - thankfully!

Goats: Ugh. The eye ointment my vet gave us doesn't seem to do a damn thing. Sweet Geek wants to take Mocha (who is *still* blind) to the local vet - they do large animals, but don't travel. Fun stuff....maybe we can pick up some of the meds I need from them - they'll keep, and when my vet gets them in, we'll have spares. :nods:

I Copper-bolused three of the goats last night. I don't have a pill gun, so I used the marshamallow trick (THANK YOU Ali!!!) - Annie, Mocha and Zorra all snarfed up the 'mallows as fast as I could get them out of the bag. The first bolus, I emptied partly in the 'mallow...but I quickly realized that they'd snarf the gel cap down if I squished the 'mallow around it. :snicker: They each got 2 2oz boluses....I need to figure out how to get them down the Cashmere's and Alpine now.

Mocha got another shot of Fortified B-complex, and I mixed up some Oxytetacycline in her water bucket. I figured she wouldn't drink it (she didn't), so I sucked some of the mix up in a syringe (about 5-6 ml) and drenched her. She actually ATE this AM, so that's good. She spent a good hour last night outside eating weeds and grass. She won't eat the grain when in her "room"...so, yeah - I'm worried. She's been eating hay all along, and drinking *some* water, but......that's why Sweet Geek has finally decided a vet visit is necessary.

Rosa's milk samples were sent off Wednesday to LSU via Express Mail. $29. As of Last Night, it STILL hadn't arrived - it's guaranteed by 3 PM today. Um.....EXPRESS Mail. I thought that meant OVERNIGHT. At $29, it SHOULD be overnight - especially since LA is RIGHT NEXT DOOR to us! :grrrrrr: I'm not too worried about the samples defrosting - I packed them (frozen) with an ice pack and 2 frozen brine bottles. There was frost INSIDE the freezer at work when I pulled them out to pack up. :giggle:

Score: Before Wednesday's expensiveness, I had found a copy of the 5th edition of "Veterinary Clinical Parasitology", which is THE book recommended for animal owners. It helps you ID the internal parasites (OK, *worms*) that are infecting your livestock so you can use the proper chemicals to get rid of them. (You don't want any copies newer than 5th edition, from what I understand). Because some of the pages are torn (but still there, according to the description), I got it CHEAP...we'll see if it's as good as DGI claims. All I need now is a 'scope and some slides and I can do my own worm checks. (Yes, it involves poop. A vet'll charge $30/critter, if you're lucky. Plus the house call if he comes out to collect. I'd rather do it myself - besides...:evil grin: I have a daughter that LOVES science-type stuffs. I bet I can get *her* to run the checks. :lol:)

Coping: Dusty is doing well - he's not upset. I'm happy - when my favorite mare had to be put down, he grieved for a good month. (And people say animals don't have feelings - HA!) He's slightly depressed, but not too much - I think the goats are helping him. He's been standing at the fence "talking" to the bucklings.

The kids are doing well - they don't want to talk about it, but they're not moping around. And they're willing to feed the other horses, so that's good.

Not much else to report......I'm waiting on LSU to let me know if I need to do anything to Rosa. I hope not - Mocha's giving us less than 2 pounds a day right now (duh - she's not drinking a lot, so production's Down), and Annie is right at 4 pounds/day. Losing Rosa's 6.5 pounds a day will be an ouch! of great proportions......:sigh: Yes, I can milk the Cashmeres...but I really don't wanna. :pout: Besides, we PAID good money for Rosa - I'll be quite pissed if she turns out un-milkable.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I hope Rosa is easily treatable.
I have purchaced two does in milk.
My first one was a nigie and I had never milked before.
Of course the lady told me she was a perfect angel and the only reason she was selling her was because she kept back a daughter.
Turns out the goat was very opinionated on the milk stand - to the point where if she didn't have the food she wanted she would lay down with her hed still in the stanchion! and if my wrist was between her body and the edge of the bucket she would still flop down - crushing my wrist.
I sold her as a companion animal.
The second goat I bought in milk I asked a lot of questions about, but the number one question - the golden ticket so to speak is this :
Why are you selling *this* goat?

Unacceptable answers include - I have too many. I need the money. I have a daughter. - none of those questions tell me why you are selling *this* goat.
The lady I bought my nubian from told me - this goat doesn't have the side attachment that I am breeding for. Ok. I can see that.
If you are buying a goat in milk you are buying a cull. something they don't want in their herd anymore - the trick is to find out why they don't want her and if it is a problem you can deal with.

Have you tried camomile tea for the eyes? Thats what we use
http://www.learningherbs.com/pink_eye_remedy.html

~ali

PS sorry for blogging your comments. forgive me?

[fiberaddict.livejournal.com]

Hon, I don't mind blogging in my comments - it helps me learn!

I thought I was *so* smart - I asked why she was selling Rosa, because in her email she stated "Well, I wasn't planning on selling any milkers, but I have 1 I *could* be persuaded to let go". :snerk:

Her response made sense - she's a homschooler, mom of 3, and just didn't have *time* for all the goats; her husband told her to cut back. The problem...SHE doesn't own all the goats - her friend does; she's a "sattelite farm". Ummm.......OK. That was weird, but - I can see it. I have "loaned" out animals before, so that's not too extraordinary.

The red flag should have been that she has NO milking records. "Well, Rosa's giving us *about* a gallon or so". No, I want *NUMBERS*. Scales are cheap - we have a fisherman's digital one I got for under $20.

We also should have at least "dry milked" her, to see how her udder was. :sigh: Well, *I* can't be blamed for that - Sweet Geek wanted her, and NOTHING was gonna disuade him from handing over the cash.

Now, she's a sweetie on the stand, and she DOES give the milk. Slowly, though - the sausage teats and elongated udder mean she doesn't milk out as fast as my Nubians. (You know, I really ought to do a post on udders.....we really got lucky with the Nubies!). It's taking us *45* minutes each time to milk, whereas before her it took 10 minutes.

Thanks for the link - I have chamomile tea for my hair :grin:, so I'll give it a shot! Can't hurt...and at this point I'll try just about *anything*!

[(Anonymous)]

Oh one more thing - the goat that refused the marshmallow copper was the Nigerian/Angora cross. and I have read that fiber goats don't need the copper like dairy goats do. Copper is toxic to sheep and there is some evidence that as far as copper is concerned angoras are more "sheepy" than other goats....not 100% on that but poke aroudn and you will probably find soemthign to that effect.
Not sure if the Cashmere goats have the same tendancies...
~ali

[fiberaddict.livejournal.com]

That's interesting! The Nubians (and the cross - Zorra) literally tried to knock me down to get to the marshmallows. The Cashmeres were very indignent....you may be on to something. (Doesn't explain Rosa, but she's new and doesn't understand the spoilage here. :grin:)