Tough times

A week or two ago we had a gardener at my office pulling weeds and generally sprucing up the greenery. As I was leaving, I noticed that he had a nice full bag of freshly pulled greenery. Since I know my boss does not spray any pesticides in her garden, I asked the man if I could take the bag for my animals to munch on. He said it was mostly clover and grassy weeds, that he was happy for me to take it.

  I tucked the bag into the back of my car, brought it home, and propped the open bag against the pasture fence. Before I had a chance to really dig through it, the goats had discovered the bag and started pulling out and nibbling on the contents....

Amelia, Girl Genius!

  I should have known when I went out for chores one night and Luciano was hanging out with Gwen that something was amiss. You see, Luciano and Amelia are virtually inseparable. They are rarely more than a few feet from one another, but I was busy doing the usual evening chores, putting birds and feeding bunnies. By the time, I got around to feeding and milking goats, it was already getting dark. It was then that I noticed that Amelia was not with the group. 

  I grabbed a flashlight, called the two dogs, and headed toward the back pasture. I had a feeling I knew where I'd find her. I started calling her name as soon as I got out to the back pasture. I could just barely hear her calling back in the distance. I followed the sound and the instincts of my trusty farmdogs and soon enough we came upon one very unhappy goat. 

Sure enough. There she was with her fool head stuck in the fence...again. 

  Getting her head stuck in fences was beginning to be a full time career for this little genius. On the day these pics were taken, Amelia managed to get her head stuck in the SAME fence four times! In fact, I decided to tack up a layer of chicken wire on top of the existing fencing to keep this from happening and Amelia stuck her head through the fence and got stuck AGAIN not 10 feet from me!

   We used to think that Amelia's mother, Thea, wasn't too bright because she was disbudded incorrectly. When goats are very young, some people will burn off their horn buds using what is basically a soldering iron. If held on too long, it can cause the brain to heat up and be damaged, but it seems Thea came by her smarts the honest way, though, because her daughter shares that particular trait in spades. (Actually, one of the arguments FOR disbudding is to avoid having the goat get stuck in fences.) 

  After a while of this foolishness, we decided to take action. 

  Here is Amelia in her dunce cap. It is simply a short length of PVC held on loosely with hose clamps. We also wrapped the clamps in vet wrap to keep them from rubbing her horns too much.

 Aside from a lot pointing and snickering from the other goats, it doesn't seem to bother Amelia in the least and so far, she had not managed to get herself stuck in a fence since she starting wearing her special head gear. Hopefully, if we keep this on her for a few weeks, she will learn that her head no longer fits in those small opening in the fence and quit trying. Also, pretty soon her horns will grow out to a point where they won't fit either.

Castrating Luciano

  We made the decision to castrate Luciano a long time ago. For one thing, we don't want to breed him to any of our females. He's related to two of them and shares some characteristics with his mother and his sister that we'd rather not pass on to the next generation (bad hooves, breathing issues). Also, we really like him. He's a sweet boy who loves giving cuddles and kisses. Trust me when I say that these are not things you want to do with a buck, especially when he is in rut. 

  Bucks in rut can be aggressive. All that testosterone scrambles their brains, and they are as likely to butt you as to say hello. They also have a lovely habit of spraying smelly urine all over their front legs and faces. Just yuck!

  Even though we are removing his ability to reproduce, Luciano will still have a role to play here on the farm. Once he is weathered (neutered), he can be used as a companion to any future intact bucks that come around. After he had bred the girls, poor Rocky spent way too much time in the back pasture with only the sheep for company.

We have waited this long to get the job done because the poor little guy went and broke his leg right around the time we would have been castrating him. My vet recommended waiting until the leg was fully healed before causing him any more stress. 

We did a lot of research on different methods of rendering a male goat infertile. A lot of people seem to think that banding is cruel. Plus, Luciano was already too old for this method which is best done when they are very young. Surgical castration opens them up to infection and can have other complication if done incorrectly. The method we settled on was using a burdizzo or emasculator.  

I know they are rather nasty looking, but I promise we did our research on this. Big Onion actually found a study that tested pain response using the three methods I just listed. This method is the least painful and the pain lasted the shortest amount of time. That said, before we started, I did give little Luch a dose of Banamine (an injectable anti-inflammatory) and some Arnica to help with the pain. I also made sure to apply some Arnica gel on the area afterward. 

Here's how it went with some tips and instructions for anyone considering this method.

Be warned! There are pictures of goat parts and talk of clamping certain areas. Those with delicate sensibilities may want to sit this one out.  

Frozen

Other rejected post titles: Sneaux-pocalypse, Ice-mageddon (saw both of these on facebook this week)

  We are having an unusually cold winter here on the farm. Of course, I should say right now that what we are experiencing is nothing compared to what folks north of us have to deal with on a regular basis, but for us, even just dropping below freezing presents a whole new set of problems that we are not used to dealing with. Seriously, I don't know how you folks up north do it!

  This particular cold snap closed down roads and schools and both of our day jobs, but here on the farm, it wasn't nearly as eventful as a couple weeks ago when our temperatures dipped into the teens. We had two different pipes burst, one in the processing shed and the other in the poultry house.

  The spigot actually blew off the poultry house sink while we were at work that time causing water to rocket up to the ceiling of the building and cascade all over everything inside, including the closest rabbit pen with 7 baby bunnies. We were at work at the time and came home to a strange roaring sound coming from the building. We don't know how long the thing was jetting out water, but the ground all around the building was saturated and everything inide was soaked. Thank goodness none of the animals seemed worse for the wear, and nothing got wet that couldn't be dried.

   Since then, we have learned how to shut off the water to those out building and to run the pressure off the lines and hoses. This time our worse pipe related casualty was an old, old hose spigot that only the neighbors use. In all cases, Big Onion stepped up to the plate and was able to use his amazing ability to fix just about anything that's broken to set things right quite quickly.

Below are some pictures from our most recent freeze...

Rialey's first farm walk

  It took a few days for little Rialey, our newest pup and future chore dog, to settle in on the farm. She was feeling under the weather the first couple days, even running a slight fever. It's also becoming clear  that she is a very compassionate, caring puppy so I think she was mourning the loss of her previous canine and human family as well. Between not wanting to overwhelm her and having to work, it was about a week before we were able to take the little girl out into the pasture.

I was trying to watch the puppy, Luna, the goats, and all the other  livestock while taking pictures. Not an easy task.

She impressed me right away by chasing the goat kids back away from the gate. Amelia even tried to get tough with her, and little Rialey got right in her face, barking and snapping at her nose until she turned tail and ran.

The kids were less than amused by this treatment, but they didn't try any funny business with her again.

  Overall, Rialey did really well. She was tail up, happy, and taking treats the whole time. It was interesting to watch her react to all the livestock. She kept looking over to Luna for clues on how to behave around them. Luna for her part, kept a buffer zone around the puppy so that nothing out there could come and harass the new guy. Luna even went so far as gripping one of the older goats who was showing just a little too much interest in the pup.

  I've been told that English Shepherd learn their work by watching, and I've already seen that in Rialey. We'll be setting up a small circular practice area soon so that we can start working on herding basics with some of the younger pekins. A lot of our sheep ladies are very pregnant and very grumpy so sheep herding might have to wait until she's a little older and more confident. Either way, I'm really looking forward to getting this girl out there working!

Luciano the Caprine Tripod

  Last Monday, I was heading out to do evening chores when I noticed I was short one small and slightly annoying little goat. The two kids, Amelia and Luciano, always follow me around while I'm out doing chores, but that evening I only had half of the duo haunting my steps. It was starting to get dark, so I finished putting the birds away then went in search of my sweet little Luciano. I found him laying in the middle of the pasture by himself stoutly refusing to come to me. Very weird. 

  As I walked over to him, Luch awkwardly got up on his feet, three of then anyway. He wouldn't put any weight on one of his rear legs and refused to move from the spot. I tried explaining to the little guy that he had three other legs and was, in fact, capable of moving around with said legs. He firmly disagreed and held his ground with a little, pathetic "buh buh buh" which in goat speak roughly translates to, "Nope, I'm broken and done for! Just leave me here to die!" The boy has obviously inherited his mother and half sister's flair for the dramatic. 

  

  With a sigh, I scooped up the pathetic creature and carried him inside. I examined the leg and found a good amount of heat and swelling around the right rear hock. Keeping my fingers crossed that he'd just gotten it caught in something and had a bad sprain, I started him on some homeopathic and herbal anti-inflammatories and hoped that he would get better in the next couple days. 

 By Wednesday, he'd figured out that he could move on three legs, but the leg still felt warm and swollen. He wasn't putting any weight at all on the leg. It was time to call in some professional help. My boss graciously allowed me to bring him in to work with me for an exam and xrays. Amelia came along for moral support and because these two are completely inseparable.

   They were complete angels in the car....except that Amelia somehow managed to pee all over Luciano's rear end! First order of business on arriving at the office was a quick goat bath for the boy.

 Both the kids had a great time running around the parking lot before the office opened.

 They even helped prune some of the landscaping. So helpful.

 But most of the day was spent cuddled together in a big dog crate in the back of the office. I have to say both kids took the change of pace in stride. They were very happy to come out and meet new people and dogs. They came when I called and made very few messes on the office floor. Having a pocket full of corn and frosted mini-wheats helped.

 We did have one client want to know how often we saw rabbits at our office. I'm pretty sure he didn't believe me when I told him the  pellets out in the grass came from my little goats.

  Finally, at the end of the day Luciano got x-rayed. Turned out he had a fractured tibia. You can see the crack toward the bottom right of the above picture. Best guess is he either got the leg caught in something or one of the larger goats nailed him. If that's the case, my money's on Josie for this one.

  My boss made a splint out of fiberglass casting material that we can easily remove in case it gets wet or dirty. Luciano laid on his side on the exam table like a champ while we wrapped the leg in layers of padding, attached the splint, then wrapped the whole thing up in manly blue vet wrap.

  For the next couple weeks, both kids will be living in the backyard pen to keep the little guy from further injury and to make sure that splint stays clean and dry.
  We are hoping that Luciano will start putting weight on the splinted leg soon. I've started doing some clicker training to try and encourage him to put the leg down more. We'll also need to change out the bandaging in a couple days. Hopefully, that the leg will be healed in just a few weeks so the kids can be let loose again. I miss my little "helpers" out there!

Luciano and Amelia: Art models in training!

We like Reddit.com. If you've never seen it, I won't ruin it for you -- just go check it out. It's best when first experienced by just blindly jumping in. It's a strange, bizarre place but occasionally you stumble upon something truly fascinating. There's a subreddit called "Reddit Gets Drawn." People submit photos, and other people draw them ... for fun!

I couldn't help myself, so I submitted this photo of the kids that Kaela took last week ...

And here are some of the submissions that we got back!

User GodlessGravy submitted this one -- and they totally nailed it with Amelia's airplane ears! Fantastic!

And then this one, which I absolutely adore, from DoomedJannisary. I thought their personalities were perfectly captured here, with Luciano looking so serious and Amelia looking like an absolute doofus. Ha! They have a page over at Deviant Art with some really incredible photography and other sketches.

And lastly, this one from user OhBonnie who said, "I only had time for a quick sketch." Quick sketch? This is amazing! They have a Flickr page with some more of their art. Really amazing watercolors!

Anyway, we thought were just tickled pink by the responses and thought we'd share them with you all (with the artists' permission, of course!) Many thanks to each of them for taking their time to draw our little furry friends.

I can't say this is the last time I'll be submitting a photo of farm like for them to draw, so hopefully we'll have some more in the future!

Just our goats clownin around

  It's getting chilly out there! 

Gwen says a color coordinated scarf does wonders to keep a little goat warm on a chilly winter morning! 

 Luciano prefers hats. 

"Pretty cunning, don't ya think?"

Copper wire particles and our goats: Take 2

  It has been about 6 months since we gave all the goats a dose of copper wire particles, so we decided it was about time to treat them again. If you'll recall, last time didn't go so smoothly. This time I was going out by myself, but I was determined to make things go as smoothly as possible this time.

  We had purchased the large cow sized pills of copper to save money. I started by weighing out the copper and packing it into small gelatin capsules. This was easy to do with the help of a tiny plastic funnel on which I had widened the end slightly.
 
 The normal dosage for copper wire particles for goats is 2 grams for young or mini goats and 4 grams for adults. We decided to split the difference for Gwen and Eve and give them 3 grams each since they are both somewhere in between (around 50-60lbs).

  The secret to my success this time was supposed to be this. It's called a "pet piller," and it works great for cats and dogs. I have even been using it with Gwen on a regular basis with no problem. I was soon to learn that not all our goats are as easy to handle as our Gwen.

More kid pics

  These pictures of the kids are actually from about two weeks ago, but I have not had a chance to post them yet so here ya go! I promise to have some new ones for you guys next week. 

Placido and Luciano don't appreciate being photographed while they pee. 

Luciano giving me the stink-eye. 

I'm sure I was late with a bottle or something. 

Jose and Placido "sharing" a bottle. 

Amelia and Jose learning to be goats by nibbling on all the green things. 

Buck picking

The three tenors in their favorite daytime napping spot.

  Since we only had one little girl this year, we have decided to keep one of Josie's three bucks to raise with her. If he turns out nice, we will probably use him to breed the girls next year as well. So now we are faced with the hard choice of which of these adorable little creatures to keep and which to let go.

  I think Jose has my favorite coloring. I love the swirls of grey and black on his ears. He also has a solid, masculine build already that hints at him growing into a really impressive looking buck. Unfortunately, Jose has already started trying to mount Amelia at the tender age of two weeks old! He is also a bit pushy with the other boys, and the most standoffish with us.

Placido has really cool markings, and he is a lot more people oriented than Jose. Our problem with Placido is that he has already started dropping his head to us and doing these silly little displays that point toward a future buck with a penchant for headbutting people.

And then there's little Luciano. He will probably be the smallest of the three which is a point in his favor in our book. He also has very striking markings with splashes of white, black and deep chocolate brown. He is usually the first kid that people remark on when they meet the trio.

  He is just so, so sweet. When the other kids are roughhousing and head butting each other, Luci just wants to crawl up in my lap and nuzzle my chin. He's by far the smartest of the three. He was the first to find the second bottle hanging on the fence instead of trying to fight his brothers off the nipple of the first bottle.

Big Onion, unrepentant goat snuggler.

  How can you not love that little boy? I just wish sweet little boy goats didn't grow up into big, stinky, obnoxious bucks. The real question is do we want a 70-100lb buck who is smart and loves snuggling with people. Keep in mind bucks love to pee all over themselves when they are in rut. Yuck! 

  I'm really hoping that starting with training at this age will help him be a little easier to deal with when he grows up. The bottle is a great motivator. On his training list is learning to be lead by collar or on a loose lease, coming when called, being polite at gates and doorways, and learning to back up on command. That last one is very handy. It's a lot harder for a goat who is going in reverse to headbutt or horn hook you. 

  Pretty little Amelia reminds us of her mother more every day. She's simple and sweet. She loves food over anything else. The only thing that upsets her is a late meal and even then she just paces around making little worried baby goat sounds under her breath.

I think Big Onion likes her too. 

Just a little.