About 8 weeks ago, I noticed Victoria's chest was dragging again, and she was kicking at it as she walked. Not wanting it to split open again, I once again brought her up to the house...(The hospital isn't finished yet.)
Well we became reaquainted roomies quite quickly...She was no where near as bad as she was when I had to play doctor the previous time. So I softened her food, gave her clean water and kept an eye on her. The following weekend I took her back down into the field to frollic with the rest of the hens for the day. At the end of the day, she looked pretty pooped, so I brought her back up to the house. When I realized her chest wasn't going down, I emptied her by making her throw up. (Tipping her upside down.) Well she clogged my sink and fought a little bit, knocking my brush into the sink... *gag. She felt much better and was a lot perkier after that, but I, needed two bottles of drano and a new brush.
Every day I had planned to take her back down to the coop because she was doing great...but in the morning her crop was full again. (It's supposed to empty and digest at night.) The morning after my birthday, the day I went to get Lucy, Vickie wasn't looking so hot...I went to get her some applesauce...and when I came back she was laying down... I picked her up into my lap and she looked at me and then closed her eyes. And that was it...she was gone... I cried as I tried to wake her up....trying to curl her claws around my finger...I rocked her and cried for about 15 minutes. I can't count how many times I had saved that chicken's life....but she wasn't meant for one more. I know it was probably what was best for her...once a chicken has a pendulum crop, they have it forever, and it is something that she would have always had to deal with... I loved that stupid chicken...
RIP Victoria
Thursday, May 19, 2011
It's been awhile...
Geez....where do I start? My mom and I finished our gardening classes put on by the master gardeners. What a wonderful series... I am on the mailing list, so I look forward to future workshops!
I did get my babies on my birthday. My mom, mariah and I drove down to Oregon to get the boys. Dante and Mr. Fibbs are brothers, and little Apollo. My mom also got one named Nickleman. The following day I went to Shelton and got Lucy in the Sky...or Lucy for short. My mom got another goat too...Ziblet. After two days of driving I was pretty pooped, so after the excitement died down, and everyone went home, I was sitting in the barn with my 4 babies in their new home. They were checking everything out, coming to smell me...jumping on their haybales and checking out the new feeder I built them. I could barely keep my eyes open, and kept glancing at the corner tucked around the corner of the feeder...Just...need...to...close...eyes...for...5...ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I curled up in the straw and slept for about 20 minutes. Then Apollo tried climbing me like a mountain, and I woke up again.
Let me tell you about each one...The three boys are Nigerian Dwarfs. They will get to be about 21 inches at the shoulder...
Mr. Fibbs THINKS he is the boss...Every time you go to pet him his face says "I should run" but his body argues because it feels so good. He loves getting his chest scratched. He's also a little screamer and drama queen... If you walk away from him he starts screaming bloody murder. Even after having him for 3 weeks, he doesn't like when people leave. He's very much like the real Mr. Fibbs. He is black and brown with white spots on his side, and blue eyes.
Dante is Mr.Fibbs' brother. He's a silent lover...but a stinker. He will come stand by me, and just stare at me, or lean against me until I pet him....and then he halfway closes his eyes and smiles while I scratch him behind his ears...No matter how often I correct him, he climbs up into the feeder, and eats. Everytime I look, I can only see his butt sticking out. I fought it everyday for awhile, but I figure eventually, he won't be able to fit in there... He is now taking to drinking out of Lucy's bucket. I pull his tail or pop him when he does, and he just looks at me and stomps his little hoof... I've read that an effective way of punishing a goat is with a spray bottle...they hate getting wet. I will have to try that. He is all black with white spots on his sides, and a white spot on his head. He also has a little white beauty mark on his lip. When he is in the sun he also has some small brown spots called "moon spots" in the goat world...
Little Apollo is a little baby. His birthday is only a week after the brothers, but he is half their size, and quite the mama's boy. The second day I had him, I was sitting on a hay bale, and he came at me full gallop from the other side of the pen. I was a little scared when he launched himself through the air and landed on my lap. He then made himself comfortable and started chewing his cud which looked like a little wad of bubblegum in his cheek...He gets pushed around quite a bit by the older boys, but from what I've read, just like the chickens, they need to establish their heirarchy. He loves to bury his face in the grass hay, and I've had to remove hay from his eyes several times. He needs little doggles. He is white with a goldish brown streak down his spine. He has gold spots all over him, and little gold freckles on his ears. He has a little 1" mane, so he kind of looks like a stuffed my little pony. I didn't tell him that though...the boys pick on him enough...
And then there is Lucy. Lucy is a Nubian, and looks more like a floppy eared deer. She has long gangly legs and will probably be 130 pounds full grown...When I brought Lucy home, she was 19 days old, and about the same size as the boys who were 8 weeks old. She is all black, a little salt and pepper around her belly...with a white spot on her head, long white ears and huge brown eyes. She jumps into my lap..gets comfortable and then puts her head back on me and whimpers. Its so damn cute. And since she is so young, she drinks milk out of a bucket with nipples. She gets a half a gallon a day split between two feedings. SO I go down to the barn at 330 in the morning, before I go to work, and fill her little bucket. Then I go down after work and fill it again. She didn't take to it the first few days...probably the change in scenery...and actually got quite sick. She got scours, (goat diarreah) and it can kill a baby goat in 24 hours. I was so worried I was going to lose her. I gave her some medicine orally to stop scours, and monitored her milk intake. Within a few days, everytime I went to the barn, she would run to her bucket and start drinking...Kind of like "Hey mom! Look what I can do!" She is drinking every day now...and has already grown two inches taller than the boys. I am trying to wean her off my lap...(even though it is terribly difficult to resist that face and the whimpering...) but I'm not stupid...I don't want a 130 pound goat laying on my lap.
I did get my babies on my birthday. My mom, mariah and I drove down to Oregon to get the boys. Dante and Mr. Fibbs are brothers, and little Apollo. My mom also got one named Nickleman. The following day I went to Shelton and got Lucy in the Sky...or Lucy for short. My mom got another goat too...Ziblet. After two days of driving I was pretty pooped, so after the excitement died down, and everyone went home, I was sitting in the barn with my 4 babies in their new home. They were checking everything out, coming to smell me...jumping on their haybales and checking out the new feeder I built them. I could barely keep my eyes open, and kept glancing at the corner tucked around the corner of the feeder...Just...need...to...close...eyes...for...5...ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I curled up in the straw and slept for about 20 minutes. Then Apollo tried climbing me like a mountain, and I woke up again.
Let me tell you about each one...The three boys are Nigerian Dwarfs. They will get to be about 21 inches at the shoulder...
Mr. Fibbs THINKS he is the boss...Every time you go to pet him his face says "I should run" but his body argues because it feels so good. He loves getting his chest scratched. He's also a little screamer and drama queen... If you walk away from him he starts screaming bloody murder. Even after having him for 3 weeks, he doesn't like when people leave. He's very much like the real Mr. Fibbs. He is black and brown with white spots on his side, and blue eyes.
Dante is Mr.Fibbs' brother. He's a silent lover...but a stinker. He will come stand by me, and just stare at me, or lean against me until I pet him....and then he halfway closes his eyes and smiles while I scratch him behind his ears...No matter how often I correct him, he climbs up into the feeder, and eats. Everytime I look, I can only see his butt sticking out. I fought it everyday for awhile, but I figure eventually, he won't be able to fit in there... He is now taking to drinking out of Lucy's bucket. I pull his tail or pop him when he does, and he just looks at me and stomps his little hoof... I've read that an effective way of punishing a goat is with a spray bottle...they hate getting wet. I will have to try that. He is all black with white spots on his sides, and a white spot on his head. He also has a little white beauty mark on his lip. When he is in the sun he also has some small brown spots called "moon spots" in the goat world...
Little Apollo is a little baby. His birthday is only a week after the brothers, but he is half their size, and quite the mama's boy. The second day I had him, I was sitting on a hay bale, and he came at me full gallop from the other side of the pen. I was a little scared when he launched himself through the air and landed on my lap. He then made himself comfortable and started chewing his cud which looked like a little wad of bubblegum in his cheek...He gets pushed around quite a bit by the older boys, but from what I've read, just like the chickens, they need to establish their heirarchy. He loves to bury his face in the grass hay, and I've had to remove hay from his eyes several times. He needs little doggles. He is white with a goldish brown streak down his spine. He has gold spots all over him, and little gold freckles on his ears. He has a little 1" mane, so he kind of looks like a stuffed my little pony. I didn't tell him that though...the boys pick on him enough...
And then there is Lucy. Lucy is a Nubian, and looks more like a floppy eared deer. She has long gangly legs and will probably be 130 pounds full grown...When I brought Lucy home, she was 19 days old, and about the same size as the boys who were 8 weeks old. She is all black, a little salt and pepper around her belly...with a white spot on her head, long white ears and huge brown eyes. She jumps into my lap..gets comfortable and then puts her head back on me and whimpers. Its so damn cute. And since she is so young, she drinks milk out of a bucket with nipples. She gets a half a gallon a day split between two feedings. SO I go down to the barn at 330 in the morning, before I go to work, and fill her little bucket. Then I go down after work and fill it again. She didn't take to it the first few days...probably the change in scenery...and actually got quite sick. She got scours, (goat diarreah) and it can kill a baby goat in 24 hours. I was so worried I was going to lose her. I gave her some medicine orally to stop scours, and monitored her milk intake. Within a few days, everytime I went to the barn, she would run to her bucket and start drinking...Kind of like "Hey mom! Look what I can do!" She is drinking every day now...and has already grown two inches taller than the boys. I am trying to wean her off my lap...(even though it is terribly difficult to resist that face and the whimpering...) but I'm not stupid...I don't want a 130 pound goat laying on my lap.
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