Homestead One Day

Well, I managed to get everything together needed (recommended by vet and things I’ve read online) to treat my trio.

Kaolin Pectin is for treating the diarrhea in the two with it. They weigh 6 and 9 pounds each so I’m giving them 3cc each.

Micro B-12 to boost their nutritional amount of B12, given per label instructions.

Adams Flea and Tick Shampoo…which ended up being almost empty so I used a new bottle. Pyrethrin was the important ingredient the vet wanted me to use and Adams has worked well for me in the past on other animals. I wish they’d put better labels on! As you see, handling and them getting wet wears them off.

Dectomax is a doramectin sold as an injection. Everything I’ve read and heard, and the vet confirmed, says do orally. Apparently goats “process” their feed quicker than other animals so the doseage has to be adjusted higher. I settled on 1ml/35 lbs, ORALLY for their doses. I still had to have a needle (bag behind the bottles) to draw it out of the bottle though, and gave it using a 3cc syringe (not pictured).

Probios was to restore some of the gut flora from being sick, given at label dose. They LOVE the taste! I could only find cattle version so turning the dial was veryyy slow :).

The yellow packet is electrolytes, I mixed up half a cup worth (using package directions) and gave everyone 6 ccs orally. Usually you put it in their water, which I have been doing, but I wanted to make sure they all got some.

Last up is a generic for Baycox-Toltrazuril- which per the vet local breeders have said works the best. I had to get the generic as the name brand was out of stock everywhere, I got it online from a racehorse supply site. He said Corid would be next up to try if I didn’t have that, but you have to do it for 5 days in a row and supplement thiamine. The Toltrazuiril is a one day dose given orally, rate is 1cc/5lb.

Fun part is , all of this will be repeated in 10 days again :).

So after wrestling three little goats, singly, in a nice warm shower I got to have a little fun…This is a towel. Oh, no, my shower is not pink…that’s weird…but anyway this is a very cute towel isn’t it?

Tada! See? Cute! Bambi was not much of a fan of a bath, although she was quiet until I stepped out to grab all the supplements….then the whole neighborhood could hear her!

Back out in the pen after their baths, three goats all lined up getting an apology handful of pellets :). You can see that Molly (far left) is feeling good with her tail nice and perky. Bambi does have abdomen now so she’s filling out slowly. Lizzy (far right) never showed signs of feeling bad, but her eyelid color is improving so the lice treatment seems to be helping.

Here Molly is checking out the minerals…vet said it was ok to start them on em. Left is plain baking soda, and right is Manna Pro brand Goat Minerals. I had gotten them since it was a smaller bag and I figured 3 goats are not going through 25lb of minerals that quick. The vet confirmed my choice as well and said he recommends that type over the generic bagged minerals anyway.

Face picture of Lizzy…who still is very shy of being petted although she is realizing I come with food. And she likes food!

Sick baby goat now feeling a little better but still depressed

By nsmar4211

On May 19, 2022

In Animal Health, Goat

Ew!! Not that! Aka Sick baby Goat Vet Results

By nsmar4211

On May 17, 2022

In Animal Health, Goat

Well, she’s still not feeling good. Another picture of the attitude of a sick goat:

Through the breeder I got the number of the vet she has used before and set up an appointment. He came out that evening (luckily he had a meeting not far from me) to see the goats. He agreed that the smallest did not look like she was feeling well and took fecal samples from all three. I was used to fecals being off found pellets, but apparently now you take the manure right out of the animals’ butts! I’ve seen them do it for the cat and dogs, but they use a plastic loop thing. For goats you apparently get to go right to the source with a finger…but in these little guys even a finger is huge and I had 3 very unhappy goats when it was done!

While he was there we discussed possible outcomes and treatments and I showed him the list of medications I had recently gotten. Turns out I’ve gotten a large majority of what I may need already.

I showed him the dandruff on the back of the black goats’ head…andddd it turns out it was lice nits!

Lice! On MY goats!!! *shudder*. He saw the look on my face and laughed, let me know that goat lice are not transmittable to humans. Whew.

Add that to the list of things to treat for! He showed me how you could tell when the nits attached-basically the further away from the body the nits were, the longer ago they attached themselves. He told me to go ahead and treat everyone for it using the Dectomax I had on hand as well as a bath in any Pemetherin containing shampoo. I asked if the Adam’s brand was good, he said yes. He also told me repeat the bath in 12-14 days to get the next batch of lice, and if still some do it again after that. Below is a blurry picture of the nits on the girls’ head, and one of it in the fur of the white one which I discovered after the vet left….

Well. That’s fun. NOT.

We spend a few more minutes discussing goats and discussing my plans to get the supplies to do my own fecals in the future (already ordered). He left with a promise to let me know in the morning the results.

The next morning bright and early he sends me a text and tells me all three have coccidiosis, and the smallest one was heavily infected! I suspected it in the smallest one based on the dirrhea and attitude but now it was confirmed. He said to get them treated NOW, especially the smallest one. Based on what I had on hand, he suggested Corrid or Baycox as the treatment. He also told me snag a sample of feces from the smallest and keep it in the fridge until my supplies come in. Said it would be great to learn on as there were a lot of coccidia visible in her sample, and it would keep for up to a week in the fridge.

Next up…bath and treatment time for everyone! This is not going to go over well!

Not caulking…nope. Nope rope for the win!

By nsmar4211

On May 13, 2022

In Funny, Wildlife

I was walking up the steps to the porch and spotted some black caulking that was bulging out between the step and the wood side. Hrm…caulk…I don’t remember that being there…let me get a little closer…

AND IT MOVED!

Yes, we have magic moving black caulking down here! Get your own today!

I’m going to be rich!

Wait….

This moving caulk strip has a head.

Whew….I’m not seeing things. Just the friendly area black snake…pretending to be a strip of caulking. I stepped over him and we both went on our ways :).

Pond water settling experiment

By nsmar4211

On May 8, 2022

In Pond

In trying to determine why I can’t see anything in the pond, I decided to do a settling test. Below is a fresh jar of pond water (the green is due to blue dye I put in to control algae):

This is after sitting overnight! The water itself is clear…my issue is the organic muck on the bottom of the pond.

I already am running 4 aerators and have been using pond bacteria for a year in an attempt to help clear it up. Our lack of rain isn’t helping as the pond water level shrinks and concentrates the organics.

I’ll be looking into getting estimates of having the pond muck dredged out next….

What does a sick baby goat look like and the start of the treatment saga.

By nsmar4211

On May 5, 2022

In Animal Health, Goat

After bringing home 3 baby goats to start my herd, I noticed that the smallest didn’t seem to be feeling good. When I had picked them up , the white one had diarrhea suddenly but I was hoping it was just stress. I gave everyone a dose of Selenium and Vit E as they had not had anything yet (7 weeks old). Two days later, the smallest still wasn’t feeling good. This is how she was standing. Note the head carried down, the ears flat and facing backwards, the hunched up back, and the wet tail being held behind her instead of up or relaxed.

Top view showing the ear carriage as well as the sunken in area in front of the hips.

And this is how she was in the pen-note the backwards low ears and how she’s propping her head up against the fence.

At this point I checked her for dehydration and found that she was (by gently lifting a piece of skin away from body and seeing how fast it went back flat…hers “tented”). I then spent the rest of the day giving her Kaolin liquid, electrolyes, probios, and as much fluid as I could syringe into her mouth.

After 10 hours of treatment, and a dose of ScourGard (a pig medicine useable in goats at 3x the label dose), she was no longer dehydrated and she started struggling when I picked her up (much better sign than the limp body). At one point I noticed the little pieces of hay in the bottom of their hay bowl and put a pinch in her mouth. She immediatly started chewing it up and nosed my hand, so I ended up giving her a good sized handful of the little pieces that she ate.

At this point I started looking for a vet I could either take them to to have their feces checked or one that would come to the farm. I knew it wouldn’t be cheap to do but it needed to be done!

Baby rabbits!

By nsmar4211

On April 30, 2022

In Rabbits

It’s always nerve wracking waiting for first time mothers to deliver while hoping they figure it out! These are the newest two litters, both from first time moms. 6 in one litter 8 in the other. Very happy!

Sad Little Frost damaged lychee tree

By nsmar4211

On April 30, 2022

In Garden and growing, Messes and cleanup

I am very disappointed in the performance of a plant protection bag I bought to prevent just this. This is…was… a lychee tree. I bagged it well in advance of the freezing weather and was checking the soil often to make sure it wasn’t drying out. It didn’t not help the plant at all and all of the leaves dried brown.

There is some hope though, the tree is sprouting back from the base. However, I don’t know if this was a grafted variety or not! The leaves are a lychee at least from what I can tell. I think I may end up planting this in the ground and seeing if it can survive on its own….

Possum problem

By nsmar4211

On April 26, 2022

In Wildlife

Mr. Possum decided to dig a foot under my chicken coop at the one spot that did not have wire laid flat on the ground. The palmetto bushes are too close to the coop and there is not enough room to lay wire flat…but apparently there is enough room to burrow in. I barricaded the area but he then chewed through the barricade. After finding some blood on a hens’ leg that had previously been trying to go broody , I decided to break out the trap.

I bait the trap with eggs for both racoons and opossum captures as that’s usually what they start going after. I caught 4 racoons in six months repeatedly trying to get into the duck pen, and now this guy breaking into the chicken coop.

I released him on my property on the other side of a creek from the chicken coop thinking he’d get the hint and stay there. This picture is actually the second trapping because he didn’t get the memo. When I moved the trap he rolled over on his side and I noticed the genital area was severely swollen and had yellow puss coming out. I called the local wildlife place and they were too full to accept healthy ones much less a sick one. Given the circumstances, they told me either I could take care of it or they would if I brought it in. Sorry buddy… hopefully you’re in a better place. The illness may explain why he was stubbornly returning, as in the past I’ve had success with them avoiding the area after being trapped once.

This is why there’s no water in the cage

By nsmar4211

On April 23, 2022

In Animal Health

For several days this particular mom and babies were suddenly going through twice as much water as normal. I checked the feed, I checked the bowl for cracks, I checked the bottoms for dirrehea. Nada. Hrmmmmm…

Then I came outside at a time I usually don’t bother the rabbits due to the heat and found this. Someone decided the water bowl was their own personal soaking pool! Aha! Mystery solved :).