We had to take Fairy Dust (the newest mama goat) to the vet yesterday. She's been getting skinnier every day, but when I noticed her shaking from the cold (it was 60 F), and not eating any hay, I really felt something was wrong. It might've been a residual infection from her kidding, or something worse. Of course trying to find anything on the internet makes it all worse. I was pretty convinced she was going to eventually die if we didn't get her some help. We did give her some herbal remedies, mixed in grain and I even did an energy healing on her. I put an old t-shirt on her to keep her warm. We also gave her a good dose of probiotics. By the afternoon, her energy was up a bit, and when we arrived at the vet, she was actually pooping and peeing in the trailer. (It had been a while.) She was also trying to eat the straw Richard put down in the trailer. The vet gave her a penicillin shot, which we have to continue for at least seven days, and at my urging, ran a stool sample for parasites. She was loaded right up with worms of all varieties, so he gave her a dewormer too. She is doing better today...even eating hay.
All of the other goats and llamas are healthy, or so they appear. We have to get everyone back on the herbal dewormer regimen. We haven't been regularly deworming for quite some time. Mostly because it's so difficult with the llamas. But, we have to figure it out or give them shots, which Richard does not want to do. I just want them to be healthy. So, it's time to build catch pens in their fields so we can try to begin training them.
I am so glad we are close to a big animal vet here. And, it was even affordable. Not what I expected at all. The last time we took a llama to the vet for an exam and penicillin, it was over a hundred bucks. This time it was very reasonable, and the vet was very nice--not condescending or judgmental.
We were thinking of selling off the goat herd anyway...as bad as milk seems to be for everyone, and with the allergies...what's the point? I know we have been down this road before. Richard wanted the goats to make cheese to sell. There is no market here, at least not one we have access to at this point. I think hemp milk is a better alternative to animal based dairy anyway. And cheese in general should play a smaller part in our diets. We are going to focus more on a plant based diet and on establishing a food landscape based on permaculture ideas. We have so much space to work with here, it's exciting.
Chloe the pig is more social without old Harley around. Harley appears to be happy in his new home in the forest. Without the grumpy boy, we opened up Chloe's pen and have been giving her lots of water to wallow in. She has made her own mud holes. I have also been spraying her down with bug spray in the hope it will alleviate some of her discomfort. She does not like that at all. She is still pretty unpredictable, and I don't trust her to not bite. Hopefully she will get better with time. I pet her on her head and scratch behind her ears, all while keeping a close eye on her attitude.
The office is coming along. the straw bails go up fast. That's good because they are sitting outside in the rain that has been coming every night. Hopefully they will dry fast under the roof of the office. The rain makes the night smell so good. The gardens are happy. The Hemp plants are about 8 - 10" tall now.
This week we are finalizing our tiny house plans so we can commit the down payment to having it built. It will be built by local Amish men. I hope it lives up to the quality they are famous for. It should take about three weeks to build and then they will deliver it to a prepared pad on our land. We are still waiting on the landscape company to do the pad of gravel for the tiny house.
