If farming were easy, everyone would be doing it!

Hello everyone!  There was a bittersweet experience in the barn on Monday morning!  Shadow Cat (one of my Angora goat does) was down and not even able to walk.  Without hesitation, we carried her to her own stall and immediately called the vet.  She didn't have a fever, but she wasn't doing well at all.  She couldn't even hold her head up, she was twitching, and I was very scared.  The only way that she would calm down, was if I would pet her and talk to her while I sat on the barn floor next to her.  If I would get up, she would become very stressed!  So, I stayed with her in the stall while my mom called the vet.  About  two hours later, our vet arrived and gave us three options.  One of the options was to throw the medical book at her to save her, but still have the chance of her and the kids not making it.  The next option was cutting her open to take out the babies because she was suffering from pregnancy toxemia.  Finally, the last option, was try to save her and induce labor because the pregnancy was what was causing her illness and possibly lose the kids depending on how far along they were. 

She hadn't bagged up as yet, so we were thinking that the baby or babies weren't going to be ready yet, but we didn't want to lose Shadow Cat.  The vet also told us that we were her 6th call in the past three days for the very same thing and the outcome for the doe, in all 6 of those cases, wasn't good.  I chose to do the final option.  While I was excited to see babies from her, I didn't want them at the expense of Shadow Cat.  Shortly after we had given her all the medicines, she was finally able to just rest.  Boy, did she rest.  At one point, she was in such a deep sleep that she was snoring louder than a lumberjack cutting down an oak tree.  

We spent the rest of the day checking in on her every 30 minutes to make sure she was okay.  I had to attend a 4-H fundraiser later that day and really didn't want to go, but I did.  I spent the whole time selling milkshakes thinking about Shadow Cat!  I am glad that mom is such a trooper and was able to give up time in her day to check on Shadow Cat for me!  By the nighttime feeding, Shadow Cat was standing on her own and eating a little bit of grain.  I continued to drench her with Nutri-drench and Dextrose in hopes of making her stronger again.  By Wednesday, she was back to her old self.  She was eating, drinking, and moving around on her own.   To my surprise, at 8:00 P.M., she delivered two little doe kids; however, they didn't make it.  They were both stillborn because their lungs weren't fully developed.  This feeling is like a hit to the stomach considering that you wait for five months and see your own goat suffer and lose her kids.  The heartbreak was compounded as I held one of the kids while Shadow Cat was doing her best to clean the lifeless, little one.      

I cleaned out her stall and brought two of my other does to her so she would have company.  By Friday, she was eating, drinking, seemed to be much stronger, and was even the Alpha of the pen again, but sadly, she was still calling for her babies.  I couldn't feel any worse about the outcome of this whole thing, but like I said, I didn't want to lose her and judging by the size of the kids, I'm not sure that she would have been strong enough to continue her pregnancy until she and the kids were ready.  I am happy that I made the choice that I did, because if I wouldn't have, I would have lost all three does, the two kids and Shadow Cat.  I can say though that even as hard as this experience was, I did learn a lot and I am glad that I have such a great veterinarian that taught me a lot of what I know now and I hope that some day I can be a veterinarian like her!

Here is Shadow Cat saying hello to Willow the day she came here!  

Her bright blue eyes shining for the first time since last Monday!

Shadow Cat makes a lot of funny faces!

Shadow Cat and Willow today