American Way Farm: Poor Baby!

Monday, May 7, 2012

Poor Baby!

Poor Baby - we brought home a new goat on Saturday - Baby Doll, a 5 week old Snubian (cross of a Saanen and a Nubian). Poor thing broke her leg yesterday. She was racing off the stairs and got her leg caught. She kept going, her leg didn't. Needless to say she's had a rough weekend - she left her home and many friends her age for a new home with only 1 friend (we only have 1 other baby goat), then broke her leg on Sunday. But all is not lost. She got plenty of cuddles on the couch with daddy and even got to sleep in the house in a dog crate next to my bed. Went to the vet this morning to have her checked out. He was impressed at the "cast" I put on her leg. She has to keep the soft cast on for 4 weeks and not get it wet. Yeah, right!

AAAHH, the life of a "house goat"!

Please leave a comment below. I love hearing from you.

2 comments:

LindaG said...: It's great that you new how to do that!
And good that you have a vet nearby, too.
Hope your goatie heals quickly!; May 7, 2012 at 7:22 PM
Tonia said...: I have had 3 goats break legs.. 2 were not so smart wethers!.. Bad breaks too. But they healed up really well! The other was a doeling that caught her pastern and there was nothing to do for it.. It healed up with out being splinted and she was just fine..; May 8, 2012 at 10:19 PM

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When my husband, Jim, and I moved from southern New Hampshire to way, way up north in the fall of 2001, we thought we were just “getting away from it all.” You know—peace, quiet, maybe a moose sighting or two. We weren’t planning a major lifestyle change. We certainly didn’t think we’d be trading paved driveways for muck boots and birthing kits. But life (and nature) had other plans. The thing about the North Country is that it’s very good at growing trees. Tall ones. Fast ones. Persistent ones. Left unchecked, they’ll take over faster than a toddler with a jar of peanut butter. We were starting to lose our view—and not just a “I think the horizon looks a little hazy” kind of loss. I mean, we were being reabsorbed by the forest. So we came up with a brilliant plan: let animals do the work! We figured a couple of pigs and sheep would chew down the underbrush, fertilize the land, and maybe keep us entertained along the way. A few goats joined the team, because apparently we thought chaos was missing. Chickens showed up next, mostly for fly control—but also because they’re hilarious, not to mention that farm eggs are the best. And then, of course, a dog. You need a dog to guard the animals from the coyotes and the goats from each other. Before long, we had an entire ecosystem going. And then the questions started rolling in. “Hey, could you raise a pig for us?” “Do you sell your lamb?” “Got any extra eggs?” “Do you actually drink the goat milk?” And just like that… we were farmers. Not the bib-overalls, pitchfork-wielding kind (well, okay, maybe on Mondays), but full-on livestock-managing, early-rising, hay-in-our-hair kind of farmers. And honestly? We’re loving every minute of it—yes, even the goat-wrangling, fence-mending, rooster-escapes-at-5AM parts. We never saw it coming. But sometimes the best things in life are the ones that sneak up on you—preferably not in the form of a loose pig, but you get the idea.