Ma & Pa Kettle Strike Again
When we still lived in a house in town, we bought a batch of day old chicks. And raised them in the living room. Peep peep peep. My brother called one day and asked what the noise was. "Chicks in the living room," he was told. "Ach!" he exclaimed, "My sister has turned into Ma Kettle!"
Doing their evening outdoor chores last night, the children noticed one of the goats was just not right.
So she spent the night inside. She was seriously bloated which is enough to kill them right there (they go into shock from the pain), but I think she bloated because she ate something poison. That call is part symptomatic and part intuition. Anyway, she's in front of the stove. Love the brick floor! I'm sure she would have been dead before nightfall outside, from the pain of the bloat, from the serious cold (and it was seriously cold! like 8 degrees). But a goodly amount of garlic, some yogurt (seriously active yogurt -- no gelatin or cooking it to death mc!), a lot of TLC and she, well, she's still alive. She's on her keel. So far, so good.
7 comments:
We would sometimes have a newborn calf in the bathtub, when its mother hadn't succeeded in drying it off quick enough to keep it warm and get it going. So we would warm it up, dry it off, keep it safely confined in the bathroom for the rest of the night, and then come daylight, go out and battle the mother to get her to take it back.
I'd love to have a few cows again.
We raised triplet goats in a small livestock water tank (which I'd gotten for a birth of a daughter -- which is another story and perhaps one I've written before!) in our kitchen once years ago. Raised them all the way up. Which was perhaps when I decided that I do NOT like hand raised goats.
And I do have to say, cows are nice. As with all large animals, you have to always be ready for them to accidentally try to kill you, but I like them nonetheless.
If you think they are bloating from something they ate (or any other reason) you can drench them with some oil (any kind--even mineral oil) About 1/2 cup and it helps them "burp". We have used it a number of times. There are also some other tricks but that is a good one. You can also massage their sides to help pass the air.
Good luck.
Monica
I find that the best "tricks" are yogurt and garlic and keeping them here by not letting them drift into shock. She seems past the bloat, plus she's eating and eliminating (nice euphamism, huh?) but she's still not up. There are a couple of possibilities but in the end, we'll do the best we can and she will make it or she won't. Thanks!
I sat once with a young horse, Colonel, all night in a bathroom holding the IV in the air, making sure he didn't tangle. He was gold and soft and sad and the next day he died.
But he is part of me and that little piece of him gives my life something it wouldn't have had any other way.
wow what a different world. i don't mean that negatively.
yeah Joe, I don't think you'd be having a goat in your kitchen! Nor would we be having a tv in every room. Different values. Doesn't keep me from lovin' ya though!
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