Justalittle goat

I'm a softie, everyone knows that. I get very attached to animals and some humans, everyone knows that also. What you don't know yet is what happened here at Justafew Acres yesterday.....

 

Started out as a very typical morning. I get up, wipe the sleep out of my eyes and slowly (please remember I was a dancer and that's hard on the bones) I make my way down the stairs. I have a bowl of cereal or oatmeal and get started with my day. Pulling on my boots I head out to the barn to start my chores duties jobs ...ROUTINE!

 As I passed the horse stall I called to the goats....."Baby Goats!" and they answered as little goats will do. A I was passing out grain and hay I noticed only Ann and Finn were in the pasture waiting for me.....now if you know anything about goats especially ones that are bottle fed and raised together ....They go nowhere without each other.

 

So I called for Junebug......nothing.

 

 I finished feeding and started looking for her. What I found I was not prepared for.....She was standing in the horse stall with her head in the corner, when she heard my footsteps she turned towards me and fell. I knelt down beside her she tried to stand... she fell over once again. She was looking everywhere but at me and then she screamed....in a very scary way. There was something horribly wrong with this goat.

I scooped her up and ran for the house. Placing June on the floor I called the vet, he was on an appointment and would call me right back. He wouldn't call in time.....as I hug up my cell phone she started to seize....holding her in a panic I called for Dave who was sleeping off an overtime shift upstairs. There must have been sheer horror in my voice because I heard his feet hit the floor and he was in front of me in three seconds.

There on my kitchen floor, in the same place that I held her the first time I bottle fed her my baby goat died.

 

Some people may say I'm being a little dramatic about just a little goat.....to those people I say

"find a different blog because this one isn't for you"

The loss of any pet is a horrible thing. I'm sad, I'm defeated and I feel guilty......

 

Why, you ask?

 

Because this was preventable, this should not have happened.

The water at the farm has a very high sulfur content. It smells like rotten eggs and taste awful. We have a very fancy water filtration system that takes care of this

 

Then why did the goat die? Good question

 

I did not know goats are very sensitive to sulfur and it causes a thiamine deficiency. Low thiamine causes the nervous system to shut down which explains the blindness, disorientation and convulsions.

 

But you have a fancy filtration system?

 

Yes, but I turned it off. When the filter is on there is very low pressure. It takes FOR-EV-ER to fill the water buckets so I bybass it.

 

That is why I feel guilty, that is why Junebug should still be in the pasture. This week I learned a horrible lesson in keeping goats...the hard way.

                      

                            Accidents happen and ill never forget this one.....or my little Junebug