Vaccine Booster

It's that time of year again!  Booster shots!  Woo!

Ah yes, being a responsible pet owner means that you do everything you can to make sure that your pets are as healthy as can be.  Even if that means forking over some dough and doing things that make your squeamish.

Ellie was first, so we brought her into the vet last month.  Exam + several vaccines= $200   Ouch!

Harley is this week.  Fortunately, I got a $10 off coupon in the mail, so maybe that might help take the edge off.

We give the goaties their vaccine ourselves.  This in total costs us about $10 including the cost of needles and syringes.  Last year was a little traumatic.  Our goat breeder told us to lift the skin between the shoulder blades and administer the vaccine Sub-Q (under the skin).  Sounds easy, right?  After all, you've probably seen your vet give your dogs/cats vaccines that way all the time.  Now try that with a tiny wiggly goat with no extra skin.  Not so easy, and I couldn't do it.  So I held down my baby goat while my husband gave the vaccine.

But I am 1 year older and wiser and have joined multiple goat forums and yahoo groups.  The trick?  Goats have extra skin at their armpit, not between the shoulder blades like a dog.  So this year it was my turn.

I asked my husband to distract Oreo by giving her some scritches.  I lifted the extra the skin right above her armpit, and then .... done!  No flinching, no fighting, no big deal!  She handled it like a trooper.  So we gave her a peanut and she was on her way.  Next was Butters and she also got a peanut.

You can tell the vaccine made them a little sore, but they are doing great!

All this reminded me that we need to expand our goat medicine cabinet.  Which should include:

1. Ivomec... we use herbal de-wormers, but this is good to have on hand.
2. Nurti-drench
3. Probios
4. Electrolytes
5. Sulmet
6. Thermometer
7. Triple Antibiotic Cream
8. Needles/Syringes
9. Drenching Syringe
10. Pepto-Bismal
11. Epi-Pen
12. Bo-se
13. Copper Bolus
14. And last but not least... our vet's phone number pre-programed and written down.

Take care of your critters!

Coccidia Scare

Since I have a lot of doggy friends, who tend to be animal lovers in general, I hear this comment a lot:

"This is amazing!  I've always wanted a little farm!  You are living my dream!"

Growing up in suburbia where the idea of growing and raising my own food seemed distant, I can certainly relate.  I love animals and the idea of a little farm with different animals running around seemed like heaven. 

The problem is, I didn't grow up around livestock.  I wasn't part of 4H or FFA (Future Farmers of America).  Heck, I haven't even taken a horse-back riding lesson.  The closest I got to a horse was the little pony rides in Pasadena.  How could I be a farmer?

But where there is a will, there is a way, and here I am, 29 years old with 1 acre to do as I please.  And what was the first thing I did?  I got my goats.

Please don't get me wrong.  I did a TON of research before I got the goats.  I made sure that I was capable of giving them a good home before I even started calling breeders.  But there are some things that only life and experience can teach you ... and maybe a 16 year-old 4H kid.

And here is where my story begins...

Some goat owners de-worm their goats monthly, some do it seasonally, some use herbal de-wormers, and others use chemical de-wormers.  De-wormers are a lot like antibiotics.  There is not just one de-wormer to kill all parasites, just like there isn't one antibiotics to kill all bacteria.  Also, parasites can grow resistant to de-wormers, just like what happens to antibiotics.  With that information at hand, I decided that the best way to de-worm my goats was to do it only when necessary and to pick the appropriate de-wormer for the parasite they have.  This can be accomplished by doing a fecal flotation. Since I don't know how to do a fecal test, I've made an arrangement with my doggy vet for them to do them for a small fee.  After all, poop is poop and a parasite is a parasite, it doesn't matter if it is coming from a goat or a dog. 

I've been doing this regularly and so far all my lab results have come back negative for any parasite load, until Friday.

On Friday, I got an email from the veterinarian with these results:

OVA&PARA: OVA & PARASITES
 EIMERIA OOCYSTS PRESENT RARE (1-2)

Okay?  What does that mean?

Coccidia.

I go to my goat reference book to figure out which de-wormer to use, when I read that Coccidia is one of the main killers of goat kids.  Coccidiosis is fatal. 

This is about the point when I start flipping out.

I do some quick research (super fast), and figure out that I need either Corid or Sulmet.  A lot of goat owners are not big fans of Corid because it can deplete the thiamine in the body, so many use Sulmet to treat (not diluted).  So I started making calls to all the local feed stores.

I call Livermore Feed, Alamo Feed, Concord Feed, Western Saddlery, and Rowell Ranch Saddlery.  Every single one of them are out of both Corid and Sulmet.  Something about it being back-ordered from the manufacturer.   So finally I call the large animal vet.  This is what she tells me:

"Well Coccidia tends to kill the strongest animal first.  You may come home to a dead animal.  Do you want me to treat them?  Well no, I don't have the treatment.  I will have to order it."

UGH!  Super unhelpful!  

So I call my goat breeder and she is not immediately available. 

Who next to call?  How about Nicole?  

Nicole is my 16-year old goat sitter.  She is so worldly and wise beyond her years.  Right now she is away at college.  Yes, college.  She is going to a junior college and then plans to attend UC Davis veterinary school.  This is where I wish I had her experience.  She is active in her local 4H group and has been raising and breeding goats her entire life.  She calmly explained to me that it is normal for adult goats to have a small number of coccidia present in their intestinal tract.  That adults have a strong enough immune system to handle the parasite, but that goat kids are very susceptible to it.  

Wow, nothing is more humbling than calling a teenage girl for advice.  But thank goodness she is there!

I confirmed this information with a few websites and with the goat breeder, who finally called me back.  
   
Why am I telling this story?  To let you guys know that it is not all a walk in the park.  That despite my crazy hoof-trimming schedule, testing, meticulous cleaning, grooming, I still don't know it all.  And I panic. Once Sulmet becomes available again I am going to keep it in my goat medicine kit.  But I am learning and I am researching and dammit, I am going to eat that goat cheese!

Birthday Present

WOW!  What a wonderful holiday weekend!  Not only did we get a day off, but it also happened to land on my B-day.  Happy 29th Birthday to me!  And what did I get for my B-day?  The best thing ever, a new camera!
Now I can pretend I am photographer and take pics like these of our property:

Our Red Barn

I just happen to find this little hidden gem the other day

Miss Butters

Missing her Goat Momma... aka Kevin

Hope you enjoyed these as much as I enjoyed taking them.  I think I will do one more post by the end of the week.  I am on a roll!

Goat Antics

I wanted to post some pictures of my little farm family on the sidebar to the right here.  So I went out to take some recent pictures of the goats.  This is not an easy task!  To take a picture you need to stand back around 3-4 feet, which is impossible with goats!  They want to be touching you and be near you at all times, so you end up with pictures like these:

Obnoxious isn't it?

So I would try to push them away with my hand.  Here are some decent shots:

Nice one of Butters face and Oreo's butt

And they don't look at you like dogs, so I got a ton of shots of them looking in the other direction:

What's so interesting?

Here is my one decent shot:

So if you want to tell them apart, Oreo is black and white with a red collar.  Butters is black and cream with a purple collar.  Butters also has cooler looking eyebrows than Oreo.

My Sweet Poppy

I know I have been absent for while, but we have had one crazy and emotionally draining week.

Kevin and I have two beautiful dogs, Ellie and Harley.  They were one of the main reasons we bought our little farm.  We wanted them to have the space to run and stretch their legs.

Our Sweet Baby Girl Ellie

Our Good Ol' Bear Harley

Well, we had all this space and we wanted to give back the love our dogs shared with us.  So we volunteered to be a foster home for a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.

When we got the call that a Cavalier girl named Poppy needed a home we jumped in the car and drove 3 hours to pick her up.  On the way up, all excited, Kevin and I discussed all the things we were going to do with the new foster, take her for walks, to Fort Funston, meet children, go the park, etc.  

When we picked her up, she was nothing like we were expecting.  She was sad.  So very sad.  Her whole life got turned upside down and she didn't want to interact with us.  If we talked to her, she looked away.  If we reached to pet her, she cowered into a corner.  She barely walked, and only took about 10 steps at a time.

But despite this sad demeanor, she was starting to see us as family.  She wagged her tail slightly when we talked to her.  And she started to perk up when we got closer to her.  She was becoming my foster baby.  The Cavalier spirit was still alive in her and she was starting to open up and trust us.

And then the most horrible thing happened, she disappeared.  

We had moved our dogs outside for the cleaning lady.  She is afraid of dogs (especially Harley) and requested that they go outside so they are not in her way.  I put Harley and Poppy in our shaded yard.  Made sure that the gates were closed and locked and then took Ellie to her Nosework class.  Harley and Poppy were alone for maybe 1/2 an hour.  When we got back Harley was alone in the yard with the gates and doors still closed.  We still have not figured out how Poppy got out.

The pain of a lost pet is quite unbearable.  Wondering where she is.  Is she lost or stolen?  Is she out in the street or in someone's home?  Is she alive or dead?  How did she get out?  Who took her?  What can I do to get her back?

I would lay awake at night thinking about her.  Wanting her home and under my roof, safe and warm.  I would think of things I could be doing to find her.

I cried. 

But I am a woman of action, so I didn't sit wondering what happened.  Here is a list of things I did.  Hopefully, if you have lost a pet, you might find it helpful.

1. Make large signs to be placed in front of your home.  At first, I hand-wrote them on fluorescent boards, but I replaced them with professional looking printed corrugated poster boards with large pictures. I also placed one at the near-by park.  (These were what eventually brought our Poppy  home).
2. Buy window chalk and use your car as a moving flyer.  Just in case your dog gets outside your neighborhood, this expands your visibility.  I used a bright white marker.
3. Call your local radio station and TV stations.  They might do a public announcement.  They did for Poppy.  The local paper also volunteered to run an ad for her.
4. Get your flyers in all the vet hospitals in the area.  I did it in the three surrounding cities.
5. Get your flyers in the local supermarket, coffee shops, pet stores, and surrounding schools.
6. Use the internet: Get attention with Facebook, Pet Amber Alert, Pet Harbor, Fido Finder, Craigslist, etc.
7. Drop-off flyers in all your neighbor's mailboxes.
8. Check the shelters, make a missing pet report, and leave flyers.
9. Hire a private pet detective (I give this one mixed reviews, but it is worth a shot).
10. Did I mention posting flyers around your neighborhood?  I know I mentioned flyers a lot, but you have to cover every angle.
11. DON'T GIVE UP!  

8 Days later, my husband announced he would be right back.  About 10 minutes later he walked through the door with Poppy in his arms.  Our neighbor had seen our sign by the park and when she woke on Sunday morning Poppy was sitting in her front yard.  I immediately began crying tears of joy and whisked Poppy to the Emergency Vet.  They gave her fluids and cleaned out her eyes.  She had collected dirt, leaves, and debris in her eyes, but she was okay.  They sent her home with antibiotics, eye drops, and a cone.  

I was a little worried that this adventure of hers would set her back, but it didn't seem to.  She still sees Kevin and me as her foster parents.  And we love her for it.

Isn't she beautiful?  She will be ready for adoption soon!

One Disgusting Story

I was telling this story to my co-worker and she told me that I had to include this one on the blog.  So for everyone who feels like getting squeamish, please read on  If not, you may want to skip this one.  This is your warning.

As you know, I was in charge of doing all the chores this last weekend which included changing out all the fly and yellow jacket traps.  So I found a shovel and started to dig a hole in the dry hard earth.  This is not exactly an easy chore for me.  I dug and dug and barely broke ground.  So I grabbed the post digger and used that.  Meanwhile, Harley is watching me dig.

So, when I got about 8-10" hole, which is barely big enough, I grabbed the fly traps and emptied the contents into my hole.  So now this hole is full of mostly dead fly bodies, maggots, and few live ones.  I quickly buried them up and walked away to clean the traps and set them up again.

BIG MISTAKE

When I walked past my fly burial ground, I saw Harley, my doberman, digging them all up and the few live ones are flying everywhere.  SHIT!

I called him away and cursed myself for not putting him into the house.

I continued cleaning out the traps and setting new ones, when from the corner of my eye I see a white furry body rolling happily in the dirt.

There was Ellie, my sweet clean white Cavalier girl, rolling all over the dead fly bodies that Harley had just dug up.  I screamed at her to stop, but my screams were falling on deaf ears.  Once she was done, she happily pranced over to me all gray and black with dead fly parts and wings hanging off her.  UGH!

So I did what any good Cavalier Mother would do, I told my hubby to please give her a bath.

YUCK!

It is WAR!

That's IT Mr. Gopher!  You are no longer welcomed here.  I tried to let you live here, but you have not followed the rules.  You have continued to dig holes in the front lawn and that is just not acceptable!  You had 1 acre to choose from and you insisted on living on 200 SF that is my front lawn.  Not cool!

Here is your eviction notice: carbon monoxide.

Side note:  This first attempt to gas him failed. 

You may have won this battle, Mr. Gopher, but we will win the war!

Pests! Pests! Pests!

First it was the flies.  They were everywhere.  So I got a couple of green reusable fly traps.  They are awesome and after having them out for a month, I have actually seen a difference.  Thank goodness, cause flies are gross.  Thanks to our fancy doggy septic system, there are never any doggy poops out, but for some reason the  flies are always out and about.  I haven't figured out what is attracting them.

Next it was the spiders.  Well, to be honest, I never did anything about them. Those are skittish little things (although very poisonous) and they mostly hang out in the garage and under the house.  They are not bothering me.... yet.  I will get to them when I get to them (way down low on the priority list).

Then it was the yellow jackets.  They didn't bother me at first.  They never bit or stung me and I thought we could all live peaceably together.  But now they seems to be taking over.  And it is hard to move about the yard without dodging one of them.  They seem to like the water in the pond, which is why they are hanging around the yard.  So off to the store I went to get another trap.  Just like before a nice green reusable one.

Now, it's the gophers.  

How do I deal with gophers?  I absolutely refuse to put poison down.  I have too many loved animals to risk having poison on the ground.  Someone told me to flood it out with a hose and then when they come out to breathe, hit them over the head with a shovel.  But if you haven't noticed, I happen to be an animal lover.  That would be hard to do.  Why can't I write a nice letter asking them to please not dig holes?  It would go something like this:

Dear Mr Gopher and Family,
I know you think you have found prized real estate.  It really is beautiful out there, especially during the sunrise.  But I hate to tell you this, but there is already someone living there, me.   And I really do not appreciate the holes you are creating in my front lawn.

I know, I know.  I have a lot of space.  Why can't I share it?  Well, I am here to tell you that I can.  Just please live by my rules. Here they are:

1. Do not dig or live in my front lawn at all.  Period.  I hate to say it, but your holes are unsightly and I don't want to upset my neighbors.
2. Do not dig or live in my immediate backyard.  This is for your benefit as well as mine.  You don't want to pop you little head out and be attacked by a doberman.  Trust me, it will not be pleasant.
3. Do not dig or live in the vegetable garden.  This is food for me and my family.  Please find your own.

That's it!  Three little rules.  There is plenty of space for you everywhere else.  Tons of it actually.  If you could agree to my 3 simple rules, I am sure we can live amicably with each other.

Very Truly Yours,

Lilian A. Ramey

Sigh... If life could be that easy....

County Fair

How fun is a county fair?  I just love it!  I love everything from the smells of BBQ, cotton candy, and livestock, to the lights on the ferris wheel, and the sounds of a rockin country band.  It all just goes so well with a warm hot night spent strolling with my hubby looking at all the sights and sounds.  It just feels so American and it makes me happy to live in such a wonderful country where we get to enjoy things like the county fair. 

I mean, check out these canned goods!  They all look so yummy!

So Kevin and I headed out to the county fair to check out the goat show and it was so much fun!  We only stayed around to watch 4H kids do their thing, but as they were learning, so were Kevin and I.

Aren't they cute!

You could hear the judge helping the kids along.  She would tell them how to hold the head better, how to stack their feet, and what side of the goat they needed to be on.

We also went and checked out the goats from the professional handlers.  

Look at this guy!  He has 4 horns!  I am not even sure if he is a goat or a sheep, but either way he was totally cool.  I just had to take a picture.

And it has finally happened.  I bought cowboy boots.  Can you believe it?  Now I really look the part!

Mack Daddy

So here is another story about the day we brought our Nubian goats home.

So anyone who knows us knows that Kevin and I can't have a crazy idea without our two best friends to come along and watch.  Good thing they came too, they actually proved to be quite helpful.  Our friend Glen is a native of the North Bay, so when we needed to get around Penngrove, CA, Glen was able to get us there and avoid traffic.  Sweet!  His wife, Megan, was an animal science major at UC Davis (one of the best vet schools in the country) and she grew up around horses.  So she was able to give us helpful tips about livestock.

Once we got home and settled in the goats, our other friend Michelle came along with her dog Mack.  Thank goodness, because Harley was freaking out about the goats being around and Mack proved to be a good distraction.  We left the dogs in the backyard and walked down to the barn to hang out with the goats.  After about 15 minutes, I decided that the goats needed water so I headed up hill back to the house.

As I was walking up the hill, I could hear whining.  So I started to move faster and then I saw him.  Mack had fallen into the above-ground pool and couldn't get out.  This has been my worst nightmare since we moved in to Blue Antler.  We are only keeping that pool until we have our house-warming party in July. After that it is gone!  I panicked and tried to pull poor Mack out, but he was too big.  So while screaming at the gang to get up to the house and help, I kicked off my shoes and jumped right in, clothes and everything, and pushed him out.  After a quick shake off he went right back to playing with Harley.

Here is the picture after this whole event and you can see the pool and the two dogs playing again on the side.

After all that excitement it was time for pizza and beer.  So I called the local pizza joint and ordered, "The Mack Daddy."  Seemingly appropriate, huh?  It was a HUGE pizza, but the five of us had worked up an appetite and not a single crumb was left.

And now for your entertainment...... Jumping Bean Goats!