Animals
- Jubilation
The waiting is over. We are overjoyed to bring you the news. The rabbit died. I know, that sounds very sad. Fear not, we don't even own a rabbit. Actually, the weather warmed up long enough to comfortably perform pregnancy checks on our dear Sissy...
- Pickles And Ice Cream
Yesterday afternoon while feeding the fainting goats I heard a dainty voice say "Excuse me, do you have any pickles today?" Another sweet voice chimed in, "And ice cream!" Well, you can imagine my surprise when I turned around to see Sissy and O'...
- Addendum To Previous Post
It is with great sadness and tears streaming down my face that I write this post script. This morning we had to say goodbye to MoJo. He had another blockage, somewhere higher up in his urethra. I found him lying in his house this morning when I went out...
- Goat Herding
This weekend we moved our bucks into one of the big pastures...to serve as their winter home. Imagine this scene: It is 24 degrees out, 7 AM. Becky, Jack and I meet at the goat pens that are situated between our two properties. The smell of stinky bucks...
- Buck Tales
I took a bit of time to stand and just watch the bucks when I fed them yesterday afternoon. Our bucks include Chip and his two sons, Smoochie and Yo Skip. The smallest of the bucks is MoJo, who we acquired this summer (he was born at the end of last winter)....
Animals
Mojo Lost His Pizzle
Poor Mojo. He had quite a tough weekend. Saturday morning at morning feed time, Becky and I noticed that Mojo did not come out of his house for breakfast. This is quite unusual, but he has been out of sorts for the past week, ever since he was moved away from his two "girlfriends", O' Malley and Sissy. It didn't take Becky long, though, to conclude that something just wasn't right with Mojo. Further observation showed that he seemed to be in distress....his usual "maaaaaaa" was one of pain. He kept trying to lie down inside his house, and when he wasn't lying down, was pawing at the ground.
Becky assessed Mojo and found him to have a distended bladder. Apparently he had become blocked somewhere in is urinary system.
Male goats can be prone to calculi (urinary stones, or crystals) and this can be a life threatening situation if they are not unblocked (which is sometimes impossible to accomplish). Eating alfalfa can very often cause these stones in male goats. Although Mojo had not been eating alfalfa, it seems that perhaps our homegrown hay might be a little too rich for this little fellow.
Well, to make a long story short.....Mojo got a ride in the goat ambulance (gator) up to Dr. Becky's garage. A quick sedative was given and Becky did a more thorough inspection. The end result was excision of his "pizzle" or urethral extension, which is a little tube at the end of his "reproductive organ" (after all this blog is rated G). Once this was snipped off, a copious amount of urine began to drain....relieving his distress. Inspection of his pizzle yielded a small stone that had apparently caused the obstruction.
This was quite a close call for Mojo. Unfortunately, this may end up being a major health risk for Mojo. And sadly, there is nothing to do to prevent this from happening again. For now we will keep our fingers crossed and hope that this is just a solitary incident!
- Jubilation
The waiting is over. We are overjoyed to bring you the news. The rabbit died. I know, that sounds very sad. Fear not, we don't even own a rabbit. Actually, the weather warmed up long enough to comfortably perform pregnancy checks on our dear Sissy...
- Pickles And Ice Cream
Yesterday afternoon while feeding the fainting goats I heard a dainty voice say "Excuse me, do you have any pickles today?" Another sweet voice chimed in, "And ice cream!" Well, you can imagine my surprise when I turned around to see Sissy and O'...
- Addendum To Previous Post
It is with great sadness and tears streaming down my face that I write this post script. This morning we had to say goodbye to MoJo. He had another blockage, somewhere higher up in his urethra. I found him lying in his house this morning when I went out...
- Goat Herding
This weekend we moved our bucks into one of the big pastures...to serve as their winter home. Imagine this scene: It is 24 degrees out, 7 AM. Becky, Jack and I meet at the goat pens that are situated between our two properties. The smell of stinky bucks...
- Buck Tales
I took a bit of time to stand and just watch the bucks when I fed them yesterday afternoon. Our bucks include Chip and his two sons, Smoochie and Yo Skip. The smallest of the bucks is MoJo, who we acquired this summer (he was born at the end of last winter)....