Friday, July 6, 2012

Penelope Jane and Zarah Belle







This is Penelope Jane.  She looks so little here. She is a small goat, but really not that small. A few weeks ago she was laying on the ground and would let out a blood curdling scream. I took her into the milk room and checked her out all over. Nothing I could see was wrong with her. She didn't do it again til Tuesday evening. She'd lay on the ground and then just scream, kind of like she was in labor. So I checked her out again and only found a little sore spot right between her front legs. I put some antibiotic gel on that. Went ahead and wormed her with Valbazen. And gave her Nutridrench too. She seemed o k. 

The next morning  (July 4th of course) she was worse.  So took her to a vet I like up and over the mountain. While I was waiting, I noticed Penelope scratching at her right ear. And she coughed too. So did Zarah. So I told the vet. She checked her ears and they were full of crap. She looked to see if there was anything in them alive but nothing. Just crappy ear goop. She also checked her with the stethiscope. Her lungs sounded pretty bad. We thought maybe lung worms since she and Zarah both coughed quite a bit. So she gave me 2 syringes of Nuflor, a strong antibiotic, to give them that day then today.  Since I had already wormed them both with the Valbazen that morning.  Penelope is a whole lot better today. I also gave her a CDT shot. 





And this is Zarah Belle. This morning, a few minutes after giving the Nuflor shot to Zarah, she's laying on the ground, stretched out and screaming every few seconds. Then she'd get up and just jump in the air. I called the vet and left a message. I still have not heard back from her. So called a friend in Ohio. She has goats too. She said it sounded like tetanus. So I ran in here to the computer to see what to do for that. I had some of the things so ran around getting sugar water for electrolytes, Kaopectate, probiotics, and a shot of Pro Pen G. Gave her all that too. Also gave her and Penelope and Iris a CDT shot too. Oh, also gave her a shot of Ivermec under the skin because that kills lung worms. She was laying on the ground for awhile and then she'd move to another spot. I had also called another vet closer to see about getting some Banamine for pain.

And Friday is my day to be with  my 95 year old lady for the day. I take her to get her hair done, get groceries, pay her bills... So had to tell the other caregivers I couldn't come today because my goat was dying.

So I went to the vet and was telling them all her symptoms. The vet said it was a Thiamine deficiency. So got a bottle of Thiamine. (When I got home, I read that B Complex would do the same thing if I didn't have Thiamine. And I had B Complex.)  I am supposed to give her 3cc every day til she gets better.  When I got home Zarah was up and eating hay. She had drank all her water. I gave her more. She drank it. I went ahead and gave Penelope a shot. Then had to catch poor Zarah. She didn't want any more shots! And this is what she looks like now. Normal!

So these 2 goats have had all kinds of worm treatments, CDT shots, antibiotics. You name it, they have had it the past few days. So something has to work. And I am sick of all this too. I am going to put them all on a dry lot and just feed them hay. I also read that sulfer is in molasses and they should not have that. It depletes the thiamine in their bodies. I feed my milk goats 16% all grain with molasses in it. Then just started feeding the rest of the does and the buck a sweet feed pellet with molasses in it. They will not get any more of that. It's really hard trying to keep these animals healthy. And I hope all this helps.

If anyone has gone through this, would you please share how you treated it? I am always learning new things. And it's so helpful to know there are others out there that go through the same things.

This is just a view of what I have done with these 2 goats. I am not a vet, although I am learning so much by doing a lot of this myself. I can most of the time figure out what is wrong with my goats and sheep. But most of the time I ask for help and advice from my goat friends and vets. I can give shots and trim feet and help birth kids and lambs. So I know a little. And I learn a little more every day.








Thursday, July 5, 2012

Naps Are Nice

This morning I woke up early, got all the critters fed and milked. Then went to the gardens. I picked a bushel of beans and that was just one side of the double row. Then went and picked cucumbers. Man, if you don't get those stinkers every day, they get as big as watermelons! Then picked some of the running beans. Then it was inside for me. I sat awhile and could not keep my eyes open. It could have been the Benadryl I took earlier because I was sneezing like crazy and my eyes were itchy and watery. That and the heat. But I had to go lay down. And I did.

Then the phone rang. My friend up the road stopped by to get advice about their new goat kid. He had cut his leg. So I went up there with CDT and antibiotic shots and some Vetericyn gel spray to do the vet thing. Got that all done. Now I am back in til later.

My friends will come about 8 tonight to help load 3 huge ram lambs into my Trooper for a ride to town. I have a friend with  a big fenced in yard that she needs them to eat down for her. She's been working on getting it ram ready. They'll stay there a few months. It's a nice place and they will get plenty of attention from all the people that live there.

I hope you all have a great day and stay cool! Thanks for coming to read my blog and see what's going on here at Outback Farm in Ga.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Cherry Limeade






This is the best drink on a hot summer day. And so easy to make. I just use sprite, cherries and some juice, limes and some Grenadine. And plenty of ice. Just mix all together and there ya go. Go find a nice cool shade tree and a good book. That's about all you need right there. (The store didn't have regular limes so I had to get little key limes. They work just as good.)




Bees Are Here!!!!

 I don't know if you can see them but there are honey bees all over my corn! I was out in the garden this morning and heard a strange noise that I couldn't quite figure out. I'd heard it before but it has been so long ago. Then I saw them. Lots and lots of honey bees! I had to look close but there are a lot of them. All over the corn tassels. I am so happy to see them again. It's been several years. It used to sound like New York City while I would be picking beans from all the bees in the corn. I guess they were just waiting for the corn to tassel. I am going to plant some more corn this week, just for the bees. I love honey bees. And I was so worried that the GMO corn across the road had run them off. But they are here again. Sweet beautiful bees!
 I love to hear the buzzing the bees make when they are happy. And their little legs are just full of corn pollen. I wish I knew where their hive was. They are just the most amazing of God's creatures. So complex yet so simple. And we could not live without them, I believe. They give us so much. Sweet wonderful honey and so much food. They are just amazing.
There are lots of bumble bees and yellow jackets and wasps all over. But haven't even really seen too many of those. They used to buzz all around the fallen old apples on the ground. But I have been picking those up and either giving the really bad ones to the chickens or the not so bad ones to the sheep. They love apples now. They will not climb the apple trees like the goats do. They wai patiently every morning for me to give them their apples. Such sweet sheep.

Monday, July 2, 2012

More Sheep, Chickens and a Dog

 These are the boys. Abraham in the front, Alfie in the middle and Axel standing, guarding the chickens. They are so big. They were all born in March. Alfie and Axel are more of a hair sheep and Abraham is a Finn. He's so handsome. And the friendliest one of the whole bunch of lambs. I may keep him to use for breeding Lucinda and the ewe lambs in the fall.
Axel and Abraham.
 The chicken yard. It's pretty big.  They have plenty of room to roam. The bottom picture is the back so it is an L-shaped yard. They have eaten every blade of grass in there though. When I mow I will put the bagger on and throw that grass in for them. They love it.
 The 2 new Americana chicks. They still won't go out/ Here they are behind the cage, safe from the mean ole big chickens. It's the darker little one that is being bullied. Hopefully that will stop soon.
 And here is Stella Bella Luna. She comes in with me to see her sheep. I will keep her with me when I come into the ram yard. They are young and nice right now, but they will not stay that way. And there are 3 of them and only one of me. So she will help keep them back away from me when the time comes. She loves her sheep. And they tolerate her. I need to learn some sheep herding commands for her. She knows "back"  and "out" and "that'll be all". I learned that from Jenna at www.coldantler. She's a good dog.

South Garden

 This is a shot of the South garden, again looking at Pigeon Mt in the background. Such a beautiful view. The sheep pasture is beyond the garden to the right.
 And this garden gets watered. I soaked it good last night and also fertilized with manure tea. So hopefully it will revive. I am picking some squash but not many yet.
 These are some purple peppers. They are so pretty.
 And some yellow peppers. Yes, they are supposed to be yellow!
 And a beautiful patch of my favorite flowers, zinnias. Love them! You just can't have too many of these around.
 These are Sun Gold cherry tomatoes. The best ever cherry tomato. SO GOOD!
 Poor tomato plants. They are do needing a good rain. But full of tomatoes. And they are amazing and juicy!
 Some of my grapes. And talk about good! Yum! And seedless too.
And of course have to get my sheep in here somehow. Lucinda is up at the house in the shade so she didn't get in this picture.

North Garden

 This is my North garden. It's quite yellow, in meed of a good soaking. No rain in weeks. Although we did have a little strange pop up storm last night and the ground was a little wet this morning.

So these are the beans. Kentucky Wonder and McCasslen pole beans and Blue Lake and Italian Roma bush beans.  They are all starting to come on really good right now. The Roma bean plants are so pretty and full of flowers.
 You can see how the bottoms are yellow in this picture. But they are full of big pretty beans.

 This is looking at the chicken house.
 This is looking at Pigeon Mt. to the East of us. We are in a beautiful valley with Lookout Mt. to the West behind us.
 Pretty bean vines reaching for the sky. You can see some holes where the Japanese beetles are having dinner. Then they are dinner for the chickens later. The chickens love those nasty creatures! I take a bucket and go down through the rows and shake the beetles into the bucket. The chickens are standing at the fence waiting for them to fall from the sky for them to eat up every evening.
These are the field peas. You can just see the pea pods and the pretty purple flowers. These plants love the heat and they look great. And are FULL of nice young pea pods. Can't wait to pick some.

So this is the North garden. In full production right now. I am picking cucumbers daily. There is a sweet potato patch to the right but it's very weedy.