I am sure that some of you have been missing something in your lives the past few days. There hasn’t been any posts on message boards on oklahomshowgoats or breedersworld. No word of the day, no rumours, nothing. How can you make it through the day, knowing that a piece of your life is missing?

Thank goodness for this extremely informative blog to help you out. I don’t have any good goat rumours, although I have heard a few, just don’t know if they are true or not.

Thursday evening, (although this Thursday kind of felt like a Monday), I got home and headed to the barns to do chores. Checked on the kid born yesterday morning. He didn’t look very healthy. I milked the doe and tubed him. This sparked him a little. Tammy got home and helped him to nurse. The dumb shit doesn’t know how to suck. He acted fine this morning, although he doesn’t look very full.

Moved two first time does into confinement pens. They haven’t done very well in general population. They should be milking better than they are. I’m sure the heat hasn’t helped, but the rest of them are doing good.

The great thing about raising goats is all of the “I’ve never had that happen before” moments. I was surveying a set of goats that are between 4 & 7 weeks of age. I noticed one buck kid that was set up and looking the part. I’ve been watching this goat for a while as his mother has raised some good ones. I walked up to him and he moved just far enough to not get caught and he set himself up again. Then he dribbled just a few drops of piss. Hhmm? I made him move again. Same thing. Moved a little, stopped and dribbled. Crap. A kidney stone.

We haven’t had very many problems with kidney stones at our place. I’ve dang sure never had one in a goat that hadn’t been banded, had good creep feed and salt available and is only 7 weeks old. I caught him and sure enough, I could feel the blockage. I couldn’t get a hold of the end to snip it. So I gave him a big dose of vitamin C and drenched him with apple cider vinegar. Obviously, he has spent more time eating mom’s feed instead of creep or we wouldn’t have this problem. If he doesn’t make it, I will know for sure that he was a great one. It’s never a common one that dies.

Speaking of common. I’ve got a wether in Duke’s pen that looks like hammered shit. He and his twin brother had the shits the day I bought them. I got them home and thought I could get them dried up. The skinny little twin dried up and is going to make a goat, all be it at somebody else’s place. This one still had the nuts in him. I gave him a week or two and then banded him. I never really got him dried up until I weaned him. He then dried up the next day after weaning. He has been weaned two weeks now and he still looks like crap. He is eating. But he acts lethargic. He has been wormed. Since, I was dealing with this other crap last night, I thought might as well try something on him. I gave him a dose of Liver 7, B12 and probiotics. Of course, he is the most expensive wether on the place. For that matter, he is the most expensive wether that I have bought for anybody all year. Refer to earlier paragraph. If he dies, I will know that he was dang sure a great one.

We are dealing with a major dilemma. The 4 wheeler has not been operating at an optimum level. I think it has an electrical problem and I can’t find it. This 4 wheeler gets used daily, so this cripples us. Although, it does keep Duke in shape when the 4 wheeler is down as he then runs wethers on foot. Back in February, I took the 4 wheeler to the dealer to get serviced. Fix anything that needs fixing was my orders. A couple of hundred dollars later, I get the 4 wheeler out of the shop. Two days later, I had to buy a battery for it. Four months later, it is broke down again. For the first six years, zero problems. Take it the shop, two problems.