Winter

We finally got snow last Friday night! As of today, the 29th, it's very warm and raining, which is making a big mess of everything. 

Amelia, who, contrary to her breed's supposed nature, is not enthused with the snow. She doesn't even seem to noticed it, as a matter of fact, and doesn't enjoy us trying to force her to notice it by throwing some at her.

Jinger and Kate, on the other hand, love it when I kick and throw snow at them. Jinger will race back and forth in front of me, snapping at the snow, growling, and making all sorts of horrific noise.

Kate's not quite as vocal about it but loves catching the snow just the same.

 

We almost lost Sonnet last Friday, to polio. Polio in goats is not the same as in humans-it is caused by a thiamine deficiency which causes their brain to swell, which in turn causes severe neurological symptoms. 

We found her stretched out on her side with her neck twisted and bent back, which can often look almost identical to tetanus. The difference was that her limbs were moveable, whereas with tetanus they wouldn't have been. I gave her two big injections of thiamine, and after 2 hours she was even worse. I was scared to give anything into the vein, lest it kill her, but Mom convinced me that she was dying anyway so it wouldn't make a difference. I gave her a dose in the vein, waiting 15 minutes, and gave her another one. The second one seemed to give her a small seizure and I decided I'd done all I could but that she was gonna die. I went to town, and when I came back, Mom and Brittany had moved her into the sauna shower, because she was so chilled. When I went out to see her, she was sitting up instead of flat out on her side. 

She was totally blind, but got up in a few hours and was brought back to the barn to continue her recovery. She's eating now, but still won't drink so she's getting drenched a few times a day. Her sight is already well on its way back and she's doing great, but, looking on an ultrasound, we're 99% sure she lost her kids. 

Looking back at a video I shot on the Thursday before this happened, I can see that she was already walking a little funny and her head was maybe at a slight angle and maybe had a twitch. If I'd been more observant we could have caught it a lot sooner...

 

We had our Christmas family gathering on Friday, so just had a quiet Christmas day. Chad, Krista, Jeff, Luke, Mark, Brittany and I, along with Buck and Jinger, decided to go sledding in the Simcoes. After taking the wrong turn(there are very few official roads and you just have to know your way) we came to this frothy hill and unloaded to start sledding. Turns out the hill was not steep enough, nor our "sleds"(pool floaties, inner tubes, and one actual snow sled) slick enough to go down. We all tried once or twice, and then packed back up to go find a new hill. We never found, or where able to access  another hill worth trying, but we had loads of fun anyway, navigating those snowy mule trails and trying not to hit our heads on the ceiling when the jeep hit one of the ever present hidden bumps. 

It was so beautiful, and I wish I'd brought my real camera and gotten some more pictures! 

That's all for now! Kate's holding out as of now, though I hope to have puppies next week at the latest! After that, we dive right into the busy season with more puppies due right at the time kidding starts, which throws us into feeding kids and milking 8 does, new rabbit babies, chicks, ducklings, calves, gardens, etc. The new year has a shine to it, which is not dulled by how busy I'm probably gonna be. I'm glad we live in an area that has different seasons, because winter is the time to take a little break from a lot of the animal chores, reflect on the past year, and look forward to the new one.