Sorry to be so blunt and I'm going to try not to get too lengthy. Our last 30 days has really sucked. We as people are fine.....nothing bad in that sense.
So February, we found our dog one morning with a very swollen face. So naturally we were concerned and off to the vet he went. Every lymph node in his body was swollen. They put him on steroids and antibiotics right away. When the lab results returned a week later, it revealed he had malignant lymphoma. So about a week after those results we had him put to sleep. It was the kindest way to let him go really. We've been missing him terribly. Ashe had been our dog for 10 years, he was our first "kid" if you will. He's always been my buddy and he wanted to be a really good dog even when he didn't know how.
Fast forward to a couple days ago. Kissee at night time feeding got away from me. She got caught up between the tube gate the my husband just removed to create her kidding stall and slid around on some scrap wood. Well she got out of that with a limp and the next day we started her on half doses of an anti-inflammatory medicine called Banamine. The next morning she started losing fluid and blood as if she was urinating. She was straining and in obvious pain. We thought she might have a kidney infection so we started to call vets in the area....anyone for help. We took a break from our search because I had a scheduled cheese class.....I'll create a new post for that since I don't want to mix the bad and good together here....something gets lost in it all. Anyhow when I went to check on her afterwards she was in a lot of distress, moaning, not getting up so we started calling around for vets again. Finally, we broke down and called our neighbor. Our neighbor used to raise goats and had a contact for a local vet. So late that evening we had a vet out and by that time she was crashing. Toxemia, also known in goats as hypocalcemia. Her blood calcium levels were low enough to put her into shock. So the vet threw everything in his arsenal at her trying to help her come out of it. CMPK, cortisone, A&D vitamins, B vitamins......in the end though she's gone. She apparently got up at some point, walked a short bit and fell straight over. I think that part was likely quick, she still had her eyes open when I found her. The babies are gone too. We've been rehearsing it over and over so we can learn and make a plan from this event in case it comes up again. This sucks!
Well and as if we needed more to happen wrong, our broody hen who had been sitting on eggs apparently got egg envy (I had moved some fresh eggs into an empty nest for collection later) and switched nests so her eggs that were just days from hatching are now dead.
Well to wrap this up, we are feeling pretty defeated right now. There are good things coming up so this is just a big stumbling block. We aren't giving up or anything like that. We are going to sell York so we can have a break from the goats and concentrate on the tiny human that should be appearing in August. It's a difficult but I'm sure it's the right choice for right now. Hopefully next spring, we'll start again with goats.....just better prepared.
So February, we found our dog one morning with a very swollen face. So naturally we were concerned and off to the vet he went. Every lymph node in his body was swollen. They put him on steroids and antibiotics right away. When the lab results returned a week later, it revealed he had malignant lymphoma. So about a week after those results we had him put to sleep. It was the kindest way to let him go really. We've been missing him terribly. Ashe had been our dog for 10 years, he was our first "kid" if you will. He's always been my buddy and he wanted to be a really good dog even when he didn't know how.
Fast forward to a couple days ago. Kissee at night time feeding got away from me. She got caught up between the tube gate the my husband just removed to create her kidding stall and slid around on some scrap wood. Well she got out of that with a limp and the next day we started her on half doses of an anti-inflammatory medicine called Banamine. The next morning she started losing fluid and blood as if she was urinating. She was straining and in obvious pain. We thought she might have a kidney infection so we started to call vets in the area....anyone for help. We took a break from our search because I had a scheduled cheese class.....I'll create a new post for that since I don't want to mix the bad and good together here....something gets lost in it all. Anyhow when I went to check on her afterwards she was in a lot of distress, moaning, not getting up so we started calling around for vets again. Finally, we broke down and called our neighbor. Our neighbor used to raise goats and had a contact for a local vet. So late that evening we had a vet out and by that time she was crashing. Toxemia, also known in goats as hypocalcemia. Her blood calcium levels were low enough to put her into shock. So the vet threw everything in his arsenal at her trying to help her come out of it. CMPK, cortisone, A&D vitamins, B vitamins......in the end though she's gone. She apparently got up at some point, walked a short bit and fell straight over. I think that part was likely quick, she still had her eyes open when I found her. The babies are gone too. We've been rehearsing it over and over so we can learn and make a plan from this event in case it comes up again. This sucks!
Well and as if we needed more to happen wrong, our broody hen who had been sitting on eggs apparently got egg envy (I had moved some fresh eggs into an empty nest for collection later) and switched nests so her eggs that were just days from hatching are now dead.
Well to wrap this up, we are feeling pretty defeated right now. There are good things coming up so this is just a big stumbling block. We aren't giving up or anything like that. We are going to sell York so we can have a break from the goats and concentrate on the tiny human that should be appearing in August. It's a difficult but I'm sure it's the right choice for right now. Hopefully next spring, we'll start again with goats.....just better prepared.
No comments:
Post a Comment