The Poultry Keeper

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 6968 Location: isle of lewis

my goat holi is sort of living up to her rep
she's kidding in 9 days time at the soonest
went up this morning she was flat out
legs streached out and her head
opened the shed
nothing ,
called her once nothing not a twitch of her ear nothing Shocked

called again louder Shocked

nothing ,thought oh naughty word ,yanked open the door ,leapt the stall ,and she opened one eye and looked at me,as if to say you wanted something Twisted Evil

my heart was pounding
she's sulking and not eatting a lot ,deb reacons it's 3 Twisted Evil

debcat · Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2007 9:58 am Post subject:

she'll never go another 9 days Rolling Eyes

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 6968 Location: isle of lewis

my heart was in my mouth ,i thought she was dead
she managed to get excited about some goat treats though Twisted Evil

CP · Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2007 10:28 am Post subject:

She's keeping you guessing! Shocked

Spana · Joined: 30 Apr 2005 Posts: 2070 Location: North Cornwall

Blo**y animals, I'm fed up with them. They give us nothing but grief and plenty of work, keep us up at night, and s**t all over us. The baby's dont get up and wont suck when they should and the mothers have twins or more when they only have enough milk for 1 at the most.
Can you tell Ive had a bad 24hrs Evil or Very Mad

Ive told them, they are all being shot in the yard Twisted Evil

Hope you are over your shock suz Laughing

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 6968 Location: isle of lewis

jan i've said the same words many a time Evil or Very Mad

2 years was the worst
lost 4 goats in a year ,
all would have happened anyway
2 to liver fluke hadn't been dosed before we got them
1 strangulated hernia ,/+bloat
the last straw was vd(alvida ),2 weeks before kiding to ketosis ,called the vet after giving calcuim and multi vit ,and he couldn't do anything i hadn't done already ,it was to earily to save the kids so they died as well ,it was horrendous
after getting her through a sheared udder and gangrine ,after she battered
a door down and cut her udder on a screw on the hinge Evil or Very Mad

,jan it'll get better Wink

,could have shot the lot of them Evil or Very Mad

and sometimes i think the more we look after them Very Happy

and read about feeding and how to look after them the worse it gets Sad

that's why i'm so worried about holi ,old battle axe is making the most of running me raggied Evil or Very Mad

Spana · Joined: 30 Apr 2005 Posts: 2070 Location: North Cornwall

Thanks suz, you have made me feel a bit better.

Had almost no sleep for 2days, all my joints are playing up, my hands are red raw and every finger is cracked at the tip from washing calf feeding kit and going out again with wet hands. Then all the ungrateful b***ers do is knock you over when you are trying to save their calf and kick the bucket over when you've just milked a couple of pints of milk out to feed it.

And now we have snow forcast, just when the Highlands are about to start calving out in the field Sad

Thats my moan over. Goodluck with your kidding. Do they usually manage on their own?

CP · Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2007 9:53 pm Post subject:

Glad I've only got chickens! Shocked

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 6968 Location: isle of lewis

yep jan ,they normally manage on their
own,well they are supposed to Rolling Eyes

,i know where you're coming from hector (our
vet) had broken ribs last year from treating a cow with
a calf ,
look after your self ,chapped hands are a pig to deal with
it was one of the things said at the lambing course
about how sore your hand and arms get from being wet and in the cold ,it'll get better ,i nearly sold up and just gave up when that happened ,you'll come out the other side,i'm really sorry about florance Sad

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 6968 Location: isle of lewis

there's always the other one
you spend 2 hours on the phone trying to sort
out another feeding method to try to get some weight
on the billy ,and makinng sure holi doesn't do down the
same route as her mother ,work out which
mineral lick is best spend 17 pounds on the lick
and they stand on it and eat the bucket Rolling Eyes

still i know some more about lupins /tricitales
does anyone here use it

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 6968 Location: isle of lewis

how is the cow jan
and the calf

fairislefaerie · Joined: 12 Mar 2007 Posts: 542

errr

we lamb in 3 weeks and umm i was kinda looking forward to it...

Seriously though, having been farm bred, one of my earliest & fondest memories is of being out in the pitch dark (barring a torch or 2) with my father at a hereford cow who had gone into labour in the field with a mal presentation, freezing cold, dinging down snow & just not noticing how cold & wet we both were due to being so concentrated on helping her through this.

I cant wait to lamb ! havent lambed for 15 yrs !

Angela

debcat · Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 9:16 pm Post subject:

ooh,

How many have you got in lamb?

sleep and food deprivation, 6 weeks of hell
lambs in the kitchen, bottles of milk everywhere
after 15 years you've got a shock coming Very Happy

Saying that I love it
I only have 3 this year, OH has 75 Shocked

plus I get people phoning saying 'So and So says you don't mind bottle-feeding, we'll be there in 10mins' Rolling Eyes

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 6968 Location: isle of lewis

just thought you'd like an update on the goat ,holi has been very ill she very near kidding now ,i've been syringing water and glocose down her throat ,and i have a pasata machine that i have been using in the caravan to liguidize grass in ,it's very strange ,the vets not sure although her chest is noisy ,everybody here has noisy chests (it's very damp here),we have had antibiotics to injct and painkillers
i'm phoning the vet to see if i can carry on for a few more days ,
i'll have to wait till later as there is no petrol on the island so we are saving the little fuel we have Rolling Eyes

she looks very smart in the foal rug that deb lent her and she hasn't eatten it Shocked

who thought this keeping animals lark was a good one Rolling Eyes

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 6968 Location: isle of lewis

holi is much better tonight
thanks everyone for your support ,i really needed it ,
jan how are you going