Glad the vet visit went well, Kelly G! Your vet probably gave her CD&T, which is colostridium perfringens type C and D and tetanus toxoid. That's a yearly vaccine. Normally, you'd give expecting mommas this vaccine a month prior to kidding. Then, you give the lambs a booster later. And don't worry, trimming feet is very easy! There's lots of good info online about it. You can go to the MD Sheep and Goat page (www.sheepandgoat.com) and search that site for it. And she was thin, but not nearly as bad as some animals get. In fact, I bought a buck from a breeder a month ago and he was at least that thin. I believe he was with older bucks who probably bullied him away from the food, but he should have been separated for feeding time! Good luck!
Well, some very sad news about Gabby. I got the results of the CAE test from the vet today, and she is positive. I had a feeling - her joints are swollen, and she has intermittant pain. If she is not pregnant, we really don't have a problem. We will give her pain meds when she needs them, and she will live out her life here in comfort and luxury (goat style, anyway) - and she will always have a full tummy. We will even (through our vet) be on the lookout for another CAE positive, de-horned, Nubian nanny (or a neutered, de-horned male) so she will not be so lonely. If she is pregnant, we will have to pull the babies from her before they have a chance to nurse from her... and I have lined up with a rescue organization who will be willing to take them, bottle feed them, and re-home them. It makes me sad, but we cannot intentionally allow these babies to contract the CAE as well. My concern is that she will deliver while I'm not there - and we don't know her breeding dates...only that it was "about two months ago". Sadly, we are not able to set up a MareStare thing for her...that would be helpful...but costs (not MareStare costs - but cameras, power, etc) are just out of the question right now. *Sigh* So many things to worry about. On a more positive note, she is really starting to put on weight....little by little...but it's starting to be noticable. She is an absolute joy to have around, and not the least bit of trouble. We already just love her so much. It's going to break my heart to take those babies from her & not be able to explain anything to her. Trimming her feet...well, I'm a work in progress on it. I have trimmed "several times" but have not taken all that much off. I'll keep working on it I'll take some more pictures of her this weekend - I took out her ear tag, so she doesn't look like "livestock" anymore. Anyone want a baby goat?
Oh...and here are some pictures from last Friday (Oct 30). She's such a sweet goat & we love her so much! And - mostly what we see:
Well at least she will be loved for the rest of her life I love goats we had on the farm when I was a kid, i loved feeding the babies it was fun they would run to the fence when they saw us with the bottles my mom used old glass pepsi bottles with these black slip on nipples it was funny but it was fun. I would take a baby but we live in town and my DH would shoot me. lol best wishes to you and I will keep my figures crossed that all goes well and if she is expecting you can get the babies away from her, our female goats did find if we hand raised the babies, I think she will do okay, do you know if she expecting I can't remember how long goats carry the kids I was 12 when we had the goats. good luck best wishes.
CAE isnt spread by casual contact so you dont need to get another positive doe unless you want to, its only been proven in real life to be from milk. I would keep any kids from her as the companions. Pull them before she can even LICK them clean. Bottlefeed yourself if you want, you can pasteuize her milk or use whole cows milk from the grocery store. Once she is dry, and kids weaned at 12 weeks they can all be together just fine.
If she is pregnant, you can tape the teats shortly before she delivers to prevent the kids from nursing. You can get teat tape from caprinesupply.com. You need to have some colostrum on hand to give the kids as soon as possible after they are born. Cow colostrum works well. If there is a dairy near you you might be able to talk them into giving you some. We keep some frozen in soft drink bottles for use when needed.