Getting the flock out of here - a diary of a crazy chicken man

[Mims]

So sorry to hear the news. Poor Vincent, this will be rough on him.

 

[ozexpat]

Oh whew...  sorry about the ordeal on both ends of the pacific.   Sorry about Mozza.   Best way is to learn about it and move on.  Hugs to Vincent. 

deb

I agree.

I explained that to syrel. Inday also called him to reinforce that we do mot hold him responsible.

I am always philosophical at times like this. I would have sold mozza a long time ago if I was as cold as sometimes I appear.

We have a very small place. Way too small to really support a cow type animal. We are heading into a very rough dry season with el niño already killing of our grass. I was going to sell her but when she had a chance of finally breeding, we decided to give it a go. Even if we would have to support her then her off spring for another 4 years until see a cow that could produce any quality of milk. The idea of having Mozza's calf be our first milker was rather romantic.

We will lick our wounds and move on.

Let's just hope this little goat pulls through. She really had a rough first few days of life and is so tiny but she even sleeps with the boys.

Her demise would be tough right now.

 

[ozexpat]

On a positive note.

Normally I try and wean piglets on a day that best suits the timing of getting mamma pig pregnant with AI.

Pigs normally go into estrus 4 to 7 days following weaning. If given pg600 then it's normally 4 to 5 days.

As we can't get shipments of semen arriving Sunday or Monday, its a bit of a disaster for the pigs to cycle then.

In saying this, I normally wean between day 26 and 28 to give the piglets the most benefit from mamma milk. Some commercial operations pull piglets of their mums as early as day 14. Most do it on day 21.

We introduce a commercial pellet feed after a week. At 3 weeks we switch to our own recipe. Very young piglets can't process soy. Even though at day 21 they should have no problems, our weaner mix used fish meal as the protein base.

Due to ask the stuff going on, the boys missed transitioning.

As it turns out, our piglets are monsters. My prediction is we will be weaning some that are 22 pounds if we keep them on mamma til Sunday. On day 22 they were between 12 and 19 lbs!

We scrambled to get them to a 50/50 feed mix sand weaned last night. We shall arrange delivery of semen for Sat but will have to arrange for someone to really to the farm.

I decided to keep all 4 gilts as they are all fantastic specimens.

We just may have the foundation sows of our awesome line of landrace pigs

 

[Wisher1000]

I'm sad for you and your guys. I'm hoping the goat makes a full recovery.

How will Mozza be disposed of? Just curious.....

 

[chicapee]

Sorry for your loss OZ. Sad for the boys and your family.

 

[vehve]

Are you doing a necropsy? The better half thinks it might also have been some sort of sharp object that she had ingested, like a nail.

 

[perchie.girl]

Are you doing a necropsy? The better half thinks it might also have been some sort of sharp object that she had ingested, like a nail.

Problematic if Oz is in the US though.

deb

 

[ozexpat]

Are you doing a necropsy? The better half thinks it might also have been some sort of sharp object that she had ingested, like a nail.

No necropsy.

Nobody skilled enough to do it and the boys just need to get her buried and move on.

I am not a vet by any stretch of the imagination. I do pull from experiences with humans but also understand that there is a difference,

We are not equipped to deal with such emergencies, Sure I can make guestimates and perform differential diagnosis and over the years have done pretty well. Providing supportive measures for animals continues to be a challenge,

Distance is an issue. both the distance to non-stocked supplies as well as my distance from the farm.

Getting supplies is an issue, I have yet been able to buy a goat/lamb teat to put on a soda bottle. With many things I have to bring things from the US,

Maybe we could have saved mozza with IV or SC fluids - but where having to stock 3 or 4 cases of normal saline IV fluids is also impractical. She wiped out my antibiotic war chest due to her size as we were treating a 500kg water buffalo instead of a 4kg chicken

 

[bamadude]

Bummer Oz.
You always bounce back better than ever though

 

[frustratedearthmother]

So sorry to hear of the loss of Mozza. Hoping the goat will have a better outcome!