Why I hate winter
Wet snow sitting on the sumac trees
Fitting after my last post right? All those beautiful pictures of one of our trails I took yesterday morning. The snow kept coming all day and all night and buried us with over a foot of heavy wet snow and high winds. We lost power finally, at 3 in the morning. We laid in bed, Kevin worried about plowing, both of us worried about the barn roof.... talking about how we had everything we needed if we couldn't get out for a while, or lost power. No big deal. But of course, we have animals. And every time there is a bad storm, holiday, or one of us is sick, there is always a crisis. Sometimes a major one, sometimes a minor one, but almost always it calls for us to have to get out.
Sammy has been doing wonderful, yesterday his best day yet. His cough has not been good, but his discharge has been steadily decreasing. This morning, he was quiet, sad, tired, not interested in food or playing with the dogs. We know now that he did not get any or enough colostrum. The guy he came from assured us he did, but we've seen all this before and the Vet's agree it seems his immune system is not able to fight anything off and that would be the cause. Since he has no temperature, and no congestion in his lungs, it seems like this is a common cold, which goats can get. But normally to a healthy goat, just like to a healthy person, a cold is not a huge deal. But Sammy is having a hard time fighting it. He hates the electrolytes so we got him some flavored Gatorade, some Vics vapor rub to help with his cough. We also got wormer to cover any parasites he might have, and lung worm, just in case.
I've also been giving him the dairyman's choice vitamin enzyme paste that helped saved Braveheart, our blind ram's life. Braveheart also did not get any colostrum. All the Vets said he would die - except for one, our best farm Vet said, you can try....etc...etc. and we did, we tried a dozen things. It took 4 months before he was healthy and not dealing with infections. He almost died several times. He got several serious infections and fevers, one of which caused him to lose his sight, but that is the only damage he has today and he's not 3 years old and over 200 pounds. This paste helped him a lot, so maybe it will help Sammy as well. We'll try everything we can. When a baby does not get colostrum at birth, it is pretty much a death sentence but not always. We've had success and few people have. We had no idea when we were trying to save Braveheart just how much of a miracle he was, especially with the serious infections he dealt with.
The mix of snow and rain is suppose to stick around for a while. Everything is just heavy wet slush, typical March weather but a little early. We are trying to figure out if this means March is coming in like a lion or a lamb? I'm sure the sap is running really well right now but it's not an easy task getting out in the bush. So we'll see if this stuff decides to stick around or if it's just passing through.
Fitting after my last post right? All those beautiful pictures of one of our trails I took yesterday morning. The snow kept coming all day and all night and buried us with over a foot of heavy wet snow and high winds. We lost power finally, at 3 in the morning. We laid in bed, Kevin worried about plowing, both of us worried about the barn roof.... talking about how we had everything we needed if we couldn't get out for a while, or lost power. No big deal. But of course, we have animals. And every time there is a bad storm, holiday, or one of us is sick, there is always a crisis. Sometimes a major one, sometimes a minor one, but almost always it calls for us to have to get out.
Sammy has been doing wonderful, yesterday his best day yet. His cough has not been good, but his discharge has been steadily decreasing. This morning, he was quiet, sad, tired, not interested in food or playing with the dogs. We know now that he did not get any or enough colostrum. The guy he came from assured us he did, but we've seen all this before and the Vet's agree it seems his immune system is not able to fight anything off and that would be the cause. Since he has no temperature, and no congestion in his lungs, it seems like this is a common cold, which goats can get. But normally to a healthy goat, just like to a healthy person, a cold is not a huge deal. But Sammy is having a hard time fighting it. He hates the electrolytes so we got him some flavored Gatorade, some Vics vapor rub to help with his cough. We also got wormer to cover any parasites he might have, and lung worm, just in case.
I've also been giving him the dairyman's choice vitamin enzyme paste that helped saved Braveheart, our blind ram's life. Braveheart also did not get any colostrum. All the Vets said he would die - except for one, our best farm Vet said, you can try....etc...etc. and we did, we tried a dozen things. It took 4 months before he was healthy and not dealing with infections. He almost died several times. He got several serious infections and fevers, one of which caused him to lose his sight, but that is the only damage he has today and he's not 3 years old and over 200 pounds. This paste helped him a lot, so maybe it will help Sammy as well. We'll try everything we can. When a baby does not get colostrum at birth, it is pretty much a death sentence but not always. We've had success and few people have. We had no idea when we were trying to save Braveheart just how much of a miracle he was, especially with the serious infections he dealt with.
The mix of snow and rain is suppose to stick around for a while. Everything is just heavy wet slush, typical March weather but a little early. We are trying to figure out if this means March is coming in like a lion or a lamb? I'm sure the sap is running really well right now but it's not an easy task getting out in the bush. So we'll see if this stuff decides to stick around or if it's just passing through.
