Doctor Bob Does House Calls

My favorite horse vet came today. He is gracious enough to take on my goat girls as patients on a limited basis. I have access to other vets in this area if he feels he is out of his element. I love my vet and his vet-tech fiancé.

Pepper and Ginger will be fine. Temps were a little elevated and both had a bit of respiratory stuff going on in addition to Pepper’s goopy eyes. Lucky me I get to give subcutaneous injections of an antibiotic once a day for the next week. They were both really good about the shots this afternoon, so I hope that continues when I am solo.

My vet hasn’t worked on goats in a long time, but he welcomes the challenge. I love him. Have I said that before?

Julie used to work on a goat farm and knew quite a bit about them. Ginger is definitely a Boer or Boer cross (primarily meat goats). She thought that Pepper is probably a Nubian or Nubian cross (which will please Paddock Boy). They are both less than 6 months old. They both agreed with me that they are on the malnourished side. Although, their bellies are quite pudgy now. I probably will have to do another round of worming (possibly a 5 day course of SafeGuard just like we do for horses). There is a condition that if untreated can kill a goat in less than 48 hours once symptoms are noticed. It’s related to worm infestations of 3 varieties all at once. Fairly common in the Midwest I guess. Not the same as bloat, which is also a great concern when radically switching diets. I didn’t have fecal analysis tests done, but may in the future. I want to get them healthier first.

From this:

to this:

in one week.

I was so pleased with the goaties today. The work with them in the past few days made the vet visit go really well. Of course, I did resort to hand-feeding and now they are super pushy, but I figure it’s a small price to pay with little goats. :) They’ll get bigger, but not as big as the horses.