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Update on Trixie
Amber Waves Pygmy Goats Elastrator
Posted by Sherry on June 15, 2001 at 13:45:49:

Thanks so much for all the kind words I got from you when my Trixie passed away on Monday. I could only read a few at a time because of the tears. I still lose it and start crying from time to time and where else could I admit that but here?

Anyway, we sent her body to the state diagnostic lab and the diagnosis was pneumonia. She went down fast and with no coughing or snotty nose...her milk production had been going down for about a week. My does have been cycling in this weird weather and a CMT was negative. Even though she felt warm to me and wasn't eating on the stand I never thought to take her temp. Stupid, eh? She ate with the other girls until the day before she died. It never occured to me she had an infection of any sort. Talk about hard learned lessons.

So, now I've got more girls with temps (to include kids 4 mos. old and younger) and the only test the lab has gotten back so far says there was no bacteria grown in the culture. I don't know what that means but I don't like it. The really crappy thing is that I have a friend's herd here I have been babysitting as a favor. His family split up etc and he needed somewhere for the girls to be until he could get a new place. I was supposed to have them about 10 days...that was 5 weeks ago. One of his does died two weeks before Trixie but we didn't find her down until 30 minutes before she died. She was fine at supper and dead 4 hours later! Not much to go on there. We thought she'd had an allergic reaction to something or plant poisoning. In other words, we were guessing over the corpse. His goats will be gone tomorrow (my hospitality meter hit an all-time low) and my wonderful vet is doing all he can to see we don't lose any more before the test results come back but I'm getting really scared. It's Friday and if there aren't any results back soon it'll be Monday before we hear anything more.

I have never had any serious health problems before now and I'd been around this guy's herd many times so I felt it would be safe to have them here. He wasn't able to care for them for a few weeks and the person supposed to be feeding them wasn't. They were pitifully thin when I got them. Some of the kids had come from me and my heart broke when I saw them starved...especially when I saw them beside their sisters that I'd retained. What if I brought this thing in here? I will never forgive myself. I'll update you as soon as I know something.

And to all of you losing your babies...my heart goes out to you. Love them while they are here because they can go so suddenly. Try to be with them when they leave and if you can't then make sure they know they aren't leaving unloved. I still feel Trixie in the milk room. I just can't touch her anymore but I can go on loving her just the same and wherever she is, she knows it.


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