Month: July 2018

Our little Jessica, one of the twin goat girls almost died the other night.  Oy Vey!  How distressing.  She ate some poisonous weed, we think deadly nightshade.  I got home from a ride and saw her in the stall with green slimy foam around her mouth.  She was clearly in pain, grinding her jaw and bleating plaintively.  Her ability to stand was wobbly.  We got advice to give her activated charcoal from Danny Botkin, the man we got the goats from.  Zoe was on her way home from his farm and stopped to get some.  In the meantime, I also called Rachel from Little White Goat Dairy.   I have gotten pasture maintenance advice from her husband, Bruce, in the past.  Rachel insisted on coming right over, bringing activated charcoal gel, syringes, milk of magnesian and goat electrolyte powder.  She drove all the way to Orange at the drop of a hat and then examined Jessica.  She had gotten worse.  We learned how to squirt the charcoal, milk of magnesia and electrolyte water down the left side of her mouth so it was less likely to go into her bronchial tubes.  The charcoal is meant to absorb the poison.  Milk of magnesia helps coat the stomach and push the poison through.  Zoe and I then drove to the Tractor Supply in Greenfield to buy our own supplies for her.  When we got home she was worse.  She could not stand up and was looking very out of it. Continue reading “Little Jessica”