Goats Are Driving Me Crazy!

[sheepdog 10]

I really thought once the kids were safely on the ground and a few weeks old, things would lighten up for us here work wise anyway just a little, but boy was I wrong. Our pastures didn't look real bad, still had plenty of grass, but a few weeks ago the goats started loosing weight and we lost several kids and even a couple of the adults. The rainy season we have had this year has definatly promoted the life cycles of internal parasites that plague goats and other livestock. We got them all wormed and moved next door, which was really grown up as nothing had been on it yet this year. Since it was so grown up, it was about impossible to do a very good job of checking the fence before we moved them. But they sure checked it out, and now I have goats scattered everywhere. We have been rounding up a few here and there, brought in a big bunch last night, but still have quite a few down in the woods behind the house, and they don't drive well and there is really no place to bring them back threw to where they are supposed to be. The group we got in last night had gone completely around the place, and were happily munching along the highway medium. Fortunatly, it's along the road where there is a steep hill and they weren't anywhere near the actual traffic. And it's a straight shot up the hill and threw the front gate back to the house, although a lot of damage to my flowers and plantings were a big risk, fortunatly we got them past most of my stuff without a whole lot of damage. Of course, we were just coming home from a quickie cool off down at the creek near the house, and it was still bloody hot, and running threw all the weeds and briars got me all heated up and itching again. And what's really got me bummed is I lost my favorite doe kid day before yesterday. She and her mom have been hanging out in the woods right behind the house. Her mom was an older doe and had been having some problems, and I figured she was about to dry up on her milk, so we had been supplementing the kid with a bottle. The kid was one of the smartest goats I had ever seen. We had made jokes about how she would end up sitting on the couch with us watching Tv at the rate she was going. She knew when it was chore time when they were still over here and would leave her momma (something that kids normally just don't do) and come to the barn for her bottle. One day when we were running a bit late she came threw the fence and was half way to the house looking for us. When I went to feed her I could see her momma but didn't see her. I called and started looking around, and suddenly she just appeared, I guess she had been laying just behind a tree where I couldn't see her. She took just a couple quick sucks on her bottle then started to cough. She spit out the bottle and coughed a little, then tried to suck again, then started to walk forward and just fell down. By the time we lifted her over the fence she was dead. I couldn't believe she was up walking around then fell down dead in what could of been no more than a minutes time. Just made me sick. She was so cute. She was one of the few kids we had actually named, had been calling her Baby 5. (Her mother was one we bought that had an eartag, number 5) She actually knew the name and would come running when we called for her. So, I still have goats to round up, it's hotter then the hubs of hell, and it's just really been a bad week.