Why I check my animals several times a day

[Mama C]

When I have non farming family from out of town come to visit, they always have a chuckle because I spend so much time going back and forth to the barns. (about 5 times a day)

Well today is a perfect example of why.

Fed and watered everyone this morning and then off to town for the day to get some winter clothes for the kids and a quick trip to the feed store.
When I got home I went promptly to check my animals and could hear one of our goats calling, but she was not at the gate to greet me, very strange!

So I started looking for her, there she was, flat on her back with one leg caught between two saplings! By the look of things she had been trying to reach some leaves and the slipped between the two trees, they worked like a pincher and it looks like she had been there for quite a while. She was REALLY wedged in there so it took my son to pull on one of the trees while I worked out the leg ( all this with her sister eating my hair of course!) She had quite a time walking for about 10min but is fine now thank goodness.

So for all of you newbie farmers, dont worry about going to check your animals to much, this is just one example of why I always have.

Anyone else have a "thank goodness I checked" story?

[Kazahleenah]

Yep...

Years ago, I had my first homebred paint filly. She was (at that time) a yearling. We checked them, then headed to the house for dinner and then bed. For no apparent reason, I went to check her once more... had a feeling (?)... there she was completely upside down on her back in the cow's hay feeder.. (how she got in with the cows, we'll never know), all lathered up and barley breathing! We sawed the feeder apart, got her up on her feet while calling the vet. He came out, checked her and advised that we keep her walking ALL night... that was the night I started drinking coffee. Thank goodness I made that double check, and thank goodness she turned out OK.

Kaza

[Mama C]

First homebred filly, always a little extra special.

[ozark_jewels]

Yep, got several of them! Like the one where I walked out to my buck pen at lunchtime, something I never do, but I did it that day. I found my young Anatolian Shepherd whimpering as he literally drank his blood as it came spurting out of his foot at every heartbeat! He had cut a sizable blood vellel on something and there was blood pouring out of his foot. I firmly believe he would have bled to death if I hadn't just happened to check.
Or the day I was walking around the barnyard and saw my Little Red's(Boer doe) head sticking through a hole in the barn wall. She was barely breathing, dripping foam, and her neck was swollen up to twice its normal size from bruising. She had somehow managed to stick her head through a 5" gap in the barn wall and couldn't get it back out. She had to stand, if she fell or lay down she would choke to death. I don't know how long she had been there, but she was trembling and going to collapse. I actually had to pull the barn wall apart with a hammer to get her loose, then I just sat there and held her as she recuperated She was two weeks from due at that time and I thought she might lose the babies from the stress, but she kidded out with healthy twins!! If there is a predicament to get into, trust a goat to do it!!

Emily Dixon
Ozark Jewels
Boers, Nubians, Lamanchas and Alpines

[southrngardngal]

I had a young part nubian that we had to stake out. I checked on her several times a day to be sure she wasn't tangled in the chain. One day I went at lunch to check on her and she was so tangled that I had a really hard time getting her loose. When I did she couldn't walk. It was very hot and she couldn't get to her water. And it had only been an hour since I checked on her. Scared me half to death.

Then a few weeks later, I was sick and couldn't get out to the animals. Hubby fed all the animals and watered them before he left for school that morning. He left "Baby" in her pen. I never made it out to check on any of the animals that day because the fibromyalgia was so flared up that I couldn't walk. When hubby came home from school he went out immediately to check on all the animals. When he came back in he had a look on his face that said "trouble" I asked what was wrong and "Baby" had died. Broke my heart. Now it doesn't matter if I have to crawl to get to them, all the animals are checked on several times a day.

[full sun]

I can see mine out my bathroom window. So I can do a visual several times a day Well I only had my goats a month when I saw one of them in precarious position. The expression on her face was calm, which threw me a little, but I went out an checked on her and she was fixed to hang herself! I was sick last year, so my brother is used to helping me. He threw some hay on top of the manger with out unbundling it. Well poor Willow was hanging from the twine that bundles the hay. Her back feet were supported by a turned over bucket. But she was pretty much dangling there with her front legs waving in the air and her head in the noose. All she needed was for the bucket to slide out from underneath her. She did look cool as a cucumber, though. Learned my lesson!!

Jennifer

[ourfather]

We don't have goats but there's a goat farm, well used to be, close to our home.

We drove by and many, many times and the goats had gotten their heads stuck in this ric-rac sort of fence. They broke themselves out of it but had little necklaces of the wood. It happened at least 5 times one summer.

I think they finally switched to chickens though.

The people were out in Atlanta alot.

Kat

[moonspinner]

I had a dog that got her foreleg stuck between two trees as well. I had to make sure I lifted her entire body up to disengage the leg, otherwise I may have broken it. (It was a pretty scary maneuver!) But yes, I check my goats many times a day.

[redroving]

I can see my pastures from my dinette window so count my sheep to make sure they are all there and all right (usually can tell if one is stressed or missing). We used to lamb in winter but stopped that practice for two reasons. The first and foremost was to lamb along with the spring grasses and second, the ewes were so heavy with lambs that in the wet conditions of winter (Jan/Feb) they sometimes would literally lay down and somehow get rolled over on their backs and could not get up. I would look and see all four feet waving and run out and tip them back over. Sometimes I was in time and they would wobble a bit but get their legs back. But once it had been too long and she went into a Ketosis state and lost all muscle tone. We ended up wheelbarrowing her back to the barn but she then aborted and prolapsed and all was lost. We haven't had this problem since we switched to April/May lambing.

[titansrunfarm]

Depending on what pasture there in I can see the critters either from my kitchen window, my bedroom, 2 bathrooms or the computer room. The only place I can't see is the barn area. So I do this funny running from window to window and out of the door routine if I can't account for everyone a few times a day. When my family visits they think we are nuts, but I have gone out plenty of times and found a horse with a cut leg, a chicken missing, and once a goat with its head stuck under the bottom of the fence. The guys are high-maintenenace let me tell you, but we love it.

[debitaber]

I can see all of my goats out of every window on the east side of the house, and there atre about twelve. but I still go out to check, about 8 times a day. lat weekend, my little ini nubian was in heat, so the little pym gy goat buck,as well as the little nubie, had their heads in the same fens square ,when I went running, the pygmy ran out of the fence, now the nubi didn't she could get out but was afraid, so i went into the pen, and tried and tried to get her out, well, i was runnng screaming for dh to come, and turned around and she was rnning after me. she wanted to do it her way, but she isn't sticking her head through the fecne any more. I check on them all the time, and if I leave, i am really nervious about them while I am gone. the first thing I do is check on them when I get home, you just never know.