Bit of a scare!

[pookshollow]

I just went down to the mailbox (1/4 mile in the pouring rain - for a Home Depot flyer ), put the dog in the house, and went to hunt for eggs. I have a Nigerian doe who is very pregnant, so when I heard a funny "blaat" I thought I'd better go in and have a look at her - and turn off the lights that the danged milk goats keep flipping on!

Tiara, my Saanen doeling, is in heat today, so acting kind of goofy (only 5 months old - probably doesn't really know what she wants). I went and looked at Bronwyn, who is in the pen next to her, and Tiara was up on her hind legs, feet on the grille. Looked a little closer and realized that one leg was trapped between the grille and the supporting post!

I went into the stall and tried to slip her leg back up where the gap was wider but it was good and stuck. Fortunately the grille is made from hollow metal tubing, so I went and got a metal bar and was able to pry the tube away from her leg and get her un-stuck. She has a little bit of a raw rubbed spot but no other damage, thank goodness! Pretty stressed out, though, poor thing and breathing very rapidly.

I'll go back out soon and see if she's settling down - she seemed more worried by my presence, so I thought it best to leave her for a bit to calm down.

I hate to think what might have happened if I'd been away at work all day!

[vtfarma]

glad it turned out fine. They can scare the daylights out of us can't they. Pretty good heart starters.

[goatkid]

I'm so glad things turned out OK for Tiara. Reminds me of a few years ago when my Goat Flower was a young doe. I came home from work one evening to find she'd jumped over the gate and had gotten one of her hind legs caught. There she was with her rear end up and balancing on her front feet. I think the neighbors dog had gotten the pen and scared the goats because the rest of her pen mates were out of the pen. Her leg had been bleeding pretty good and started bleeding again when I cleaned it. I disinfected it and put a pressure bandage in it and gave her a shot of boimycin per the vet's directions. She healed fine and fortunately did not lose the doeling she was carrying. I made that fence and gate higher so that wouldn't happen again.

[enjoy the ride]

Well- I bet she's glad too that Mom was on hand to get her out of trouble. BTW, there is a light switch cover to keep children from switching off lights- kids count too I think.

[pookshollow]

I had a good look at her tonight when I fed everybody. She's a little sore on it, but there's no swelling or heat anywhere that I could detect, so I think she's just a little bruised. I cleaned it up with peroxide and sprayed blue spray on it, then took her into the feed room for a little treat. She got to meet Caz, the Nigie buck, through the bars. She seemed to like his snorting and yelling in her face - lots of tail waggling! But she's out of luck until next year.

I came home from work one evening to find she'd jumped over the gate and had gotten one of her hind legs caught.

That's scary - glad it healed up ok. I had a horse put his hind foot through a swinging stall grill. What a nasty mess that was. And this summer, when I brought my two young horses home, the gelding got over the chest bar and was hanging by his hind legs - while we were trying to cut the filly out of the page-wire fence that she'd flipped over backwards onto (lousy grammar - I know!). I had to leave him there until we'd gotten her extricated - she had one hoof caught up in the wire and was more or less hanging by it. They both came out of it (relatively) unscathed.

Critters!