Buster broke his leg. :(

[lgslgs]

One of our wethers broke his leg. He was standing up to grab leaves off a tree and must have slipped. We found him on his back, leg stuck in the tree.

He's been to our local vet and then up to the university clinic (90 minute drive) today. It looks like the break should heal fine and he's got a spiffy new cast on. He's in the laundry room adjoining the kitchen tonight. We've got a dog gate on the door so he can see us when we're in the kitchen and dining room and hear us when we are in the living room.

Things are looking good now, but I'm sort of reaching total basket case stage. The poor little guy is accepting things as goats do. But yeesh - I feel worse for him than he's feeling for himself.

Buster is our super polka dotted black Nubian some of you may have seen photos of before. All of the folks at the vet thought he was cute.

Not much else to say. I'm really worried about Buster even though he's doing fine. I know the tough goats times are part of the deal just like the happy goat times are. Too bad we can't all just have the happy times. It's nice to know there's other goat folks out there that understand all of this.

Lynda

[Nancy_in_GA]

Poor Buster. How long does he have to wear the cast?

I bet he will be very spoiled after this is over.

Nancy

[pookshollow]

Poor Buster! I know exactly what you're feeling, my little Emily broke her leg last Monday. I felt absolutely terrible!

Now, I'm having a hard time keeping her in the pen - I didn't make the door quite high enough, and when I move the piece of plywood that's blocking it, she's up and over, like a little show-jumper!

Buster will be just fine and totally spoiled rotten by the time it's all over - ask me how I know

[Jim S.]

Buster is very lucky he's on your place. He'd have been in the freezer on mine.

[PETSNEGGS]

so sorry to hear about Buster, I'm sure he will do well, as in anything it is always us that has the harder time. I'm sure he is lovin the extra attention, tee hee hee

[lgslgs]

Buster will probably be in the cast for about 6 weeks.

So far he's been a very good house guest. Pretty much house broken (or we've been very lucky so far.) This afternoon we're going to rig up an outdoor run on the porch for him. I think we'll be headed toward a lot of indoor time with chunks of outdoor kennel time. That way we can cut him green browse to eat outside, let him pee an poop out there, and give him fresh air time during the least buggy times of day. That will also let him have some safe social time with the rest of the herd safely on the other side of the fence.

Buster was originally a bottle baby raised by a little old lady. His first few months were spent in her house and he shared a basket/bed with a little dog. When he was 3 months old the old lady was so attached to him that she jumped at the chance to give him a lifetime home here with us as part of our landscaping crew. It took a bit of work to transition him over to herd life instead of being a house goat, but he settled into goat life well.

His prior house training is probably working in our favor right now. I slept on the floor of the living room last night - out of sight of him, but close enough that if he got restless I could let him know that "herd" was still close. We're lucky that we both work at home so there's two of us to play nursemaid.

The good side of all of this is that we learned more about the university large animal clinic and know there's always 24/7 vet care available 90 minutes away - and at reasonable cost. And as much as this added work with Buster will be a bit of a strain on us, it will be good for his immune system to have plenty of totally bug free house time available to him. He had deerworm last year and is still rebuilding muscle mass and vigor, and still has some lymph node swelling. Being able to keep the little biting gnats off of him during the peak insect season won't hurt him a bit.

And I should be over the worst of the emotional turmoil in another day or so as well. I'm such a wuss about this kind of stuff - thank goodness I don't have human kids and their various owies to deal with!

Thank you all for cheering me up. Wishing you all good herd health.

Lynda

[MullersLaneFarm]

One of our yearling does broke one of her hind legs this spring. Just so happened on the morning that the vet came and preg checked our jersey. He put a splint on it, we removed it after 6 weeks. She's not 'good as new' but it doesn't bother her a bit.

[Idahoe]

My four month old LaMancha doeling somehow snapped her front leg above the "ankle" on the fourth of July. Just looking at it made me want to throw up. I had some casting material and the silly thing is still on good. She's gimping around very well, too. Thank God they are so resilient! They can't think "Why ME???" like we do .

My doeling gets an extra bottle a day for added calcium, so I hope she doesn't get any ideas and break another leg when I take this cast off in August.