Quick update....this weekend was little g's birthday party so we're busy in clean up mode. Party was great and he had one friend sleep over.
No chicks. I helped one hatch Friday night; it was already shrink wrapped where it had pipped so I peeled the membrane off the chick so it could get out of the shell. It died overnight, though.
Saturday I had big G toss out all the eggs...I swear I set them on Tuesday Feb 15th which would have made Tuesday the 8th hatch day.
I'm going to invest in a nice thermometer that also measures humidity. I think that played a major problem, but have no way of really knowing. I'll set more eggs soon and give it another go, but I was really hoping to have some fuzzies around...
We're almost to D-day with the disbudding on Fudgie's two girls. Rocky, the brown eared doeling, has knocked off one of the caps. No mess at all - just a little dried blood. It looks good except I noticed there's still a little raised bump in the middle. Who knows if that's a horn bud or not. Gosh, I hate not knowing if I did it right or not.
I have to get Opi's little buckling done ASAP. There's two people who are interested in the kids, well, actually three but one of them is my friend and they aren't really sold on the idea of goats so I'm not pushing them.....to hard anyway. The doeling's buds have yet to appear but the buckling was born with buds and they've just about broken through the skin.
Problem is that his head is so tiny I'm afraid the X30 I use is too big for his head. I know they make irons with "pygmy" tips but I've also read those are worthless and you should just use the regular standard tip. I held the iron up to the bud this past weekend and it looks like if I were to burn each bud the rings would pretty much touch in the middle! I think I'm going to call our local large animal vet and ask if they do it. If they disbud I'll see if I can bring him in along with my iron and either have them use mine (if they say it's a good idea) or just let them do it for me. Since I'm not keeping him I really don't want to botch it up.
sorry about the eggs - we've pipped chicks out.. but its a dicey business. we havent had a ton of success with our incubator
:-(
so i gotta scoot but i'll quickly tell you about Dahlia....
the neighbors came over and brought their iron and a box to put her in (built for the purpose)... it.
once they put her in the box (to restrain her completely).. it took just a few mins. no screaming, no one cried, and the husband looked and said "ok thats copper we're done"
and that was it.
she didnt even cry. then we gave her a little squirt of blukote and voila.
she panted for a few mins while i was holding her, then gave a big sigh, then we put her down and she ran to momma. that was it.
yesterday i noticed that there was A LITTLE blood - not oozing, but more like a wound...but then later it was covered again.
so i dunno - maybe we just got lucky.
i'm NOT going to post on my blog - but i'll snap some pix. i dont want the Good Neighbors to be accused of whatever if our stupid Ohio animal laws go into affect.
but for Nibbles' babies we'll buy a smaller tip for their iron and use it. i totally think we can do it.
Glenolam, the Nigy person who disbudded my goats said she feels the attachment tip for the X-30 for the "smaller" goats was too small even for Pygmys.
She said she had it and tossed it, that is how useful it was to her and she has full NDs.
I know I've heard 1800 times that the pygmy tip sucks for pygmies but holy moly...the x30 tip really looks huge compared to his head. It's gotta get done, though. Guess I'll just see how much the vet wants (I've never used them) and go from there.
Boy that sounds like a pickle. Not sure what I'd do.
One of the buds on my buckling looks awful. He keeps knocking the scab off because he plays rough. Then it bleeds and oozes, scabs over again and repeat. It is so gross. I'm watching for infection. And I think the horn is growing back, darnit :/ Huge white bump growing. The breeder did his horns so I know it was done right, but it might have been a couple days too late.
The girls all look good now. Scabs are peeling off to leave a clean flesh colored circle.