Lupin Farm ~ Updated photos of the goat pen in progress

[lupinfarm]

April is home now. She's a little skittish because today she was taken away from her mom today and she's in a new place and also she's from more of a commercial herd (but one that is better about socializing their goats than most). I can catch her if I corner her, same with Mione. I'm really worried though. We decided not to build a pen for her because I was worried she'd panic and climb it or get stuck in it so I kept her in a crate, let the girls in, and then let her out into the shed. It was going okay for a few minutes until Cissy started beating her up. I know its just Cissy asserting her dominance as herd boss but it still does concern me. To make matters worse, I have to leave for about a week tonight to do some business for school.

Any suggestions on what to do to keep things safe? The girls (Cissy and Mione) will be going out during the day to the small pen while April will be getting socialized with us and when she is calm and comfortable having us handle her, she will go out with them too but she is a keen jumper and now I'm worried my pen for them won't be enough :/ Even with electric.

April after the girls cornered her on top of the hay feeder. Almost immediately after this I checked on them and Cissy and Mione were eating from the bottom of the feeder while April was eating from the top. Kinda cute.

Oh and what to do about her ears! Mione keeps trying to eat her ears, is there anything I can put on them to keep Mione OFF them?

 

[lorihadams]

Okay, that is quite possibly one of the cutest goat pics I've ever seen! She's pretty!

 

[lupinfarm]

Cissy does not like her much. Asserting her dominance and all that but after this photo was taken Mione and Cissy were eating hay from the bottom of the feeder and April was eating it from around her feet. Pretty cute, but I suspect she'll be spending the night up there.

 

[dragonlaurel]

She's adorable. I guess they have to get the dominance issues worked out. She seems good at getting out of their path at least. Enter that pic for the POW.

 

[lupinfarm]

Yeah. Mione is a pretty submissive goat. She does everything Cissy tells her to do and I think April's issue is that she is young and curious (though timid, she is from a commercial herd and thus was not handled as much as say a backyard herd would be, but no big deal with time she'll come around.) and she kinda pushes Cissy's boundaries just by being 12 weeks old and a baby, yanno? Cissy is like motherhen telling the chicks off.

To add insult to injury, I noticed a lump on Cissy's neck when holding her back from ramming April. I don't remember it being there this morning. We're calling the vet first thing so she can hopefully come out tomorrow and take a look at it/draw blood ect. We're kinda broke right now because my dad is a contract worker and his latest contract is over a week late in paying so we're going to have to see if the vet can put this on our account until mid-month (we have another appointment with another vet from the same practice that is coming to float Luna's teeth).

 

[TanksHill]

Shes an adorable goat. We used to put hot sauce on things we did not want our dog to chew.

What exactly does it mean to Float a Horses teeth?

gina

 

[lupinfarm]

Going to look for a job today!

 

[Henrietta23]

Good luck!

 

[lupinfarm]

I'm hoping I can find a job. I just need a part-time job to pay for my student loan. I was going to wait until August to start looking but I really need to pay off my credit card before I go to school Its not a lot, considering how big some debt can be but its too big for my comfort.

I spoke to my mum today and she is going to build a creep area for April to escape from Cissy and get a drink/food ect. We also have called the vet in for Wednesday to take a look at the lump on Cissy's neck. Hopefully she is negative for CL and so is Mione. If they are both negative we will be buying the Case-Bac vaccine to vaccinate them. I know it is used off-label for goats and that it is only something like 80% effective but that is 80% more than 0% and April has already been vaccinated with Case-Bac. If she is positive she will need to be either euthanized or rehomed to someone who has the space to keep her isolated. Its unfortunate and it makes me sad to think we may lose her but we absolutely cannot deal with CL here.

 

[lupinfarm]

As a side note, does anyone know if I can enter the US ... not on my Canadian passport? I have dual-citizenship Canadian-UK/EU and I haven't had a Canadian passport in a while but I have my English one up to date and all that and a Canadian birth certificate. I know UK residents come to Canada or the US and then go north or south cross-border.

I suspect I may have to call someone who deals with this stuff. I need to go cross-border and buy some supplies in the next few weeks.