So, Geordi, the goat kid born Dec. 12th is not doing very well this morning.
I separate him and Mama goat Gabrielle during the day so I can milk Gabby in the afternoon, then they can cuddles all night.
This morning I separated them as usual and Geordi decided to try to get to his mama by getting a running start and trying to fling himself over the goat pen fence. He had been escaping by scaling the gate, but we fixed that, so he chose the fence.
Unfortunately, he caught his rear leg in the fence and as I came around the side of the house to go feed the chickens he was dangling by that one leg. I ran over to get him dislodged, but it was obvious that his rear leg was badly broken. I got him down and put him back in the pen on a soft bed of hay.
Now, I have a decision to make.
I put a make shift splint on his little leg, but I doubt it will be effective due to the severity of the break. Calling a vet is really not justified. The expense would be well over what the little goat is worth. I could go ahead and slaughter him and butcher him out and have him neatly wrapped up in freezer packages by the time the fella gets home from work. However, a friend has said she wants to buy him and is constructing a goat pen on her property...but will she want a limping buck goat (best case scenario if the splint holds)? I could take a *wait and see* route and discuss it with the fella and the friend that wants to buy Geordi this evening. But, I am concerned that Geordi won't last until this evening if the shock and stress and pain are too much.
But if the kid is in shock and pain, what effect will that have on the meat, if I do butcher him out?
I am going to go check him again and see how he is doing...crossing my fingers and toes...
Oh no... We just had a similar thing with one of our ewe lambs (momma stepped on her), but it ended up being a greensplint fracture (I got lucky, our vet only charged us $39 to determine if it was heal-able). I hope by splinting it and keeping him warm it will help. We had a friend who's goat did something similar to Geordi, actually such a bad break the bone was sticking out the skin. They gave her pain meds, antibiotics, a splint, kept her quiet and today, tho she has a slight limp, she still produces twins every year. Keeping my fingers crossed for you.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry Hun. The best I can tell you is that coming from a long line of farmers they wouldn't hesitate to put it down. I'm not sure about the meat, but there's no question they would have used it. Just the way it is.
ReplyDeleteI put Mama Gabrielle goat back in the pen with Geordi, so he can have some comfort from her. I put a make shift splint on his leg as well in the hopes it may relieve his pain a bit. I have to wait until the fella is home before we can make a decision on Geordi's fate, as he has the friends number and I don't.
ReplyDeleteThe friend wanting to keep the little buck is a complication to the situation.
ReplyDeleteIf it was a doe I would splint it and keep her immobilized in a very small pen or box and bottle feed her until the leg healed .... a buck just is not worth that trouble. In my limited experience a distressed animal can make for tough or bad tasting meat but the french had a medieval practice of torturing critters to death because they thought it tasted better... so your mileage may vary.
; )
Crabby
Well, Geordi is doing okay...just ...*okay*. We put a splint on him and it'll be removed in three weeks and we'll see how he is doing.
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