Sunday, March 30, 2008

Buster

Abby's cart goat (Buster) escaped his pen Friday afternoon. Saturday morning he was throwing up green plant material. The only thing green around here right now is mountain laurel which is extremely toxic to goats. Abby is devastated.

She has spent 2 years training this goat to pull the cart her grandfather made 50 years ago. Last year Buster finally "got it" and was winning blue ribbons at every fair.

I have done every possible thing I can think of. He is currently still on his feet, still throwing up. The fact that he is still on his feet is a good sign. Throwing up can be good or bad; good: he is getting every bit of the plant out of his system; bad: he still has toxins in his system. Goats have this nasty habit of looking improved just before they die.

We have dosed him with charcoal, C & D antitoxin, Banamine, Milk of magnesia, Rennet, black tea with vegetable oil, ginger, and baking soda. I am out of ideas...

The only mountain laurel we could find was off in the woods, so he must have gone into the woods before coming back into the yard where we noticed him outside of his pen. Sam took a chainsaw to the shrub.

2 comments:

Phyllis said...

Oh man....I'll keep Abby and Buster in my thoughts today. I hope Buster surprises everyone and recovers 100%!!

Anonymous said...

Don't forget the probiotics to restart the rumen. Good luck.

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