Went to the Vet, Made Some Soap

I apologize for the last title.  It was coarse, but wow, did I feel sick after seeing that show.  Unbelievable.
This title is much nicer and more straight-forward, don't you think?

This morning, I took Minerva to the vet.  I got up at my normal time, to do my normal 400 chores, and when I went to let my girls out to their pen, Minerva did not want to go.  So I rattled the grain, like I do, and then she usually comes running like a shot.  Not today.  She stood there and looked at me and did not move.  That's not good.

So I put the grain under her nose, because she LOVES her grain.  No dice. 

Then I got the goat treats out, which no one can resist, and Lilly was very glad to eat hers--and Minerva's, because Min did not want any.

Oh boy.

Now, I'm no goat expert, and the learning curve for these ladies has been unbelievably steep, but I know one or two things, and one of the things I know is that a goat who won't eat is a goat who's not well.  I looked her over, but hell, I had just no idea.  She seemed a little distended in her abdomen, and I know she's been fighting a cold, but I had no idea which issue was the one causing her not to eat.  Was it bloat?  Was it upper respiratory?  She wasn't talking. 

I gave her a bit of ProBios, and took her temp.  No temp, and she sorta took the ProBios, but the biggest worry for me?  When I fed Dulci, she did not try to steal the bottle.  Min loves the bottle.  Min is a big baby.  But today, Min was not interested.   That is bad.

Luckily we have a large animal vet near-ish by.  They keep large animal hours, so when I called, they were there.  Yeay!  I drove Min on down, and the vet looked her over and listened to her lungs and her rumen, and said her lungs were clear, and her rumen was moving, but slowly.  So what's wrong?  Hard to say.  The vet thought it probably had to do with the upper respiratory infection, so she gave her some Baytril.  She was also kind enough to draw me a syringe for Lilly, because if one girl has something, the other does too.

Happily, while we were at the vet, Min pooed a bunch of times and peed a river, so I know she's not stuck.  She also burped a little, so things seemed to be moving along a bit.  Right now, Min is laying with Lilly in the pen--that's pretty normal for them, and considering that it's 45 degrees outside, staying warm is nice.  She has eaten some dry leaves (which she really likes for some reason) today, and I'm pretty sure I've seen her chewing her cud.  When I went out before, her stomach was less distended than before.  I tried to give her some Pepto-Bismol (at the vet's recommendation), but she wasn't loving it.  Goats are very hard to force to do something if they don't want to, did you know that?  I do now.  I think I got about 1/2 the dose in her before calling it quits.  She is still sneezing, but I haven't heard her cough again, and that's good.  Lilly's dose of Baytril is waiting on the counter until my able-bodied assistant (my husband) comes home.  I am hoping that this is going to knock out whatever they've been entertaining in there once and for all.

But do I know what's wrong? No.  I don't even know if she's any better.  I am pretty stressed out about it, because she's my girl.  I am checking on her way more than I should.

What did I learn from this?  Well, I learned that there's a good large animal vet exactly where I thought there was a good large animal vet, and that's very good, because now I know where to go.  I also learned that my girls are very important to me.  Very few animals get a trip to the vet when they're sick.  Ginger is the only other one.  Everyone else gets a home fixin' up, and that's that.  Min's my girl, though, so she gets to go if she has to go.  I also learned that I must know more than I think I know about goats because the vet said I was "well educated".  That's nice, but man, do I still feel stupid.  If anyone who owns goats can recommend a good book, I would appreciate it.  I have How to Raise Goats by Carol Amundson and How to Raise Dairy Goats by Martha Maeda.  They're both good, but not enough. I've read the Storey books, but I didn't feel they gave enough information.   I also have  a veterinary guide, but it turned out to be less than useless.  Any suggestions you can give would be huge.  Thanks!

On the lighter side, I made more soap.  When I went about soapmaking the last time, I made everyone soap except for me.  So I remedied that yesterday, and today was the big reveal.

The color is like a russet-rose, with a natural tone on the bottom.  The scent is English Rose, or something like that.   The kitchen smells really nice right now, I can tell you that.  My issue with this batch is that the natural color went to thick trace much more quickly than I expected, so I couldn't swirl the pink in as much as I would have liked.  Ah well, live and learn.  It's only for me, so it's just fine.  At least it smells good.

Six weeks until I can use it.  I'm looking forward to it.

To give myself something else to do yesterday, I popped out a few "cheater" soaps,

ie; melt and pour.  Cheater soap is instant gratification: melt, scent, color, mold, done.  Fun stuff.  The top two are for my mom, to thank her for the molds.  The bottom batch I did so I have soap until the stuff I made is ready to use (there were more of them, I just didn't think you needed to see them all--did you?).  I also hand-poured a candle for a giveaway I'm sponsoring next month.  Vanilla Black Raspberry-yum!

Well, that's all the news that's fit to print.  I need to go out and brave the arctic and feed Dulcinea.  Hopefully I will have to fend off Minerva, too.  I've got my fingers crossed.

'Till then,