TheEasyGarden - Gardening Forum

Two weeks ago one of the goats got severly injured. We aren't sure exactly what happened since no one was there when it did.  I went to milk on Tuesday as normal,and saw puddles of blood on the ground.  Thought maybe Shadow was in labor, but it was too early. Or that a preditor got in and injured one of the goats. Checked the goats, everyone was ok, except Shadow, she was lying down with blood on her leg.

At first I didn't see any injury to her, and figured she was in premature labor and there must be a problem.  Then she stood up..and I saw a gaping 4 inch split in the skin of her udder just above the teat!  Yikes!!  It was no longer bleeding much.  But looked awful.

A bit later I found a broken mesquite branch, with blood and hair on it. Only thing we can figure is she got "implaled" on the broken branch. OUCH!! 

The next day, she went into labor, over a 24 hour period, delivered 3 still born kids. They must have died soon after the trauma.
She appeared to be feeling better after the birthing. Was eating and drinking, but didn't get up much.  We kept her warm and comfortable as best we could. The temperatures were in the teens at night here. We rigged up a heat lamp in the milking shed. It became the ICU.

But, Shadow passed away last Sat. night. Very peacfully in her sleep.
  She knew she was a very loved goat!

Here she is while in labor. The kids were all stillborn.




On Saturday, she was basking in the sun for a bit.
Countess came to see how she was doing.



She never lost her interest in food!



Under the heat lamp with her young friend.