Poor Kevin!

Poor Kevin!

He loves a good scratch between the horns. But horns, argh... I noticed some blood on his rear leg yesterday, so the vet came today to take a look at what I thought  was a small boo-boo up near his scrotum (or the remains thereof - he was neutered in December!) Turns out he has a nasty gash about 4" long, courtesy of (no doubt) Geoff's horn (that's Geoff behind him in this picture.) He was being very stoic and I didn't realize there was a serious issue! The wound is deep, but fortunately the gash stopped a centimetre or two shy of the muscle layer.

So the vet scrubbed the wound clean (which I will be doing twice a day with Chlorhexidine) and gave Kevin a shot of Metacam for pain relief and a shot of some strong antibiotics. If things aren't better by the end of a week, the vet will come back. I also have to make sure everything is very dry after cleaning, so that Kevin doesn't get frostbite outside. Poor Kevin! He's really a very sweet goat, impressive for a buck (well, technically he's a wether now.) He's quite affectionate, easy to lead on a rope, and a very nice boy. He was so good for the vet. Here's hoping he heals up well with no complications!

I mentioned to the vet that Henry the pig needed another hoof trim (his hooves were terribly overgrown when he came and we are working them back.) It was done with sedation last time but the vet has done pot-bellied pigs before and figured we could do this. So we somehow managed to catch Henry (who is big and VERY STRONG!) and I held him sort of in my lap as he screamed non-stop in my ear while the vet gave him a pedicure! For the record, pigs scream when restrained. It's just what they do. Perhaps some pampered house-pet pigs learn not to scream, but I have ten screamers! It's a joy on vaccination day! ;)

As soon as we let go of Henry, he stopped screaming and was perfectly calm, and his hooves are looking better too.

And here is Annabelle looking adorable, as she does...

And this morning's goat-kid video!

I suddenly now have FOUR people helping me with barn chores and they are all amazing! I have really lucked out with this crew, especially since they keep telling me they'd do it for free (but of course we pay them.) After the goat kids arrived and I was bottle-feeding three times a day, I realized how exhausted I was and asked for help. And I hadn't realized how much time we spent on barn chores until other people started doing them! I am hoping to use the time I no longer spend scrubbing buckets and shovelling manure to do some art. I have not worked on a real art project in ages, although I do write a poem a week for my poetry course, and am working on other writing. But I am itching to do some drawings of the goats, and maybe now I will have some time. I feel really fortunate that I have found such great people to help out. They all love animals and are so kind to ours! This is freeing up a good four hours a day of our time, PLUS one of them is working with Finney to break him to ride, which is so much fun.

Please think good thoughts for  Kevin, and for Alex the cat who had half his thyroid removed last week (no pathology results yet!) Truly there is never a dull moment around here, but I would not trade it for anything.