Bad Day for Bert

Bert of Bert & Ernie, a set of wethers, is having a pretty bad year.

In Aug of 2007 he got a deadly parasite, p. tenuis or meningeal worm. The worm literally eats the animal's nerves on its way to invading the spinal column. White tailed deer carry it and then snails and slugs pick it up from deer droppings. The goats, sheep, and alpaca pick it up when they graze wet fields where the deer have been.

So, last year poor Bert got it badly enough that he was dragging both hind legs. We treated him for 5 days and he recovered - mostly. His hind quarters were always a little slower than he expected, but he managed.

This Spring he got one hind leg caught in between the horns of one of the other goats, a common occurance. It broke just below the ankle. The vets splinted it and we waited, hoping it would heal. After about 5 weeks we took the splint off, thinking it had healed well enough.

But. Apparently it had not.

I went out to the field to check on the animals last Wed and they all came over to see me. They knew I was moving fencing and fresh pasture was on their menu for the day. Everybody quietly followed me as I worked, except Bert. He stood off alone and bawled for me. So, when I was finished moving the fencing and the animals were eating, I went to see what was up with Bert.

He was limping. One of his hind legs was sore, and he smelled awful. I got a lead and took him to the barn. Gary helped by holding him and I took a look at the leg. It was clearly broken, with protruding bone, and full of puss. It looked to me like Bert might be aggravating things by dripping urine onto the wound from his heavy fleece. So, we hoisted him onto a platform and I removed all the dirty fleece around his "pizzer." I noticed it was quite sore and the skin was inflamed. I started to have a very bad feeling about poor Bert.

Antibiotics were the next thing I did. The infected leg, the skin inflamation, bad news for sure. We gave him some hay and some water, shut the light and went in to email the vet. Dr. McArt didn't think it sounded very good, and agreed to visit on Thursday.

When she called me at work, she was grim. Bert's leg could not be repaired, and he was in a lot of pain. We started to make arrangements for putting him down and digging a hole here in the stony ground of Ithaca. Then one of the vet students, Sean, remembered an alpaca cria that had it's foot amputated. It sounds weird, but I was so happy at that thought. Let's just take Bert's foot off.

So we did. Gary and I sheared Bert Thursday night, and the vets came back on Friday. They did the surgery on a table in the yard, under the butternut tree (which kept dropping butternuts onto the sterile table!) while our little flock of ducks kept wandering past. It was quite a festive atmosphere.

The surgery actually went very well. Bert didn't lose much blood and had lots of loose skin to sew over the end of his leg bone to make a stump. He's done very well since, and is clearly feeling better. Before the surgery he was so placid, as though he didn't care what we did to him. Now he's eating well and noticing his surroundings and resisting our ministrations a little.

Phew. I hate losing an animal, but Bert is a fiber superstar, so that would have been extra sad.

He took the first bandage off almost immediately, so I had to get one of those plastic collars that keep dogs from scratching. It worked pretty well!

Tomorrow the vets come back to give rabies vaccines and they'll check Bert's wound. I'm very optimistic. Hopefully that's his last challenge for a while.

More wonderful stuff

Today's my birthday! Yay. That's part of the reason for feeling so fortunate. After moving the goats, visiting the Cornell sheep barn, and stacking the hay, I was treated to a surprise birthday barbecue! I was gifted with season tickets to the Cornell men's basketball games. What a great idea. Last year they played so well that they made the NCAA March Madness tournament for the first time in 20 years. And I looove to holler and jump and root for my team.

What a great weekend...

It's a wonderful life.

I feel blessed today. Most days I feel blessed, but some days I'm really aware of how incredibly lucky I am.

Yesterday was such fun! I rose early - like a good farmer - to let the animals out of the barnyard and back out in the pastures. Sometimes that's a crazy scene with goats heading off in the wrong direction and alpacas that don't feel like following - but it was a perfectly gorgeous morning, and the animals were very cooperative. I shook a bucket of grain, and they followed me right into the field. Fence closed. One job done.

After breakfast I raced over to Dryden for a workshop at the Sheep Barn run by Cornell University. They have a system for winter pasturing that I really want to try. Brian Magee, who also shears the goats for me, gave us the morning and early afternoon to find out more about the STAR system and winter pasturing. Cornell raises sheep mainly for meat, so they want to have a steady supply of all sizes of lambs throughout the year. He's developed this great system to keep the ewes lambing through all seasons. Feed costs might make that unprofitable, but Brian has them pastured year round. Not only is that cost effective - they're healthier!

People always smile when I tell them the name of the farm, then they ask why I chose it.

Well, here's the story: My wonderful friend, Mary, and her family, drove all the way from Ohio to visit us last summer - which is a very long way. They did it all in one day, and thus arrived about 2am.

It was a lovely summer evening, so I sat on the front porch watching for car lights in order to direct them to our driveway. When they got out of the car we were all whispering and giggly - so excited to see each other.

The barn isn't very far away, and I guess goats have pretty good hearing. They began calling to us politely - a soft "ba ha ha ha." Susie, 12 and silly, said "Your goats are laughing at me!"

I thought that was a funny thought and it might make a happy farm name.

There you go. A happy name, and a pretty good descriptor too. I laugh at the goats, and the goats laugh at me.

Also, please visit our new website: www.laughinggoatfiber.com!

Welcome to Laughing Goat Fiber Farm. Things are a bit crazy right now, as we prepare for the 2008 Wine Country Fiber Farm Tour on May 10 and 11. If you're interested in natural fibers, interested in sheep, goats, alpacas and other fiber-bearing animals, or just want something different to do on a Saturday or Sunday, you should really check it out at: http://counties.cce.cornell.edu/schuyler/.

We'd love to have you visit us.

Lisa