It's Been a Long Week

You probably didn't even miss me! It's been a long and busy week. Our electricity went out for a day from all the storms. Considering the tornadoes, storm damages, injuries and deaths, I'll not complain. It does however cause added work and can make things difficult. We've had rain EVERY DAY for over a week too. What a yucky, muddy mess all over the place! I've also been quite sick which was sure the wrong time for it!

As usual, even without electricity, the critters still "live on" and could care less. In spite of storms and incessant rain, they still need fed, managed, milked, etc.

I also ended up with a doeling that I just love who was "down" and either ill or injured. I had no place to keep her safe from the rest of the traffic so back in the house she came. She's not been out to the barn all that long so quickly settled right back in to inside life. She mostly laid around the first couple days anyways. She only got up and moved to potty or follow me around. She went right back to using her papers at the door as long as she was near. Once she started perking back up she was better at getting to them. I'm still not real sure what the problem was. She was in pain as she was grinding her teeth a lot. She also acted like it hurt to walk and be moving around so she just laid until she absolutely had to get up. I had found her in the pen with the big does the day before and a few days before that. So one possibility was she was head butted pretty hard and hurt. She was peeing and pooping normally. She was drinking and nibbling hay, wanting to eat paper, and taking her bottle. She didn't act like it was a digestive issue and no clumpy poop to indicate over eating. Clostridiums can kill a goat quickly though so I wasn't ruling it out. I ended up giving her shots of banamine for the pain, thiamine because goats have issues with it in times of stress, clostridium antitoxin and had to repeat them a few times. Hubby started calling her pin cushion. She was also getting probiotics to help her gut if it was a digestive issue. Fortunately she has pulled through without specifically "telling" me what the problem was. I do think it was an injury though. She did act stiff in the front legs and moved away from gentle strokes along her shoulder and sides. I sure wish they could talk human or I could hear goat!

I also am now wondering if my incubator hatches will produce any chicks after a significantly long power failure and temp drops. I'm still keeping them going though as I've heard some folks have the same situation and have chicks hatch. That being, I'm not expecting much but still hope that some will hatch! Last year I had fun with incubating and this year it's been a bummer. I think I have a fertility issue going on too.

My turkey hens were setting in the large dog shipping crate and in all the storms and rain, even with a tarp over the crate and the opening away from the driving rain, they got very wet. They looked like a couple drowned rats and were soaked totally through all their feathers. They stoically stayed on the nest though. One hen did come out and was cold and shivering. I put her in the barn as she'd not have made it if she stayed on a wet nest. I did use a LOT of shavings in the box and kept taking out wet but the hens were also wet so it was a lost cause. There were also 2 chicken hens setting with them. I got the crate moved inside the barn and one T hen stayed on it with the 2 C hens. I don't know how they could have maintained a good temp to hatch during this. I'm not expecting much success there either. Another bummer of a hatching season. I don't know if the turkeys will start laying again this season or not. Right now they just need to get their weight back up and lots more feather grooming.

Things are returning to normal but it's STILL raining and suppose to rain tomorrow too. We're suppose to go to a bbq tomorrow but I really don't want to go if it's nasty out. It's a friend of hubby's, so he wants to go of course. I'm not sure how so much time has passed, but tomorrow is also our anniversary. It's the 40th! I can't believe it. If a birthday doesn't make one feel old, that realization can!

I thought this was going to be a real short post to appologize for being AWOL and to let you know what's going on. I think I've written a book instead!

I hope you all have a good weekend and some fun too being it's a holiday on Monday!