Jan 28

Biscuit (l) & Ciara (r) at 4 weeks.

Jan 21

This past week we castrated the one male goat Izzy. I have never seen it done before and it was my advisor’s first time doing it also! We took a rubber band and put it at the top of the testicles so that the circulation is cut off. It is easy and painless. It is better doing this at a young age because there is no blood flowing to them, but when they’re older there is a chance the goat could die. The reason we take them off is so when we show them they’re calm and easy to work with, because they don’t have testosterone. The animal doesn’t know the difference and it is easy and painless which will help them live a happy life.

Jan 17

Today we gave the babies their first shots. They also got some vitamins in their systems which is a good thing so they don’t get sick with all this cold weather. After all that was done we de-horned them. It is better to de-horn them at a young age because it won’t hurt them as bad as it would have if the horn tissue was already hard. We de-horn them because their horns get long and can cause injury to another goat or themselves by simply getting caught on a fence.

Jan 2 - Babies at last!

The first time I heard the babies cry I ran to the pen to see how many there were. There laying in the shavings were two baby girls who we named Ciara and Biscuit. Shortly after being born they were already up and walking around quite clumsily. We cleaned the pen right away so that the smell of newborn babies was not lingering in the air because coyotes could come and get them. To protect the new babies I had to wear gloves so I didn't get my scent on them because if I did their mother Tana could reject them. Once the gloves were on I had to spray their umbilical cords with iodine. We must have gone to the farm about ten times that day just to look at them and make sure they were healthy.