It's Indian hemp, close relative of Dogbane... and the scours are back.

yeah, pretty much everything in the title. Thanks to jen's suggestion of dogbane and a link provided by a facebook friend (and looking through about 300 pictures on that link) I found it was Indian Hemp, depending on the site you read it is either the same thing as dogbane OR is a close relative of dogbane. Anyway, Tsu saw the suggestion that it might be dogbane, looked it up and saw that it is toxic, and is now ready to go directly out there and destroy every sign of it. I did point out that it is a good source of cordage fiber, but i don't think he cares.

So, anyway, runny butt goat.... today Sage got a baking soda/molasses/yogurt mix and some water squirted directly into her mouth. She seems a little down, unlike how she was acting a few days ago. Temp is normal (man was that fun... NOT), colour of the inside of her eyelids is nice and red, she has enough spunk to fight me when I try to dose her with anything. I did a pinch test for hydration and she seems plenty hydrated. Her mouth was full of molasses so I didn't check her gums for capillary refill rates. I'll be picking her up some pepto and making sure she isn't low on fluids and letting her do her thing. All the other goats seem fine.

here is where I am torn... do I pull her out and keep her alone or do i risk the other goats by leaving her with them? The problem is that she FREAKS OUT if she is apart from ANY of the other goats, and I have no place to keep her away from them but close enough for her to not freak out. I fear that the stress of being separated from them would make her worse. I don't want to jump through hoops and breed myself a herd of goats with weak health, but i also don't want to do anything to make it worse for her. For now she is staying with the herd. i will re-evaluate frequently but I kinda feel like if she IS contagious they already have been exposed so I'll just keep a close eye on everyone and go from there.

This whole livestock thing isn't new to me, I raised rabbits many years ago to eat and was pretty brutal in my culling at that point, too. But it feels a little different when the animals are larger. Not sure why. Maybe because I have more money invested so the loss of even one of my foundation stock animals is a huge blow. maybe just because I like goats a lot better than I like rabbits.