At just over 9 years old they are now considered to be 'elderly'. In fact, show goats are classed as 'veteran' when they reach 6 years old! However, both of them kidded well this year and have been looking very sprightly for their age.
However, over the past couple of months, Wilma has begun to look like an 'old goat' and also seemed to be having problems eating properly last week. As she was starting to lose weight quite rapidly, I decided that it was time to get our wonderful vet Peter to come and check her over this morning.
A thorough examination of Wilma's mouth revealed that she had recently lost a large back tooth, so possibly had been suffering from toothache or a wobbly tooth. But it also seems that she has a bit of a heart problem as well. In a human, this would be corrected by a pacemaker but apparently these have not yet been developed for goats!
So, just lots of cuddles and squishy food for a while to try and build her back up again. Keep an eye on her heart condition (you can feel the irregular heartbeat with your hand) and see if she improves, though there is nothing we can actually do about it. I think she is looking forward to a good supply of bananas!
And how did you all fare in those storms the other night? We had an absolute corker up here. Unfortunately, one of the transformers in the field was hit by lightning and so we had no power for most of the day on Tuesday. That created a few challenges!
After numerous phone calls and searching around in other farmers' barns, we finally managed to locate one of these:
A generator.
But a generator with a difference ....
A generator that runs off a tractor. Fantastic!
Bit noisy but it is powerful enough to run the milking parlour, the bulk milk tank and all the fridges and freezers. A lot of extension cables all over the place and a bit of emergency wiring and we were all set .. Milking was very late and we finally finished just before noon. Some of those big milkers were absolutely bursting to get into the parlour! Proper power came back on just as we finished evening milking ...
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