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AHayesHorses · Jun 4, 2018 12:47 AM

So just thought I would share. Getting my goats' blood drawn today for testing. Here's hoping my doe is pregnant and will have some little pygmy babies next month! (really wish I could have gotten this done sooner but the person doing the draws is always busy). 5 goats total; 1 buck, 3 wethers, and a doe. So everybody cross your fingers that Blizzard is pregnant!

Blizzard:

Storm, Blizzard's first "accident"...:

Russell, Blizzard's half brother:

Tom, my only non-pygmy (besides Storm who is half pygmy, half Nubian). I think Tom is a Nubian or at least a cross:

And apparently I need to take more photos of Shadow, my buck, because this was all I could find :)) :

And speaking of pregnancy, I have 3 rabbits due to kindle on Tuesday! All three have started pulling fur and making their nests :x I can't wait! It's been almost a year since my last litter. All are purebred mini lops bred for show and their sire is an 'almost' grand champ (at fair last year the judge said his only fault was that he was too young and once he's older, he'll be hard to beat :D ). And these are all his litters so I can't wait to see what he throws! I need to get pics of him!

Luna (My favorite):

Harmonia:

Hazel, first time momma! (obviously she's still learning, you can tell by the lack of fur pulled lol):

RipshinCreekFarm · Jun 4, 2018 12:52 AM

Congrats on the impending arrivals! New babies in the spring are always nice.

JustaSaddletramp · Jun 4, 2018 12:55 AM

Congrats on the babies! :D

CWScowgirl87 · Jun 4, 2018 10:43 AM

Congrats! I'm jealous :D I really miss having bunnies.

ParadisePark · Jun 4, 2018 12:32 PM

Congrates!

FallenShadows714 · Jun 4, 2018 1:19 PM

Congrats!! I’ve never had rabbits, but raised goats with my dad. Shadow looks just like our Rudolph did, Black Pygmy with that white band on his belly.

AshaWindsong · Jun 4, 2018 2:58 PM

Congratulations! Excited to see the baby pictures

AHayesHorses · Jun 16, 2018 1:59 AM

Ok so I was extremely disappointed because all 3 rabbits had false pregnancies :(( I was so mad that they all pulled fur and the two experienced does even made beautiful nests... But no little wigglers... BUT! I just checked the blood test results from my goats and Blizzard is pregnant! :D I'm so excited because she didn't get pregnant last year and with no rabbit babies to satisfy my need for baby animals, these goat babies will be very much welcome :)

Also, found out one of my goats (Tom) is positive for CAE (Lentivirus)... My 4h leader who is the assistant goat specie chair at the Northwest Michigan Fair is doing some research to find out what this will mean for him :(

SquishLime · Jun 16, 2018 2:19 AM

Congrats on the impending arrival!
I had no idea rabbits pulled out their fur like that. I know nothing about bunnies because they're banned as pets where I live (QLD Australia) but I used to work on a goat dairy so am rather smitten with them.
As for the CAE you'll find it isn't something to be dreadfully concerned about. My whether Toast comes from a CAE positive herd and he's almost 4yrs old with no health issues. (Besides an unrelated scare with urinary calculi last year). When he's older we might have to deal with arthritis but that's awhile off.
It's more an issue if you plan to breed from the animal and sell the babies as some people want to keep their herds free of the disease. Young kids can also suffer from the encephalitis side of the disease but in my whole time at the dairy I never experienced this firsthand.
If you have any questions feel free to message me, I love talking about goats :)

ladywade · Jun 16, 2018 1:08 PM

There's a huge percentage of goats with CAE a lot of dairies will pull babies in pasteurized milk cuz it's passed on through milk sometimes cull infected animals however has the disease itself has its side effects some animals don't show any of them and live happy healthy lives the only time it seems to be a problem is if you have show herds in the dairy world. And people like animals from tested Herds

AHayesHorses · Jun 16, 2018 6:42 PM

Thanks for the info on CAE! Thankfully Tom is a whether so he won't be breeding :) Now I just gotta find out if he can still go to fair this year. On top of CAE, he wasn't disbudded properly as a baby so when I got him at the beginning of the year, I noticed his left horn is growing back around into the side of his head. I have to figure out what I can use to trim it and if he is allowed at fair with it. 8-|

HTRanch · Jun 16, 2018 6:50 PM

Good luck with the horns at the fair! I have Boers and that breed is not disbudded. The fair board barely let us in! Meanwhile in the next barn over there were working steers with horns 6' wide... XD

ladywade · Jun 16, 2018 9:16 PM

For horns depending on how big they are and even large horns you can take a small saw and make notches in the horn itself down at the base near their skull and put the castrator Bands on it and in those notches and they will eventually fall off I don't know how long you have till fair but I have used that to get rid of huge gnarly looking screw horns on some Dairy does, the CAE won't effect 4h you could mention it and ask to be penned not next to other 4hers like have a tack pen in between yours and somebody else's and maybe hang a sign on your pen for asking not to be petted or touch..

SquishLime · Jun 16, 2018 11:35 PM

My wether has scurs from being disbudded too late as well. If it feels loose and wobbly you can often just pull scurs off. Otherwise you can use a bit of wire tied between 2 handles to saw off the ends. The heat from the wire cauterises it so it doesn't bleed as much and it's a momentary discomfort as opposed to prolonging it using castration bands.

AHayesHorses · Jun 17, 2018 3:13 AM

Thanks for the suggestions! Animals go to fair on August 5th this year so I have a little bit of time but I will definitely want to do it sooner rather than later. :) If I remember, i'll try to post pictures of his horn before and after I trim it!

WanderingGypsy · Jun 17, 2018 4:11 PM

You are making me miss my goats and my rabbits! I'll have them again soon enough I suppose, but I miss all the comedic relief they provide, and all the kid snuggles.

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