In the three years that I’ve had the goats, I’ve never had to take them to a vet for shots or anything.  But, yesterday my husband texted me Sylvie foaming at the mouth and looks like hell.  I called my trusty goat advisor and she said it was likely bloat, which will kill a goat FAST.  So I raced home, borrowed baby gas drops from my neighbor with a newborn and dosed her good.

She was, indeed, foaming at the mouth and oddly covered in mud, but after I medicated her, I realized that she actually looked skinny, not bloated.  So, I called the vet.  No goats treated there.  Called another vet.  And another.  Finally, I found Dr. Pope at All Creatures Pet Hospital who knew how to treat a mini-goat.  Three hours later, the vet pronounced her fit to go back home.  Turns out, she’d poisoned herself, we think.

Remember last summer when we were taking all those yard pictures for our upcoming book, Little House in the Suburbs?  Well, my dear neighbor lent me some of his non-native potted plants to spruce up the yard.  Apparently, goats aren’t supposed to eat houseplants and don’t have the sense to avoid them.  So, when I let her nibble the front yard a couple of nights ago, she ate some dead poisonous plants.

She started yelling (usually the silent goat of the two) that night and following day started foaming.  Unfortunately, unlike a dog, goats don’t vomit.  And, it was too late for a charcoal treatment.  So, she was kind of on her own at that point.

Fortunately, she’s apparently passed the offending flora.

The vet gave her something for the throat irritation, tested her blood and tinkles (which she’d generously deposited on the tile for him) and declared her OK.

I figured she was okay when she’d try to sass a great dane on the other side of the glass door.  She was going to kick his butt.  Never mind he outweighed her by 100 pounds.  She was stomping and butting the door.  “I deal with Lily all day long, you think I can’t take you?”  She must have thought he was a horse.  I did.

Anyway, all is well and she’s back to eating hay and fighting with Lily.

Ivory