Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Goat Therapy

We have a little girl goat with leg problems. Many would put them down. We chose to give her a chance.

I took her to the vet to make sure there were no injuries. There weren't. We decided on a little vitamin shot and some physical therapy. Our small town vet was great.

Three to four times a day I perform exercises on her and then twice a day she gets a massage of her muscles.

Problem is, we had to go out of town to help my Mom.

No problem. Did I mention my Mom is a huge animal lover? We put the babies in a large dog kennel, seatbelted them into the truck, and off we went.

Did I mention they haven't been bottle fed yet?

I had a puppy bottle with a very long fat nipple that I started them on. It holds 2 oz and enabled me to work with them to accept a bottle. It was slow going but eventually they allowed me to put it in their mouth though they wouldn't open their mouths or ask for it. Once I got it in, they were eager to nurse.


They were worn out from their trip. you can see her back (black and brown goat) legs are out and his (brown and white goat) are bent. She has a hard time bending her back legs, thus the physical therapy. I have to bend and straighten her legs in a specific way.

Notice here she's curled up more typical. Her exercises are starting to work. She has a long way to go, but she has already come so far in 2 days.

New news:

1) Esau (the little boy - brown) has learned to jump like a champ. He never walks if he doesn't have to, but hops. It's so funny.

2) Both Esau and Esther have learned to use the big bottle. It's just a typical human baby bottle which is so much easier to feed them with and I think easier for them to nurse by the look of it.

3) Their intake is increasing nicely.

4) Esther has learned to walk with bending her legs a few steps everytime she's out. She has learned to stand to nurse. She has learned to scratch her nose with her back leg, though her balance is still working out on that one. And she just learned to hop some. She's not as good as Esau, but all of his legs work properly. Not bad to only be a day behind on jumping when your legs are so affected.



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