By: Admin
Day 19-24
This past week has shown me many things about Velvet. First, she has an occasional cough. I was worried half to death when Wednesday night at about 9:30pm the day before Thanksgiving she coughed. Other than the cough she seemed fine, but being that she is new and has had no shots yet and also traveling so much I was really worried it was turning into something. I checked her respirations and temperature and both were within the appropriate range for a foal of her age. Today, I changed the bedding from wood shavings to wood pellets to see if that makes a difference, since one of my goats has the same cough. I also did some extra dusting and cobweb eradication to help cut down on the dust in the air.
Since Velvet arrived feeding her has been a chore or I should say getting her to eat has been a chore. She never eats consistently. She sometimes eats her feed in the morning and then not at night or vice versa. This was another concern. She is very thin and malnourished. At least 10 ribs show through under her thick winter coat, her shoulder blades are prominent also. Why won't she eat her foal food? This was a test and a challenge to find a way to get her to eat something other than hay and grass on a regular basis. I did my own research and came up with the possibility that she either does not like the foal food or is having difficulty chewing it, since it is textured. I took a chance and purchased a pelleted foal feed. I gave her a little in my hand to see if she was interested and to my relief she was very interested! Over the past few days I have added the new feed gradually, although she didn't eat enough of the other feed to amount to much of a diference. I am still in the process of changing feed, but now Velvet eats at every meal time. She may not eat every last morsel, but she eats most of her whopping 1 ¾ cup of feed in the morning and in the evening. Once the switch is complete I will gradually raise the amount she is eating to reach the appropriate level.
Tonight we all shared a new experience. Velvet panicked. I was on my way to the barn when I heard a very loud thud against the half door of the barn that leads to the pasture. From the short distance I could see the goats scatter. When I reached the barn Velvet looked very frightened. I scratched her for a few minutes as she stared stiffly out the half door then I noticed the door was broken almost in two pieces. A very large crack ran down the door almost the whole way to the bottom. Something had really scared her. She wanted to go outside so I opened the door and let her out. She kept staring out through the pasture to another field. I stared with her trying to figure out what it was, but I could not see anything out of the ordinary. She was still uneasy, but I felt better she was outside than in, because if she was in and became frightened again she would bust through the already partially broken door and hurt herself in the shattering of the next blow to the door. Normally she runs to the barn for safety, but I think she was confused in her fright. I checked her over and I did not see any marks or swellings. I left her alone and only listened from the house for about two hours and then went out to bring her in. She hesitated several times coming back to the barn, but finally I got her inside and continually reassured her and groomed her. After a while she walked away from me and ate some hay and then came to rest very close to the goats and started her pre-laying down ritual, resting one hind leg and then the other a few times before actually laying down. I always know when she does this she is trying to sleep or needs to lay down for nap. Knowing that she was becoming more relaxed I slipped out of the barn and I am now listening for any noise, but so far so good. I will be checking on her shortly to make sure she is fine.
Besides all the worries Velvet is leading and backing well and lifting her legs for me for longer amounts of time. Another great moment happened yesterday when I asked Velvet to come to me in the barn she walked right over! She is learning every moment of every day. This is the first time she has actually came when I asked, not necessarily because she was already planning on it. Eventually, I want her to come when I whistle like Snow used to do, but this will take time and I do not want to rush her. When I walk outside and call her name I always whistle so she recognizes this sign and will at some point understand that I am calling her to come to me.
