oops!

Well, Nanny isn't giving birth to anything lively. She is having what the vet calls a "mummy". In other words, the other kids she aborted a couple of months ago left one behind to rot in her uterus and it is being "birthed" right now. This is going to take awhile because I have to reach in with a gloved and lubricated hand and help it out. It is so disgustingly gross I can hardly stand it. But I do it because if I don't, she'll die. This all started Monday night when I realized she wasn't kidding for real, but what was coming out was shards of bone and bits of flesh. I called the vet's office and reached their emergency line and was called back by Dr. Anderson who told me what was going on. I believe it was the maggots in her rear that really had me going at first, but later, well, it was the dead baby goat bits that just keep coming ... well, sort of. The vet told me to get rid of the maggots to use dish soap, which I have been using on her bottom liberally. It has kept the flies away and thus, the maggots. He also told me I'd have to pull out the pieces, and to go to the office the next day to pick up some penicillin. I spent 3 hours pulling out pieces and parts. I took out rib bones, vertebrae, a hoof and part of a leg and an ear. The flesh remaining smells rather bad (you can't help but smell it), and really all looks like ground or pulled chicken. I have to look at chicken that I eat and tell myself that it is just chicken to not be sick. Anyway, it got to be around 10:15 pm, and I had spent nearly an hour and a half to pull out 3 vertebrae, so I called it a night and decided I'd go to the vet the next morning with Nanny. I was so scared she'd be dead by morning. She wasn't, however, so I loaded her up in my car and brought her in. The vet did pretty much what I had done, but only pulled out a leg and a hoof. He cut off the leg and hoof and gave her a couple of shots and gave me syringes and a bottle of penicillin and told me I'd have to keep going in and getting more stuff out over the next couple of days. It is gross, but it has to be done. Yesterday, I pulled out a what I think was a thigh bone and some flesh, but this morning all I was able to get was a couple lumps of flesh.

I left her pen open this morning as I took care of the other goats, my brother's dog and one of the barn cats and the chickens. She actually wandered out of the barn and ate some grass! I was so happy to see that! Hopefully she'll make it through all of this with no problems... We'll be praying! You pray, too!