Out Walking

Joe has Buttercup out for a walk. She leads very nicely even though he has just recently started working with her.

Halter Training Buttercup

Joe began halter training Buttercup, our Guernsey heifer out of Lilly, this past weekend. So far so good! The goats were a little leery of her at first but soon decided she wasn't a threat.

An Afternoon at Dede's

Kristin and I spent a very informative afternoon at my friend Dede's farm today. She showed us how she draws blood samples from her goats so she can send in her own samples for CAE testing as well as pregnancy testing. She then graciously allowed us to try to take a sample from her Nubian buck (poor guy)! Thank goodness for him Kristin and I were able to successfully draw blood on the first attempt. We then compared that to finding the vein on one of her Nigerian does ... not quite as easy as their veins are smaller and their necks not as long. We are both confident we will be able to handle the task on our own Nigerian Dwarf herds however.

I've had good intentions of purchasing my own microscope for doing fecals, but just hadn't done it yet. There was always something a little higher up on the priority list. That has definitely changed now. I can hardly wait to get one ordered! It was fascinating watching her prepare and evaluate slides with different fecal samples. This will be a great tool to use once I become more familiar with the identification of the wide variety of internal parasites that can be found in goats although I still intend to bring random samples to my trusted vet.