Today I buried Rogan - my second favourite goat. Rogan was a sparky, friendly animal that allowed me to hand feed and pat her since she arrived. I thought goats were hardy animals and that was the reason for starting farming with something we couldn't kill easily.
All the animals have been drenched and vaccinated but I think the weather and poor state of the land when we arrived has contributed to the high mortality rate with our animals. The land is a gully with all the water of neighbouring lands pouring into the four dams. That will be a blessing in the dry times. However Australia is experiencing a Lan Nino weather cycle which is making the area very wet. It is hard to make out the difference between sheep/goat poo and mud - which is hardly a good thing for the animals and I think would add to any diseases.
Rogan had been getting thinner each day - she was always the last to the feeding trough - so I had been waiting to see the others eat and then hand feeding her grains on the side. Myles had commented that he thought she was looking bigger and I pretended that he was right. On Thursday I looked in on the animals and saw she wasn't looking flash. So I went back to the house and told Myles that perhaps we shouldn't wait another week to drench the animals - as per the instructions. We went down at lunch time and rounded the animals up and gave them a different kind of drench. Drench is feed to the animals orally - I originally thought you sprayed something on their back as I had seen that done in New Zealand. Wrong! You have to get their mouths open and spray the disgusting looking liquid down the throat. It must taste yucky! This protects them from worms - which will suck their blood until they die. You rotate the types of drench so the worms don't become immune.
Drenching the animals was probably easier than last time - we've got better. But there are still fights between Myles and I when the liquid doesn't go down their throats properly or easily. Rogan took her dose easily and then stood staring at a wall. We left to do other things but I returned at feeding time and saw Rogan was still in the same spot. I tried to hand fed her but she didn't care for it - I got some water and tried to give that to her but she refused. I did completely the wrong thing and decided to see how she would go overnight. I knew the answer and should have ended it for her. I was a chicken, gutless and a coward.
As I slipped under the sheets I shed a little tear and told Myles that I didn't want her to die - knowing that in the morning she wasn't going to be with us. I had a restless sleep thinking about what needed doing to prevent this from happening again. I woke and discussed everything with Myles - who also had lost sleep thinking about the situation. After breakfast I loaded up the ride-on with timber planks, a shovel, and spade and went to the front paddock that we haven't been using because it has a stream running through it that the animals won't cross. I dug the stream deeper to ensure the water was moving quicker - making the surrounding area less marshy. The rain was pouring down and I was soaked in seconds. Myles came down and helped me move the timber to form a bridge that I hoped the animals would easily cross. Myles then checked on the Rogan and informed me that she had died in the night. He locked the goat shed up so the other goats couldn't get in.
I then herded the sheep into the front paddock - to fresher pastures - in the hope that rotating them might make them healthier. Then I mucked out the disgusting muddy shed - 4 inch mud! And transported the muck up to a garden bed to be used as fertiliser in the future. I was completely exhausted, wet, and smelly so had a shower and remembered I still had to bury Rogan. I couldn't do it - I had no energy and Myles was working until 3pm, then on a flight to Adelaide so he couldn't do it.
So I did it this morning - when the sun was shining brightly on a perfect day. Hopefully the land will dry out soon - it should in winter. I think we will have lambs in the next week or so. Perhaps that will bring some animal joy. We won't be buying anymore animals until the land is 'freeish' of worms.
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