Irresponsible

I just needed to vent momentarily about the guy who sold us our baby goats. Yes, they are cute at two weeks old - but they were not ready to be weaned from their mother. They had an eye infection - and I never could get them to take a bottle. One of them got an infection at the site where his horns had been removed and died peacefully in the night, but it was preventable ( I called the breeder and described the symptoms, he told me not to worry as long as the goat was eating - uh, he was wrong). He breeds goats, he judges them for national shows - he should have known better.

I took the boys to the vet this weekend - and he confirmed what I had already assumed - they have virtually no maternal antibodies left - so fighting off any infection is going to be tough. He finally gave me some tetramyacin for their eyes - something I asked about two weeks ago - and now miraculously, their eyes are clearing up. The downside is that both goats have pneumonia. Last week I crushed up oral antibiotics twice a day - this week, injections - two goats - twice a day. They have to come in at night and I am putting them under a heat lamp to help keep them warm and dry. I have been giving them raspberry leaves to increase their Vitamin C intake as well as treating their eyes twice a day. Both boys have Vicks Vapor rub on thier chests to ease the congestion. The vet was honest with me saying, "Well, you know what you're up against. I'll be surprised it they make it".

I bought goat gatorade for their water pail - and they are drinking it - and with each does of antibiotics I am also giving them Nutridrench - which was EXPENSIVE - but has multivitamins and sugars - and at this point I will buy whatever it takes to keep them breathing.

Just pisses me off that the breeder could have saved everyone a lot of money and heartache if he had just allowed them to stay with their mamma a couple of more weeks - then they would be healthy - and he still could have had his money.