Hello From PA!

[Tori S.]

Hi everyone! My name is Tori. I'm 15 and have been raising goats my whole life. My mom bred and raised them when I was younger and about 4 years ago I took over the business. We have a herd of around 25. We have had 15 babies born this year so far and we have 1-2 more does to go. We raise Pygmy and Nigerian Dwarf goats. In the past couple of years, we have done extremely well in the show ring and I was finally happy with the quality of our herd. Well, the happiness was short lived because over the winter, we lost all 3 of our major champions. Jewel, a beautiful 7 X Grand Champion Nigerian Dwarf just didn't look good one day and  about 5 days latter se was gone. Than about a month later, the same thing happened to our 1X Grand Champion Pygmy doe Root Beer. At this point I felt lost, but I had no idea what was in store in the next 3 months. On the morning of March 27, 2011 I woke up to the sound of my Mom calling that they dog jumped over the dog yard fence and into the pasture.  Long story short, the dog killed my first project goat, Karma. She was born here 3 years ago and was my baby from the moment she hit the ground. She was 4 months pregnant and couldn't run away. Not only was she easy to show and had a great personality, but she was a highly complemented champion in the show ring. I still cry about it. I feel lost without Karma and my perfect herd seems to be falling apart. We still have some nice does, but our best three are gone.

 

Well, thanks for letting me vent and now you know a little more about me! I'm really excited to have joined this site and I hope I meet some crazy goat people like me!

[Tori S.]

Thanks guys. We are still trying to figure out what happened. I know it's not copper deficiency but it might be a different mineral. We will look into it. It was really hard, but I'm trying to remember them as a great time in the past and move on. I just miss them like crazy.

[Janel Rickey]

Welcome! So sorry to hear about your goats.  I can't even imagine what your feeling.  We lost our first goat the first week we had him and it was so hard.  I couldn't imagine if we had him for as long as your girls.  I worry about our dog sometimes.  She is a Blue/Red Heeler and she likes to chase them around.  I have been very firm with her that its not okay, but when I'm not around I don't know what she would do..  She is separated from them right now, but when they are older they will all be together when the dogs are outside..  Hang in there....

[Kare]

Welcome to our group, Tori!  I'm so sorry to hear about your goat losses over the winter.  It is so frustrating and sad.  I lost one in my first herd due to a compound fracture that got infected and then this year I lost my second one, a wether.  I have two does who are doing poorly and the vet and I are trying to figure out why.  We think it is minerals, and are trying various things to fix it.

Glad you could join us!  We look forward to getting to know you!

 

[Rachel Whetzel at MigMog Acres]

Welcome! Welcome!! I'm so sorry for your losses... I haven't had any yet... but I know they are inevitable... and not any easier to get used to if you've had one or three... I look forward to getting to know you more here!!

 

[Deborah Niemann-Boehle]

Welcome to the group! You've come to the right place if you want to meet people crazy about their goats. I'm so sorry to hear about you losing three of your goats, especially in such a short period of time. How sad! Did you ever figure out what was up with the first two that you lost? Check out some of the previous posts on here about copper. I lost quite a few goats before we figured out that we had a copper deficiency problem in our herd.