This past week was so wet. So after 3+ years, we used a couple of the rainy days to finally clean out the shop. I’ve been wanting to do this since we bought the farm in January of 2020 but there were always more pressing priorities. But because it has been so wet, we’ve been delaying the field work we need to do, so we finally got our chance to purge and organize. It was very satisfying - especially because most of the team was all together, it was our version of team building. And we found nine hammers! Very exciting because I can never find one when I need it. And we found lots of things that we didn’t need. But the entire week was overshadowed by the last few days.

Sunday morning, our youngest went to feed the goats. Ironically she went down to the barn late to feed them, because she was meeting a family for a, “Goat Happy Hour” experience. When she got there, she found our two biggest goats, Blue and Rolo, both frothing at the mouth. They had bloat. Bloat can kill a goat in hours. We have luckily never had to deal with bloat before, but that also meant we didn’t have experience dealing with bloat.

The next few hours were intense. Jim raced to the feed store to pick up a drench gun, our neighbor JoAnne brought us some vegetable oil, our oldest daughter raced over to be another set of hands and we did our best to try to get the air out. At first, we used syringes to get a little vegetable oil in the goats. We lifted their front legs up and massaged their sides and bellies. We walked them, tried to keep them moving, massaged and massaged, trying to get them to release air. After two hours we got enough burbs and farts out that we assumed we turned the corner. We gave them each a punch of electrolytes, added molasses to their water and gave them a small handful of hay,

Goat bloat can happen from wet spring grass. We let our goats out to wander around the farm and graze for a few hours each day, however we must have let them graze for longer than we should have. The wet spring grass must have been much too rich for them. But why did only Blue and Rolo have bloat and not the rest of the herd, or Mardi the sheep?

A few hours later, after we had thought we were in the clear, they started foaming at the mouth again. Blue tried to lay down. Laying down is one of the worst signs when a goat is ill. We got under him and made him get up. We gave him a small syringe of Dawn dish soap. But this time we weren’t so sure they were going to make it. FYI the last option is to poke a hole in their stomach to let the air out. But before we had to go there, we tried everything else. Huge thank you to Jenni for phone guidance and huge thanks to Chelsea and Alycia who came over late Sunday night with some homeopathy remedies. Blue and Rolo each clenched their mouths tight when I tried to give them a syringe of the homeopathy mixture. We gave them a little bit every five minutes for about half an hour. Blue appeared to be responding. He was starting to move around.

But Blue was also letting out some of the most heart-wrenching screams. He was in so much pain and I’m sure enduring vegetable oil and Dawn couldn’t have felt good. But he was moving, burping and pooping. I was afraid to say it out loud, but it really felt as though he had turned the corner.

Rolo wasn’t responding. He was very still, his eyes were almost closed, just small slits. We forced him to go for a walk outside but trying to get him to go outside after dark went against all his prey animal instincts. Still we had no choice. He had to keep moving and get the air out.

After a while we returned to the barn and put a broom handle in his mouth sideways, pulling it in. He fought it, he chewed it and desperately tried to get it out of his mouth. I really think it was the pivotal moment in getting things moving. His fight seemed to get him going again. We gave him a few more syringes of the homeopathic mixture, then left the barn for a moment. While we were standing outside, trying to figure out next steps we heard a cry. It didn’t sound like Blue. We ran inside, and there was Rolo with the widest, roundest eyes. He was still standing there, still, but suddenly something was different. His eyes were just so big. At this point, it was time to trust we had done all we could, and time to get a few hours of sleep.

At 5:00 a.m. Monday morning, we headed down to the barn. It seemed extra dark after the time change. We scared up an owl, then a few minutes later a coyote raced in front of our truck. As we approached the barn I was terrified. I felt confident Blue would be okay, but was so afraid we would find Rolo laying down. As I walked over to turn on the light, Odessa yelled that they were both standing. They definitely didn’t want anything to do with me, but they were alright. Blue was drinking the molasses water and Rolo was standing nearby. It was a super wet day so we let them stay in the barn for another day to rest, and checked on them every few hours.

Tuesday was the best day in a long time. Both Blue and Rolo were playful and back to their peppy selves, we reunited them with the herd. The sun came out. Morgan, Drew and Sean used lime to draw the lines on the hill that we will keyline plough once it is dry enough.

Unfortunately the raccoons found the food that JoAnne puts out for the cats. We had to move the cat food structure and make some modifications so the raccoons couldn’t get to the food. But now the tractor barn area is on their radar to check for food, it’s also the area were a lot of our chickens like to hang out. Tuesday we found one of our roosters had been attacked. But somehow he fought off his attacker and survived. He only has one tail feature left, and a hurt foot, but considering how it usually goes when there are raccoons are around, we’re calling this one a win.

Hopefully all the animal shenanigans will calm down and next week we can write about farming. We don’t have any updates on what killed the eagle yet, but the Grange put together a great resource on poisons. Check it out here. Poisons like D-Con are to be avoided as they kill secondary animals and birds that have eaten the rats, mice and gophers that the poison has killed. One of the Grange members tried looking for local exterminators that use poisons that don’t kill secondary animals and couldn’t find any. If you know of any, please let us know and we’ll add it to the Grange’s resource page. Thank you.

Goat Bloat

Topaz Farm. A Family Farm for Every Family.

17100 NW Sauvie Island Rd, Portland

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