Last week you may recall that Corriander was a bit off colour with diarrhea and a reduced appetite. Well, we cut out the goat mix, increased the sugar beet (carbohydrate) and alfalfa (fibre), gave her some pro-rumen to ensure the rumen bacteria kept going and within 48 hours she was pretty much back to normal. On Tuesday Pebbles seemed to go down the same route except we are now three days on and she isn’t back to normal yet. Her appetite is still reduced and her poo is definitely not good. Having given her the same feed and pro-rumen treatment, we also decided to give her a jab of ABs and pain relief/ anti-inflammatory as well – she doesn't have a temperature but there is obviously something in her gut that shouldn’t be there and we expect that her lack of eating is down to her feeling uncomfortable.
This evening we also offered her some ivy. Ivy is used a lot by farmers and smallholders alike to feed to 'off colour' stock and there is a huge belief that it does help settle upset digestive symptoms. Pebbles really tucked in which was fabulous so fingers crossed, she may start to show signs of improvement tomorrow. Fortunately, despite it being winter, there is still a lot of ivy around so if needs be, we can find more for her tomorrow.