We may have ended the day with yet more rain but today was in fact a gloriously sunny day. The goats are enjoying the slightly warmer temperatures and for reasons known best to themselves, tonight they decided to sleep in their field shelters and NOT in the barn. We gave Pebbles her clostridial vaccination today. This should protect her against such diseases as lamb dysentery, pulpy kidney, struck and tetanus caused by clostridial bacteria which live in the soil. The idea behind giving her the vaccination now is that some of the immunity it provides will be passed onto her kids via the colostrum they drink in their first couple of days. At around four to six weeks, that immunity starts to fade and so at that point the kids get their own vaccinations.
Pebbles is wonderfully fit and healthy, touch wood, but definitely showing signs of being in the last few weeks of her gestation period. She is due in just over four weeks and as well as already having quite a large udder, she is also lying down a lot more. She doesn’t look massively pregnant but as she is quite a big framed goat, one or two kids could easily be hiding in there!
We hope she has all of her mother’s (Curds) mothering skills!! We are very excited!!!