[keren]

Last night I was going about feeding all the critters, fed the goats, fed the cows, brought Avs (horse) into her yard for her dinner. Little Jane Doe who is about 2 months old was following me around everywhere as she always does. Avs is reasonably tolerant of the goats, she was very good with Jane when Jane was only a few weeks old and would run in between her legs and carry on. She usually lays her ears back and chases the goats off if they try to eat her food. Well I put her food in her tub and walked away assuming Jane was following me, heard this almighty scream that made my blood run cold, turned around and Avs had picked up Jane by the neck and was swinging her around in the air. Jane must have tried to eat some of her food.

I yelled and she dropped her and I chased her and told her off etc. grabbed Jane, petrified, thinking she would surely need to be put down. Poor little baby was just standing, staring at nothing, and yelling.

Thankfully, within about five minutes she was nuzzling up to me and I gave her a bottle and some banamine, she was kinda quiet for the next hour but then completely back to normal.

Now I'm going to have to re-think where/how everyone gets fed their dinner. The way my paddocks are set up, the goats have their own separate 2 acres or so where they can escape from the horses and cows and have their own space, their own feed and their stables, but the fence in between is four strands of electric, so the babies like jane can fit through. There is also a goat sized access hole so that the goats can go out and graze on the rest of the 12 acres during the day. I think for now I will feed Avs locked into a stable so the goats cant get in there, not ideal though because the stables are actually for the goats. Once the weekend rolls around I can get some mesh and put a solid fence along Avs night/feeding yard, so the goats cant get in there. She is fine with the goats at all other times its just feed time she was a bit possessive, and it really escalated last night. I cant have that happening again.

 

[mjs500doo]

Oh my gosh I would've had a heart attack!

 

[AmyBoogie]

That would have scared the poo out of me. I think your new plan sounds good.

 

[ksalvagno]

Wow, glad Jane is alright. At least you know the problem is only at feeding time.

 

[Trickyroo]

Holy Poo ! That would have had me in hysterics
Glad she is OK. :hug: Your plan sounds like a good one

 

[enchantedgoats]

i would have said more than off!!

 

[toth boer goats]

Wow, that is scary.

 

[DesertRose]

In the summer of 08 I brought a new milker onto the ranch. The isolation pen was near my QH stallion's pen and was goat proof ... or so I thought.

We watched the doe for about 20 minutes and she had settled in after the two hour trip home from the breeders place. Hubby and I went into the house to eat lunch. I was back outside within 20 minutes of leaving her eating happily only to find her dead INSIDE the stud pen.

Somehow she had found a small spot in the fence, squeeze her way into his pen and he had ended it right then and there.

The weirdest part is he liked the goats and would stand near their fence and never acted nasty towards them.

Very expensive lesson and the death of a grand champion bred doe. I cried for days and my hubby wanted to shoot the stud. The breeder offered me a replacement doe, the dead does mother, which I still own today.

Things like this always remind me that goats can be tough but still need their own spaces to be safe from larger animals.
Sounds like your new plan will work. Good luck and glad the doeling is alright.

 

[Dayna]

Oh my, how scary. Glad little Jane Doe is okay.