Tuesday morning, Colter milked Ivy, and everything was fine.  When he milked her in the evening, things were clearly not fine.  Ivy did not want to get on the milk stand (the goats always do).  She would not eat (the goats always eat). And she only gave 2 pounds of milk instead of her usual 6-7 pounds. 

When Colter got her down from the milk stand, Ivy was shaky and having trouble standing.  She settled herself in the stall and was clearly in pain.  We took her temperature and it was normal.

We immediately called the vet.  Fortunately, he was able to arrive within an hour.  Milk fever was the suspected cause.  We’ve never had a case of milk fever, but it can happen after the goats freshen and is caused by insufficient calcium. (We feed alfalfa pellets free choice to the goats to meet their calcium needs, but apparently a deficiency can still occur in heavy milkers).

The vet gave Ivy 50 cc of calcium intravenously. She barely moved while he did it.  He said that if it was milk fever, she should respond before he left.

Her turnaround was even better than the vet expected.

Within 15-20 minutes Ivy was standing up and eating.  She was no longer shaky and looked like she was feeling much better.

The vet decided to give her another 50 cc of calcium subq (under the skin).  He gave half of it on the first side.  Colter had to hold her because she was feeling stronger and fighting it a little bit.  When the vet tried to inject the other side, Ivy let out a loud goat bellow and put all her strength into getting away. The vet got most of the calcium injected before releasing her.

Bellowing the whole time, Ivy immediately tried to get out of the pen. Greyden was standing at the open gate.  He had to put all his weight and strength into trying to keep her from escaping (Ivy is a big, strong, determined goat).

Colter was standing in the stall, just watching Greyden, until he couldn’t take it anymore and announced, “Just close the gate, stupid.” (ok, calling his brother stupid wasn’t the nicest thing, but he kinda had a point.)

Greyden got all red in the face, laughed, and closed the gate.

To get the full effect, you have to realize that Ivy was bellowing this whole time.  In the midst of it, I exclaimed, “Ivy is back!”

The vet looked at me and said, “So… this is normal?”

We all just laughed and told some of our favorite Ivy stories.  Ivy is actually one of Colter’s favorite goats, but she can be ornery at times and definitely knows what she wants.

This was the vet that had to put Red Bird down, so we were all really pleased that this vet call had such a positive outcome.

Ivy is currently acting normal and feeling good.  Colter is only milking her halfway out each time on the milkstand for a little bit so that she can replenish her calcium reserves.  Ivy is not happy with Colter that he isn’t milking her all the way, but he keeps telling her it’s for her own good. (I don’t think she believes him).

It’s always an adventure with goats!