Leonard – Medical Mystery Diary Goat Kid

7/22/13 – Life is never boring on a goat farm. Sometimes, you are busy with enjoyable chores like collecting eggs, playing with kids, or building a new “playground” on which the goats can play.

Unfortunately, I have spent the last 24 hours dealing with a medical mystery.

THE BACKGROUND INFORMATION

I have a set of 7-day-old twin dairy goat bucklings (boys). One of them, “Boyd,” seems to have had an uneventful birth. He has seemed “normal” since I found him in the pasture.

This is Leonard within an hour or so of birth. He could not straighten himself out from this position.

His brother, “Leonard,” has been a bit of a mystery since I found him. I believe that I found both kids within a half an hour of their birth. They were both clean but wet. Leonard was bent and crooked.  His neck was bent to the right and he was unable to straighten it up or hold his head up. His left shoulder was pushed much further forward than his right shoulder. He was unable to stand. I could move his body into a correct position if I supported him, but he couldn’t do it himself.

I gave him a dose of selenium and vitamin E oral gel since selenium deficiency is sometimes the cause of inability to stand after birth. This is called White Muscle Disease. I also straightened him out and let him lay, supported by my leg, while he napped. He was able to stand a few hours after he was born. I will never know for sure whether or not the selenium or physical therapy helped. He may have straightened out just fine without my intervention. Over the course of the next three days, his body straightened itself out. He was quickly walking and then running with his brother.

Leonard is the kid closer to the camera. Boyd is standing behind him.

While I remained attentive, my biggest focus during the first 6 days of their lives was trying to help their mother, Dru, accept them. This is her first time being a mother and she was initially afraid of her kids. She slowly warmed up to them but has not allowed them to nurse despite my attempts to help her learn that this is part of her job as a mom. She did, however, seem to bond with them as she would sleep next to them and clean them and check on them as they napped. Both kids drank colostrum and then milk that I milked from Dru.

Yesterday afternoon, I decided to try to return Dru along with the two kids to the herd in the pasture. They still were not nursing from her but I had figured out how to supplement them with a bottle (feeding them milk that I got from Dru). My hope was that returning them to the herd and allowing them to do their own thing might give Dru that last bit of experience she needed to start allowing them to nurse.

When we first arrived in the pasture, the herd quickly inspected both Drusilla and her kids. As with any time that goats are introduced or returned to the herd, there was a little bit of pushing around but nothing was excessive or even very worrisome to me. Leonard and Boyd were anxious but didn’t seem to be getting hurt.

After agreeing with Dory that Dory could have a higher position in the herd hierarchy, Dru found her mom and stayed next to her. She paid no attention to her kids while we were in the pasture.

THE SYMPTOMS

After being out there for about five minutes, under direct human supervision the entire time, Leonard started to stumble and wobble. At first, it just looked like he had lost his balance. However, the wobbling didn’t stop. It got worse. After observing him for about 15 seconds, I picked up Leonard and Mr. Meadowfly picked up Boyd. We brought them into the house so that we could deal with these disturbing symptoms.

INITIAL TREATMENT

My initial suspicion was Floppy Kid Syndrome. The exact cause of FKS is unknown, though there are theories regarding metabolic acidosis or selenium deficiencies among others. The kids, at a few days to a few weeks of age, experience sudden muscle weakness, paralysis, and/or ataxia (lack of muscle coordination). If left untreated, it often results in death but resolves on its own in rare cases.

In case he was experiencing metabolic acidosis, I gave him the recommended dose of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). I also gave him a small dose of Pepto-Bismol since that was recommended by a few reliable sources. Of course, I also spoke with my veterinarian who recommended a small dose of Banamine, flunixin, an anti-inflammatory medication.

Because he was so crooked at birth, she was worried that these symptoms may be caused by a pinched nerve in his vertebra or something of the sort. An anti-inflammatory may help with that if that was the cause of the symptoms.

Within an hour, he was able to stand and walk, although he was shaky. Within a few hours, he was completely back to normal. The twins spent the night in a playpen in the living room. I slept on the couch right next to them so that I could check on them easily and would hear if he started flailing around again like he had been.

I saw no evidence of a problem with Boyd throughout that entire time.

They both looked great during the night. This morning, they were both very active. Boyd even tried to jump out of the playpen. I decided to let them spend a few hours in the front yard, which I use as a kidding stall. That was where they had spent the last 6 days with their mom. Both kids looked normal throughout the morning. They had good appetites and were playful when awake and were able to settle well to nap.

This afternoon, I felt pleased with how they were doing. I still had it in the back of my mind that I wanted these kids out with Dru and the herd if they could be. Dru did not seem to miss them at all. She showed no signs of stress that they were not with her. I brought the kids to the pasture to spend some time with the other goats. We stayed out there, again with me directly supervising them the whole time, for about 10 minutes.

One of Dory’s quads, now about five weeks old, started to show too much interest in Boyd for my liking. I collected the bucklings and brought them back to the kidding stall for a few hours, where they took a nap.

Later this afternoon, I noticed that they were both up and playing and nibbling on hay. I took them back out to the pasture. My experience has been that several short, supervised “visitations” with the herd will usually make it so that new goats can be integrated into the herd in a day or two. I was following the protocol that I have followed a handful of times in the past with introducing new goats as well as returning other goats to the herd.

THE SYMPTOMS RETURN

Leonard and Boyd did well with the herd. They played a little with the quads. They stayed out of the way of the adult goats. Dru didn’t show any interest in them at all, just like before. We were out there for about five minutes when Leonard started to look a little wobbly. I watched for a few seconds more to be sure that’s what I was seeing. I scooped the twins up since Mr. Meadowfly wasn’t there to help this time, and brought them into the house. By the time we got to the house, which is about 150 feet from the pasture, Leonard was barely able to stand.

Since I now had two sudden-onset incidents with the same trigger, I didn’t do anything until I spoke with my veterinarian. I called her immediately. She suspected that he may have a neurologic, likely spinal, abnormality. She thought that, if there was something abnormal about his spine, it may be bothered by either increased activity due to interacting with so many goats or possibly by certain movements that he made in response to the other goats. This could include the possibility that some of the pushing around that was happening may cause a nerve to be pinched.

THE NEXT TREATMENT

At her recommendation, since I didn’t have any more Banamine, I gave him a dose of meloxicam. This is another type of anti-inflammatory that I had on-hand. I perched him in my lap as I had yesterday afternoon. My veterinarian also said to try to keep him quiet. With him on my lap, he settled right down.

Leonard is now sleeping quietly in the playpen with Boyd. He can now stand and walk again. The wobbliness appears to be gone. My veterinarian is going to stop by tomorrow. She will take a look at him and give me more Banamine. In the meantime, the boys will hang out in the playpen or in the kidding stall.

THE CURRENT PLAN

Until I am able to determine a cause for these symptoms or a few days have passed without incident, I will not be bringing them back into the pasture. For now, the plan is just anti-inflammatory and “bed rest.” I know that there are some experienced goat farmers who follow this blog. I’d love to hear from you! Have you ever experienced anything like this? What did you do? What would you do in my situation?

I’ll keep you updated as I am able. Of course, after a week of waking up two to three times per night to check on and feed these boys, I’m exhausted. For the most part, I’m going to try to keep myself quiet as well. I still have to complete some transcription work, but I won’t be doing much other than chores, transcription, and taking care of these adorable boys. I have no idea what the next few days will bring. While that statement tends to hold true on a daily basis on a goat farm, it’s even more appropriate right now.

Please keep Leonard in your thoughts. He needs all the help he can get right now. I hope that we’ll be able to determine the cause of these two incidents and that it is treatable. Thank you all for you incredible, on-going support! It means so much to us!!

7/25/13 – VETERINARY ASSESSMENT

Yesterday, my veterinarian came for a visit to look at Leonard and try to diagnose and treat him. He was scheduled to have his next meal, by bottle, in 45 minutes.

Of course, when I brought him into the house from the kidding stall, he thought that he was going to get a bottle. My veterinarian gave him a thorough physical examination and found no abnormalities. Thinking that it would be best if she could actually observe him when he was “wobbly,” we decided to attempt to induce a wobbly episode.

INDUCED WOBBLY EPISODE

Based on the conditions that were present when he had his other two wobbly episodes, I suspected that the trigger was either exercise or stress, possibly a combination of the two. So, knowing he was worked up about getting his next meal, I started moving around the house. Looking for a bottle, he followed me everywhere I went. This created a situation in which he was both stressed and exercising more than usual. After 5-10 minutes of this, he started to look wobbly.

My veterinarian was able to examine Leonard while he was noticeably wobbly. She saw how his entire body and head would wobble, how his hind legs would try to float if he sniffed at something on the floor. She saw how he suddenly became very uncoordinated, falling over when turning around, though he didn’t do that 10 minutes ago. She saw that the symptoms appeared gradually over the course of only 3 or 4 minutes once he first started moving abnormally. She saw that his eyes were not moving abnormally even while having trouble standing up. The eye movements she was looking for are called nystagmus. She saw that he retained consciousness during the entire episode. She also saw the moment when he transitioned to fiendishly trying to nibble and suckle on anything that he could reach. This was not the persistent attempts of a hungry kid trying to get some milk. This was a compulsive need to nibble or suckle on anything. I had noticed this in the other two episodes as well.

As soon as she had a good idea of what was going on, we calmed Leonard right down. Neither of us wanted him to experience a severe episode but I knew that, given the unusual aspects of these episodes, allowing her to see him while wobbly significantly increased the chance of getting him diagnosed. She treated him with an injection of a steroid, dexamethasone, in case these episodes were caused by inflammation in the brain or spinal cord. She also gave him an injection of a long-acting antibiotic in case there was an infectious process causing or worsening his symptoms.

AN ATTEMPT AT DIAGNOSIS

The differential diagnosis coming into this appointment included pinched nerve in the spine, seizures secondary to CAE-related encephalitis, and seizures secondary to copper deficiency. After the appointment, the differential diagnosis was pretty much narrowed down to abnormal neurologic episodes likely secondary to abnormality in the brain or spinal cord. The cause of the abnormality could be spontaneous deformity or copper deficiency in utero. Or it may be none of these things. His symptoms are not matching any criteria enough to even call a diagnosis “likely.”

My current understanding of Leonard’s prognosis is: He may or may not get better or worse soon or over time.

GOAT HEALTH CHALLENGES

Goat medicine is very challenging. We, as a goat farmer/veterinary community, have a small amount of clinical information on most goat health topics. There simply hasn’t been a lot of money available to run countless clinical studies to know as much as possible. This is a problem with some areas of human health. It’s certainly a challenge we face with dog and cat health. We just don’t know enough to have a direction to follow. In relation to livestock, there is often little anecdotal information available in addition to very little clinical information.

Unfortunately, most farmers need to keep their farm from drowning financially. So, when faced with a challenging, mysterious situation such as this, they euthanize right away. I understand that there is sometimes need to do this. In my case, I am willing to take on the additional work that goes with attempting to treat Leonard. In an attempt to continue to learn from this situation if we can, we have decided to treat minimally and observe closely.

Like many other beginning farmers, finances are tight. I need to balance pursing diagnostics and treatment with financial constraints. An x-ray, while expensive, may be able to show structural abnormalities. However, due to the cost of an x-ray and the fact that it is more likely to be helpful in ruling out some problems than actually helping to find a diagnosis, I have decided not to take an x-ray of his spine and skull at this time. If the situation changes and I have reason to believe that an x-ray will have a good chance of directly helping to improve Leonard’s treatment, I will reconsider the value of the x-ray with the cost of it. This is one of the difficult decisions that I’ve had to make to keep the farm stable while still trying to help this little man.

THE CURRENT TREATMENT PLAN

I have dexamethasone here to give him any time that Leonard becomes wobbly. I have instructions from my veterinarian to call her every time that there are abnormalities in Leonard’s health or movement. Now that I know how to quiet him if he becomes wobbly, I feel a bit more comfortable taking this route.

Drusilla with Boyd on the left and Leonard on the right. Boyd and Leonard are 8 days old!

I am keeping him in the kidding pen with his brother, Boyd, and his mother, Drusilla. There is plenty of room for them to be able to play and a nice little “house” for them to snuggle up at night. The kidding pen is otherwise known as my fenced-in front yard, initially created for the dogs to exercise but now appropriated by the goats. This is very convenient for observation. I can take several breaks during the day and observe the little family through the windows on the front of the house. Their little house is also about 10 feet from my bedroom window, which is open on these summer nights anyway. So, I can hear whenever anything sounds out of the ordinary.

In the past 24+ hours, Leonard has seemed completely normal to me. I haven’t seen any sign of wobbling. He has romped and jumped and played with his brother several times a day. Last night, Dru was agitated about going to sleep in the kidding pen rather than in the pasture with her mother. Leonard and Boyd paced right behind her for about a half an hour. He didn’t become wobbly even during this increased exercise. This makes me think stress may play a bigger role than exercise in triggering his episodes.

WHY TRY?

At this point, I’m basically attempting to give him a chance at living. I am hoping that, given time and reducing wobbly triggers, Leonard will be able to outgrow whatever is affecting him. If it’s a structural abnormality, it may right itself as he grows. Since he was born so crooked and has straightened out for the most part, it stands to reason that there may be smaller aspects of his “crookedness” that haven’t yet straightened out. If his episodes have longer and longer intervals, that will be a good sign and I will continue to give him the time and the conditions that he needs to continue to improve.

If his condition worsens, we will learn what we can from it and we will humanely euthanize him as soon as we feel confident that he no longer has a good quality of life. I have very strong feelings about the importance of quality of life over quantity of life. I will not and cannot watch an animal suffer when I know that I will not be able to relieve that suffering through treatment. At that time, I will make the heart-breaking decision to have my veterinarian euthanize.

While I give him the time he needs, I will continue to give him the best care that I can. He will get love and attention. He will enjoy the time he spends with his brother and his mother. I will do what I can to minimize triggers of his episodes. In case these episodes are seizure activity, the more seizures they have, the more likely they are to have more. So, I’ll try to help him avoid them. Perhaps giving his body some quiet time to grow and mature will make the wobblies go away. We’ll worry about long-term management when we have a better idea as to whether there will be a long-term to manage.

I love this little guy so much already. The sleepless nights, the adrenaline rushes and crashes, and the anxiety of making very difficult decisions are all worth it if I’m able to give him a happy, healthy, long life. Some of my family members like to tell me that I can’t save all the animals in the world. I know this all too well, but I can accept the ones that find their way into my life and at least give them a fighting chance and the feeling of being loved. I am not able to save them all and I don’t know if this little guy will make it. But I will give him a chance and I will give him love. That’s something that I know I can do well. That is a part of being a compassionate farmer.

PLEASE HELP!

Please spread the word about Leonard as much as you can. I’m trying to reach out to other goat farmers to see if they have ever witnessed similar symptoms in their goats. So far, I haven’t found anybody that says these episodes sound like anything they’ve ever dealt with. The more I can learn about goat neurological health, the better my chances will be of effectively treating Leonard. If you know any goat or veterinary people, please ask them to read about Leonard and contact me if they have any ideas, suggestions, or recommendations.

Thank you all for your continued support! I can’t tell you how much it means to me that you are thinking of Leonard and sending him prayers and healing energy. He and I feel your love and appreciate it more than we can say!!

7/29/13 –  Leonard is having another wobbly episode this afternoon. He’s resting on my lap while I’m posting this. I was able to get some good video to show what’s today’s wobbliness looks like. This is not how the first three episodes looked but it is how Saturday’s episode looked. This one is more severe than Saturday.

Taking new developments into consideration, my vet and I are in agreement that these symptoms really seem to be related to a pinched nerve in his neck. Because his neck was bend at such an extreme angle when he was born, it makes sense that there may still be something abnormal about this neck and spine. The symptoms have been very episodic over the last 8 days.

My veterinarian feels that there is likely some structural abnormality that, when positioned poorly or when inflamed, pinches his spinal cord. Once the inflammation reduces or the bones shift, the symptoms go away. We have no idea if his symptoms will get better or worse as he grows. It all seems to depend on what the abnormality is and how his growth affects this abnormality.

Because these symptoms have been occurring and resolving over the course of 8 days so far, we have been able to rule out problems such as white muscle disease and polio. I will continue to monitor symptoms as well as quality of life. His prognosis hasn’t really changed but at least we have more information now.

8/16/13 – Yesterday, I posted on Facebook that I was feeling hopeful about Leonard’s prognosis. In the past ten days, he had only experienced two moderately wobbly episodes. One was caused by being startled by a loud noise. I left him with his mother and brother and monitored closely. He was able to quiet himself and didn’t require any intervention from me. The other occurred just after meal time. Meal time is a stressful time for him in general, but there was nothing abnormal about that feeding that I could see as a trigger for an episode. Again, I was able to keep him with his mother and brother while I monitored and made sure that he quieted down. This is a significant decrease of episodes and severity from the previous two weeks.

I’ve spoken with my veterinarian every time Leonard experiences a wobbly episode. I’ve also spoken with a veterinarian at UC Davis who specializes in small ruminants. Both veterinarians agree that Leonard appears to be experiencing a pinched nerve in his neck. The veterinarian at UC Davis said that, statistically, conditions like his get worse as they grow. She also said that a lot of this depends on whether the pinching of the nerve is related to an alignment problem that can hopefully just work itself over time or whether there is a structural abnormality. The structural abnormalities tend to be worse as they grow.

I am an incurably curious person and tend to want to know details and fully understand things that I encounter. Because I was still having some difficulty understanding what was actually happening, my veterinarian explained further. This is my current understanding of what she told me. When the nerves in Leonard’s neck get pinched, the whole spinal cord is not pinched, only part of it. The nerves on the outermost part of the spinal cord control movement in the hind end. The next layer of nerves control the front of his body. The deeper layers control things such as involuntary movement and organ function. Until today, Leonard’s wobbly episodes affected his whole body. That meant that the spinal cord was being pinched deeply enough to effect both of those layers of nerves.

The bad news for today is that Leonard had another severe wobbly episode. I was later than usual in getting out to give them breakfast. I knew that this may be stressing him out, but hoped that it wouldn’t cause him to get wobbly. I was very upset to see that he was, indeed, wobbly when I got out there. As soon as I appeared, he was able to wobble over to me and drink his bottle. I gave him an injection of steroid to help relieve any inflammation that may be causing the wobbling, as my vet had instructed.

By the time he finished his bottle, he was unable to stand up. I, of course, was very concerned and upset. However, needing to also be a mindful caregiver, I was observing him very closely. His front legs and head were not wobbling. Only his hind end was wobbly. When he wasn’t able to stand up, he actually was sitting like a dog. His front legs were straight, controlled, and supporting him. It was only his back legs that wouldn’t work.

As I always do when he gets severely wobbly, I scooped him up, laid him on my lap on the couch, and helped his body to quiet down. As soon as I had an available hand, I called my veterinarian.

I told her that Leonard was wobbly again and that it was a severe episode. I also explained what was different about this episode and my thoughts about it. She agreed with me. Since only Leonard’s hind end was affected in this episode, that indicates that his spinal cord is not being pinched as deeply as it had been in past episodes. Given that we’ve seen a decrease in frequency, a decrease in severity, and now even an improvement in types of symptoms over the past 11 days, she and I are both hopeful.

It is possible that he may be either recovering over time or outgrowing whatever is causing the pinched nerves. He is 5 weeks old and growing very quickly. If his condition was going to worsen due to growth, it makes sense that it would be worsening right now. Given the fact that it is actually improving, I feel that there is more likelihood that he will outgrow this problem than not. I can’t express to you how happy that thought makes me.

Of course, Leonard is still not out of the woods. Because we still don’t know the actual cause of the pinched nerves, we have to make educated guesses as to prognosis. It’s possible that he will play too rough with his brother and make his problems worse. It’s possible that he’ll be jumping and kicking all by himself and make things worse. However, if things continue as they have been, I feel hopeful.

A few weeks ago, I made the difficult decision to disbud and wether Leonard. Disbudding needs to be done before a kid is a few weeks old or it becomes more challenging to do well. I do not disbud kids who are conscious. This procedure is done by using a hot iron to burn the cells that make their horns so that they will not grow horns. I will not do this unless the kid is sedated. Not knowing what Leonard’s future will be, I had to think things through with a lot of “what ifs.” IF Leonard improved and IF he lived to grow into an adult, he would need a home. In this region of the country, a dairy goat without horns is much more likely to get a home than one with horns. Most dairy goat farmers here do not want their goats to have horns. Many dairy goats that have horns end up being slaughtered. I don’t like this fact, but I have to keep it in mind when making decisions.

Also, it is likely that his pinched nerve problems are a result of poor positioning in the womb and/or the birth canal. However, it is possible that they are caused by a structural deformity that may be hereditary. Even though he is unlikely to carry any genetic predisposition to this problem, I feel that it would be unethical to breed him in the future. There are other, wonderful bucks to use for breeding that are less likely to pass on an abnormality to their kids. So, I decided that I wanted to neuter him. In goats, that process is called “wethering.”

I knew that the sedative needed for disbudding would be risky. I knew that, because we don’t know the definitive cause of his problems, giving him a sedative could kill him. I felt that, if his condition was so severe that he may die from a sedative, it would likely be severe enough to impact his quality of life long-term. Of course, this isn’t an absolute rule, but it makes sense to me. So, knowing that the sedation could kill Leonard, I still decided to go through with the procedures. I did this because I felt that doing so gave him the best chance of a good, long life if he makes it through the next few months.

He tolerated the sedative well. My veterinarian disbudded him and wethered him. For those who are interested to know, she uses a burdizzo.* I feel that banding is likely to cause more pain and complications than burdizzo as does my veterinarian. There have been no apparent side effects of the sedative and the procedures.

For now, Leonard will continue to live and grow here. I will continue to give him time, care, and love. I will continue to monitor him and make decisions as needed. Today, I feel very hopeful that this problem will resolve over time. IF Leonard survives, he will either have a permanent home here or he will be placed in a home, as a pet, with only a few goats. He won’t be used for breeding and he won’t be slaughtered for meat. He will be loved and cared for as long as he continues to have a good quality of life.

I will continue to update. I will admit that I make smaller, more frequent updates on my Facebook page. www.facebook.com/meadowflyfarm You can check there if you want to get those updates, too.

*Banding is a common method of wethering a goat where a very tight rubber ring is placed at the base of the scrotum. The band cuts off the circulation to the scrotum. Without a blood supply, the tissue composing the testicles and scrotum die and fall off. I can’t comprehend how painful this process must be, at least until the tissue dies. Using a burdizzo entails pinching the blood vessels and spermatic cords leading to the testicles. This damages the vessels and cords enough so that the vessels and cords die, cutting off supply to the testicles. The testicles die and eventually deteriorate. The scrotum is left intact. There is no incision, so infection is rare. It simply seems to me to be a less traumatic, safer means of wethering.

9/11/13 – How things can change on a goat farm…..

Yesterday, I had a very exciting day with the arrival of the gravel pad for the barn and the purchase of building materials for the milking room. It was a busy, productive day.

This morning, I woke up to find that Leonard had died during the night. He was just over 8 weeks old.

Leonard, his brother, Boyd, and their mother, Dru, have been in the pen in the front yard. All of the construction and changes have been going on behind the house. I’ve kept Leonard’s environment as controlled and calm as I can to give him a chance to outgrow his wobbly episodes. I haven’t seen him have a wobbly episode in over 3 weeks. I spoke to my veterinarian a few days ago and got the OK from her to start trying to integrate him with the rest of the herd. This is an activity that induced his first two wobbly episodes. I have not yet started to do that because I haven’t wanted to do so while there are so many changes going on next to the pasture.

As far as I could tell, Leonard was fine yesterday. He ate his breakfast and his dinner. He ate hay throughout the day. He drank water. Because it was such a busy day for me yesterday, I was not able to spent a significant amount of time with them, so I don’t know if he was urinating appropriately. There was nothing at all that caught my attention as abnormal. Also, there have been no recent changes in diet, no medications or vaccinations given recently.

The front yard pen is actually attached to the front of my house. One of my bedroom windows looks right into the pen. In fact, Dru has learned that she can go directly to that window and call to me if she is feeling particularly demanding. She can see right in. The entire time that this little family has been in the front yard, I have slept with that window open. It was open a few inches last night, despite the cooler temperatures. My dogs also sleep in my bedroom. I didn’t hear anything all night that woke me up. The dogs didn’t hear anything that caused them to wake me up.

I found him this morning. Other than a bloated abdomen, which could have caused his death or could have happened postmortem, he looks completely normal to me. No signs of struggle, no blood, not stuck on or in anything, just lying on his side. I have called my veterinarian. She recommended that I bring him to the University of Maine Orono Animal Health Lab for necropsy (an autopsy for animals). I have called them and am waiting to hear back as to when they would be able to examine him.

I have no idea what might have caused his death. It could be related to his wobbly episodes. It could be completely unrelated to that. I will keep you updated on the necropsy findings. It may be a few days to a few weeks depending on how quickly we are able to find answers and what tests we need to run. I want to learn what I can from Leonard. He allowed me to love him and to care for him. He brought me great joy and taught me a lot about myself and my views on farming and animal care. I feel like I owe it to him and to my herd, present and future, to learn what I can from Leonard so that I can better care for my other goats.

Unfortunately, as with everything, financial constraints will apply to the extent of the necropsy. I will definitely have a gross necropsy performed, where the examiner visually examines him externally and internally, looking for a cause of death. If no cause of death is found on gross necropsy, I will discuss other options with the lab. I will run pathology and microbiology tests that are likely to give me answers and that fall within reasonable costs.

I am hoping that we’ll be able to get answers. Whether or not we get answers, I will let you know. Hopefully, Leonard’s story can help others to learn and to better care for their animals. In the meantime, I am going to take some time to cry and to grieve for this beautiful little man that I’ve lost. I will miss him.