The devastating loss of Spotless

I have some bad news. Spotless, our beautiful billy goat, died suddenly yesterday. He had been fine on Monday. On Tuesday morning, I found him unwell with terrible diarrhoea. He didn’t want to eat anything. Spot, his very pregnant sister, though not suffering from diarrhoea, was equally lethargic and off her food. I decided to see if they were recovering by lunchtime and if not, I would call the vet. My visit to them in the early afternoon was a shock. Spotless was far worse. I immediately called the vet but he died before she arrived.

This is a devastating loss for us. He was a fabulous looking animal and had just become a father. With such a death, I wanted a postmortem. My guess is that he had eaten something, as had Spot (though probably in a smaller quantity).

Ellen, the vet, advised at that point against medical treatment of Spot as otherwise it would cause her to terminate her pregnancy. Spot needed to be monitored and a decision would need to be taken on treatment if she showed no improvement. She also advised that we give Spot some vegetable oil to help flush out her system.

I checked on Spot at 10pm, midnight and then at 4am. She was settled but uncomfortable with constant grunting and regular stomach contractions. At 8am, when we fed all the animals, the grunts and contractions had stopped but it seemed she was still not interested in food, until we gave her fresh grass which she more enthusiastically ate.

Throughout Wednesday, Spot showed more signs of recovery. She is now eating normally (see hoto below) and was especially keen on the hawthorn branches we now give the goats. The good news is that her recovery means she doesn’t need medical treatment. That means her pregnancy should run to its full term (in about 2-3 weeks she is due).

Spotless was collected today to go for a postmortem. We await the result. We are missing him greatly.

Until 2009 I was working in London, UK, but I gave it up to pursue a life of self-sufficiency. My aim is to grow or forage for all my food, produce my own power and live a healthier and greener lifestyle. I left London to return to my home village of Sunniside, near Newcastle, in the North East of England. I have a couple of plots of land there as well as the garden of my house. Our village is a commuter area for Newcastle but we are surrounded by countryside which we use for picking wild foods. My mission in life is to show that it is possible to live well without destroying the planet in the process. I am also keen to ensure knowledge of historic recipes and cooking is kept alive. I regularly try out recipes from old cookbooks using the food we have grown. I make videos about our progress and about how to cook home-grown foods. These can be viewed on www.youtube.com/jonathanwallace.
www.self-sufficientinsuburbia.blogspot.com