It seems like we only ever remember to post in here when we’re going through some sort of crisis, but things are mostly fine! We are very, very low on funds and have had to make some heart-wrenching herd cuts that we hadn’t expected yet, but such is life. Here’s a brief update of happenings over the past few months:
Mastitis Update
After 4 years of raising goats, this was our first with mastitis – we mentioned the beginning in our last blog entry. After Pickles had her injury-induced infection, mild mastitis popped up in a bunch of our other girls. One had Staph A, a couple had Staph CNS – including Pickles in the OTHER udder lobe after the Staph A went away, one had strep, and one had klebsiella. We think it’s due to the crazy amounts of rain we’ve had – all of our gravel paths washed out, the main doe shelter kept flooding, and we just could not keep things dry enough! This upcoming year, we plan to buy a few more truckloads of gravel, but we can’t afford more until we sell more goats.
But now that the season has changed and everything has had a chance to dry, we’re happy to report that all mastitis cases seem to have cleared! SCC results are back down and every culture we’ve done has been negative for the past month. For those who like to do things on your own, we highly recommend stocking up on Accumast culture plates (external link)! The brand also offers other options like Accutreat and Accustaph for more targeted ID of mastitis-causing pathogens.
Buck Collection Prep
I can’t remember whether we mentioned it before, but after 2 years of trying, we FINALLY found someone who could do buck collection for us! We had originally wanted to get onto Brandon’s schedule with Blue Mountain, but our neighbors weren’t fans of that idea and then we were supposed to have a (human) embryo transfer the day of his next stop. But we finally got onto the schedule with Levi at CryoCaprine, and a friend nearby is hosting the stop for us! So now we are flushing our boys with grain and supplements in the hope that we’ll get high quality semen, and we’re going to start syncing the does for cleanout and teasing this weekend. Having to hold back from breeding so late in the season is the worst and will make next year rough, but we’re hoping that it’ll be worth it! After collection, we’ll have a bunch of bucks and maybe straws up for grabs. These guys all have amazing genetics and we hate to see them become food, but they might have to if we can’t find buyers.
Human IVF Update
As I mentioned, we were SUPPOSED to do an embryo transfer last month. Unfortunately, my uterus did not respond to the estrogen and refused to get to the minimum 6mm thickness recommended for increasing the odds of transfer success. Studies and a class action lawsuit show that I’m probably ruined for life after having IUDs for almost 15 years. We’re going to try a couple more ideas for my lining, but even though it’s a giant corporate network, Advocate Aurora does not do any of the newer or more experimental treatments for IVF, so we might try to find somewhere in Milwaukee with more experience. if that doesn’t work, we’re not sure what to do. We are pretty sure we can’t afford surrogacy, but we’ll see.
I guess this update is still a little bit depressing, sorry haha!
