GOATS:

Jack, is our castrated boy,he came to us in 2005 aged about 5. He was in an awful state when he arrived, very thin and bald with mange. The vet was so horrified at the state he was in he reported him to the SSPCA, but because he had been removed from his previous owner, they could do nothing.

We had to take him out on a lead for 15mins at a time to begin with to avoid any tummy upsets, as that could have killed him, he was in such a poor condition. I also had to wear a yellow boilersuit to avoid catching mange and Mike said I looked like a big banana! 

Primrose; is a lovely little girl, when we got her she had a very sore patch on her kneck from having been tethered with a bit of rope. Other than that she was a happy, healthy goat we bought as company for our other goats. She arrived in 2003 aged about 2.

Copper; is a lovely golden guernsey, with a very sad story. We were asked to take her, along with Waffle, Conker, Walnut and Heidi, by an animal sanctuary in 2006. They had been taken from a man, who had been banned in 2001 from keeping animals after starving a flock of sheep to death. He was then caught in a "compromising " position with a goat, he got off with a warning because there was no forensic evidence! In 2006 he was caught again, with these goats, sheep, a pony and cattle. Out of 8 calves taken 3 had to be put to sleep as they were too thin and weak to be saved. Again he got off with a warning! Our goats were in poor condition, but more importantly were terrified, especially of men. They are much better now and we are on the verge of introducing them to the other goats.

Waffle (centre) & Heidi (Right)

Conker; (Left) & Walnut; (Right) enjoying that much loved pastime, hay!

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Charlie; is a castrated male pygmy goat. We got him at the rare breed sale in 2007, he had been withdrawn from the sale because of the poor condition he was in and we took him. He had diarrhoea and was lame on one back foot and a front foot. Charlie, a friend of ours (who is also our vet) had a quick look at him and thought he would be OK with a bit of tlc. We decided to name the goat after him as a thank you. We had him wormed and gave him antibiotics for his feet, after trimming them. After a worm test it turned out he needed another type of wormer and the diarrhoea cleared up. Good we thought, but a few weeks later the front foot developed an abscess, we tubbed his feet twice a day in salty water and gave him more antibiotics, in all he suffered from 3 abscesses before his feet finally got better. His hair started to fall out, we think this was because of the worm burden and the condition he was in,  but thankfully it all grew in again. He lost the dead look in his eyes and started to perk up, especially when we introduced him to Indy, sadly Indy died so he was introduced to Heidi.