Swiss Frau Farm Products

Summer has arrived. Spring was really interesting. Baby goats, the open house, then a lot of mysteriously sick goats which are all recovered now.

We had 6 babies born. Only one of the births was a classic birth. The other two were troublesome but all survived and with good veterinarians all was well. Three females and 3 males. Two girls will go to a new home soon. One boy will stay so we have a few goats for sale yet.

Three days after our open house the youngest kid was diagnosed with sore mouth. This is a highly contagious virus that is transmittable to people as well as sheep and goats. Even though all the guests had to step in a boot bath and wash hands this virus still was transmitted to the most vulnerable. It was a long four and a half weeks of isolating this kid, washing everything constantly. I went through 3 hazmat suits, 600 gloves and many containers of lysol wipes. The kid was isolated for the entire time and did not get to socialize with the other kids, jump and play or snuggle. This virus is like shingles, produces scabs and often results in serious secondary infections. The virus lives 12 years in the scabs so you can imagine what the clean up was like around the kid’s crate and then disposing of the bedding.  So glad this chapter is over now. He is a healthy kid and has learned to climb and play.

The incident has caused me to rethink the annual open house. We are probably not going to have guests in our barn anymore and restrict goat viewing to over the fence. Bio security is a difficult thing to put into practice and as diligent as we were we fell short of having guests don coveralls which is not even possible. It was a learning experience.

The goats are loafing in the barn most of the time in the fans. It is cool and comfortable and they are not bothered by insect pests in the barn. On cool or windy days they go out to forage in the pasture. They always have a choice but they love the barn.