Reed Ranch- Cute & Tasty

Today we decided to cut the goats hooves. It turned out to be very interesting. We started with Happy Birthday. She is our trial and error goat. Asa would cut the hooves and I would hold the goats head in a bucket of feed. We tag teamed it very well. Asa only cut too far once. It bled a little. However, he did learn, you shouldn't pull a goat by its horns if it is under one years old. The horns are not fully developed and they can break off. The goats horn ripped most of the way off right in his hand. It was a bloody mess. It looked like "massive head wound harry" so her new name is Harriet. We weren't sure what to do at first so we separated the girl, Harriet, until we could get the necessary supplies to fix her up. Asa had to cut off the horn the rest of the way then we cleaned the wound with water and iodine. We put 4x4 bandages on with pressure and wrapped its head to secure the bandages. The badages kept slipping and were blood soaked. We ran out of the 4x4s so we had to use a femanine napkins instead. Once the bandages were secure we gave Harriet a shot of pennicillin. Now she stands out of the herd because she only has one horn.

Another story about trimming the goats hooves. A while back when we were still living in CO Asa ripped his big toe nail off the bed, while he was walking Woody. It took about 3 months for his toe nail to fall off. It has been doing just fine, but the last few weeks it has become very sensitive. Asa was going to the foot Dr. for another issue and had her look at his big toe nail. She said "thats infected and needs to come off". After trying to talk his way out of it and lots of sweating the Dr won. He came home with his toe all bandaged up. The next day it looked like he had bright red nail polish on his big toe. Today he was able to get his boots on but he is still very guarded about his toe. Here is where the goats come into play. He went into the pen to pull out another goat so it could get its hooves cut while another one stepped on his toe ( the one without the nail). It hurt so bad. In his agony he reached for something to hold onto. He grabbed the electric fence wire which was hot and he electricuted himself, Again. It was a picture that could have come from the FARSIDE calender.

We found out Woody loves to eat cut off goat nails. He couldnt get enough of them. He was trying to catch them out of the air while Asa was cutting them off the goats. Yes this is very gross but, true. Tomorrow we cut the Billy Goats Hooves. I wonder if we will have as many interesting stories.