Magnum

On January 24 of this year, at 9:00 in the morning, a pygmy goat baby was born on my farm. The temperature outside was -19. The twin of this little boy didn't make it, as he was born in the snow, but this tough little guy was born in some hay, which gave him some warmth. The only reason I discovered him right away was because one of my Shelties, Gannon, got out of the backyard and I was running around trying to catch him. Which he thought was a fun game, of course. That's when I noticed the mama goat making a sound that wasn't usual. When I discovered him in the barn, I immediately took him into the house.

Tate was a good helper for me with getting the goat started on bottle feeding. I decided to name him Magnum, keeping with my tradition of naming my baby goats after Dodges. Magnum was scared the first day, but after that, he became used to being a house-goat.

Once he was a week old, he was unable to walk and I noticed his hooves and ears were swolled. I took him to my vet, who said he had frostbite and it would take three weeks for the swelling to go down, plus he would definitely lose his ears, and his back hooves could possibly fall off. He has been healing ever since. His ears did fall off and he is blind in his right eye. His front hooves are fine and his left back hoof just lost some fur, skin, and a little cartilege or something. His back right hoof is still sloughing off dead skin. He will lose more fur and skin, but I can't tell yet if he will lose his whole hoof or not. As long as he has the other 3 hooves, I think he will be okay. He has been getting around well for the past 2 weeks and is now able to run and jump a bit.

He gets along well with the kids and the dogs. He has been trying to headbutt everybody and doesn't understand why nobody does it back. He even headbutts our legs when we walk by him. He knows my voice very well and follows me everywhere I go. He loves sleeping on the dog pillow, especially if there's dogs on it. I'll be happy when he's healed and the weather is nice so he can play outside with the other goats. Though he's not much trouble in the house, I know he will have to move to the barn soon. The dogs may even miss him!