Paisley

We’ve been up and down with Paisley, one of our milking goats. She’s an edgy goat. We never know what will set her off. When she goes off, she does things like this – get spooked easily (from sounds, unfamiliar people or animals), try to sit down while I milk her, generally be uncooperative during milking, be uninterested in food, buck and kick during milking,  and/or not come readily to the barn for milking/feeding. Frequently, all these things happen during the same milking hour.

But I do love her and I want her to fully settle in here. She may not, though. She’s more than 3 years old and probably this is her personality. Which begs the question, is temperament passed on through breeding? I really don’t want any kids like her!

There’s so much I could say about her and the recent ups and downs. I’ll try to categorize.

1. Changing feed – I realized the molasses coated grains I was buying also have loads of preservatives. Ick. Not buying those anymore. So I served only dry grains (previously I was mixing dry and sweet, for a good balance). Right away, Paisley stopped eating. So did the others, but she was the worst. After about three days, she would nibble at it, instead of throwing fits. When I say throw fits, I mean that she would move her head viciously in her bowl and literally knock it off the stand or tip it over. Finally she stopped doing that.
2. Molasses – We drizzled our own molasses on the grain. Nope. The goats wouldn’t have that. Especially not Paisley. Then I watered down the molasses (three parts water, one part molasses) and drizzled it sparingly over the grains/seeds and mixed it all up. That they would eat. *relief* Praise the Lord!
3. Out of raw apple cider vinegar – I ran out of ACV for about two weeks. I pour some of that on their food also. It is good for supplying phosphorous and also overall support of the rumen. Well, they like how it tastes, so it being missing contributed to the overall food-rejection level.  I’ve been at my wit’s end lately with this pickiness!
4. Out of kelp – We give organic kelp (Thorvin brand via Azure Standard) free-choice to the animals as their whole food vitamin & mineral source. It is amazing the transformation in their coats for just one example! Some of the Nigerian Dwarf goats who have always had rougher coats are soft and smooth now. We ran out for about two weeks. We’re back in stock now, and the goats (and steer) keeping chowing down!
5. Small orifice & bump in one teat – With regard to Paisley, one of her teats started getting difficult to milk at the same time we ran out of kelp and apple cider vinegar. It isn’t mastitis, or I don’t think it is, but the orifice all of a sudden was small and very little milk would come out, even with me having a perpetually sore hand working it so hard. There’s a little bump inside the teat and also it seems like the inside udder bag is descended somewhat into that teat. So in order to pinch off the top of the teat, I have to lift the inside udder bag out of the way fully before closing my thumb and forefinger on the milk in the teat – I don’t want to burst any tissues inside! Anyway, this all started happened when we ran out of kelp (although she’s always had that little bump inside the teat). When we got kelp and ACV back on the menu, the milking improved and the milk began flowing freely, but then I changed up the feed (#1, #2, and #3) and so now it is all worse again.
6. Behavior – With all these changes, Paisley has been downright difficult on the milk stand. She wouldn’t eat on the stand, but then she would eat when down and not being milked. So even though I know the food change didn’t excite her too much, I knew she was mostly being stubborn. During milking, she would kick, buck, or try to sit down. I would have to not only deal with a very sore left hand from milking the one difficult teat, but I’d have to use my whole body to restrain her just to complete the milking. I refused to give in to her. But she continued to fight me. I can’t tell you how many times I threatened her with going in the freezer (like she could understand)! One day I came in and said to Jeff, “I’ve had it!” We decided that when she misbehaves, I would instantly take her food away, milk her out anyway, and then march her out to pasture. She would miss out on: being with the other goats (being with the herd is very important), finishing her grain, munching on dry alfalfa, love and attention. I enacted this discipline three times, not all in a row. And since then, we have had three docile milkings from her (though the one teat/udder is still hard to milk).

I’m sharing all this, without really knowing what is going to happen from here… should I stop milking Paisley? Should she go in the freezer? Is milking her (even though I am being very, very careful) making whatever is wrong on the one side worse? How can I go off to Montana in three weeks and leave someone else with the responsibility of a cranky goat? If you have any advice, I’d love to hear it! Thanks for listening.