Life on the Farm

I know you'd probably like to see more pics of the new babies, but frankly I can't bring myself to take any right now. One of the nastier sides of having new babies is the "necessary"? evil of disbudding. Reason says it's necessary (much safer for humans and goats alike if there are no horns ready to stab or get stuck in fences). Everything else in me hates it. You're essentially burning rings down to the skull to kill nerves that would grow into horns. Since they're 3rd degree burns, there's not a lot of pain after the initial burn. A lot of nasty smoke, a bit of screaming from the baby- mostly from not liking being held down. One thing I hadn't heard of, though, was the possibility of brain damage from over-heating the little skull/brain. I think little Molly has some (a lot?) brain damage, but am taking her to the vet in the morning to see if there's anything we can do or if she might get better in time. Bilbo seems to be ok, though he hates me now. We didn't disbud Lolly yet, as she doesn't have buds yet. I've also discovered a lump under mama Nellie's jaw, which could be A) a cyst/abscess from an injury B) an overabundance of worms/parasites in her system C) CL disease- incredibly contagious and sometimes fatal. She's going to the vet as well. Sorry for the downer post, but unfortunately that's life on the farm right now.