It's Sunday night. I preached this morning. Put those two together and you've got a whooped old man who weighs about half a ton stuck in his recliner. I asked Pam if she wanted to go out for dinner, 'cause I'd be right here when she got home.
I love the passage I preached on (Mk. 1:40ff, the healing of the leper) and the folks at University Fellowship Church (UFC) are alert, responsive listeners who help the preacher on his way. I've been at this long enough to sincerely believe any outcomes are God's doing and the true measure of a sermon is the degree to which God is pleased. But truth be told, I also wanted our pastor, Brett, to approve. It was a leap of faith on his part to ask me, pastors are appropriately protective about their flock, and I'm hoping he's not watching Sunday Night Football wondering, "What in the world made me think that would work?!"
I didn't post last night because we were in a bit of a state here. Asante, the younger of the two kids who was born on 12/20, has been fighting the scours ever since we began the transition from the doe's milk Marta sent us home with to the replacer that carries us through to weaning at 12 weeks. Itzhak, the older kid born 12/14 had been doing great and started yesterday like a frenetic lunatic, running and jumping all over the place. By noon he was lethargic and by 6 p.m. he was in full blown scours. During the day Asante go worse, and by the supper I told Pam I wasn't sure they'd make it through the night. I reached out to everyone I know with any knowledge and experience with goats - the goat forum I joined, Sheila, our VIF in AZ who raises goats, and Marta. I got lots of advice, including forum members who told me all we'd done wrong, and to go to the feed store and get _____, ignoring the fact it was New Year's Eve.
They refused the Pedialyte, continued to go downhill, and we accepted that this might be the end. Pam decided to sleep in the chair in the living room with the goatrs so I could get better sleep in bed. That way she could continue to try to get liquids in them every couple of hours. Marta responded to my message and called about 9 p.m. as I was headed to bed and I explained what was going on.
Marta came over this morning after I'd left for church. She thinks they'll be OK (very good news from a trusted expert) and brought with her two gallons of doe's milk. We'll give them that for the next 48 hours and then begin again the transition to replacer, but THIS time we'll do it in increments of 25% at 24 hours each to give their delicate digestive system plenty of time to adjust to the change. We'll continue with Probios to keep their gut full of good bacteria and keep a close eye on their output. By the time we get to Tuesday we *should* be back to the normal pellets.
Hey, the people are the best part - the gracious people at church who gave me good feedback after my sermon, a dear friend in AZ who gave us encouragement and wisdom about very sick goats, a local breeder and sister in Christ who's been very patient with these two newbies to whom she sold two bucklings.
If you resolved to waste more time online in 2017 I'm here to help:
Atlas Obscura
You're welcome.
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