First, I will start this post by saying that I am not blaming her new owners for what happend. I am using her death as a public service announcement in hopes that this does not happen to another family.
I called this post, "My Name Was Ginger" because she passed away on May 4, 2018. Ginger was a great doe and I really cared for her. She was the first animal born on my farm to officially carry the Sliceofalmostheaven herdname. My plans were to keep her here until her natural death, many years from now. But she proved too aggressive once she became herd queen to be in a larger herd. So she was sold. Thankfully, I have a daughter that is the spitting image and personality of her mother, minus the aggressiveness.
She passed away because of an occurrence that I have heard far too often. She was tied out in a field to graze unsupervised. I do not know all of the details, but I'm sure she either got entangled and hung herself or fell somehow and hung herself. No matter how it happened the results were the same, a dead goat.
I impolor anyone who has goats, PLEASE do not tie out your goat. You might get lucky and not have anything happen the first time, but goats are good at getting into trouble. Also, a stray dog (coyote) could come around while you are away and kill the goat. Being tied up they cannot get away.
I always think of my goats as 3yr old children, and treat them as such when it comes to their safety. We have GFCI plugs in the barn so the goats do not fry themselves or burn down the barn. We use safety heat lamps with redundant connections so the kids do not burn the milkbarn down. You get the idea.
The final thing I will say on this topic is for anyone wanting to tie out a goat (or any other livestock) plan on supervising the animal, better yet buy temporary fencing. Don't suffer the heartbreak of a dead animal.
I called this post, "My Name Was Ginger" because she passed away on May 4, 2018. Ginger was a great doe and I really cared for her. She was the first animal born on my farm to officially carry the Sliceofalmostheaven herdname. My plans were to keep her here until her natural death, many years from now. But she proved too aggressive once she became herd queen to be in a larger herd. So she was sold. Thankfully, I have a daughter that is the spitting image and personality of her mother, minus the aggressiveness.
She passed away because of an occurrence that I have heard far too often. She was tied out in a field to graze unsupervised. I do not know all of the details, but I'm sure she either got entangled and hung herself or fell somehow and hung herself. No matter how it happened the results were the same, a dead goat.
I impolor anyone who has goats, PLEASE do not tie out your goat. You might get lucky and not have anything happen the first time, but goats are good at getting into trouble. Also, a stray dog (coyote) could come around while you are away and kill the goat. Being tied up they cannot get away.
I always think of my goats as 3yr old children, and treat them as such when it comes to their safety. We have GFCI plugs in the barn so the goats do not fry themselves or burn down the barn. We use safety heat lamps with redundant connections so the kids do not burn the milkbarn down. You get the idea.
The final thing I will say on this topic is for anyone wanting to tie out a goat (or any other livestock) plan on supervising the animal, better yet buy temporary fencing. Don't suffer the heartbreak of a dead animal.
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