Well now I can be funny about Dottie Belle's near death experience. But she was so pitiful looking, that I was sure she was going to die. Saturday afternoon when I got back from Kennedy's birthday party, Dottie Belle was just standing in the back of the goat yard acting like she could not move. Her stance was very strange. As she made her way to the fence, she walked like she was blind; stumbling over things. And now I know she really was blind. I've already written how impossible it was to get her to a vet on Sunday.
Dr. Glen Ritter, my son's father-in-law, did some research on line, after I talked with Dr. Powers and he told me she likely had "stargazing" polio. It is nothing like the viral polio that humans gets. It is caused by a lack of thymine. This was caused by feeding the goats the goat feed that I bought a the feed store. The girls love it because it is coated with molasses. When the goats, Don and I arrived Monday morning at Dr. Powers office, he asked me if I knew what caused this. I replied, "Yes I had read about it on the internet. It is the grain that I was feeding them." http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/U/UNP-0065/
Feeding grain causes a common metabolic disorder characterized by neuro-muscular alterations of goats that are thiamine deficient. I said, "They love it so much." When I had visited 2 goats farms, the owners were feeding them grain. Dr. Powers said "It is too rich for them." I said, "But they think they are rich goats." He said, "They are going to be dead rich goats. God made goats to eat grass (hay), twigs and briars. You can put just a very small amount of sweet grain in the palm of your hand and they can eat it rarely as a treat."
At 6 pm, yesterday, I let the girls out of their yard and they were running around as if Dottie Belle had not been so close to death. She is not blind anymore.
So this morning when I went out to feed and water everyone, all Dottie Belle and Gypsy got was water and alfalfa. They yelled at me as I walked all the way back to the house. I know they were saying "Where's the good stuff."
Sorry girls.