This past weekend has not been kind to me. I notice that one of the goats had a runny eye. I thought maybe she had something in it. Nope, turns out she has the pinkeye. YIKES!!!!! This can spread through my herd very fast. So , I pulled her out and put her away from the other goats and have started treatment on her. I also doctored on the others. What I do when I notice one has the pinkeye, is this: (1) seperate the infected goat (2) start treatment asap. I have used neosporene in the eye, right under the eye lid, or take pencillin and squirt in into the eye. (3) for the other goats, I take listerine and wash around their eyes and put either neosprene or pencillin squirts in their eyes.
Pinkeye is also called conjunctivitis or infectious keratoconjunctivitis. It is a bacteria that is caused by flies or dust. The symptoms will usually be red- eyes, cloudy look to their eyes, almost like they have cataracts,they even act like they are blind. This can lead to blindness also. It usually takes about 2 weeks for it to get cleared up if you catch it in time. Which is what I hope I have done. None of the other goats is showing signs of it. So maybe I have stopped the spread of it.
I had a barrel race Saturday , about one hour away from home. I get there, get saddled up, and reach in for the headstall and reins. Yup, you guessed it. It wasn't there. A few blue words came out of my mouth. I ended up borrowing a headstall from one person, a bit from another, and reins from someone else. I was next to the last one to run. Had people making sure the alleway was clear for we didn't know how she would react to this new bit. I had a special bit made for her for she runs away with me. I had the smoothest run on her that I have ever had. I even got her stopped. So, my next thing to do is , buy a bit just like that.
We finially have rain. It has rained here for 2 days straight. Thank you God. We have needed rain real bad. Maybe now the hay fields will produce along with my garden.
Have a good one.