A few days ago, we had the unfortunate luck of finding one of our does dead. She was laying in the doorway to the chicken house. Best as I can tell, goats are usually pretty good about letting you know when they are sick, and this one showed no prior signs of illness. The ground around her was not stirred up, looks like she just pretty much fell over. She was bloated, but we've decided is was not a bloat death for a few reasons. No signs of snake, dog or other bites. 2 curious clues though - 1 she had a teardrop of blood in her eye (the eye was intact), and when we moved her to the truck, she expelled the bloat and some blood blew from her nose. We are convinced (as is our vet, but he did not see her) that it was shock/heart attack. There were 2 possible instigators: We have let our St Bernards have been loose in the pasture lately. They have not posed any threat previously, and 2 there were about 30 geese visiting that day. Everyone laughs about the geese, but we did watch them effectively run-off every other animal (except the St.s) from the corn pile. We think perhaps a goose or dog caught her off guard in the chicken house and she freaked, perhaps smacking her head on a perch, then expired. Anyone have another thought?
We'll miss her. She was one of the first two we got. She, (Sherry) is the white one, Karen is the captive black one, and that's the boss, Lynn as captor.