Dead Goat?

[dobber30052]

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.

[davidh]

Dobber: I have 25 goats and over the last two years I lost 5 with no marks on them. I couldn't figure out what happened. In January my wife came home and found 14 of my goats dead. She saw several dogs leaving the property. There were no marks on the goats, but their necks were wet where the dogs had shook them to death. That's why stray dogs are allowed to be shot in Texas. I've got a llama now and my rifle by the door.

[EJB]

Wow, loosing all those goats in one day must have been awful...sorry to hear about it.

I would hate to have to shoot a dog, but under those circumstances I don't think I'd have a problem with it.

I am pretty sure it is legal to shoot strays in Mass as well, but then again the cops would probably confiscate your guns first and sort out the laws later [img]/forums/images/icons/mad.gif[/img] ...guess if you shoot a stray you bury it and forget about it as opposed to reporting it to anyone (i.e. your nieighbors who may be missing a dog!).

"Shoot, shovel and shutup" is a motto I have heard around here before...seems like good advice. [img]/forums/images/icons/ooo.gif[/img]

[Dob]

Wow, that's an interesting (and upsetting) tale. I might consider that as a possible occurence, but 2 things, 1: I don't think either of the dogs in the area (my pet Saints) would do that, chase maybe, but not shake one to death, but, you never know; and 2: she was only down for maybe 2 hours at the most, probably more like one, before she was found. I looked her over <font color="red">very</font color> closely, and felt probably every inch of her (small) body. Who knows though? IF something like this happens again, I will remember your story.
As far as the shootin goes, can't do that right here, county regs prohibit it, best I can do is use the bb gun. Strays have never been a problem though, we're pretty well fenced.
Thanks for the advice.