Goodbye Carly

Carly was a very special member of our goat herd. She will be greatly missed and always remembered for a lot of special reasons.

Carly was born here at the farm in 2008, she grew up to be a good and strong goat with lots of friends. In 2011 she gave birth for the first time. Her beautiful babies were named Chester and Charlotte.

In 2013 a difficult part of Carly’s life began. She appeared to have trouble eating properly, and the vet diagnosed teeth problems. She got her teeth fixed as good as possible and we started a new diet. From then on, she was eating a warm soft mash made with soaked alfalfa cubes and grain. She was able to chew that very well and ate happily. Unfortunately, her troubles weren’t over yet. She was pregnant by accident (due to our rather active billy) and when she went into labour she couldn’t deliver the baby on her own. So, we took her to another trip to the vet for an emergency c-section, during which she unfortunately lost her baby. We didn’t think her chances of recovering were very high, but our vet believed in Carly’s strength and we brought her back to the farm. A long recovery started: Carly was very weak because she was so skinny and missed her baby. She required lots of small portions of food and big doses of love. And very slowly, she grew stronger and happier, and could then go back in with the other goats. Most of her hair was growing back and Carly gained weight.

We found her a friend in our oldest goat Peg who was going through a rough period as well because she had just lost her sister. After some time it became obvious that these two were a really good match. Peg needed someone to snuggle up against and Carly needed a friend who she could hide behind. They became inseparable. They shared a stall, cuddling up against each other at night. They both had some trouble with their teeth and ate the same food. They looked out for each other. Carly learned from Peg to enjoy treats, after a long time of scepticism she discovered that bananas are delicious – one of the best things ever. For Carly it also was very important to have a goat as her friend who was so calm and self assured – certain traits of character that Carly didn’t possess herself. It gave her great comfort that her “goat buddy” was like a rock for her. And Carly could be Peg’s ears and eyes (because our old lady’s hearing and eyesight weren’t that great anymore), and so she could alert Peg when food or treats were coming. They were made for each other.

Carly then spent several good years at the farm. Her teeth were a constant reason for worry, but with regular check ups and a good diet she was content. She exhibited her wonderful crazy character again. In Carly’s mind everything seemed to be “fast forward” and every new thing in her environment was a reason to worry and to be suspicious. Her life was based on routine, whenever something changed, she would show her disapproval right away. Carly had a great sense of time – feeding time of course. At least one hour before every feeding time Carly would stand by the fence and alert the staff with her rather funny little voice, that it was time now to prepare and soak her food and of course don’t ever forget to bring it down to her stall.

In spring 2016, there were more problems with her teeth than before. The vet had to remove another tooth and then she lost one more while eating. Even though she was still very much interested in her food, she seemed to be more and more frustrated with it, because some days she wasn’t able to eat her entire portion. And she also had trouble with her cud, spitting it out instead of swallowing it again. Due to that she started losing weight and became anemic. The vet diagnosed that her teeth were probably the reason for her inability to eat properly and there was no treatment option. And we would have done anything for her, but we couldn’t give her new teeth. In the end, we didn’t want her to suffer and made the decision to put her down.

We were trying to help her friend Peg to mourn our common loss and we are keeping Carly alive in our memory. RIP Carly.

April 2016