Goat Fund Us: Update #54

Hello everyone,

Time for another update from the farm – and this is not at all what I had planned to write about – but we just had an unexpected development that ended in an abrupt goodbye.

Farm life isn’t always as idyllic and easy as it looks from the outside and with a farm of the animal population similar to a small village and a large human community in the form of visitors, volunteers and staff, there is a lot that happens in the course of one day – and the days often end very differently than they’ve begun.

Last Friday, June 12th was one of those days – where an expected to be really special and fun celebration day turned into a day of heartbreak and goodbye – but there is no other choice but to get through the day and keep going. On that day we had planned to celebrate our 41st farm anniversary – a day to remember so many times spent together (good and sad), the countless encounters of human and animal kind, the many friendships built and farm-life lessons learned and truly just to take a moment to reflect how far the farm has come in all those years.

But then reality hit and this supposedly happy day turned into the day when we had to let our little baby goat JoeJoe go.

We would like to take this opportunity to remember him and his sadly short but memorable life together. JoeJoe was born on March 2nd this year as part of a batch of healthy triplets to strong and experienced mum Cookies&Cream. He grew up alongside his brothers Bean and Java and everything appeared fine – just like a normal baby goat lives, jumps, eats, plays and sleeps. Mid April was the first time we observed him being different to his siblings, he seemed to be slower, staring off into space, not as playful or eager to nurse. A consultation with the vet showed all his body functions (heart, lungs, rumen etc) being normal and resulted in the administration of pain medication and several different minerals and vitamins. We also learned that he needed more food to keep up his energy and from then on he was continuously bottle fed several times a day. That seemed to help him a lot, he acted more happy and relaxed, being often a little slower than his siblings and sleeping more, but otherwise little JoeJoe was going his way and appeared to be a normal baby goat.

Then just a week before the farm anniversary JoeJoe took a sudden and drastic turn to the worse. He stopped eating, wasn’t chewing his cud anymore and showed signs of being neurologically unwell. We went for an emergency visit to the vet who due to this severe decline treated him for several deficiencies and illnesses at once. Back at the farm JoeJoe was on a regiment of different medications and supplements and we tried our best with helping him eat and keeping him comfortable – all the while hoping that one of the treatments would start to work. Lots of long hours with the additional care for this precious little guy mixed in with many worries (and some frustration and a feeling of helplessness) and after a few days JoeJoe showed a small improvement by being able to eat small portions unassisted. But this small flower of hope was soon withered when his condition started to decline again. Our vet sent blood samples for testing his organ functions to the lab and with those findings coming in right before the farm’s anniversary we lost our last hope for JoeJoe’s recovery. The results showed that he had a liver shunt which meant that blood vessels were bypassing the liver and toxins were not filtered out but instead made their way through the body and into the brain. This led to neurological issues, disorientation, tremors, stargazing etc – many symptoms that we could directly observe in little JoeJoe’s behaviour. It is a rare congenital vascular birth defect, so unknowing to us he had this condition since birth and the toxins were slowly and continuously getting into his brain. We learned through our vet and our own research that JoeJoe’s prognosis was very poor and there are no treatment options. While digesting all this new information JoeJoe was visibly doing worse even just overnight. It was very sad to watch – he was clearly disoriented while still looking for his mum, his milk bottle and trying to follow us around. We made the only fair (and difficult) decision we could take in this situation: To prevent JoeJoe from any more suffering he would get euthanized on the morning of what happened to be our farm anniversary. This farm is all about doing the best we can for our animals – even if that means on some days making the heartbreaking decision to let an animal go. 

And there we were on this “to be a celebratory day”: a small group of staff, our trusted vet and a little confused baby goat – and we told him how much we loved him and thanked him for our time together and all that he had taught us. It was peaceful, he was relaxed and felt safe among people he trusted, and little JoeJoe took his last walk over the rainbow bridge – where we know he will be welcomed by many special animals friends.

JoeJoe leaves behind his mum Cookies who is still mourning his loss, his brothers Bean and Java and many humans who will forever carry the memory of this loving easy-going and cuddly baby goat into our hearts.

We each have our own personal memories of JoeJoe and we will treasure them forever.

For us here at the farm every goodbye hurts: 

It doesn’t matter if they were large or small, if they stayed with us for a long or a short time (in a way the time we have with them is always too short), if they were very social or rather shy – we care for them the best we can with all the time, work and love we can give. Every single being counts, they are each unique and treasured – and when they go, they leave a hole. 

This time we have a “JoeJoe shaped” hole in our heart – that looks like a little quirky sweet baby goat with his ears held at an awkward angle and gentle eyes that look right into your soul.

RIP little friend JoeJoe – you’ll be forever in our heart.

Thank you all for your continuous support and for taking the time to read JoeJoe’s story and to remember him together.

Next update I’ll share some more upbeat news.

Take care and always keep a smile in your heart,

Claudia