Hugs and Love No Matter What

The hardest part of working with injured animals is that sometimes hugs, love, and medicine are just not enough. This beautiful newborn goat stole our hearts. She was born to a family with a herd of goats, but quickly declined. She started losing her eyesight and eventually the use of her back legs. At just a few weeks old, her family reached out and we were absolutely thrilled to do everything we could to help.  If there was a chance to do daily physical therapy to get her to walk again, we didn't mind that she didn't have her eyesight - she could lead a very happy life at our Sanctuary.

We immediately drove her to our local vet team. Our doctor was worried for us. She knows we fight with all we've got, but bloodwork was indicating something was very amiss. She treated the baby for multiple symptoms -- swelling in the brain, infection, deficiencies -- and we set out on a 4 hour drive to Oklahoma State University where their team was waiting to do a deeper evaluation. 

We Wish We Lived Near This Vet Team

The drives we take to OSU are gut-wrenching. We're typically at the end of our rope, and running out of time. The first time we took our sheep, Hazel, I left in such a hurry that I didn't bring a phone charger, toothpaste, clothes -- nothing.  And spent 4 days in a hotel room driving between the hospital, hotel and Braums. 

This time was even more stressful. Our goat started having painful seizures on the drive. She was in the passenger seat, and each seizure got closer and closer to the next. The last 20 minutes were absolutely heartbreaking. 

The OSU team performed a spinal tap, to see if there was an infection that could be cured.  We received the sad news the following morning. This little one had contracted a rare listeria infection back at the family's farm. It's not contagious -- as the doctor called it "just plain bad luck."  Even if the blindness and muscle loss had been caught in the first 24 hours at the farm she would have had a 30% chance of survival. Today, her seizures had almost overtaken her existence. She was blind, could not use her back legs, and was suffering. We all knew we had to help her pass peacefully.

She was showered in hugs and love for the 2 days we had her. She slept in a bed, was bottle fed and snuggled to sleep. We would do it all again because we all deserve this care in our final days. All of us.