I thought the circling was bad. But watching my doe twirl in place was nothing compared to arriving with goat breakfast in hand Friday morning...and only having one goat meet me at the door. Artemesia was hidden beneath the milking stand, her eyes open but no other movement when I approached and begged her to get up. She ate a couple of pieces of carrots out of my hand after much coaxing. Then...nothing.

The next two days are a bit of a blur. After shots of an anti-inflammatory, an antibiotic, and thiamine...plus two hours of crying (on my part) and sleep (on her part), Artemesia finally got to her feet. I was able to tempt her into eating a few carrot slices and honeysuckle over the course of the day by handfeeding her the way you feed paper into a shredder --- lining everything up perfectly and sometimes sending another piece through to dislodge the first if it gets stuck. But, overall, she appeared barely conscious.

The next morning, though, Artemesia was a little better...especially after I brought her down into the trailer to warm up in front of the wood stove. (It was eleven degrees outside, after all!) She still needed help consuming food, but at least her appetite had returned so she was interested in eating.

Unfortunately, by midafternoon, a heavy fever hit and she was down once again. This time, her head was burning up but the rest of her body was shaking hard. So I put her under my coat and held her for a couple of hours until the fever broke.

Once again, I walked her down to the trailer. It was nearly sunset at this point and I couldn't bear the thought of her freezing up in the barn all night while in her weakened state. But clouds rolled in and the temperature warmed. Meanwhile, Artemesia started feeling good enough to tramp around underneath the elevated sofa where we'd stashed her. She wasn't sleeping, I wasn't sleeping, and poor Aurora was crying up in the pasture where she wasn't sleeping either. So, at half past midnight, I limped my sick doe back up the hill and sent her to bed with her daughter.

I was afraid to check on Artemesia Saturday morning...but she actually looked a little better yet. I brought an armload of honeysuckle and she actually dived in and ate without assistance (although still slower than I would have liked). The vet came and gave her an extra dose of B vitamins plus a steroid, then took a fecal sample (since we both suspect worms might be wreaking havoc on her weakened system despite a dose of copper and, later, of Safeguard).

We'll have word back on her fecal sample today. In the meantime, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that Artemesia continues to improve. I feel like she's already proved the medical world wrong twice --- according to the vet, once a goat goes down she usually doesn't get back up. Artemesia has picked herself up and brushed herself off twice now, so I hope she's willing to settle in for the long haul of frequent honeysuckle feedings and a return to full health.

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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