Luciano the Caprine Tripod

  Last Monday, I was heading out to do evening chores when I noticed I was short one small and slightly annoying little goat. The two kids, Amelia and Luciano, always follow me around while I'm out doing chores, but that evening I only had half of the duo haunting my steps. It was starting to get dark, so I finished putting the birds away then went in search of my sweet little Luciano. I found him laying in the middle of the pasture by himself stoutly refusing to come to me. Very weird. 

  As I walked over to him, Luch awkwardly got up on his feet, three of then anyway. He wouldn't put any weight on one of his rear legs and refused to move from the spot. I tried explaining to the little guy that he had three other legs and was, in fact, capable of moving around with said legs. He firmly disagreed and held his ground with a little, pathetic "buh buh buh" which in goat speak roughly translates to, "Nope, I'm broken and done for! Just leave me here to die!" The boy has obviously inherited his mother and half sister's flair for the dramatic. 

  

  With a sigh, I scooped up the pathetic creature and carried him inside. I examined the leg and found a good amount of heat and swelling around the right rear hock. Keeping my fingers crossed that he'd just gotten it caught in something and had a bad sprain, I started him on some homeopathic and herbal anti-inflammatories and hoped that he would get better in the next couple days. 

 By Wednesday, he'd figured out that he could move on three legs, but the leg still felt warm and swollen. He wasn't putting any weight at all on the leg. It was time to call in some professional help. My boss graciously allowed me to bring him in to work with me for an exam and xrays. Amelia came along for moral support and because these two are completely inseparable.

   They were complete angels in the car....except that Amelia somehow managed to pee all over Luciano's rear end! First order of business on arriving at the office was a quick goat bath for the boy.

 Both the kids had a great time running around the parking lot before the office opened.

 They even helped prune some of the landscaping. So helpful.

 But most of the day was spent cuddled together in a big dog crate in the back of the office. I have to say both kids took the change of pace in stride. They were very happy to come out and meet new people and dogs. They came when I called and made very few messes on the office floor. Having a pocket full of corn and frosted mini-wheats helped.

 We did have one client want to know how often we saw rabbits at our office. I'm pretty sure he didn't believe me when I told him the  pellets out in the grass came from my little goats.

  Finally, at the end of the day Luciano got x-rayed. Turned out he had a fractured tibia. You can see the crack toward the bottom right of the above picture. Best guess is he either got the leg caught in something or one of the larger goats nailed him. If that's the case, my money's on Josie for this one.

  My boss made a splint out of fiberglass casting material that we can easily remove in case it gets wet or dirty. Luciano laid on his side on the exam table like a champ while we wrapped the leg in layers of padding, attached the splint, then wrapped the whole thing up in manly blue vet wrap.

  For the next couple weeks, both kids will be living in the backyard pen to keep the little guy from further injury and to make sure that splint stays clean and dry.
  We are hoping that Luciano will start putting weight on the splinted leg soon. I've started doing some clicker training to try and encourage him to put the leg down more. We'll also need to change out the bandaging in a couple days. Hopefully, that the leg will be healed in just a few weeks so the kids can be let loose again. I miss my little "helpers" out there!