New buck on the farm

Since the coyotes (or something) decided that our other buck (Biscuit) would make a better dinner for them then a pet for us we have been looking for a new buck to breed the does.

This is Billy, how original huh? He came with that name, but it may change. The day we went to get him it was raining so I decided I'd just take the van.That way he'd be inside instead of in an open crate in the back of the truck, and risk making him sick. I recruited my friend *D* to go with me in case I needed help, I wasn't sure how friendly he was going to be. As it turned out he is very gentle and loaded very easy. I tied him in the back between the back seat and the back doors and he laid and road home very quiet. In fact he was so comfy back there that once we got home I had to do a little convincing to get him out of the van. Little did he know he had two does standing at the gate anxiously awaiting for his arrival.... I had noticed the day before that the LaMancha and Toggenburg were both in heat.

As goats do when bringing a new one into the herd they had to start shoving each other around and head butting one another.... somewhere in the process of all this the LaMancha, Pipsqueak, got her horn hooked in the stock panel and couldn't get it out. *D* and I were trying to get Pipsqueak's head turned just right to get the horn unstuck, but were not having much luck. I went inside the barn to call all the other in, thinking if they weren't running around us we could put more focus on the job at hand. No sooner did I get the other goats secured inside the barn when I heard Pipsqueak holler and *D* yelled for me to come out. I couldn't imagine what happened. When I got to the front door of the barn *D* was saying "she just ripped her horn off"! All I could envision was blood everywhere so I headed for the house to get the blood stop powder and all of the sudden *Z* started screaming and crying, he had witnessed the whole thing and with all the commotion was scared and confused. When I got back from the house I found *D* standing in front of the barn, with the shell of Pipsqueak's horn in her hand, trying to console *Z*. He wanted no part of her as long as she had that horn in her hand.

When I got back to Pipsqueak she wasn't bleeding nearly as bad as I had envisioned she would be - thankfully! I dumped some blood stop powder on her head, separated her from the rest of the herd and kept checking on her the rest of the day to make sure she was okay.

She seems to be doing okay, but I can tell that stub is really sensitive. This has deffinetly knocked her down a few rungs in the pecking order, as she will be avoiding all the other goats until this heals up, because she doesn't want them butting her (I can't blame her).