Just last week, one of our goats (doe) developed a serious case of pneumonia and nearly died. Our vet came out, treated her, and left a supply of medicine for us to inject her with over the course of the next four days. Tia, our goat, is doing much better now. However, out of that near-disaster, came a decision to leave the large barn door open at night for ventilation purposes. Why was the barn door closed at night to begin with? A nearby neighbor's goats had recently been attacked by a bear (we live in Rappahannock County, Virginia). My husband and sons were convinced that we needed to keep the barn door closed to protect our goats from possible bear attacks. We do not live on a wooded lot (mostly cleared pasture)and I felt our goats were at a higher risk of dying from pneumonia than of dying from a bear attack.

-- Liz Rhein (merhein@shentel.net), June 25, 2000

Answers

Oops! Looks like I pressed the submit button before I finished my thread! Sorry! The rest of the message is on the next "Goats and Pneumonia" thread, right after this one. Mea culpa...

-- Liz Rhein (merhein@shentel.net), June 25, 2000.