Here at Lucky Glider Rescue & Sanctuary, we are very grateful for our volunteers. When it comes time to do hoof trims, inoculations, and de-worming — it’s almost impossible to do it alone. Fortunately for us, friends of the sanctuary Jennifer and her son Wesley were at the ready early this Saturday morning.
In this video you will see our gentle doe LuLu on the grooming stand getting her hooves trimmed. She also got a subcutaneous shot of annual CDT, and an oral application of de-wormer. She kicked a little as you can see but for the most part she was well-behaved.
In fact, the entire herd was on their best behavior today, with only a few of the goats digging their heels in and putting up a fuss about getting up the ramp onto the stand.
Preparing for the trims is a little time-consuming. First, we loaded-up the Mahindra UTV with the aluminum stand, stanchion, and ramp. We gathered together a braided lead, shepherds’ crook, fence pliers, and some wire to fasten the ramp.
We also brought along some vet wrap and some corn starch in anticipation of cutting a few quicks back too far. Luckily, only a few small drops of blood were drawn so we didn’t need the wrap. We stuff a styrofoam container with ice packs and the CDT vial to keep the medicine cool. Also brought along some spare syringes and needles.
We used oral Cydectin for sheep as the wormer. It’s clear unlike the bovine variety that’s purple. The purple stuff really stains so we’re happy to have run out of that big bottle finally.
That, some water and some rags and we were ready for the short ride down the hill to the hangar barn where all but one of the goats are.
Earlier in the morning, we pulled-in all of their feed buckets into the barn and filled them with feed to lure the goats into the barn. We then swung the gate shut to corral them.
Fortunately, today’s temperature was moderate and we had a barrel fan running so it was not too sweaty for us or the animals. We had to chase a few down and lasso them, but more than half of the goats just hung out by the stand and were close enough to just grab them and run them up the ramp with little fanfare.
A big thank you to Jennifer and Wesley for a fine job today! If anyone is interested in volunteering for special days such as goat trimming, sheep shearing, or donkey trimming
– please let us know and we’ll be happy to include you.
