Poor Claire

Yesterday, when I fed, our Nubian doe, Claire, didn't come to eat. Big red flag. She was just standing in the barnyard looking unhappy. There was a  tennis ball sized lump under her jaw & she couldn't open her mouth. The lump was rock hard & tender to the touch. I really wasn't sure what we were dealing with so we called the vet (who just happens to be a really nice guy who lives a mile down the road).

On first examing her, he thought she had something impaled thru her jaw  ! We put her in the barn & sedated her & on further examination he found it was actually a tooth sticking way up & causing the abscess. He pulled the tooth (which I saved for future science class of course). He lanced the abscess & squished all the yucky stuff out . He also gave her a tetanus shot & some penicillin & squeeed part of a mastitis treatment tube into the abscess. That  will be $65, thank you.

So last night I put more of the mastitis treatment in there. And this morning I did it again & put a hot compress on it to drain some more. It still is big & ugly & Claire does not look happy but hopefully it will go down in the next day or 2. She hasn't eaten since yesterday, but if I had that on my jaw I wouldn't be eating either. Poor Claire.

I don't know about this year. We haven't had to have the vet out for anything other than a preg check in 5 years. So far this year, we've had him out on 3 emergency calls. Oh well. Farm life is never dull.

Blessings.