Nibbles, Vincent Van Goat’s mother, was presented in August to the UQ Veterinary Medical Centre where she was examined by the Production Animal team and diagnosed with pregnancy toxaemia. Nibbles gave birth prematurely (by about three weeks) to three kids, one of whom died shortly after birth. The remaining two received intensive support but by the fifth day post-partum, only Vincent survived.
Lisa and Dick Wright, who are friends of Nibbles’ owner, agreed to take Nibbles and Vincent home as the cost of intensive care in the VMC was mounting. At discharge, Vincent was still being fed through a nasogastric tube and both he and his mother were being administered intravenous fluids.
Fortunately, Nibbles continued to recover and within several days, she was sent home to her owner, where she continues to do well. Vincent was touch and go for the first few days but Lisa was able to successfully introduce bottle feeding, hourly initially, which was tough on sleep and something that Dick had long forgotten. Fortunately, Tara, our Shepherd-cross assisted mightily with kid-sitting duties (pictured) and Vincent now thinks he has two mothers, one human and one dog. However, Bella our Greyhound, is very miffed and extremely jealous of the ‘interloper’.
Vincent is currently powering along and has a date after the vivas with fifth year students and Dr Joe Ulm to eliminate his sources of testosterone. We are thinking of renaming him ‘Satan’ as we now have this terror who is not sure he is a dog or a human, who climbs everything (often falling), who bales-up our chooks (even the rooster) and who charges around with this funny, stilted gait looking like Pepe Le Pew and causing havoc wherever he goes. He has become somewhat of a celebrity with first year veterinary students as they and Dick (and Tara and Belle) have had to look after him on two occasions; it is hard to compete with a baby goat when giving a lecture.
