I lost Spindlwyke Amber and her sister Copper over the weekend of 29-30 November, 2008.

Copper had been having some problems with her front right leg for a few days, so I called in a vet on the afternoon of Friday the 28th of November. He examined her fully and could find nothing obviously wrong, so he suggested it might be nerve damage in the shoulder and gave her a shot.

Copper seemed much better the following morning and was no longer weight bearing. When I came down at 1pm, however, she was unable to stand at all. I tried to help her up, but her legs just gave away beneath her.

A different vet duly arrived on an emergency callout. When I told him about the previous day's visit, he laid his hand on her shoulder and tried moving her front right leg. "Yes, that's definitely (something) arthritis", he said, and placed my hand on the same area to demonstrate. It had nothing to do with whatever was happening to her now though. Neither of us could get her to stand, and she was clearly mentally out of it. Her gut was starting to bloat. There wasn't anything else we could have done.

Only a day later, on the afternoon of November 30th, her sister lay down and refused to stand. Once again the vet was called out, once again there was nothing else to be done.

I asked for a thorough autopsy, which was carried out the following day at one of DEFRA's VLA labs by a specialist who had specific experience with goats. Nothing turned up in the physical autopsy itself or in the cultures as a definitive cause of death, although she did have a malignant tumour of the adrenal gland. Official verdict was 'old age', but the likelihood is that she was already in a weakened state due to the tumour and the shock of her sister's death was too much. At least that's how the vet explained it.

It's been three weeks now, but I'm still heartbroken. Maybe in time I might buy a couple of wethers, but it's all too raw right now. Amber and Copper meant an awful lot to me and there isn't a day that goes by when I don't miss them. If you're a goatkeeper then I know you'll understand.

If you want to contact me for any reason, email ian@penguin.cartwheelcottage.plus.com (REMOVE THE PENGUIN!).

Update : I've started uploading some pics of the goats to my Flickr account here :

Click the 'all sizes' icon at the top left of the individual photos to see them in the original high resolution. I've many more photos to upload, so keep checking back.