Baby Goat got born without hair

Maple Heart Ranch is a small Homestead on Vancouver Island. We live totally Off the Grid. We raise dairy goats as well as wild boar pigs, training horses for our trail rides and offer farm stays.

We want to share our simple life with our guests and specially these days give people the experience in nature at a place with lots of positive energy. Also show them the roots in not-for-profit farming.

On Friday April 29th one of our goats gave birth to an unique baby. Her kid got born without fur.

We thought it will not survive, as her mom didn’t take her on. But we tried anyway, as she seemed to have a very strong survival instinct. Yes, it’s a baby girl and her name is “Precious”.

We called our veterinarian right away to see what the suggestions are in these cases. It turned out, that this a very unique case with no comparable.

So we took her in the house, bottle feed her and make sure she is warm. This sounds simple, but not, if you have to run the generator to have power or keep the fire going to have the house warm.

One of us, has to stay with her 24/7 as she need to be fed every two hours, day and night.

Now we do have the extra costs of running the generator all day, keep the fire going and have one person on watch.

We also have to purchase a lot of clothing, diapers, puppy pads and a cage to keep her safe in the house. Probably a baby monitor as well.

She will not be able to stay outside with the other goats, so this means, we have to have a special shelter or addition to the house for her, in the future, which is heated and insulated. She will always needs clothes and special creams to protect her skin from the elements.

Costs comparable of having a human baby, which we don’t have planned in our budget.

We already have a very busy life and on top of it came that I got injured by a horse, two weeks before and can’t do my regular chores. Our Homestead includes only my partner Gary, my daughter, her partner and myself. So the work of 4 people had to get divided by 3 and now we have an extra high maintenance task. Lots of the task with baby goat “Precious” I can’t do because of my injury.

We try to be as self sufficient as possible on our homestead, and be able to sustain our day to day bills to take care of all our animals in the best way possible, but now with the extra expenses and the limited work force, we do need financial support.

Any support you can provide is greatly appreciated. Please share to help spread the word.