Bang! The skys fell in!

This is pretty much how we found Maisy and Kayleigh on Sunday evening at milking time except that Maisy was dead. Which is strange. Especially as as I type this I am drinking a coffee with her milk in it (from the mornings milk, you cant milk a dead goat, well I suppose you could but I'm not that desperate, I would prefer going to the Co Op for some) Not quite sure what happened but the walking chemistry set that is a goat must have gone critical after breakfast and by dinner she had exploded. We racked our brains trying to think what it might have been in her food that caused this but she only had what she was used to, a few fresh greens, nothing out of the ordinary. Perhaps she went outside and being bigger than Kayleigh managed to reach something toxic from the bank that runs along their pen, but its all grass, or stones, a lone foxglove unmolested. I phoned the nice man who sold us her to break the bad news and he was very sympathetic which was very good of him as he was himself reeling from the shock of one of his prize goats exploding the same day. She having won a national show walked off the trailer ramp and died when he got her home. Its a shame, he added, but they are like that.
 Kayleigh also showed signs of tummy upset, not scouring or anything obvious, just the absence of appetite and not cudding. This is a very bad sign, the gut then shuts down, bacteria breeds with gay abandon and goat dies. Quickly. Kayleigh was persuaded to eat some bramble tips late Sunday night but I fully expected another casualty Monday morning. Thankfully she was still upright and she drank a litre of warm water with black molasses mixed in, a few hawthorn tips, then the wooden twig, almost my hand, but not any of her food. Hourly observations found her stock still staring into space (a very bad sign) until early evening when she stood and watched yours truly change her bed. Rocky chose to join us and he was very happy playing in the new bedding until Kayleigh barfed all over his back. This was a good sign as her gut had suddenly started to move, admittedly with some velocity, and once the foul mess had been deposited over our show dog she started to cud, so we were happy. Rocky wasn't as happy as the rest of us but he took one for the team. The nice man who sold us the goats is very happy Kayleigh is still breathing as he wants to put the Welsh Champion billy to her as he wants a male kid from her, if they have any.