Danica is an almost 5 year old Toggenburg doe. She came to us after a very sad time on our farm. We had just lost our beautiful herd queen, Cassie (Danica's mom actually) to birthing complications. The whole "when one door closes, another one opens" holds true for us. Cassie's breeder reached out to us and offered Danica (Cassie's first daughter) and Danica's 8 week old doeling, Deanndra, to us. We immediately jumped at the opportunity and knew it was meant to be. Danica and her daughter, Deanndra settled right in and Danica assumed her mother's role of herd queen and has reined with an iron fist ever since.
Despite her rein of power, Danica is also quite a goofy girl. Her silly little big-earred head greets me every morning begging for breakfast. She enjoys eating from the top of the hay feeder as that's where all the freshest, most tastiest hay lives. She also enjoys a nice hay shower as she must have been a giraffe in her past life (or she has access to April's live cam).
Dani, as we call her, loves eating snow and drinking freshly hauled water directly out of the 5 gallon buckets I use to fill the community water trough. Her favorite treats are animal crackers! And she pushes others out of the way to get to her loose minerals like they're candy. She loves full booty scratches and will lean into and direct your fingers to the perfect spot! When the herd is out in the field grazing, she will start a stampeed and gallop sideways while tossing her head around all the way back to the barn. While out playing, you can tell Dani apart as she's the one waddling... even when she's not pregnant, she waddles.
Danica takes mothering very seriously though. When it's time for her to be a momma, she is so nurturing and protective of her kids. While we've owned Dani, she has given us one set of triplets and 2 sets of twins. She has been confirmed pregnant for Spring 2019 and we're pretty sure she's carrying triplets again.
Last kidding season, Dani gave us quite a scare. She went into labor as expected but failed to make progress on her own. Thinking the kid was mal-positioned, I did a quick internal exam. Having delivered goats now for 5 years, I know what's normal and what's not. I sent farmer Aaron in to feel and he had the same thoughts... time for Dr. Cara to come!
To make a very long story, a little shorter... Danica got bit by a mosquito carrying Cache Valley Virus, sometime between the 28th-45th day of her pregnancy. Timing is everything... if she had been bitten before this time, the babies would have been aborted and we would have assumed she didn't settle that cycle. If she had been bitten after that window, the babies and mom would have been completely unaffected. BUT, because she was bitten during this very sensitive time in development, one baby, a buckling, was born dead with a giant water belly, making the delivery extremely hard on Danica. The second baby, a doeling, was born weak and we weren't sure she was going to make it. It also turned out that her right front leg was severely disformed with the joints basically on sideways. We affectionately named her Peggy Sue and she has grown to be a perfectly normal goat, for the exception of her leg. She went to live on a big 50 acre farm to be a pet along side 2 of our other kids from that kidding season. Going into this kidding season, Danica cannot be affected by this virus again. She should have 100% immunity which means all her future babies will be immune too (at least that's what our vet says)
Despite the tough delivery, Dani always shows patience with her kids and trains the next generation how to rule the kingdom so they may go on to rein over their own herds someday.
Lastly, she is an absolute rock-star in the show ring... Naughty, but a rockstar! At 170+lbs, she drags our 80lb son around the ring... sometimes on his knees. Despite that, she has won several Best Sr. Togg in show as well as a couple Best Sr. Doe in Shows!
Danica is an almost 5 year old Toggenburg doe. She came to us after a very sad time on our farm. We had just lost our beautiful herd queen, Cassie (Danica's mom actually) to birthing complications. The whole "when one door closes, another one opens" holds true for us. Cassie's breeder reached out to us and offered Danica (Cassie's first daughter) and Danica's 8 week old doeling, Deanndra, to us. We immediately jumped at the opportunity and knew it was meant to be. Danica and her daughter, Deanndra settled right in and Danica assumed her mother's role of herd queen and has reined with an iron fist ever since.
Comments