It's not all fun and games

Despite our best efforts, we lost Cam a couple weeks ago. Cam had gone off feed shortly after kidding in February. A few years back we struggled with the same problem, which appeared to be rumen acidosis but this time she just wasn't turning around.

We vetted, ran labs and treated, injected and injected, she gobbled literally quarts of antacids and vitamin drench, we even did a rumen transfer hoping to boost her gut. Absolutely nothing was working and she continued to lose weight and bloat excessively. She remained in good spirits, eating hay, drinking water but eventually she started losing muscle mass as well.

Right after we returned home from vacation she took a turn for the worse and could no longer stand so we responsibly made the decision to euthanize her. We were more than curious as to what was going on inside her, and quite honestly I half expected to see a massive tumor on necropsy with our vet. The only remarkable finding was an abnormally small  liver, which indicates cirrhosis/ liver failure as the cause of death but we can't be certain of the cause.

Seau a Lait Cammile ~ 4.10.2008 - 7.10.2014

Although she was kind of a bully in the barn, Cam was our highest appraising alpine and one of our top milkers, giving 2 gallons a day at peak. As snippy as she was with the other goats, she was extremely easy for us to handle, always cooperative and easy to lead. She also is one of the few in our barn who scored 'E' in mammary on linear appraisal, she milked down to absolutely nothing.

Shortly before she kidded this year I made the comment out loud that she looks better than ever and is aging well- so basically I jinxed it. It's a big hit to our breeding program as Cam had consistently produced productive and high-scoring daughters. Charlotte and Claire are milking well for us, Cassie and Calypso are performing well in other herds in Ohio. Her 2013 son, Aisling, is a strong and powerful pack goat who is already racking up the awards for his owner and thankfully inherited her willingness to cooperate. 

Cam as a kid (at left). Boy was she wild! And cute - Always running, doing flips off the walls. Her 2014 doeling, 'Can-Can' Carolina is a spitting image of Cam as a youngster, right down the spunky personality. Carolina has a 'me-first' attitude and does not hesitate to knock the larger kids out of her spot at the hayrack.

Cammile definitely earned her place as the foundation doe of our string of American Alpines - during our time with us she gave us 6 doe kids and 2 buck kids, we are looking forward to seeing her lines continue to mature. Thanks Cam. . .