If you read this blog, you already know of Emerson and Ellie's naughty cousin Leia, my niece's Nigerian Dwarf goat, once a beloved bottle-baby and yes, the same rascal who ate the neighbor's Christmas decorations and last summer jumped to the center of the buffet table at a different neighbor's garden party. (No fence can contain this goat!)
In the past weeks, three-year old Leia has traveled from the brink of death in a veterinary ICU to the cusp of goat history. Suddenly unable to stand or eat, she baffled first her local veterinarian, then specialists at our region's renowned animal hospital. After initial bloodwork and x-rays failed to reveal a cause for her paralysis, she underwent more sophisticated testing including full-body scans and even a spinal tap, her fatigued body sustained by IV fluids. When a definitive diagnosis was finally clear, Leia had made veterinary history, afflicted by a rare autoimmune, neuromuscular disease seen in humans and dogs but never before in a goat. (Yes, she is now the subject of a research study and upcoming journal publications.) Her treatment is all experimental - steroid injections and pills and above all, rest and avoidance of stress of any kind. Slowly responding to her pharmaceutical cocktails, she is once again eating and able to walk for short distances.
Leia is home now, but unfortunately her fortnight away turned the family's other three goats against her, and my sister's attempts to return Leia to the barn met with rejection and bullying. In addition, so much of her coat was shaved that she cannot tolerate the winter chills, so little Leia has joined five dogs in the house. Her future is uncertain, but for now she is warm, comfortable, and content. It's a good thing to be loved.
And if you look very closely, you can almost see a sparkle in her eyes as she sniffs around the far corner of the living room...Only ten more months until the Christmas tree goes up again!
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