Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

Good news (possibly)!! In previous posts we have described how Parsley, our black and white pygmy goat, has kept coming back into season even though she had been mated. The vet thought she might have an infection (see 16th January) so when she next came into season we got the billy goat to mate with her (we have friends who let us use theirs) and then we gave her some antibiotics to try to kill off any bugs and bacteria and so leave a nice clean reas for the billy's sperm to fertilise Parsley's eggs.
Goats come into season every 17-21 days although Parsley stretched it to 22 days last time. Last Thursday was 'Day 22' since she was mated and now we are on day 27 and there have been NO signs of a season at all. We cannot definitely say she is now pregnant. She may simply have stopped having seasons or the infection she had may have gone but left her barren (unable to get pregnant), but she MAY be pregnant which would be great news... We will monitor her and see how she does over the next few weeks. Fingers crossed all round!!
Meanwhile in other good news, we had worm counts done for the sheep (see 2nd and 19th September for an explanation) and they both came back fine. The vet was really pleased (as were we) as this means they are in tip-top condition for lambing and we won't have to give them any medication... Just a reminder that not all is plain sailing on the smallholding though: Napoleon is starting to be badly behaved again. Ggggrrrhhhh!!