Buddy RIP 23rd Aug 2024 to 24th Jan 2025

Very sad day today here at Bare Camp. Buddy was born 5 months ago. He was 3rd of triplets born to Flopsy, his mum. He was born very floppy and almost premature looking. He had a loud cry though, so we took him inside and bittle fed him. It was a very tough fight for him. For the first week, every night, we thought he would be dead by morning. He had constant diarrhoea. Was always coughing. In the end, it turned out he was allergic to the milks we were giving him. As a last resort he was put on lactose free milk. Within 12 hours he was a different baby goat. Suddenly getting stronger and doing well.
He was very small and stunted. As he grew he was still on the small side. He wasn't developing properly. Shoulders were malformed and his organs all pushed backwards.
However he was super friendly. Very intelligent. Always hanging around. Very vocal. He got picked on by most of the other babies, except for Max. Max looked after him. The sheep never bothered him. He was quite a positive and friendly little fella. He was Michael's Buddy.
In December it was time to desex him. Here we put a specialised rubber band around their testicles. This is when we noticed he had only one decended testicle. We consulted a couple of vets. We tried to force it to come down, without success. Leaving it up there would mean he would go into rut a couple of times per year. We definitely couldn't breed him. He would fight the bigger boys and would definitely get hurt or even killed. He had trouble walking due to his deformities. So he definitely wouldn't be able to fight. Testicles undecended can turn to cancer.
So we sent him off to the vet yesterday to get his testicles removed. Unfortunately there was some serious complications once inside. Organs etc not in quite the right places, etc. Testicles were found and removed. He needed a drip and blood products. He did wake up from the operation but wasn't looking the strongest. The vet rang Michael at 6.30am this morning to advise him that Buddy had passed away during the night. Obviously Michael is very upset about it but accepts he did the right thing. It doesn't take away the sadness of losing a beloved pet who we have fought side by side with him to survive.
He will be missed.