What do you do when you bestest buddy doesn't feel good? It's so hard when you aren't feeling well yourself, but when a loved one is not well it's the worst.

For the Bagpipes Fan Club, Mister Bagpipes isn't feeling too well and he's just had a stay in the Vet Hospital. He is now a diabetic and has to have insulin. His sugar was way over 600 and finally is done to where they want it. Now to get the poor guy to eat. No food at all since Sunday and no regular meals since last week is a long time for a "puppy" to not eat.

He is also on an antibiotic just in case and something to bring elevated liver counts down; raised by the sugar. We all have to adjust to new medicine and it's requirements.

Bagpipes made a bunch of friends. Of course all the girls at the hospital think he just so cute. His two vets spoiled him plenty; even visiting after hours to walk him for worry about him. He received excellent care. He even had a couple nice cushy blankies to kinda make having iv fluids go easier. They even hung his "Outside Bell" in his pen for him to ring. When we visited him and were leaving he was quite the noisy guy with that bell.

He is quite happy to be home now and appreciates any and all sympathy and well wishes. Ahem...one could construe he is rather milking his  illness for all it is worth, but as long as he starts eating good and keeps taking his shots good we shall go along with it...for now.

Have you read the Epic A "Tail of Two Goaties?

Here are the Blogs in Order:
Thistle and Nettle
Bagpipes Adopts a Kid
Bagpipes and Hornpipes
Hornpipes and Mussette

     Milking that old crazy nanny goat was impossible, she was always flighty and now she was just plain crazy. So we had to feed the little guy cow’s milk using a small pop bottle with a very small nipple. 
     He found his voice soon enough and when he was hungry or had to go he’d let us know by screaming. Bagpipes went over to the barrel, budged it so it moved, and Hornpipes quit yelling and listened. Then Bagpipes went to the door, dinged his bell, and we let him outside. See when we first got Bagpipes we got a hunting dog bell and hung it on the door. Dad rang it once and let Bagpipes outside, and from then on he dings his bell to go out.
He was telling Hornpipes, ”Hey kid, when you want out, you just do this.” So we gave him one of Bagpipes’ other bells by tying it to a string and then tying the other end to a dowel rod that sat over the top of the barrel. 
     Hornpipes nosed it and it rang, I picked him up and sat him on the floor. He looked at me, backed up in his tracks, I put down some paper towels and he took care of his business. From then on he was potty trained. From then on too, even though he always went on newspapers or paper towels our house smelled like vinegar because at least nice a day I would mop the whole kitchen floor to disinfect it, just to be on the safe side. 
     Bagpipes helped me feed the kid and let him out, he watched over him, and taught him all the tricks he could. Bagpipes used to eat around his bowl in a circle; one piece at a time; making effort to first pile the pieces together, then pull on back and eat it, while wagging his tail. He taught this to Hornpipes, who, to this day, eats in a circle while wagging his tail. Of course I think Bagpipes picked up some of that goat stuff as he doesn’t make the effort to be so dainty in eating anymore. :0)
     Hornpipes soon grew a bit bigger and more energetic. The cut on his neck abscessed and we put Iodine on it to disinfect and clean it out, until the abscess broke. Then we put Rawleigh’s salve on it to heal; and for a while he sure smelled pungent. It worked and he healed up quickly and nicely, you can’t even tell he had a cut there; unless he decides to shave his beard someday and there is a scar on the skin.
      Hornpipes thought everything about his “Daddy” was fascinating, from his ears all the way to his tail and especially his whiskers. Poor puppy, the goat was coming out in Hornpipes as he tried chewing on his whiskers. Bagpipes even tolerated Hornpipes walking all over him and sniffing in his face. We used to put the baby-gate up and let him run around the kitchen. Sometimes we would stick  a couple of Bagpipe’s toys in with them, but a round bell was always Hornpipes third favorite toy, the first being Bagpipes and the second being his bottle, which he’d like to drag if he could. He grew to have an obsession with his bottle, and with every new calf I am graced with I have to debate with Hornpipes on who gets the bottle. 
     Hornpipes also learned how to zip and unzip coat jackets. It was something to chew on of course, to start with and as his ears had days since turned from droopy lop ears to standing up it made the most interesting sounds. Zipping became a fun pastime, and while it is still funny now, sometimes he can be a pest.
When the little stinker first figured out how to escape the baby-gate and bounce off the walls inside the house we knew it was gonna have to be deportation time soon. Luckily we had another birth in the barnyard….but that’s a ”tail” for another day in Hornpipes and Mussette.