Thank God, the goats are going to be just fine. In fact, they never got sick at all, as far as I could tell. I found the goats standing over the open chicken food bin at about 8 o'clock in the morning, and the vet was out by nine. We spent the next hour and a half wrestling them into a corner, putting a tube into their stomaches, and drenching them with approximately a quart each of mineral oil and activated charcoal. This was no easy task, and by the time it was over, I was so oily that the filth and muck practically slid right off me. Also bruised and bitten. The vet looked slightly only slightly better. She, of course, was wearing the right gear; a full body slicker.
In addition to the oil and charcoal, each goat was given an injection of Betamine, which according to a google search is just thiamine, or vitamin B1. Hmm. She told me what it was for but I can't remember now. It's been a long day. Then the goats were let out on the pasture and never looked back. They might have been slightly lethargic for a while, but they certainly never vomited and they didn't have diarrhea, either. Just a lot of very slippery pellets.
Maybe I found them only minutes after they spilt the chicken food. Maybe they didn't eat very much. In any case, I am taking no more chances. The food is now outside the main fence, where nobody can get at it. And there it will stay until I have made the barn one hundred percent goat-proof, beyond any shadow of a doubt.
We dodged a bullet today, apparently, and by sheer luck my goats are alive. I am so relieved and so thankful, and so very very tired.
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