Jordan,
YES... I Have been through this I might be able to help I'm not sure. I can tell you that's right off the top this is a very tough situation to be in because I too love my goats my goats are my babies however I have a dog that I've had for over 6 years that actually ran away from her previous owner to come live with me .
Since I've been up in the country for the last 5 years the last 3 of them I have at goats I have 6 of them I love them to no end , they have harnesses I play with them they walk with me they follow me up-and-down on my property everywhere they're basically spoiled but they're my happiness. A couple months ago something got in the goat pen and attacked one of my goats, Itsee. She was pretty injured on her front arm so of course she went straight to the vet.
We didn't know how or what happened so we just made sure we cared for her and went along I guess about our business but being a little bit more alert and a few fixes to the fencing. A few weeks later this happened again and we came to find out that it was our own dog.
My little baby girl itsee Spent 3 weeks at the vet office having her wounds cleaned ,drained, dressings changed 2 a day. Infection set in quickly. Infection from a dog by is no joke. My fiancee and i went back-and-forth we cried we cried we talked we talked and we just didn't know what was the right decision to make. We DO know that it was our dog that put a little tiny goat through torture until she was quiet...THEN she went for more. She was all alone its more than her 3rd strike and we decided after talking to some of the girls at the vet office who had been through this with a dog that she had had success segregating them for the last 6 years so not wanting to put our dog to sleep and of course wanting more and more goats we did the same That lasted for a couple months and the other day I went to the store and I came home to a message from a neighbor On Facebook Messenger that said your goat sounds like it's dying again.
Well needless to say when I got here not only was itsee dead but there were 3 other goats that were injured and all needed to go to the vet they've been shuffled in-and-out of the vet office for the last few days my eyes are so swollen and my voice is gone I have been crying I have been beside myself on what we're to do now.
Veterinarians are not in the habit of putting animals down for no reason especially if there are healthy animals however because of the fact that my dog has done this not once not twice but 3 times plus 2 cats and 2 baby chicks we had to make the hardest decision we've ever made and we had her put to sleep the other night.
This is the hardest thing I've ever done but I have to tell you this we have saved 5 other goats from her now because I know this would eventually hapoen again. I look at it like this, if she would've got another neighbor or rancher's flock or something or herd she'd have been shot if we gave her to somebody and she got to somebody's animal she probably would have been shot people in the country just shoot things that threaten their livelihood.
Not only did I not want to put this dog in the hands of somebody else and not know what was going to happen from there I didn't want to take the chances of this happening again somewhere else in the future so we figured the most humane way that we could end this horror that my goats have been through is by putting this animal to sleep.
I have a grave out on the side of my yard now with a little tiny Nigerian goat that was supposed to be a year old next month.
I am sad I miss my little baby itsee her sister bitsee misses her too and I have 5 goats now that are basically kind of traumatized and a little weary and sketchy of all my other dogs even though they've never been hurt by them and they neve I would be so I don't know if this helps you Jordan you know like I said it was a very hard decision but at the end of the day I was actually able to go to the store last night and leave everybody home in their pens and in their kennels and know that I was not gonna come home to any more death.
Do I still have those moments of could I should I would I could have done or whatever absolutely YES, but you know what and the end of the day this was not going to be the last and I am watching the 5 that saw their little sister be killed and I know that she screamed and screamed because my neighbors down the street across the way heard her and I can't I can't condone that I can't let that go on anymore
I'm trying real hard to hold it together because I've lost a goat and I've lost a dog all on the same day but again I have a responsibility to these other 5 goats I can't just let them be pray, And I too want many many more ... I will never have enough goats lol but I cant justify getting anymore if I've got a dog on my land that's possibly gonna kill them.
Good luck,thoughts are with you, please let me know how this ends.
