Curbstone Valley LMD Vienne

Vienne was the last daughter born to April N Paris. It was Paris’ second freshening, in 2023, and out popped a rather large single doe kid, sired by Meme’s son, Ringo (Curbstone Valley SO Luv Me Dew). Due to the state of Nigerian Dwarf market in 2024 we gave Paris the year off while we focused on some younger first fresheners. In hindsight, we will always regret that choice, as in August 2024 we unexpectedly lost Vienne’s dam.

Paris was slow to come up on the milk stand one Friday evening, and appeared to have some moderate abdominal distention. We don’t see bloat in the herd, as we are always careful with feed changes, so her condition that evening was initially puzzling. It palpated as a free-gas bloat, suggesting a potential obstruction somewhere cranial to the rumen. A physical exam revealed that she was afebrile, but with significantly enlarged lymph nodes throughout, and a large mass palpable, mid-line, in the ventral neck, just cranial to the thoracic inlet, that was most likely compressing her esophagus, and restricting eructation. That explained the bloat, but we needed to determine what the mass was.

Fine needle aspirates the following week confirmed lymphoma was the cause of the mass in her neck, and a prescapular lymph node was also tested. Due to repeated episodes of moderate to marked bloating, we ultimately we had to make the humane, albeit crushing, decision to euthanize Paris at just four years old. Necropsy, histology and special staining revealed that Paris’ cancer  was a very aggressive B-cell lymphoma, which was suspected due to the rapid onset of the disease. Although lymphoma is one of the top three cancers diagnosed in goats, T-cell lymphoma is usually the predominant type. B-cell lymphoma is much less common.  The loss was devastating, but Paris did leave us with two daughters, Marseille, sired by Leonard, and Vienne, sired by Ringo.

Vienne has some strong genetics behind her. Her dam was appraised in 2023 as a 3 year-old, albeit somewhat overconditioned due to freshening with a single doe kid, at VGEE 89, but easily would have scored 90+ had she been of a more appropriate weight at appraisal.

The udders behind Vienne include Ocean Flower, her maternal great great grand-dam. Calypso, her great grand-dam. Jazztronica, her grand-dam, and her dam, Paris. Unfortunately, Paris only freshened twice, both times producing a single doeling, so her true milking potential was never really seen.  Vienne’s sire’s dam, SGCH Alethia MH Dew Ya Love Me (Meme) scored EEEE 92 at 10 years old, and has both a beautiful mammary system that held up incredibly well as she aged, and clearly Meme has excellent longevity as well. 

At our last show before leaving California, at the first incredibly large and well-attended show post-pandemic, consisting of 75 junior entries, Vienne’s dam, Paris, quickly floated to the top of her junior class, and secured her junior dry champion leg at the Midstate Dairy Goat Show in Paso Robles, CA.

So, overall, we are hoping that Paris’ legacy, in Vienne, will continue on, and she is due to freshen, bred to Drewem TRD Zenko, in the spring of 2025.