Molly, I agree on the over use of wormers.. her inner eyelids are pink n perty.. her gums the same.. she seems to be in good condition.. and her coat is nice soft & shiney..
her hooves are good & strong, they do grow fast though, we are trimming them more than every 2 weeks.. about every 10 days.. did notice and wanted to ask, the back pads.. like a dogs pad.. seems to be hardening.. is that normal.. willl it eventually turn to a hoove like (nail) material? It is not soft like a pad.. not on any of her feet.
New Goat Owner 101 Questions
dahhh.. reading and I quote "Note that you will see some debris and some WATER BUBBLES which look like a 'donut'.
donut=rubber washer.. in my head.. and there was a lot of them rubber washers..
I will rerun it in a few days.. and next week.. or so will have one run just to make me feel better..
I am trying to figure out how to do this on my own, I don't want to put anyone in danger, but I also don't want to be spending 30 - 50 dollars on a fecal every couple of weeks. It just doesn't look that hard.
Just thought I would post a good picture of her coat and her bulgey belly.. although it just doesnt look that bulgey here..
That "bulgey belly" is a sign of a healthy goat. Read this page http://fiascofarm.com/goats/behavior.htm#Fat at Fiasco Farms where they explain it better than I can.
I think you can get by on having a professional test run only if you suspect a problem. Her coat will get a dull look to it and especially if you see her inner eyelids or gums fading in color. The farms with several hundred don't have fecal scans done on every goat cause it would bankrupt them real fast!
Has she gone into heat yet? I've got two that are in heat. My boys are gaga all the time LOL cause they can't get at them.
MollyD
Well, the vet is coming today to see our goats for the first time. We got 7 nubian goats from a friend who is moving to Colorado and they have been in his family a long time. 2 wethers and 5 does. None lactating now. We are concerned because we do think a few things about them:
1) we think they are too skinny
2) we think they have worms (not dewormed in nearly 2 years)
3) we think they may have CL
4) we think their hooves are too long
We will no doubt learn more from the vet. I understand that CL is present in a lot of dairy herds and is easily managed. These goats were probably neglected (not abused) because of the situation in the family they came from - the mom left the dad and went to Colorado with no warning, leaving him with 7, 13 and 16 year old sons. She was a PhD entomologist and suddenly quit everything and went to CO to sell cars. She is still doing that. He was totally confused and the kids were too and I think he just didn't have time for everything. Now he is moving to CO so the kids can see their mom and try to make it work. I think he is very brave.
Anyhow, we'll see what the vet says about it all. It is our first goat experience. Three of them their backs are very sticky-outy and then their sides are really hollow looking. It doesn't look good or healthy to me.
Will update after vet visit this afternoon.
Claire
Oh goodness Claire they do sound a bit on the unhealthy side, I am sure the vet can fix you right up.
What a sad story about the Dad:(
Yeah, he is a nice guy, if a little eccentric. It must be awful to have your wife go off her rocker like that.
yep, I had read that..
I am not against professional help.. and will go to the vet when needed.. but I do believe there are things that I can do ( not play doctor) but I can maintain my herd in a healthy envirorment and use the pros when needed. While money is an issue.. it would not keep me from getting the help I need.. I have come to the conclusion, at this time, she is doing fine.. Later I will rerun and again prior to breeding.. and make sure she is clean..
Thats why I like it around here.. if I start to second guess myself, I have several goat, and nongoat, common sense people to help me come to a good solution.
Fran i'm the same way with my chickens.
I will probably be that way with my goats in time but since we just got them and neither of us ever had goats before, at this early stage I would like a professional to give me some advice, especially considering the goats' condition at this time. I feel it is probably best at this stage.
Claire you can control CL but you can not cure it. You'll have to remember that not only will your goats always have CL (assuming the vet confirms this) but they will always be contagious to other goats and to you. The vet should be able to tell you what precautions to take when handling them (especially if you have to lance any abscesses). In addition you need to be careful not to carry the disease to other people's goats. It can be carried on your shoes, tires, anything coming in contact with the ground where your goats are.
MollyD
It's a personal preference about all things i have dogs 4 to be exact 2 outside and 2 that are kind of in out. I get exstremely critizized because i don't consider them my babies and i consider them dogs. I was approached by a lady at a store when i had my rat/jack russel with me she said oh how cute i said thanks and she said does she sleep with you i said no she is crate trained. Well we may have to turn you in to the authorities. I just walked away only to get to a register and have the girl behind the counter say Wheres her sweater she needs a sweater it's chilly out. All my dogs are much loved and cherished wouldn't know what i would do without "Shorty" he helps out with the rats and kills all the snakes around here and they have all thier shots and they get all the eggs they can hold a warm bed and all the cratchin i can give them and i think thats enough.
This message was edited Sep 11, 2008 10:56 AM
Yes, I realize that CL is not curable. I am hoping that we can vaccinate any new goats we get. We agreed to take these goats that were family pets before we knew about the CL (assuming that is what it is). I feel bad culling them or anything. The incidence of human infection is very low, fortunately, so I am not overly concerned - just disappointed. I don't know anyone else with goats so hopefully will not transmit it.
Harmony you should see the looks I get when I tell people that I prefer they don't pet the Great Pyrenees! He's 6 months old and is a working dog. His job is to guard some of our goats. Petting too much ruins him for his job especially when it's done by strangers since he's suppose to protect them from people as well as animals. We're getting our new dog on Sunday and I know there will be trouble with her since she is 3 months old and cute as button. I already saw people bringing their kids to see the puppies where she was born and wanting them to be allowed to play with them. The owner had to keep explaining they were a kind that shouldn't be played with too much.
Haven't seen the Jack Russell yet that needed a coat beyond the one he was born with! LOL
MollyD
Thank you Molly i Once told a lady my dog wasn't my baby because i didn't give birth to a dog i have children thank you. She politely told me where to go and she hoped god would remove them from my cruelty. You have working dogs oh cool i use to have a austrailian shepperd he was the coolest dog and so smart. i lost him to a car he was on the property behind us after a loose in heat female and when he crossed the road to come home he got hit. Man i loved that dog i looked all day for him and it got dark cold and rainy i finally found him in a muddy ditch at the female dogs house. when i found him i just colapsed to my knees in that muddy ditch and cradled him in my arms heaveing with grief. I loaded him up and brought him home and wraped him in a blanket the next morning i buried him with his ball and leash still wrapped in his blanket.
Oooh that hurts. So sorry to hear it. We are right on a road and have Border Collie mixes -trained to stay away, but that's my worst nightmare.
So strange how few people understand about not putting coats on dogs. If you mash their coats down you're going to make them colder 99% of the time. And it surely wasn't during a nice southern blizzard...
When we got our rescued track greyhounds we had to sign a contract to say that we would put coats on them anytime we took them outdoors with the weather under 32F. They have extremely thin skin, very short fur, and get very cold very easily because they have very little fat on them. Even over 32, if we leave our big 87 lb male outside for a few minutes too long, he is sitting on the doorstep shivering all over like a baby, and then he will come in and keep shivering for about 10 or 15 minutes after that. It's sort of pathetic! If we put his coat on before he goes out, he stays out much longer and doesn't get all shivery either. But there are some dogs who do need coats in cold weather - greyhounds and Italian greyhounds and whippets in particular.
He will also come up to us if the house is cool (I leave it on 64 in the winter) and sometimes he is all sad and shivery and won't play, but if you put his "jammies" on he gets all goofy/playful and then goes and lays down all comfy. So even though most dogs don't need coats, for some that do, it is not just for "dressing up" the dogs - it is for their comfort. I have occasionally had people tell me that it is stupid to put my dog in a coat and that they are not children and that I am making the dog look ridiculous (he has a cream color fleece coat with his name on it - it's not butterflies or snowflakes or whatever). I am perfectly aware they are not children but it is not stupid to put a coat on them - it would be stupid if I *didn't* put a coat on them in our climate.
I think people should just leave people alone about what they do or don't do with their dogs unless there is obvious cruelty (like leaving them chained up 24/7 with no food/water, or leaving them in a hot car with no window open, etc).
All that said, since I don't have (and don't like) children, my dogs and chickens are my babies. :-) But I don't get all silly about it.
Harmony that is so sad. The smartest dog is no match for the call of mother nature though. I'm glad that at least you found him so you could bury him and say goodbye. Nothing worse than not ever knowing what happen.
Paul's relatives have the habit of referring to us as uncle and aunt to their dogs. I resent that. I'm aunt to no dog. I don't allow them in bed with me either. They have their own very comfortable spaces. The house dog Heidi has a twin size futon to sleep on. She's the house dog due to her advanced years (she'll be 15 in January). Our Malamute is 7 in December and hates being inside. Paul brings him in when he thinks it's too cold (like 32) and the dog just hates it! He fusses till Paul gives in and lets him go back out. Only time Kuz wants to be inside is when it's in the teens and wet. Guess the wet goes through that thick coat of his. Even then he only stays in for a short while and then wants out. The other two are working dogs and will always stay with their flocks.
Kuz the Malamute has cancer in his mouth so he won't ever reach a real advanced age when he would need more shelter. I imagine that when our working dogs are elderly they may get to become house dogs if they can tolerate it or just be barn dogs if they prefer.
MollyD
Forgot to say, Stickley also has his own beds - 3 dog beds upstairs and one downstairs. He is never allowed on our bed or on the furniture and that is how I like it. I don't want dog fur all over my furniture or bed. He likes the donut beds.
So true and i wasn't dog coat bashing {sorry} I agree with the coats for your dogs i let my big dogs in to sleep next to th wood stove on real cold nights and whole heartedly agree that people should not judge others on thier dogs sweater or no sweater.
Claire I use to live in a small town. Across the street from me was a young man who had dogs and should not have been allowed to have any. He kept one dog on a leash 24/7, no dog house, no overhang, nothing to shelter it from the wind, rain or snow. One winter I called the police on him when the dog was howling at 3 am. He was away and there was a blizzard that night. The poor dog didn't even have a dry spot to sit on. The police tracked him down at a relatives house and he told them the dog was alright! It -7 that night and we got 2 ft of snow. Winds were horrendous and with windchill it was about -40. The police told him to get the dog out of the weather so he had to go home and bring it inside. He moved away shortly after that. I hate to think what happened to that dog after that. Many of us in the neighborhood use to give it food and water in the summer when he would leave and make no arrangements for it. That was abuse!
MollyD
OOOOOOOOOOOOOH Where is the justice i get banged for not haveing a sweater on my dog and stuff like this goes on!!
I know. We tried reporting him several times but there was this attitude of a man's dog is his property and nothing was done. Hopefully that attitude has changed by now. This was about 15 years ago.
MollyD
Boy I had forgotten that greyhounds and whippets don't really get that undercoat, do they? We always had the dogs who got that fluffy under-fur that would hold heat as long as it was puffed out. Even the short hairs, though they all obviously needed to be dry to do it well and they never slept in snowdrifts.
Our dogs are trained to go to family members and introduced. Since my daughter uses the Korean for us, the dogs were taught English. This means if I say "Go to Daddy" they will find DH, wherever he is or go to him and away from me, very useful. But nobody gets to talk that way about them. Any farm animals are called babies and introduced as such. Only for the purpose of training though.
They sure don't Grownut - they are really thin furred! We (meaning our adoption group) once reclaimed a dog that was being kept in a garage in winter. It was the strangest looking greyhound ever because it had developed some extra fur and all its fur stuck out on end, because that is not normal for them, and so it had this look like a carpet or something - all the hair standing up. Poor thing took several months to be rehabilitated because it was afraid of everyone and everything and was always going underneath stuff like furniture and blankets and clothes and whatnot. Maybe because he was so used to always being cold? It was the only greyhound any of us had ever seen that got underfur, and even then, there wasn't all that much of it, and it was short too.
How cool - your dogs understand Korean and English commands or just English?
And Japanese. Truly funny, though we have to be very specific, to avoid giving mixed signals or multiple commands for the same thing. The older one recently learned the Japanese for "Wanna go do your business" He heard and ran straight to the back door. We lost it. Hadn't meant to teach him that one.lol. There is a phrase the Japanese always use when going out which basically means they'll be back. We taught them this for when they are to stay while we are gone. They go lie down and guard the house. We use Korean for "Come on let's go" as it's shorter and sweeter. The mix would probably make sense in no other household but it works for us.
That's where Malamutes (and perhaps Huskies) have other dogs beat. That undercoat on ours is so thick you could stuff a mattress with it. He thinks sleeping on snow is a pleasure and under it is even better!
MollyD
OK< back on frans goats.... last winter i regularly [once a month] gave our then less than year old nubians a natural wormer mash. will have to look up all ingredients, but included unsulphured molasses, and mustard seed. yep, mustard seed.
have never used, or had to use a chemical wormer on my goats, but certainly would if necessary. our chickens clena up after the goats, and they have a huge pen and are not confined there 24/7. different situations call for different rememdies...
donut washers LOL, will have to look for that...
and the remedy i have is also good in case rthem seem to be catching a winter cold. runny nose or diahhrea...
Here are our 7 nubians that we just got. I love them to bits. I think they might have CL but we have a vet coming. He was supposed to come last week but had to cancel. He's coming on the 23rd.
My favorite one.
Who are you lookin' at?
Claire they're darling! I sure hope they're clean but if they're infected at least they have enough company so no one will get lonely.
MollyD
I love that funky colored one on the end.. how pretty.. well they all are.. I sure hope they turn out ok.. but if not, We all know they will have a safe forever home with Claire.
Forgot to add, I love the pen... that looks like it is going to be very comfy when it is done!
Next question, can all the girls live together? should they have seperate maternity wards? I talking when planning a building/house
This message was edited Sep 14, 2008 10:18 PM
The patchy one is Zak. He's a wether. I think his coloring is cool too!
The pen/barn thing is coming along. The roof was the first priority and it is fully shingled. The walls need to go up now. Kelly is also putting a loft into it for storing hay.
I am not sure yet on the maternity ward idea. The farm that I got these from did not have that type of setup. They are all living together here and were living together there also, so I think it is OK, but I'm no expert!
Sooo...we are about to have new kids. One of our goats is definitely going to be a mother. We only know they are due the last week of September or first week of October. I have a few questions:
1. What do you suggest for a "first aid kit"?
2. Do you let your new kids nurse on mom at all, or immediately bottle feed? (I've gotten conflicting info on this subject.)
3. How often do you bottle feed the kids? (I've been told every 2-3 hours for the first two weeks.)
4. Any suggested special care for mom after delivery? If so, for how long?
Thanks,
Jody
holy mackerel, wathc the moon sign, i think she is gonna pop!
look at that waddlely girl.. where is she gonna fit one more bite?
now tf... thats a FFW!
This message was edited Sep 14, 2008 11:35 PM
FFW?
full figured woman