I'm not a Vet, nor a livestock nutritionist , I have no degree in the care of goats, Hell, the education I do have is in putting warheads on foreheads. We all make mistakes from time to time and I have made 12 to 14 years of of goat care mistakes,( I honestly can't remember the exact year we got our first goat). A small amount of experience compared to some. We're human. Some lessons you have to learn the hard way. You can read and read but the information you acquire doesn't click until it's too late. Been there and I bet a lot of you have too. It happens to the best of us despite our good intentions. When it comes to goat care, we all have our things that work well for someone and not for others and that's ok. For a new goat owner or for a future goat owner or thinking about becoming a goat owner, I have some very helpful tips. This is not a blog on how to diagnose, treat or feed your goat, but hang in there because this is the real information I believe new goat owners need to know. This blog is about things you need to consider when caring for your goats. The things I wish someone would have talked to me about when we bought our first Craigslist goat. As you're reading through this, don't let it turn you off from getting that first goat, Believe it or not most of this is general information that is applicable to most livestock. Goats are amazingly versatile creatures of endless entertainment.
1) One of my biggest pet peeves are the social media goat care or so called vet groups. THESE GROUPS ARE DANGEROUS! No really, they are an actual vet's worst nightmare. Most of the information that goes around in these groups is bad advice, wrong diagnosis, wrong medication, or wrong dosages based on the size of the animal and area you live in. My goat has bad diarrhea, diagnose it so I don't have to pay a vet bill. Let me tell ya, CALL THE VET! You'll save yourself the trouble of wasting the time and money on cures that don't work or worse, loosing your goat to the illness that could have been prevented. Vets don't know everything, in fact many vets have never treated goats, but its sill a safer bet than the info in these groups and you can help your vet by doing your own research specific to the species your raising too. A good Vet is worth his/her weight in gold, especially when learning the ropes. Back to that everyone has their own tricks that work for them and doesn't work for others, holy drama when someone disagrees or has another way. Unless you love arguing with the trolls on social media, it's just not worth it.
2) There are a lot of misconceptions about what goats eat. Let me put it this way, goats don't eat everything. In fact they're actually picky eaters. If hay is labeled as "goat hay" its probably crap because it's believed that goats eat anything and everything. That "goat hay" is probably old and moldy hay that is unsuitable for anything but mulch. Goats thrive off of leafy greens. They love the weeds that other livestock leave behind and are often used to clear brush because of it, but be careful, if they get out, the leafy greens that is your flower garden will be the first to disappear mawhaha. It's important to do a little reading up on plants that are poisonous to goats to watch out for in your pens and grazing areas. Goats do ok on the grass hay if they have to ( prepare for a lot of waste), but what they really, really want are your leafy legumes like alfalfa, clover, and lespedeza. The darker and leafier the hay, the better it is. Note that the longer hay has been stored, the less nutrition it has. At the end of the winter or when using up older hay, you might run into deficiencies with vitamins A,D,E&C. You want to make sure that your grass hay isn't moldy. The mold itself can cause respiratory illness and toxemia that have the potential of fatal consequences. Another thing to watch out for, is what is living on or in your hay. Animals like rodents, cats, racoons, and opossums urinating on the hay, though rare, can cause some pretty frightening issues from zoonotic diseases to abortion storms. If you can help it, keep your hay in a dry place, off the floor and away from homeless critters looking for a place to stay. The same goes for any grains you feed. On the grain subject, if you decide you need or want to feed grains there are a lot of different products by many different companies that all claim to be the best. You can't see it, I'm rolling my eyes. This is another one of those product preferences and what your goats need/want. For us personally, our goats do really well on Kent's Goat Grower. It's a medicated feed. It's our preference and its done well for our goats. I can't express that part enough for those who disagree. The one thing I would really like to touch on is urinary calculi or "water belly". This is a condition that occurs mostly in male goats (wethers especially) when a high grain and low roughage diet happens or in more complicated description, diets that are too high in phosphorus. By feeding a 2:1 ratio of calcium to phosphorus, you can decrease the odds for your boys. Think of it like passing kidney stones, only it can completely block you up. Ouch right? (castrating at too young of an age puts wethers at even higher risk, just FYI)
3) Lets talk fencing...Goats are escape artists! You need Jurassic Park fences to keep goats contained! Seriously though, you do need good fencing or you can kiss your vegetable garden and good relationship with your neighbors goodbye. Cattle panels are nice and convenient but, if you have goats with horns, they WILL get stuck in it, baby goats can walk through it and so can your neighborhood stray dogs. The welded wire no climb fences look pretty and cheaper than some of your other options. It's a trap, Don't kid yourself by even thinking about using this crap. You get what you pay for, it will be ruined as soon as your goat butts it, rubs on it or attempts to stand on it. I've seen people get away with wood fences, if you can, great. What we've found is that the woven wire no climb fencing works best with 3-4 strands of hot wire. Yes, our goats are on Santa's naughty list. Another thing to consider is the height of your fencing. If a goat really wants out and your fencing isn't tall enough, they will clear it no issue. I have seen videos of mini goats jumping a six foot fence. Most of the time though, your five foot fences work out just fine as most goats are just too lazy to put that much effort in.
4) What's next...the dreaded parasite or the minerals? Well, I've got news for you, they run hand in hand. I'll start with the parasites. This section will be a long one. No ones wants their critters to have parasites. Guess what? You also have your own own parasites and I'm not talking head lice. Every creature will always have some kind of parasite, treatment depends on what type and how bad. Gosh that's such an important sentence. Parasite treatment depends on the parasite and how bad of an infection. You don't have to treat every time you see a worm egg on a fecal. Fecal? Why would I be looking at poop? When a goat, sheep, cow, dog or even yourself has an internal parasite, the eggs of said parasite are shed in the feces. From one little goat turd under a microscope, you can see what kind of parasites and how bad of an infection it has. You can learn to do this from home. Most people just take a sample into their vet. Our vet will run a fecal for about $15 a head. Expensive but its valuable information. You can also see a few different bacteria infections like salmonella in the fecal. It's important when you treat for parasites that you are treating with a class of de-wormer that actually treats the parasites you have at the correct dosages for that product and for your area. Wait what?! I'll explain. Yes, there are different classes of de-wormers for different parasites and their treatments depend a lot on your area and the parasite resistance of your goats. Add that to your reading list, along with the life cycle of goat parasites. Its not always as simple as picking up a de-wormer and following the directions on the bottle. For example, goats that live in hot dry areas, with little to no grazing who eat in feeders off the ground have fewer parasite problems. Goats who live in warm, moist (haha) areas with lots of grazing have more parasite problems because the environment is right for them. For our area, a lot of the de-wormers, our vet has recommended doubling the recommended dosage on the bottle because the parasite issue is a huge factor. I don't suggest doing this without a vet's recommendation as some of these de-wormers can do damage of their own. ( How many times did I say recommend there?) There is more. Goats have a higher metabolism than most other livestock, so the dosage of de-wormer is often larger than that of say a cow or a sheep per lb. But wait, there is more...There are different ways to use the different types of de-wormers with in a class. Ivermectin injectable for swine and cattle is almost always an oral product for goats. Another one is that pour- on de-wormers might also be used as an oral product, However with these, the dosage changes so pay attention and run everything by your vet before you go crazy. It can get complicated. The important thing to remember from all this mind blowing info, is that you have a lot of reading to do if your going to understand it all hahaha. Hate me yet? The other part that will blow your mind is this sweet thing called parasite resistance. It sucks. Parasite resistance happens when a de-wormer is used for too long or at the wrong dosage that the parasite no longer responds. How do you know if you are dealing with parasite resistance? This goes back to the part about studying poop lol. All the talk about looking at those little raisins your goats trail behind them has now made a full circle. It's a lot I know and there is soooo much more. Psst...your vet understands all of this stuff or he/she wouldn't be a vet.
5) Minerals. You thought the last section hurt. This one is worse. However, for your sanity and mine, I'll attempt to keep this as simple as I can. I see a lot of goat owners, hell livestock owners in general don't put a lot of thought into the minerals their animals get. Some don't even bother with making them available. Eek! Don't be that guy/gal. Like with a lot of things there are many different companies and products available for you and your goats to try. No product on the market is perfect and has everything that you need. Re-read that last sentence because its important. Serious, do it, This part is important too, read closely. You paying attention? Your soil, water and parasite problems effect your mineral needs. You might read on goats having issues with selenium and copper. Those are a few of the big ones. A lot of this depends on your area. The northwest part of the US is very much selenium deficient and most goat owners have to supplement that extra selenium and vitamin E because goat mineral products and feeds don't take into account the mineral needs of each area. If the soil lacks these minerals so will the feeds produced in those areas. Our area lacks Cobalt, our well has minerals in the water that inhibit the absorption of copper. We substitute their need with cobalt blocks and copper bolus. You may or may not need to do similar depending on your needs. Again, more reading for you. Most of this, is gee wiz no kidding sherlock right? You'll be surprised how many people will read an article that tells them their goats need more selenium and are completely shocked when I tell them that Iowa isn't selenium deficient. Remember the first line of the section of parasites where I said that mineral and parasite problems run hand in hand? Yeah... So if your goats aren't getting the minerals they need, they aren't healthy and the parasites run rampant. If your parasite problem is out of control, they suck up valuable vitamins and minerals your goats need to function. Iron and copper are a good example and fairly easy to explain without making you want to blow your brains out. Parasites like blood sucking lice, barber pole, and liver flukes feed off of blood. The lack of blood, means no iron to make more blood to replace what's lost. It can happen fast with a heavy enough parasite load and without warning. This is easy to check however.. Heck, check yourself, your dog, your cat whatever if you want. Checking for Iron is as easy as looking at the color of the gums or the color on the inside of the eyelids. this is called famacha. Yet another great reading topic that will only improve your animal's health. Copper believe it or not can actually help control a parasite like barber pole. Barber pole can be a pain to treat by the way. I feel like I'm just giving you all the homework but really, these are all the subjects that a lot of goat owners fight over on social media groups, without understanding them. I'm rolling my eyes again because so many people can't get through their heads that there are no easy answers or how to do's here. Notice how I haven't said much on the "how to fix this or that"? There are just too many factors that need to be taken into account. and If I go on and more, you'll never read another blog from us hahaha.
I hope I didn't scare you too much. For a lot of this stuff, there is no easy answer and anyone who claims to have them all, is kidding themselves. I'm going to use the bottom of this blog to share a couple of pages on goat care that I found and still find helpful to help you on your way.
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