bought more does-- skinny

[mekasmom]

I bought 2 alpines and a nubian yesterday from the salebarn for $95total. The nubian looks pretty good, a little small with a terrible attitude, but good. She had a kid that they split up and sold separately in a group of kids, so I am milking her out. She has two sets of adult teeth (4teeth) which should make her 1-2yrs old. She is a nice little goat. She was worth $100 by herself if you don't count her personality.

The alpines are another story. They are very thin and rough looking. They are big goats, but only weighed about 60lbs each, very skinny. Their hair looked rough, so immediately when they came home, I gave them ivermectin. They are very friendly, and are eating like they haven't eaten in weeks. They love to eat. I also gave them 2cc of Centrum vitamins and injected all three with 3cc PennG just because they came from the salebarn. The alpines are about 3 and over 5+ from looking at their teeth. Both are drying out, but came to auction with no kids on them. I don't know if they had been rebred. The older one has some hair loss too, but she does appear to be a senior doe.

Is there any other advice anyone would have on these 2 skinny alpines? I am free-feeding them hay and grass, plus giving them grain 3times a day. I don't want to bloat them because they weren't fed correctly in the past, so I have to limit grain intake to small amounts at once. Anything else I should do?

I gave the nubian a cd-T, but haven't given one to the thinner girls yet. I wanted to give them a couple of days to get their calorie intake up. Any suggestions (except sending the alpines back to slaughter) would be appreciated. Is there certain vitamins or anything I should give them to help add weight? And is reworming in a week ok?

 

[buckeye chickens]

Slowly work them up to around 2lbs of a 16 to 18% protein feed. When feeding that much feed I like a pellet not sweet feed. Alfalfa hay is great if you can get it. Did you check there eyelids? I would guess they need injectable iron and Vitamin B 12 to help with Anemia, You should get a fecal check done before deworming again.
If they don’t start gaining weigh soon get them to a vet and have blood tests done to check for Johne's disease. Sale barns are a full of culls.
The hair loss may be mites or lice. Also some vitamin Deficiencies can case hair loss.

 

[calgal98]

I'm a believer in copper supplementation. Most goats don't get enough. I bolus mine twice a year as we are notoriously copper and selenium deficient here.

 

[citrusdreams]

Put out some loose goat minerals and free choice baking soda. If they're used to eating, they'll need it.

I'd go ahead and do the CD&T though on the other ones...

also I'd worm them again in ten days, and in ten days again to catch the hatched eggs that missed the previous dosing. You may want to bring fecals to the vet to make sure you're worming with the right stuff or you might be running in place. They'll check for coccidia too.

You might want to take that advice and check for Johnes and CAE too...

Good luck with your new babies

 

[mekasmom]

I had never heard of Johne's disease even though I have had goats for years. Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention.
I will wait until tomorrow until I do cd-Ts, and reworm in 10 days. I don't have any Valbazen, and I don't know if they were rebred either, so I think I will just use ivermectin.
Can I just use the swine iron that you use for baby piglets? I already sprinkle hay with baking soda and salt. I also have out mineral blocks for all the goats. Do those mineral/salt blocks cover copper and selenium?

 

[buckeye chickens]

Yes its the pig iron. This is a good read for Anemia. http://www.tennesseemeatgoats.com/articles2/anemiaingoats.html
This web site has tons of great info on anything a goat can get. There is both a article on copper and selenium.
And you need to get loose minerals not blocks.