Goat advice

[gaited horse]

I got a kid today from the sale barn today, I believe he is an Alpine he weighs around 25#, I don't know if he's been vaccinated he does have a state ID tag in his ear.
My questions
1) Should he still be on the bottle?
2) Should I give him a tetanus shot just to be safe (I'm gonna have to have him banded)
3) What grain should I get for him?
4) Can I give him hay cubes? (I have normal alfalfa for my horses)
5) How do I take the hip tag off?
I think that's all sorry for all the questions. Sorry I don't have pictures but I can't post from my Itouch.

 

[cassie]

The ear tag has to with federal scrapie identification regulations.

It is important to vaccinate for both tetanus and enterotoxemia. You can get a CD/T toxoid that covers both.

The trouble with hay cubes is that they are really too big for goats. The goats pick them up, try to chew them, and then drop them in the dirt. I read about one woman who fed hay cubes to her dairy goats successfully, though. She soaked them in water first. With this method you just mix up enough so it will be promptly consumed so it doesn't spoil. Most people just feed alfalfa. You will need some sort of a hay feeder. Without a feeder, goats are very wasteful. Alfalfa pellets work out well as long as the goat has some access to roughage of some sort.

If the goat is eating hay and grain well, he doesn't need milk. If he is sucking frantically on your fingers, he might need a bottle for a while. if you put him on milk, don't bother with replacer. Just give him store milk. One pint of milk twice a day should do it.

I haven't found a good way to remove auction tags. They will eventually wear off, but if you are in a hurry, you can clip them off. You might try nail polish remover. It might work.

 

[gaited horse]

Thank you. Is the tetanus shot for him the same as the vaccince I get for my horses?
What's a good wormer? I believe everything that cones home from a sale barn should get wormed.

 

[WallabyOfChaos]

You can use WD-40 to get sale barn tags off. Soak it down good and lift the edges of the tag so it gets under there to start breaking down the adhesive. Of course you will probably want to wash him off afterwards with something that will cut grease really well, like Dawn dish soap.

The Tetanus antitoxin is probably the same one you use for your horses. Just check the label and make sure it says that it can be used on all domestic animals and pay attention to the dosage. A combined CD&T toxoid is a different medicine than what you would give to your horses. A toxoid is for short term protection of an animal at high risk for infection. If you aren't in a hurry to get him banded you can go ahead and give him the regular CD&T shot now, then booster it with another shot in two weeks, then you can band him and he will be protected from Tetanus and Overeating (Enterotoxemia) for the whole year.

 

[gaited horse]

Ok thank you. I have yet to see him eat anything so I'm getting him a bottle and some milk replacer today. What type of grain should I get him for when he starts eating it?

 

[WallabyOfChaos]

If you have a Purina dealer in your area you might look in to this feed: http://www.goatchow.com/OURPRODUCTS/PRODUCTS/GoatChow/default.aspx

 

[LR Gamefarm]

did you get his age if he's older than three months he doesn't need a bottle

 

[gaited horse]

I figured out he's about 8-10 weeks. I got him Farmers best goat ration (It's starter/grower finisher and I mixed Calf Manna in) and he started eating immediately.

 

[cassie]

Feeding milk replacer to kid goats is just plain nuts unless you are feeding a lot of them and need to do so for economic reasons. They do so much better on plain old cow milk from the store than they do on any replacer ever made. Kid goats can and do suddenly blow up and die on replacer and this includes even those expensive replacers formulated for kids. Some kids tolerate replacers just fine, but others don't, and there is no way of telling which can and which can't. Also, a kid can drink a replacer just fine for a period of time, and then for no apparent reason one day bloat and die shortly after being fed. If you insist on feeding replacer, be sure you have a supply of GasX and clostridium perfingens antitoxin on hand so if he blows up and you find him in time you can save him. BTW, all goat owners should have those two items on hand at all times anyway. Bloat and entero are true emergencies, occur without warning, and require prompt treatment to save the goat's life. Goats that are vaccinated for entero are much less likely to contract entero than unvaccinated animals, but entero can occur even in vaccinated animals.

Just for the record, I had a commercial goat dairy for many years. I have raised many hundreds of kids over the years, and I have friends and acquaintences that have raised many hundreds more, so I do know what I am talking about.

 

[Back2MyRoots]

Not to be a nay-sayer, but I have seen the results of homogenized milk given to kids(which was what I was told to do when I bought them)---ie awful diarrhea that resulted in dehydration. Their tummies couldn't handle it. Got them on un-homogenized milk from a dairy nearby and it went much better. Swapped from that to goat milk from the store (which was expensive, I admit) with a raw egg whipped in to each bottle (suggested by a lrg animal vet) and they fattened up and gained strength quickly! Just saying what worked for us.