Good deal for these goats?

[aggieterpkatie]

Quote:
Sorta, and nope.

Yeah, you can breed a sheep and goat...if the pregnancy takes, the result is likely to be stillbirth. Even if you get a live birth, the offspring are usually infertile.

Also, a 'geep' is a sheep/goat chimera that's generally constructed in a laboratory by combining two embryos...geeps don't happen in the field.

To the OP...to me, the red flags here are as follows:

1) You found these goats at an auction. Auctions are bad, bad places to find goats. Nobody in their right mind would take their best dairy-x goats to an auction. These two were there for a reason, I suspect.
2) The current owner is guessing at fecundity...the number of babies in each goat. There's hardly a way tell if a goat's even pregnant, save for the last few weeks...let alone trying to guess how many.
3) The daughter is tiny...that's not good.
4) Crossed to a sheep?...I doubt it. God knows what they're crossed to -- IF ANYTHING. He may be trying to ply you out of $200 by promising that they're bred back.
5) He "thinks" they're bred to kid in May.. Unless you know the due dates, you can't be sure when to vaccinate, start bumping up their feed to reduce the chance of toxemia, etc.
6) Mama needs "immediate hoof trimming"...which means she likely needs a whole lot of everything else pretty immediately, too. If you can't be bothered to trim hooves (or keep your babies from being bred...or have a definite timeframe for delivery...or, or, or...), what are the chances you're setting out good mineral, keeping up on vaccinations, and all that other stuff.
7) He wants $200. You could probably buy a lot more crossbred goat for $200 from someone who actually knew what they were doing.

All in all...if this were me...and aside from the fact that I wouldn't have been at the salebarn in the first place (

)...I wouldn't touch these two with a 10' pole.

Literally.

And if I did, I'd sanitize before I went back home and touched my own goats.

Sorry.. Just being honest..

FWIW...When it comes to goats, you gotta come to the realization that you just can't save them all. If you try, you'll wind up with disease and pestilence on your farm that you may never be able to get rid of, and I mean that very seriously. If you were to bring home a sick goat who pops a CL knot and tromps it all over your plot of ground, it's pretty much game over for having goats on that land for YEARS.

I agree 100%. I say RUN, do not walk, away from this deal!

 

[Bleenie]

I found the owner at the auction...I actually only went to find a meat bunny(with no luck). He told me he had some goats & sheep and a few for sale. he also didn't get them from the auction.

baby is Tiny, so i am worried but do have a vet close by.

If they were sick with Cocci wouldn't there be signs?
Sorry, it's been years since were REALLY had goats, we did a couple bottle babies last year though.

I have somewhere else I can keep them until I know they're healthy. My mom has no problem keeping them at her house. I justr have to put up a pen & shed for them, which is no problem. she will enjoy having them anyway.

What are some diseases or antyhing contagious, reaally any problems i should be really worried about?
I can take care of her hooves and rehab them if need be. we do a lot of rescues so sick animals dont scare me.

thank you everyone. I think I may pick them up sometime this week...He offered the option of payments but i would like to pay in full if possible so i have to get that figured out first.

thank you

 

[Cara]

All I can say is don't say we didn't warn you

 

[cmjust0]

Quote:
First of all...why was he at the auction? If he had the goats with him -- which he must have, for you commented on how cute they were and how one only came to your knee -- then I have to wonder why he had them at the auction..

Again...you don't take a good goat to the auction.

baby is Tiny, so i am worried but do have a vet close by.

Do you have the cash to pay for a c-section, if it comes to it? Do you want to pay for a c-section?

If they were sick with Cocci wouldn't there be signs?
Sorry, it's been years since were REALLY had goats, we did a couple bottle babies last year though.

Maybe, maybe not. There's mild, acute, and chronic coccidiosis. Acute = dead, quickly via dysentary, dehydration, etc. Mild = diarrhea, anywhere from clumpy to runny, but not "dirty water" and blood and epithelial shreds and all that. Chronic = possibly no signs at all, save for perhaps some anemia and a general poor-doer.

I have somewhere else I can keep them until I know they're healthy. My mom has no problem keeping them at her house. I justr have to put up a pen & shed for them, which is no problem. she will enjoy having them anyway.
...
I can take care of her hooves and rehab them if need be. we do a lot of rescues so sick animals dont scare me.

So now you're in for $200 plus a pen, a shed, driving to an off-site location to provide care, a possible c-section and/or dead goat, overdue hoof-care, general rehab, etc.....you sure you wanna do all that?

What are some diseases or antyhing contagious, reaally any problems i should be really worried about?

Any problems? Well, there's coccidia, worms, lice, mites, Johne's disease, caprine arthritis-encephalitis virus, caseaous lympadenitis, shipping fever, clostridials like overeating disease and tetanus since you don't know their vax dates or when they'll be kidding, not to mention chronic mineral deficiencies...the list goes on and on and on.

So yeah...there are definitely things you should be worried about here, which is why I'm saying go the other way and leave these two to chew up someone else's checkbook and rip their heart out.

thank you everyone. I think I may pick them up sometime this week...He offered the option of payments but i would like to pay in full if possible so i have to get that figured out first.

thank you

Good luck, whatever you choose.

 

[Bleenie]

Thanks for all the help & concern everyone. I really do appreciate it. The goats were actually at his home, i spoke with him at the auction and asked if he had any Kids for sale. he keeps the mom & babies together though so If i wanted the baby i would have to buy mom too.

I am still thinking it over, i would really love to have them but like everyones said, there are worries. If i am able to find a nice doe/doeling closer then i will go with that option.

For now I am busy with the new buckling i got last night so i will be waiting before i do anything more.

I build all the animal pens from recycled wood, there's a lot of new construction & old barns in the area so it's pretty easily found. the pen wouldnt cost me more than my time so i wasnt worried about that.

thanks again everyone. I will post mroe pics after i get the new guy more situated. he's in the dog kennel right now and is quite comfortable but i wanna get him into a larger area.

 

[silverbird]

For what it is worth, here are my two cents. There are as previously mentioned some nasty goat diseases, some of which are contagious to humans, all to other goats. I made the mistake of buying 3 does, two from one owner, the third from another. This third, the littlest goat, a pygmy was unfortunately bred at 6 months, she is tiny, tiny, and we are waiting for her to kid, and are not sure if she will do so without difficulty. The first two, we found out, were infected with CL, and I got rid of them as soon as I found out. They went to someone who didn't care whether they were disease free. I am so grateful that we never put the littlest goat in with them because of her pregnancy. She is CL free, but it was definitely a risk having goats from different backgrounds all together. You just never know what you are getting, so my advice is to buy from a reputable breeder if you want goats, and make sure they are CL, CAE and Johnes free. Saves money and heartbreak in the long run. Also, they will know when and what it is bred to. Goats are funny, they are hard to treat when sick, and easy to lose, makes sense to start with the best you can...guess it's like any animal....you get what you pay for in good part!
Sorry about the rambling...