Got our goats yesterday!

[elevan]

Goats are notorious fence testers. If you think you have a strong fence just get goats and they'll show you were ALL of your weak spots are.

They're very cute!

 

[mama24]

We didn't get the fence finished yesterday. Instead I finished trimming Tsunade's hoofs. Now today it is very cold and raining, so we're putting it off. The girls are hanging out in the barn, so hopefully the rain will keep them inside and out of trouble! My husband helped me catch the little one (Shizune--our kids really like Naruto, can you tell?) so I could trim her hoofs, too. They were really really bad! Obviously the poor little thing did NOT inherit her Kiko dad's hoofs! They each had a spot or 2 where some hoof rot was starting to set in (I recognize the smell from a particular horse with really bad feet I used to ride), but I just trimmed them super short on both girls and even up one side of one of Tsunade's hoofs to make sure I got all the soft black parts out. I hope that was the right thing to do.

 

[zzGypsy]

Quote:
sounds right!
you'll want to keep an eye on the hoof rot ones - if it clears up, you're good, but if it doesn't clear up in the next week or so (dries out, stops stinking, looking healthy) post back up. *real* hoof rot (more than just thrushy spots like horses get) can be a major problem. try to make sure they've got places to be with totally dry floors/dirt. if its damp everywhere, hoof rot can really take hold.

 

[mama24]

Not talking about the white thrush spots horses get. The horse I rode had serious foot problems. It was when I was on the riding team in college. The other girls (stupid selfish b%*&*#!) did not clean his feet because he would do everything possible to stop it. He would bite, step on you, smack you with his head, put all his weight on you, all the usual tricks times ten. When I realized how bad it was, I got our trainer over to have a look and she had to shave his hoofs down and drain pus and everything, then soak in salt water with vinegar and iodine. it was awful. I don't think that was thrush, real stinking rot. He was out for a couple months until his hoofs grew back. I cleaned his hoofs every time I was in the barn after that, since it seemed like no one else was doing it, ever.

I just socked him in the nose if he tried to bite and kept right on rolling. She told me it started with shoes (he had really tiny narrow feet for his size, may have caused that) at his last owner's, he just could not be shod, and that led to him not letting people clean his feet out, and that led to rot setting in. This looked more like that, I think. Sure smelled like it, and it was black, no white fluffy looking stuff. I am not really very experienced. I hope you are right that it isn't real rot. We have had a very warm winter so far. It has not frozen once this winter, just lots and lots of rain and mud.

And our barn is particularly muddy. I have straw and wood chips down for the girls and it seems pretty dry. Hope it clears up without getting worse. I wish they were a little more used to being handled, and I would soak her feet and get them nice and clean. There's no way that's happening the way these 2 fight. Tsunade did let me pet her today. I think she realized how much better her feet felt after I wrestled her down and trimmed them yesterday! There is just nowhere here that has dry ground during the winter. Wet mud everywhere there isn't concrete or rocks is just part of North Carolina winters.

I am open to any suggestions or advice! It really wasn't too bad, I am just worried I might not have cut away enough from the one hoof where it looked like the hoof was loose from the frog with stuff all up under there (is it called the frog on goats?) They were just badly overgrown and I am hopeful now that they're trimmed very short, nothing can get stuck up in there! The smell is what made me think it was rot on two hoofs. That smell is horrid and very distinctive.

 

[zzGypsy]

yeah the black rot that stinks, that's the thrush... usually up around the frog. white flakey stuff on the sole of the foot is usually just sole that has grown out and needs to be removed to get to the healthy newer tight sole platform. in horses with narrow hooves, sometimes the sole doesn't sluff off naturally and has to be cut away (can be true on any hoof, but narrow feet seem to prevent sluffing more I think). if the sole builds up it can cause too much pressure on the tissues inside the hoof wall and cause problems. the other place you would see white flakey stuff is the white line where the hoof wall joins the inner tissues - that should be tight material but if it's flakey it can indicate issues with the integrity of the hoof. if they took outter hoof wall off your horse he might have had white line disease - had a drafthorse with that and we had to take 3/4 of the outer hoof wall off of 3 hooves and nearly all the hoof wall off the fourth to treat it - it was touch and go as to putting him down. bad bad stuff.

in goats and sheep, there are two different bacteria involved in hoof rot - one causes hoof scald, usually you'll see signs of it on the back of their pastern (the bone between hoof and ankle) or the skin between their toes - it can be red, inflamed, cracked, maybe oozy. that opens the channel for the second bacteria, and the pair of them cause hoof rot. the stinky stuff up between the pad and hoof wall... that can be hoof rot. if you can keep it open and dry, not packed with mud and manure it may clear up - it has on my goats, but they've been in dryer country. once we get them here in MO, we'll have to really watch because hoof rot is a real problem here.

do what you can to give them a good dry place to hang out and keep an eye on the bad spots. if you've got an area where the pad is separated from the hoof wall, and mud packs up in there, you may want to cut the hoof wall away over that spot so mud can't get trapped. as long as there's plenty of pad and hoof wall left in other areas, it won't hurt the goat to lose a bit of hoof wall in some areas, and the pad won't reattach to the separated hoof wall anyway.

the goat handling will get easier - goats are smart and can be influence by things like treats, scratches, and daily general handling. I've got one who's naturally timid and if I startle her it will be 20 minutes before she settles down enough to touch again, and another who's naturally wild, and she can be a challenge, but if I stay calm and take my time with her, she's fine. some of them have a switch - my mini-lamancha clover was totally at "people eat goats!!!" untill one day I pinned her on the wall of the pen and found the right itchy spot on her neck. then she was "Hey! people scratch itches!" now she'll seek you out and stand on your foot and stare into your eyes until you scratch. I think there's a bit of Svengali in her, I'm sure while she's staring at me she's transmitting "you want to scrach the goat... you want to scratch the goat..."

most of mine are easy to handle as long as they're not freaked out (they're full sized lamanchas and they're easy natured). handling the babies a lot helps, as does bottle feeding, but with a little time and effort most goats will come around.

 

[mama24]

Thanks!

 

[mama24]

I had to work today, but I got the fence wired yesterday, and my dh got it hooked up. He didn't see them find it b/c be was busy with the human kids, but they are staying far away! Lol. I think it's working for sure!

Oh, and my goats apparently hate carrots!

 

[Kaitie09]

Quote:
My goats hate all vegetables I try to give them. The only thing they will accept is rice cakes and corn chips. They don't get them very often though.

 

[zzGypsy]

mine love carrots. and peppermint horse cookies. and some of them would kill for popcorn.
but they don't like grain with molasses on it.

funny creatures...

 

[happyhensny]

Mine also do not like hard veggies. They will slowly eat lettuce, parsley from my herb garden

, wires on the trailers, pieces of paper, plastic sheeting used to cover the chicken runs, yeah pretty much anything they want.