Some Questions about Goats

[OrpObsessed]

Orp, s advice is very sound. And there are some very valuable forums on goats. We have been herding angora goats for 10 years and I have found Pat Colebys
Books to be my " bible ". Angoras are very time consuming but we also have 4 boer goats. Worming is not hard, we use a drench gun and safeguard/ panacur.
Their is a bit of an art to trimming hooves, but plenty of diagrams and pics available to help you along. It is very useful to handle your goats from a young age, it makes a world of difference when it comes time to treat them or medicate them. Mine come for a scratch and a rub because they have no fear of me.

Oh I love them!!

 

[Fancychooklady]

Funny but I have found panacur/ fenbendazole , to be most effective . Fenbendazole does treat barbers pole and tape worm. I also use it on my chooks.

 

[OrpObsessed]

Funny but I have found panacur/ fenbendazole , to be most effective . Fenbendazole does treat barbers pole and tape worm. I also use it on my chooks.

That sounds familiar, do you order yours or can you get it from a feed store?

 

[Wyandottes7]

I love these questions!

lol!

When I first started with goats I was using Safeguard as a de wormer and also Valbezen which is a wormer for sheep, that can be used effectively in goats as well. In my experience, and many others, Safeguard is pretty much useless. You need to alternate wormers, and use something that covers the barber pole worm as well as liver fluke. Right now I use Ivomec plus (effective against barber pole) and I still use the Valbazen. Also if I have an enemic goat, I treat with the wormer and give Red Cell which has iron and has been a life saver many times! Also Vit-B helps to get the red blood cell count back up. I am really ignorant on dosage, I let my very smart husband do the dosage so you may want to look that part up. I DO know that with goats, it's not the same as horses or dogs or cats. They have more stomachs so the dosage will be higher. I discovered I was giving too little a dose, which is also bad because you can make the worms resistant to what you give over time. But it's also bad to overdose! Trimming hooves is very easy for me and my husband. Many people hire someone to do it, but, to me, it's like clipping fingernails. You trim the excess off to wear its even with the padding of their hoofs, but sometimes there is extra growth on the padding that needs to be trimmed keeping the pad even and the hoofs flush with the padded area. I think there are diagrams in the Storeys book on how to do it. You will need a milking stand to help keep them still. Coyotes are a problem if you don't have proper fencing. I never had an issue with them digging or jumping over, but I also had two German Shepherds and a LGD (Livestock Guardian Dog) which was a trained Great Pyrenees.
I absolutely love kidding season! Many does will do just fine on there own, but I've often had to go in and help. I had one doe that surely would have died and lost both babies if I had not helped. She was trying to deliver a buckling that was strangely twisted up in her womb and he was absolutely huge. To this day I know it was a God thing that I was able to pull his giant head out! He was freakishly large. Anyway, it's important to know the different situations that could happen while delivering. Have a kidding kit on hand (gloves, lube, a nose bulb syringe, iodine, towels) things like that... anyway, it's an amazing thing...well worth all the extra prepping! And the moms appreciate you being there! Especially if they were bottle raised or very friendly.

I always feed grain year round. While they are preggo, I feed one of my green scoops (not exactly sure of the poundage) I will have to weigh it for you...anyway they get one of those a day, plus minerals, plus hay during the winter. I don't have to buy hay during the spring and summer because they have plenty of grass. When they deliver, I increase their grain double and add alfalfa pellets. They get fed twice a day. They get the same green scoop in the morning but its half grain, half alfalfa pellets. Then I milk them, then 12 hours later, they get the same green scoop of half grain half alfalfa pellets. It's important to be very careful while increasing their feed because goats can get bloat and die if they eat too much. So increase a little at a time and make sure you know what they were eating and how much when you go to buy them... that way you dont over or under do it with their next feeding once you get them home.Also they will need to have their CDT shots.

Oh and have you decided if you want them to have horns or not? We disbud our babies. Some people think this is awful, but I've had them get their heads stuck in fences and one girl used to head butt my 2 year old! I've never ever had that happen with any of my other goats, this was a freak thing and I sold her quickly...but you should keep that in the back of your mind when letting your kids around them...if you have any. Goats have a pecking order too. There is always a herd queen, and they are constantly putting each other in their places. I think she just saw my son as competition since he was her size!

I would like to have goats without horns. Is the disbudding difficult? What is the best method for disbudding? I've heard that disbudding is painful for the kids-- do yours seem to mind it a lot?

Thanks for all your help!

 

[OrpObsessed]

Oh wait that's SafeGuard. Lol silly me. It didn't work for us....but I think it's because the worms in my area have become resistant to it from so much use.

 

[OrpObsessed]

I would like to have goats without horns. Is the disbudding difficult? What is the best method for disbudding? I've heard that disbudding is painful for the kids-- do yours seem to mind it a lot?

Thanks for all your help!

It's not a fun process. Here is a link with pretty much everything you need to know about disbudding, along with pictures. http://fiascofarm.com/goats/disbudding.htm that is also a very reliable and informative website for goat info.
I don't like doing it, you really need two people...I don't do the disbudding box.