Does anyone have any thoughts on what might cause trembling in a goat?
A little background. We have 4 does, 1 buck and 1 wether. The goat that is trembling is my youngest and weakest goat. She is the bottom of the pecking order, always has been, and has never been very assertive. I have her mother, and she was born 3 weeks premature in our property 2 1/2 years ago. She had a sister who did not survive after 45 minutes of life. Anyway, since day one this goat - Buttercup - has been very sweet but always been pushed around, but she did stand up for herself up until now. We recently had a shift in pecking order of the does. My herd queen moved in to 3rd place. But Buttercup remains on the bottom more clearly than ever. She now does not even bother to fight for her food. She seems "depressed" - maybe I am reading human emotion in to it but that is what it appears to me. She hides under the goat House-on-a-trailer most of the day, I guess she feels protected there and she is left alone. So, all the symptoms seem to be behavioral. I have started separating her from the herd at meal times to make sure she gets food and all her minerals. The other does don't even let her get minerals, they push her away and she doesn't fight to get back in to the mineral and salt buffet. Anyway, she is also trembling. Other than that, she does not show any signs of illness. She is not skinny. She is just lethargic or depressed, low energy. And she trembles a lot. I thought that maybe she was cold since for the past 3 weeks the temperature has not gone above freezing here. None of the other goats seem cold and they are all acting normal. But I cut the arms of my daughter's polar fleece and put it on Buttercup in case she was cold. It didn't seem to help so after a week I took it off.
Anyone have any thoughts? I appreciate any idea, I am at a loss here. Is this serious, or not? An indicator of something else? Am I worrying too much?
Judy
Replies
Thanks Judy,I will check out Katywil for sure. It must be a great place to live, if you had the community help like you did to build that great goat house. I bet your goats will love it too when they can move into their permanent quarters, once your house is ready! I'm going to check into Katywil right now...thank you for sharing and say hello to little Buttercup!
Donna,
Just now getting back to you, sorry! It's been busy. The community is called Katywil and it is in Colrain, MA. The website is www.katywil.com . It is similar to Dancing Rabbit. Right now there are 9 households living there, we hope to have 18 when we are finished. The total area is 112 acres, 80% of that is conservation land and the rest is for houses and farming. Every household owns their own 0.8 acre lot, and shares in the community part of the 112 acres. Check out he website, any reference to goats will be our NDs. And as far as the house-on-a-trailer goes, when you get around to building one let us know and I'll send you other pics and details o the construction if you are interested.
Judy
Donna Peck said:
Yes, please upload it separately. It is absolutely beautiful. Congratulations on such a good job.
I am so sorry Buttercup is having a problem with the other goats. My littlest girl this year didn't have any issues because no one told her she was littlest. She was the oldest in her litter but so tiny but such an attitude. I hope Buttercup can develop an attitude toward the other goats and hold her own with them. I think your idea about separating her with another goat is a good one and that it works beautifully. In the garage, she will undoubtedly get more attention also which will be good for her confidence.
Beverley - I'd love to see photos of the play house, please upload if you can!
Beverley Sieminski said:
The little goat house is great. Clever idea for moving it around. My hubby built me a play house for the goats - but a little buck and friend are using right now. I must get a picture put on her also. He inverted a lumber rack from his truck and made a lower level and then a little house up above. My babies love it best.
The little goat house is great. Clever idea for moving it around. My hubby built me a play house for the goats - but a little buck and friend are using right now. I must get a picture put on here also. He inverted a lumber rack from his truck and made a lower level and then a little house up above. My babies love it best.
That goat house is adorable! You should upload it to the photo section so others can see it who are not following this thread.
Wow, Thanks Judy, That's fantastic! What a beautiful job you folks did on it!!
And I love the fun you had with the name. Clever, creative and unique. Is there a website or any info regarding the farm cohousing community? I'd find it interesting. I know of some which may be similar (Dancing Rabbit etc?) and actually, just up the road from us, here in N.S. Canada, friends of ours have Snow Lake Keep. You can find it on the internet if you want to take a peek. A very nice and smart way to live, indeed.Thanks for the picture again, and if you don't mind, we may, in time, have to come up with our own version of a "goat-house-on-a-trailer"!
Donna, here is the Goat House-on-a-trailer that we built. The does are in the right side, "Les filles". Originally "La Nouriture", the hay, was intended to go on the left side but when the buck and his buddy came they got to go live on the left side. "MoPaJu" is our herd name (daughter MOnique, hubby PAul and me, JUdy), "Le Ferme de MoPaJu" is the farm of MoPaJu. We wanted to have a little fun with the project!
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