I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this but here goes...I have 6 Nigerians. The first three are almost 2 years old, 1 doe and 2 wethers all were bottle raised. Of the three I have 1 wether that, and I know this sounds weird, but he sucks his tongue. Like he is nursing but with no bottle...and he drinks his water like that also. My second set of three are coming up on 1 year. Those three were dam raised very loving and affectionate as they all are. However of these three( 2 does and 1 wether ) my little wether (and he's tiny) will chew his cud till its all foamy and coming out of his mouth! He looks like he has rabies sometimes...lol.. There appear to be no health issues related to these two behaviors. They have both just always done it! I was just wondering if anyone else has ever had similar experiences and what they were...Thanks Guys....Lisa
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Well, if this is important to figure out, I wish you the best in finding any answers. Sometimes they seem hard to find.
I'm not by any means an expert, but if I were managing my herd and had your situation arise, I would assume it was just a foamy cud chewing.
If he were displaying MORE signs of zinc deficiency, THEN I would start to consider that as a possibility. For my herd, I don't start worrying about things until I see more than one sign of something. Kind of like when you're waiting for delivery of babies. A full udder, sunken sides, mucus, etc. are all signs of impending delivery, but not unless you see more than one of them. Does that make sense?
Lisa jay said:
Oh Thank you guys for some ideas...I am starting to feel kind of confused about the whole zinc deficiency issue. I understand that of course it can happen. I have always offered free choice minerals with AC for the wethers and of course they have free choice baking soda. They are on Timothy hay and Orchard grass when available. They also get a little Alfalfa once daily and I have just started the BOSS. I guess I am not sure if I should just assume Zinc deficiency or what?? I guess I just need some help with this and you guys seem to be very knowledgeable about this.
Are you saying that Deborah's book doesn't say that the zinc deficiency can cause excess salivation that makes a goat look like it's foaming at the mouth? I had to go get the book and check, and it does actually say that. Page 125, in the last sentence of the first paragraph under the heading "zinc". I would think that the excess salivation combined with the cud chewing might cause more foaming if it were zinc deficiency?
Astrud F. Wheeles said:
If the foaming is only happening when he's chewing cud, I would say that it's not health related.
I have a 7 month old buckling that has the same issue. However he look completely healthy, he has good weight and looks like he has grown at a normal rate compared to our other buckling, his coat also looks great . I looked at Deborah's book and the section on zinc did not mentioned that, just said that they could have bald spots and the coat does not look healthy. My daughter asked on another forum, and some people suggested that maybe there was something in the hay that could cause that reaction. We have been feeding the goats Timothy hay and just got a few bales of orchard grass for them and I have noticed that with the orchard grass he does not seen to foam as much.
I'm not going to be very helpful here, but I do recall running into some info about goats foaming at the mouth, and it had to do with zinc deficiency. I remember! It was in Deborah's book, Raising Goats Naturally. It said that sometimes zinc deficiency causes excess salivation and the goat looks like it's foaming at the mouth. That's all I've got. :)