One of the does I just acquired seems to show signs of copper deficiency (fishtail, black hair has red tint, patchy hair on bridge of nose, rough coat and milk tastes a little bitter, especially compared to my other doe's milk who has lovely sweet milk). Looking at the health records she came with, she was just given Copasure on April 13th and Bo-Se on March 16th.
How long does it take for these signs to go away after blousing? Have they just not caught up yet or is she still deficient? She kidded on April 17th to a large single buckling.
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It's perfectly safe to feed the way you do, Julia! That's how many of us here feed it. Maybe the reason they say that, is because they are giving directions within the context of a bolus? In which case, you would NOT want it broken open, and probably not crushed in any way either.
Thanks for posting that source of COWP, I hadn't seen those before! Interesting in the directions on that page it says not to break or crush capsules-- to feed only whole capsules. I always sprinkle the contents onto grain and they eat it right up. They absorb it just fine and I see the results from it so I know it works.
It's very difficult, if not impossible to overdose on copper wire oxide, from what I understand. I have given doses close together without any issues in my herd. If the bolus she was given was enough, you would have seen some improvements by now. If her copper levels are really off, (and it sounds to me like they might be) she *might* blow her coat, which actually scared me the first time it happened to one of my does! I thought she was losing ALL her fur, until I saw that she had a completely new coat coming in beneath. I just bought that copper myself! They are finally coming out with affordable goat doses!
Say I gave her a dose of COWP (I was looking at this one on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/UltraCruz-Copper-Bolus-Supplement-adult/dp/B0...) Because it is copper oxide there is no risk of copper toxicity if in fact her levels were not too low?
If it were my doe, I would bolus again.