My doe, Spot, loves people and loves to be petted and talked to--however, she does not have a lot of patience with time-consuming things like being brushed (or milked, but that's another story...) She has seriously flaky dry skin right now, and I tried to brush it out of her coat, first with a regular brush, then with one of those dog brushes with the flexible metal fingers, then with a flea comb. After about the first minute she got tired of it and I had to stand with her neck between my legs and lean over her back to brush; a process of which she showed her disapproval by standing and then stomping on my feet.
I contacted her breeder, who said to give her a handful of BOSS every other day to help her skin--but I can't think of any way to remove the flakes already sprinkled liberally throughout her coat other than to clip her, and I think even here in Southern Arizona it's too chilly for that right now. What can I do?
Replies
She's getting MannaPro minerals now, and neither she or the doeling have ever emptied the feeder before I dumped it out to refresh it. I sprinkled a little kelp in the corner of the mineral feeder and they snuffled that right up, but left the minerals alone.
We're in Southern Arizona, so there's no pasture where her breeder is--it's all just dirt. What we feed is what we buy. (I have, however, been known to send the teenage boy out into the desert with a hatchet "bush hunting" for forage. Labor-intensive, but they get some more variety that way.)
this is the payback info - my goats like it - and it doesnt cake or get wet in the damp weather.
16-8 Goat Mineral Plus
16-8 Goat Mineral Plus is designed to supplement goat rations with macro and micro minerals. It may be fed either free choice or mixed with other feed. When feeding 16-8 Goat Mineral Plus free choice, a covered mineral feeder is recommended to protect the mineral from the weather.
Consumption will vary with the type of ration being fed and the individual appetites of animals. With most feeding conditions, consumption should be approximately 0.5 to 0.75 ounces per head per day. If consumption is excessive, offer additional salt free choice in a separate feeder. If less than desired, remove supplemental salt.
Fresh, clean water should be available at all times.
Guaranteed Analysis
Calcium
not less than
16.0
%
Calcium
not more than
17.0
%
Phosphorus
not less than
8.0
%
Salt
not less than
11.0
%
Salt
not more than
12.0
%
Magnesium
not less than
1.5
%
Cobalt
not less than
20
ppm
Copper
not less than
1,750
ppm
Iodine
not less than
200
ppm
Manganese
not less than
5,000
ppm
Selenium
not less than
50.0
ppm
Zinc
not less than
7,000
ppm
Vitamin A
not less than
300,000
IU/lb
Vitamin D
not less than
60,000
IU/lb
Vitamin E
not less than
400
IU/lb
I have not looked up Payback before, but I did look up MannaPro a few months ago for someone else. It was low in a couple of things, but I don't remember which ones. I wish Ning had a better search engine. I usually have no luck finding old posts on here. If it's Purina, and she's not eating much, it could be that the high salt level is turning her off. It's 40% salt, which is twice as high as most other minerals.
If this breeder's goats always get dry skin in this weather, then it is probably some type of deficiency that is not a problem in the months when her pasture is growing.
She does get free choice minerals, Purina, I think, or MannaPro? I'll check the bag in the morning. Her breeder said that the flaky skin "is just something that happens with the weather" but that doesn't seem right...we're having cool temps with a little rain most weeks now. It seems to me that this would be far less drying that the blistering heat and zero humidity we have so much of the year. She's due to kid January 11th, so I know her body is probably being depleted of a lot of minerals, but she doesn't go through them very fast.
Deborah, I have started using CHS Payback Goat Minerals Plus - are you familiar with that? It has other vitamins in addition to the minerals.
Clipping her won't get rid of the flaky skin. I once clipped a buck only to discover that all of his hair was hiding horrible flaky skin! Flaky skin is a symptom of a nutritional deficiency -- could be vit. E or zinc. You can rub sunflower oil on her skin daily for a week for a quick fix, but adding the sunflower seeds will probably be a better long-term solution. If you are not giving a loose mineral free choice, such as Sweetlix or Purina, you should start doing that ASAP or you'll probably start to see symptoms of additional deficiencies.