Ok, here's some basic info on "the girls" as I call ' em & some questions for the sake of health and happiness for all on the farm.lol
*2 of my girls are just over a year old and are pure breed but not registered.The baby is just about 6 mos old and half ND and Alpine. They have horns intack.
* Far as I know they have never had a "proper" worming or vaccines of any kind. The person I purchased them from prefered a "natural" way because she used the milk for her family.
Should I worm & vacinate them myself or take them to a vet for the first time for a health check up??
They have 10 X10X 6 ft dog kennel for night sleeping and about 3 good acres for roaming that's pole fenced w/ cattle panels.
Thanks for any input...
MsC
Replies
Thanks Margaret for the tips on where to get stuff. We have several farm stores local. We do live kinda out a bit & to find really good stuff we have to go about 1 hr /both ways to town. Lately it has been just as easy to order stuff on line & pay shipping instead of a day lost working & paying gas.
I have a variety of critters here & lots of animals experience with dogs, cats, birds, chickens, ducks,etc, but no goats til now.
Please Forgive me folks I'm still getting the hang of the system here & not sure of the
Margaret Langley said:
Thanks Dawne,
I was trying to edit the photos late lastnight & my program kept crashing so I dunno what's up with that...seems like it's always somethin'. :)
I think they're nice looking girls, they appear very healthy, nice coat & perhaps a lil over feed (like me), most important is they are real tame & "dog like". My Pyr cross dog really wants to play but he's still in training and it might be a while before he gets to met them up close & off leash. He's sweet but 100 pounds of puppy might. Do many of the folks here use LGD's with their goats?
Ditto on that dog/cat -no favor to you just pet price money for them stuff! Last time I Carried a goat to the vet all I had was a fat bill and a dead kid the next morning over what the vet said was low blood sugar from weaning him off his milk. He was about 10weeks old and people wean them that young all the time. He was the last of 3 kids I lost over about 2 days and they all looked beautiful, fat and healthy with no parasite problems on their fecals or anything. I don't have a clue what was really going on and I certainly have my doubts about what he said!
I always love Deborah referring to big vet bills as educational expenses. That is so true.I am the same way and every time she says that I remember standing in back of a pick-up with the vet watching him castrate 2 calves by the method of cutting the bottom of the sac and stripping everything out. I asked all these Q's and was preparing for doing it one day while my dad, hubby, and only brother watched about to lose their lunch. The vet just kept telling them that I sounded as if I planned on doing it the next time. I told him he was darn right, that I wasn't loading them up to drive over there anymore and pay for that.
If you don't live where you have good access to well stocked feed stores or want to lay in supplies at a better price check out Jeffers Vet Supply (my favorite)and also Caprine Supply has some goat things that Jeffers doesn't carry! There are several other good ones but I can always find what I need at one of these two and have used them for years.
So far since I put this herd together I have done no vaccines either and honestly am a little nervous about it but a lot of people are going this route so I figured I can at least think about it a little while and not rush since my probably have had theirs anyway.
Thank you both for taking the time to reply, it is much appreciated!
I don't plan on having many more goats. These are more for pets. The exception is that at some point they will have to be bred to be able to be milked of course, but that's not a pressing issue.
We live close to A&M vet school and I would guess they could handle any ER type stuff. In another life I was an old school vet tech so I can do basic stuff, give shots, clean up wounds etc. Hubby is a RN. I just don't have any goat experience & know sometimes basic med info doesn't always transfer.
I can get the dewormer pellets at our local farm store. For 3 goats just put it in with their feed or read the package??
Now my neighbor has a real herd of pygmy goats and that's in part what led me to get mine. I enjoyed watching hers out in the field. I also got first hand knowledge about "stinky" males as she runs hers all togehter all the time & their pen is right next to my garden fence...lol YUCK!
That brings up another question about how they might affect my girls if they happen to be sick??? There is one area where they can get nose to nose...
I'll get some pics up later of the girls. Again, thanks so much for you input.
MsC
Ditto on what Margaret said about finding a vet who knows anything about goats. And don't try to talk your local dog and cat vet into seeing them as a favor. They're not doing you any favors. I know people who've done this, and they wind up paying a fortune (dog and cat prices instead of livestock prices), and the vets don't really know anything, which could ultimately be harmful for your goats. I know someone whose vet told her to lance and drain the abscesses caused by a vaccine, which is a "normal" reaction to the vaccine, and you don't need to do anything about it.
If the previous owner didn't use any chemical dewormers at all, then you don't have to worry about dewormer resistance, and you could just pick up some dewormer pellets at your local feed store (like Positive Pellet or something similar) and they'll eat it up. After the initial deworming when you bring goats to a new home, you should only deworm them when they're showing signs of an overload, such as poor body condition, anemia, and abnormal poop (not berries). You can find a lot of wormer info on here, as well as www.wormcontrol.org, which is a site that includes the latest research on internal parasites in small ruminants, so it is very reliable. If you are only going to have three goats on three acres, you will probably never need to deworm again because a pasture that size will never get overloaded with eggs and larvae.
I quit vaccinating my herd about seven years ago, but you can buy the CDT vaccine at your local feed store. It's about $5 for 20 doses, so it's incredibly cheap. If you decide to have a vet do them, you'll get charged a lot more, but whenever I have to pay a vet for something, I consider it an educational charge because I pay very close attention and ask lots of questions so I can do it myself next time.
Do you know if you have a local vet that actually knows anything about goats. Most don't and it seems that many who claim to really don't either. So, you may want to check that out closely, and hope you can find a decent one, for when you do need a vet. As to IF you need one now, probably not as long as they seem ok, to you.
If you know how or want to learn, you can handle the basics and with all the wonderful folks on this forum you can learn just about everything. I have to run right now but others will get you going on specifics shortly. We will get you started with a list of things to check on and do. Later, Hon!