Hi guys,
I am selling my buckling Chico. He is about 4 months old. Weaned at 9 wks, now living in a 5 acre pasture with his father. He has been recently dewormed, a few weeks ago he had some clumpy poops (formed pellets but clumped into one big turd, normal color) I dewormed him and that seemed to clear it right up.
Today I saw his bum is crusty, never saw that before on any of my goats. I saw him have a green pasty poop similar to toothpaste consistency and texture, slightly runnier than toothpaste. Not liquid.
I have a deposit on this guy and he is supposed to be picked up on Sunday. Do I go straight to coccidia TX? Can I still let him go Sun? Should I tell the buyers (now/later)?
Am I jumping the gun w/coccidia? I switched brands of timothy pellets which he eats, though it is still only timothy as ingredient. At this point I am planning to run to TSC in the AM and get him something for cocci. Any input appreciated.
Oh his eye color is super, always bright pink/red just like dad.
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Oh, that's very sweet. Miyagi does sound pretty cool. Course with a name like Miyagi ya gotta be cool! I REALLY like that name by the way. I just asked hubby if he knew were Punta Gorda was since he is ex-truck driver and I looked on mapquest. Girl you live WAY DOWN THERE don't you. He has been down there before a long time ago. I bet you are burning up huh? I am. Everyday I get all hot and sweaty out side tending them kids and building stuff. I am to old for all that stuff I use to do. I usually go out early and then hide inside all afternoon and go back out for the evening. Usually after dark. Anyway I am glad he is being sweet. My Quill was only 13 months when Oak came at 4 months and I didn't let them stay together all the time(Quill picked on him)until Oak was about 6 months. I have never seen any NASTY behavior. Now Quill will butt him around pretty good but Oak stands his own pretty good against that most of the time. We did put him a big dog house in there to make sure he was ok in the horrible rains the last couple of weeks because Quill decided he didn't want Oak in the buckhouse. So, now that it isn't raining they have all figured out that it is possible and fun to crawl on the doghouse and then jump on top of the goathouse to hang out. It looks real weird when they stand on top of stuff higher than the fence they are in don't it? It's cool. Anyway when I first put them together they had 2 does in with them. Marley who was pregnant and Karley who I hope is pregnant by one of them boys. Don't really care who since they are for meat (bucks anyway and then the does for the meat herd). She is a small red headed boar mix. So I suppose it is possible that they have been GOOD because they have had distractions of some type or another. We were also splitting them up in the daytime for about a month to pen up with some of the does in heat so they ain't been to bored. But it is nice to know to be on the look out for such things.
Well to put your mind at rest, at least, Margaret...my buck Miyagi has impressed me again with his kindness to little people. His son was this same age when I put him in there with him but he was much bigger and stronger than this new buckling.
Miyagi has been absolutely gentle, no nasty head butting and not even any perversion except for some blubbering on the first day. I am locking them in their stall overnight since the new baby is so small and even in the enclosed space bad things are not going on. I had thought I would put a goat panel in there to split the stall in half if Miyagi was terrible to him.
i even saw Miyagi herding Chuckie away when the horses were walking through because Chuckie does not know what horses are or what to do. One of the horses will pin his ears and shake his head to make the goats run, he thinks it's funny, he and Miyagi have this demented little friendship, where Miyagi will pull on his tale and then run for his life (sigh). Anyway, the horse was pinning his ears at the baby and Miyagi was like "come on, little buddy", and sent him on his way. he could easily have run off the other way and it appeared very deliberate that he was escorting the baby away from the horse.
I think they will do just fine together.
Whatever, I have never been told this stuff, I appreciate the info now I know what to expect. I will NOT be putting my little guys in that position. It will not be necessary, Thank God, I know how to build pens. Yes, the breeder who told me and keeps her little guys separate is actually one of the older ND breeders who has a very large herd on milk test, regular showing etc. so she probably does know, especially since she has a lot of medical and animal husbandry and dairy degrees and experience. I suppose she realized I did not know and was trying to enlighten me. So I guess you all have taught me a thing or two. Some things I guess you would rather not know.
They did pick up Chico today, I was totally up front about the whole thing, his poops were still clumpy. He had had 5 doses of Corid, no change for better or worse to speak of. I told them all of this. He was bright eyed, bushy tailed, hungry, fiesty, his usual self. They decided to take him on home and deal with him themselves, after I offered to 1)refund depost 2)hold him longer and keep trying to treat or 3) they could take him as is and that is what they did.
Miyagi definitely used the wether as his personal you know what, but the wether was bigger and had horns so I felt like if it really bothered him, he'd handle it, and sometimes he would butt Miyagi off of him but sometimes he would just take it. Miyagi also raped his son constantly (who went in with him at 9 weeks), but the son would give it right back to him in all sorts of ways I won't even describe here.
I had intended to bring home two bucklings and lock them up overnight together and juet let them out with Miyagi during the day only but I did not get the second buckling. He was quite anemic and I didn't know why so I passed on him. :( he had an AWESOME pedigree and I was very excited to have him but he must have had bad worms or something. I promised hubby and myself I wouldn't bring home another questionable goat after the ordeal with my doe Annie, and I just don't have the energy to nurse one more sickie back to health at the moment. Still, really disappointed
The one I did buy had nice bright pink color, he is very small but is a bottle baby. Miyagi and his 4 month old son were both blubbering over the baby this morning, although in fairness the baby did not seem too bothered by it. I on the other hand got where I couldn't listen to it anymore by the time I was 1/2 way done milking and I got my husband to take him out of there for awhile. After I sold the other goat today Miyagi seemed to have settled down some and was not blubbering over the baby anymore.
Miyagi is gentle if nothing else, he has not head butted him or anything. When the baby reared up to butt him, he put his head down and held real still like "go ahead, you can hit me"
I am sure a baby this size alone with a 1 yr buck is less than ideal...my only other option is to house him next to the does overnight in the "bobcat proof" stall with the chicks but then he can touch the does and I want to watch him awhile first. He does not have external parasites and his herd had CAE neg reports that they could show me which was better than I could do locally... but I still want to at least quarantine him to the boy's side of the farm for now. Much as I love him, Miyagi is not that valuable on paper and with what I have in to them, and the girls are. So the baby is stuck alone with Miyagi.
yeah, I think it's more of a "new guy" thing than it is a little guy thing... I imagine it's disturbing... good idea on the hiding places, Marin!!
I have put 8 week-olds in with the big boys, although if I have an alternative I will keep them elsewhere until they're a bit bigger just because it's hard to watch with the young ones even though its normal. I have found that the bucks will harass them really badly for a day or so but it becomes less constant after that. Still happens, because like Rachel said, bucks will be bucks, but newbies seem to get it the worst. It also helps for the small ones to have places to run to. Under the hay feeder was a favourite hiding spot in our barn.
My breeder mixed her boys in with the larger bucks by 2 months. What I'm saying, is the person that told you this might not have realized this is normal behavior in bucks of ALL ages and sizes, and thought it was because of the age difference.
I had been told not to put the LITTLE ones in because of this though.
Re the "big bucks "raping" the little bucks" I just wanted to say that ALL bucks go after other boy goats. It doesn't matter what their size is. They will mate with each other. The dominant male will be the one to do it the most, but that's what happens. My breeder's wether was coined as their buck's "cell mate" because of the "activity" going on... and he was physically larger than the buck.
My bucks go at each other all day (and they are less than 6 months old) when there is a doe in heat and they can't get any action, it's worse.
My point is, as horrifying as it might seem from a human perspective, it's natural buck behavior. Hardly traumatizing, and mostly annoying to the recipient of the advances.
Juliana, I hope things are going better today and wondered if these buyers are still picking up and if you brought in your new goats also, because I feel strongly that your new goats should be quarantined away from this goat and that pasture. Myagi is a big boy and will be fine with the horse, making the new goats sick and possibly losing them is not worth exposing them. Personally after being told the older boys will try to rape the little bucks I am not going to expose them to grown bucks. I totally understand the broke bank cause I use that same bank lol.I had a thought. If I were the purchasing owner and really wanted to get him now and someone was trying as hard as you are, if I could afford it I would just pic up my goat and take him to the vet myself. It could be an option as long as they agree in writing to be responsible for the bill otherwise they would have to wait of course, but they may be willing to do that. I wish I new a fix for the problem. One thing I can tell you about the Giardia mentioned: It is some BAD stuff. It is the reason I am so Bio-security crazy. Someone brought it to my house many years ago and I had lots of vet bills and brought home lots of puppies from the vet in cardboard boxes. I lost about 6 total. It was horrible.
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