My doe who has a 5 day old kid started getting a rough coat over the past few months and now that she has had her kid her coat seems even rougher/dryer. My 2ed doe, who is due to kid in a couple of weeks also has started getting a rough coat . The second doe is black, currently she is looking muddy brownish blackish. Is this likely to be copper deficiency? They always have sweetlix minerals available but they do not seem to consume much of it. Their grain has 40ppm but they were not getting much grain until the past few weeks. They are now getting 1 cup of grain 2X per day plus their minerals and free choice grass hay and alfalfa. Can BOSS help with their coat? Should I give a copper supplement? If so does anyone make one specifically for goats? I read some posts from this list from a few years ago and thought maybe by now someone is selling a copper supplement for goats?
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Another thing to point out, is that the kind of copper in feed/minerals is usually copper sulfate (I think?) and the kind in COWP is copper oxide. It's different, and it absorbs differently than copper in feed. That makes it hard to overdose your goats with it. Thought that should be put out there. :)
OMG! I think I lost part of my brain on that trip to Ga.! One day I will learn to stay off this thing when I am sleep deprived. Yes.I do know that! DAAAA!
COWP stands for "copper oxide wire particles" so it's good! :) And I originally bought a bag of something like 500 gelatin capsules, so I probably have enough to last the rest of my life, so I'll keep buying the big cow pills too!
Deborah, Thanks for posting that link, I haven't seen that but I have a question about it. It says that is copper oxide. Is that something that they can overdose on or not? I am only comfortable with the cowp!
These (http://www.jefferspet.com/copasure-for-sheep-and-goats/camid/LIV/cp...) are the ones I was talking about! I had assumed that these were cowp since they are copasure, but now I am wondering if they are oxide or something instead of cowp. Do you know? Just in case someone is interested! I'll stick with my big old cow pills!
Just saw Margaret's response and realized I didn't see the last half of Ruth's post! Not sure how that happened, but thanks for explaining Margaret! I guess I confused things by talking about Copasure and then giving a link to a different product. As Margaret said, Copasure is made for cattle, and I do still use it because (as Margaret said) it's cheaper to break open the cow sized capsules and redistribute them into goat sized.
Ruth, she breaks down the capsules because they don't come in a size zero or one. They come in cow size and the new goat size ones are probably dosed for big goats, not sure about that. But buying the cow size is more practical financially if some one has more than a couple of goats! You get a lot more copper for your money that way! I didn't even get calf size. I got the cow size. As I said, it was a better deal that way!
I dosed all my does during pregnancy, and had healthy kids in all of them that kidded.
There haven't been any studies done with it being used during pregnancy. However, I've never heard anyone say that it was a problem, and I've dosed does during pregnancy myself. I routinely give a dose to every doe the day that she kids, if she hasn't had one in the last three months.
Would it be appropriate to order the copsure now and dose them while one is nursing and the other is still pregnant? I am confused about your dosage reccomendation...You said you give 1 gram per 20 lbs. If size zero holds 2 grams , why not give a 60lb doe 3 of the size zero capsules? Why are you splitting them?
Sounds like copper deficiency. I'm still buying Copasure and breaking open those capsules and redistributing them in smaller capsules -- size 0 holds 2 grams, size 1 holds 1 gram. (Yes, the larger number capsule is smaller.) I generally give 1 gram per 20 pounds.
There is also this one for goats: http://www.scbt.com/datasheet-363567-ultracruz-goat-copper-bolus.html
Some of the info on that page is incorrect however. You can sprinkle the copper on food; you don't have to bolus them with the whole capsule. Also, you may need to dose again much sooner than what they recommend, depending upon your situation. We give the copper every 3 months. Not everyone needs to do that, but it's important that you know that their recommendation of once a year may be way off.