My buck Bliss was thin when I bought him Sept 12th. Prev owner fed him what seemed to be a pretty extraordinary amount of grain- 3/4 of a plastic solo cup twice a day plus timothy pellets. Anyway, the most I've ever had to feed Miyagi was a handful and I have never fed him regularly...he just stays burly.
But I realize I have to stop comparing everyone to Miyagi lol
At any rate, I continued to feed Bliss the same amount of feed that prev owner did but switched him to my homemade grain which is an equal parts mix of field peas, BOSS, barley, oats. I tried to feed him Goat Chow but he would not eat it.
I also give him basically as much timothy pellets as he wants when I lock him in for the night plus free choice hay in the rack overnight. I often give him handfuls of calf manna at meal times too, sometimes handfuls of alfalfa.
He is still thin, I can easily feel ribs when I rub my hands on him. He doesn't look that thin but his hair is long and it covers it up.
I did bring him home and immediately breed him which resulted in him going off feed several times because he was too excited about the girls to be bothered with food. The girls have not shown any interest in the boys in a few weeks now (hopefully because they are pregnant) and he has been eating all meals which seems like a lot of food to me. But he is still thin.
When he first arrived, their 5 acres was mostly flooded and although Miyagi will go swimming for food I don't think Bliss did, and it seemed like he stood around under the shade tree on their hill. I did keep hay in the rack because I doubted he would go in the water, but they didn't seem to eat much hay. I was not refilling the rack daily.
Now the pasture is dry, I put the horses back there again & the boys have been far out in the pasture browsing a lot because they like to follow the horses. At least 2 weeks of this. Still he seems thin. I have seen him out there browsing instead of standing under the tree...shouldn't there be some padding on the ribs by now?
His eye membrane color is great, has always been great. Never any paleness.
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Glad to hear it! My old lady Star needed senior equine food for awhile a couple years ago. I'm thinking that whatever tooth was causing her a problem ultimately fell out because she's fine now and about to celebrate her 14th birthday.
Juliana Goodwin said:
Final update for anyone interested: I did start Bliss on the Equine Senior & it was the first thing I ever saw him chew without trouble. The pellets are super processed & soft for easy mashing with water for old horses with no teeth. First and only thing I ever fed him that he gobbled up anythign and everything I would feed him with seemingly no chewing problems. I am still giving it to him and he has gained a lot of weight. He finally looks healthy and I can run my hands down him & he no longer feels like a skelaton. We call it his "old man food" even though he is not old lol.
I also had dewormed him for liver flukes & tapes which I know he had not been wormed for in his recent history- and the girls are pregnant so he is no longer interested in them...so I suppose it could also have been any of that that, but the only certain evidence I can say is the chewing problem was solved by the old man food.
We'll see if he gets skinny next breeding season or if I have cured him once and for all. All of the other animals on my farm typically have the opposite problem... :)
PS there is no swelling anywhere around his mouth & no foul odor from inside his mouth, which were noticeable when I have known horses with abscessed teeth.
He was a bit thin when I bought him & I have only had him for maybe two months? During which time I actively bred him, so that's a lot for him to deal with. Big move, big pasture versus little dry lot he used to live on, breeding ect. I did also deworm him with a praziquantel dewormer just in case it was a tape.
Okay well here is my update. Though he does chew strangely sometimes, I am not 100% convinced it is tooth versus he is just a picky, light eater. If he is in the mood he will stand there and scarf 1 qt of timothy pellets. Other times he is just like "meh" and will pick at anything I give him. He ate alfalfa pellets like a pig, but I was afraid to give him too much alfalfa.
I was thinking of trying an Equine Senior feed? He also does not eat hay well, I honestly don't know how much forage he really eats out in the pasture. They have 5 acres with browse, grazing, anything they could want. They spend most of their time trying to break in with the girls.
The Equine Senior feeds have lots of concentrated calories plus quality hay in the pellet- and he seems to chew pellets better than whole grains. Thoughts? The Calcium to Phos ratio is .8 to .4 which I think is okay for him?
I only have some slight experience with a doe with bad teeth. She belonged to a friend of mine. We were just coming out of winter here, and it took a while to notice that she was getting thin under her shaggy winter coat. She appeared to be eating her hay, but when we watched her for a while, we saw that really she was chewing it and chewing and chewing, and then she would spit out this wad of chewed hay and take another mouth full and chew and chew. Weird! She was able to eat the little bit of grain that she was getting every day. My friend took her to the vet right away where they said she had an abscess.
I hope you're able to find an answer soon. :)
Amy- does your skinny buck still eat?
I have noticed that there is still a lot of action between Bliss & Miyagi, they tussle a lot in their stall overnight. But it seems if that were the issue, Miyagi should be thin too, and he is certainly not.
I don't think he has any sort of overbite or underbite or anything like that. If he ate pellets I could try mashing it but he eats whole grains. Is there even a speculum on earth that is small enough to look at a Nigerian's teeth lol?
Ivermectin does not kill tapeworms unless there is Praziquantel added to it, like Zimectrin Gold. I have a buck like this too but he is only skinny in the fall when there's lots of action going on. He will fatten up again in the spring and summer. Since you are noticing he is not chewing properly though I think it would be wise to check his teeth. It could also be a genetic abnormality like a parrot mouth.
Juliana, I am so sorry you are having so much trouble. I can since that you are really struggling with this and I just wanted to assure you that I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers. I know how hard this is and I hope you find the answer very soon dear!
Hi guys-- Deborah it is funny you mention teeth because from the first day I brought him home I thought he chewed funny. He opens his mouth up while he chews and food does fall out, it is very strange looking and none of my other goats chew like that. He is not old- turning 3
Another thing I noticed when he first came home was that he will hold his cud in his cheek all the time. He's like a southerner with his chewing tobacco, it's always there! None of my other goats carry around cud 24 hrs a day!
He does not have external parasites, I've checked. His color was so good I did not deworm him when I brought him home (don't know if that was smart or not). I wasn't concerned that I couldn't get him looking good at first because he was breeding, he wasn't eating (obviously because he wanted the girls, not for any other reason) and he and Miyagi were wrestling vigorously like 24 hours a day. The way they go at each other, that's gotta burn TONS of calories.
Since things have settled down and he is eating everything I give him now, and he still is thin, I just gave him Ivomec Plus two days ago in case it is internal parasites...of course I think Ivomec does not kill tapeworms, right? I have not seen anything in the poop although I can't say I've been out there examining it lol
Margaret- I totally know what you mean about stopping the grain. My does drove me crazy last year laying around all day instead of grazing. As soon as I dried them up (and therefore quit feeding them) they got off their lazy well fed butts and ate the FREE food all day long.
I keep telling myself to quit feeding him so he'll go out and forage but he's so bony!!
I was going to say you might have tapeworm... that wouldn't cause anemia like barberpole would (I'm pretty sure) and it would account for the appetite with no weight gain.
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