Its now been about two months since my girls kidded. Indiana will be ready for breeding in June I am sure. She seems to have nearly regained her pre-kidding condition. I milk her twice a day and she has no kids on her anymore as two died short after birth and Aurora got taken to her new home a few weeks ago. (She grew a mile in a week!)
Isabel on the other hand seems thin to me. Her tail isn't like a rats tail but when I look at her pre-kidding pics vs now she seems kinda boney. I put her boys in their own pen wrapped in chicken wire a little ways across the yard night before last, and yesterday in the late morning they discovered a way out. I think I might have fixed it so they are back in there now and we will see.
She has had a thiamine imbalance twice since kidding and even though she was not getting much grain he told me to take her completely off, which I have done, and she has responded well. On the milkstand now all she gets is alfalfa and sunflower seeds.
Is there a way to help her gain 3-5lbs without the grain which is causing her problems? ( The rest of the herd is doing fine with it).
I also think I will copper Bolus her about a week after they run out of the last little bit of onyx mineral that they have in there now. I'll keep using the sweetlix but, even with access to a higher copper content (Onyx) she seems to be turning orange just slightly.
Replies
The only thing I noticed was the stargazing as far as her being thiamine deficient, but it was really bad. Sometimes it looked as if she could not stop doing it over and over. I gave her vit B but she didnt seem to respond to it very well after 3 days, so I talked to the vet and he gave me the prescription stuff and advised me to take her entirely off grain saying something to the effect of - people don't realize when they get goats that goats don't eat hay, grain or grass. They need leaves and such. The grain is what is causing the deficiency even if she isn't getting much. I see it all the time...
So I did what he said and she has stopped stargazing. But I do feel like the grain should be a part of her diet. Especially in milk.
What I did originally was mix 3:1 alfalfa pellets to grain and throw in 2 cups of sunflower seeds and mix the bucket. Then while they were pregnant I gave each a 6oz cup a day of the mix.
after they kidded until I started milking I gave them the same amount, and when I started milking I gave them whatever they could eat while I was milking. usually 3-4 cups in the beginning, but I have gotten better and can usually milk them out in the time it takes them to eat 1-2 cups.
Because Isabel was so skinny and had babies on her I decided to go ahead an feed her what she would eat on the milk stand at night. But I stopped doing it when I read about the grain being an issue in thiamine deficiency, then only giving her what she could eat in the morning milking and not feeding her at night. There were a few days where I did not milk her and left the babies on and so I fed her during that time.
Once I tried one cup of mix and the rest alfalfa while she was on the stand, but later that day I saw her stargazing again, so I did not repeat it since then, and she hasn't done it that I have noticed.
I have also been replacing their hay every three days regardless of how much they ate. I don't think there is anything wrong with it, but the chickens seem to enjoy it.
I move their pen once a week and I am bringing them tree cuttings every day.
I am working on weaning her boys. Yesterday and this morning the smaller one got out, I think I managed to outsmart Oviedo, the change I made has kept him in his pen with his brother all day so far.
I guess she isn't copper deficient then. I guess the nice deep red will return after I shave her down and let it grow back. If it is barely April and 80+ I am not ready for summer!
As for the coat turning orange -- if it's copper deficiency, it will be roots bleaching out, which you wouldn't be able to see unless you part her hair. If the tips are lightening, it's just the sun.