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I think we have it. We purchased several La Mancha does about 10 days ago and one of them has a lump between her hip and ribcage. I called the breeder up and he said yup, he just found a CL lump on one of the does he still has. 

We're at a loss as to what to do. CL doesn't spread to humans through milk. We need the milk from all the does in order to run our pasteurizer. 

After seeing the lump on the one doe I started checking out all our does very carefully and found a lump on the jaw of one of the NDG does. This doe was born on our farm and we've never had any abscesses here for her to have picked it up that way, and even if one of the new LaMancha does did have a ruptured abscess that we hadn't noticed (and I'm sure they don't) the virus wouldn't have had time to incubate. Maybe she doesn't have CL, maybe she has a tooth problem, some of the reading I've done suggests that as a possibility given the particular location of the lump. 

I did find out a couple of months ago that there have been sheep on our farm in the past decade. CL can live in the soil for a very, very long time. If we have CL in the soil we're in trouble. 

So I have to figure out what we're going to do. If the born-on-farm doe does have CL then she got it from the soil and we have two choices: learn to manage it, or quit goats. 

As for the LaManchas I have to decide if I want to keep them and just isolate whenever abscesses show up and then maybe sell them next year if we can get enough milk from just our NDGs, or sell them now and just hope that my NDG doe doesn't have CL.

It is a wonderfully cool day after two scorchers.

The farmer went up the hill and brought the goats some fresh browse.

Then we pulled the pea vines.  They got those as well.

What happy goats we have!

Husband suggested that I add another milker to my herd if finances permitted since we now have more than enough hay.  I have had a lot of interest in the milk in my community so I started looking. The first couple of places didn't have what I wanted. I finally located a pregnant FF 230 miles south of me. I went for her yesterday and brought her home today!  She is due on September 10th.  The wonderful owner gifted me with a second goat who might also be pregnant (she sure looks it).  I am thrilled. The one I bought has a very good background. 

I also love having babies here!  

The weather has been very warm and very drying. It's great for getting the hay in. Since we have never done this it has been an adventure. My husband farmed these field organically for 20 years and then kept them mowed the last five years. A neighbor with equipment came and did the actually cutting and baling. For half the bales we got the rest free. It has taken us three days to pick most of it up and we have about 30 to 40 left to get today.  It looks like our share is close to 230 bales!  Now considering that we thought we would use about 100 bales this years this is wonderful!   My husband has said I can add to the herd if I want!   So...I am looking for another good milker.  

This has been an unexpected bonanza!

Hi everyone!

I know it has been a while, and I just wanted to post a quick update. I got a job doing some marketing work for a real estate office in town. The pay sucks, but I am grateful to have a job, that I am not in pain, and its not in New Orleans!! They seem to have a good amount of work for me. I don't know if it will always be full time, but at least it probably won't ever be as bad as the coffee shop. We celebrated the fact that we both have jobs Thursday evening by going out for dinner and renting TWO movies... one of which we watched that night, and the other I got up at the *insert expletive here* crack of dawn to watch before work Friday. I got paid, and I got let off a couple hours early Friday and decided to clean out my car at the gas station when I filled up for *insert expletive* $3.23/gal!! The next day of course I saw the newly built Race Track had $3.16/gal...

After seeing how dirty the car was even after I cleared out all the crap, I took it to the full service car wash and had it detailed.  I should have expected it...despite my precautionary measures 4 goats, 16 chickens and 4 turkeys  have taken rides in that car...not to mention the numerous trips back and forth to Dallas and the vet over the past 6 years. NOW though, its as if I have a new car.... and it is SO nice to drive a clean car!

I managed to make it through 2.5 months working small side jobs whenever they were offered, and with some savings and unused student loan money, and I didn't get behind on anything, and the goats didn't have to go on vacation at my mentor's house.

Things are getting back to "normal" around here. The chickens have done remarkably well with the heat this year...hopefully they will continue... One day my black australorp nearly died from the heat, but I noticed her just in time and brought her inside and set her in front of the fan on the tile floor with some vitamins in the water,  and no food. within 12 hours she was back to her normal self, and has not had any serious problems since.

The Turkeys have done well since moving to their big pen. Of the four I bought one had problems almost from the start. I thought she had healed up, and she was doing well all last week in the big pen and getting along with the others, but this morning I found her very weak. I did not catch her in time though.. and she died in my arms before I could bring her inside. The other three have been very well aside from being hot, but there's not a lot to be done about that here with temps in the 90's heat index well over 100 and the humidity over 50%. Shade, clean water, ice, frozen jugs, frozen fruit and shade...It looks like we now have 1 hen and 2 toms.

The goats have been doing alright. I have had the girls in with Catcher for some time now. but I have seen no activity between them...Isabel's son, now a whether, has tried to mount his mom a few times, so I can only assume that Catcher has had a few dates with her. Indiana, I don't know. I am planning to send off some blood samples for pregnancy tests to biotracking since my vet can only do ultrasounds which are far more expensive. I am waiting for David to get a Saturday or Sunday night off so he will be awake to hold them for the draws.

All the water has been in the river, but last week we got some decent rain, after which I checked eyelids, and everyone checked out. That was about 4 days ago. I was out there today...filling up my camera with goats when I noticed that everyone was laying down and chewing cud except for Indiana...not that they all have to be doing the same activity at the same time, but I have learned to listen to my gut when it comes to my herd...So I checked eyelids. The two boys are fine, but Isabel is about 4 and Indiana is paper white. I freaked because the only thing I have is half a bottle of Valbazin...which I suspect we have resistance to even if  I was sure they weren't pregnant and I could use it. So I called my mentor and called the vet, and they both said they couldn't say for sure but that they would probably be ok until morning if they are moving and eating and there's no bad poop. They both recommended 6 cc each of red cell, and the vet advised free choice black strap molasses and neutridrench until I can get to the vet to get cydectin in the morning. God willing I won't have two dead goats in the morning. Edit---I got to the vet this morning. Indiana didnt look like she was feeling all that great, as I was on my way out to the car to go to the vet I could have sworn I saw her sprawled out...Thank God though, they are both doing well now will keep up the red cell and what not for about a week to help them build back up.

We got a boil advisory until further notice on Friday afternoon. Some microbiological issue with our water. So I did some math, and decided to get a water service. At least temporarily. I cannot boil  all the water for us and the animals with my current set up unless I want to boil day and night, and by the time the electricity is factored in.... forget it. So I went to home depot and got enough water for the weekend, and the service will drop off every two weeks. After seeing how clean the water was compared to what we usually have...which the animals don't seem to mind, but I think I might keep the service for us at least....I think the goats were a little put off by the sudden change in water, but they are drinking.

I'll try to be on a bit more now...cant wait to read your book Deborah! Can you advise on a good Caprine veterinary reference? I am looking to add to the library.

I am having problems with 2 different does.   I could do different post but I will try to put them together.

1st - my milking doe, that has been milking for 5 months is now going nuts when I try to milk her.  She still lets her kid eat but when I get her up on the stand, she pushes her food off, kicks, and then finally justs sits down.  I am wondering if it is time for me to dry her up?

2nd - my first freshener is not letting me milk her either.  I have been getting her on the stand and gently trying just to get her used to me being "there" but she is not liking it.  She kicks like crazy and hops all over the stand. 

I am getting like the other lady that posted, very discouraged!!!  We are not selling any of our kids and my milkers are being to difficult to milk.  Any advice would be great! I love the milk and just started cheese and yogurt but now am wondering if it is all worth it.

***Just an added thing.  Last week took my buck to vet and he had urinary infection (don't know the correct name) but she informed me no grain for bucks, and only grain for milkers or pregnant does, does everyone agree with this?

I am so happy.

After struggling with a 1 quart glass measure that became full to overflowing after a couple weeks , I began to look for a stainless milk implement. Let me tell you its not easy. 

I had a smallish stainless pail but one goat was too low to get is under her easily.  I ended up using a saucepan from my kitchen. It worked but was really inconvenient as that was also my favorite cooking pan. 

I cruised online and looked at what others were doing.  I finally found an idea that I thought would work. 

Yesterday my stainless double boiler top arrived. It is a two quart size. I used it this morning and loved it. It is "squat" enough and big enough (but not too big) and I love it!

When is the right time to introduce my new goats with my other goats. I have two goats  (Moose & Lola ), they are a 1yr old. Recently I rescued Oliver, he's about 7 weeks old. We have keep him in his own pen. He's been to the vet for his shots and is doing great. 

My question is I getting two more goats near the end of June,( Maxwell & Bella ) they will be about ten weeks old when I get them. Should I wait until I get them and put them all in the same pen at that time ? Or can Oliver go in now. I'm just worried because when we did put him in to say Hello he got head butted. Is he still to little.

One word I can say about Oliver is that he's feisty, and he's more like a jack rabbit. LOL

Starting this new adventure has not been easy! We started out with two weathers.  The one got really sick 2 days after we bought him, then got the other sick.  The other one who got sick ended up dieing of floppy goat syndrome.  We treated him with heavy pepto bismal, but he was just so weak he couldn't fight it.  We lost him Easter morning.  The first week of ever owning goats and we ended up with 2 very sick guys and loosing one.  Felt like a goat mamma failure.  The breeder was awesome through everything and came several times to check on them and give them antibiotics, whatever we needed.  I think he felt so bad that he replaced the little weather we lost with Annabelle.  She is a fawn colored doe with a little white down her side and top of her head.  So now we have 1 soon to be weather and a little doe.  We are happy, then a friend of ours has 3 does she is wanting to sell.  She said she would give us a good deal to help our little ranch get off the ground! We go to pick her up mother's day and find out they want to give her to me for mother's day!! How awesome.  She is so sweet and beautiful  Her name is Millie.  Now we have Jasper, Annabelle and Millie.  Our kids LOVE the goat kids and my husband who was totally against goats has falling head over heals for these little babies...

Today was a really cold day, so I got a heat lamp hooked up in their barn so they could stay warm.  What an adventure today.  Lesson 1: always keep extra straw around.  Lesson 2: always roof your barn even if it is almost summer!! The roof on the barn started leaking, because we were going to roof it this weekend, not knowing it was going to rain for hours today!  So I go and feed them this morning and everything is fine, 2 hours later there is 2 inches of water in the bottom of the barn. Ugh so I get tarps and tarp the roof, while running back and forth checking on my daycare kids, while getting drenched...  Luckily I have a wonderful father in law who went and got the babies fresh straw so they could get out of the wet.  I brought them inside and dried them really well then put them under the heat lamp.  So tonight they are in a heated barn.  It is so cold out. Lesson 3: Laugh...  Without laughter you will go nuts.  I have learned more in the last 3 weeks then probably some learn in months.  Now time to learn more about minerals, registering, and de-wormers...

I promised myself I would not overload with goats this time around.  It was easy to do when I was younger and had lots of energy but now in order to do the herd and myself justice I need to keep the numbers small.  I sold a mama and her 4 week old babies yesterday.  She was a strong, stubborn gal and gave me grief when I tried to milk her.(so after a couple of rounds I quit as I didn't need her milk). She also spent a lot of time bashing the smaller does. She went to a family who thought her feistiness was great and had no trouble loading her and were not put off by her complaining. I am pleased. Her kids were beautiful and I will miss them.

Next Thursday their adult daughter coming for another mama and her two babies. Mama is a love but a FF so milking was hard.  Her babies are wild. Again they are thrilled with the wildness and are looking forward to the challenge of taming them down. 

That will leave me with my two milkers and two doelings and a wether. The wether is for sale in three weeks. I also have a wonderful mild buck and his doe companion.

All the remaining goats are mild mannered and easy going. 

If the wether sells and if the companion doe moves on I may get another milker from the breeder of my wonderful milker.

Seven is my magic number!

 This has been a loooooong month. Well at least April was. I've filled out tons of applications for all sorts of jobs...degree related and not degree related. After all that time I only got 1 call for an interview. But it was an hour  away and they only wanted to pay minimum wage for a job that averages $34,000 a year in this area. So, I laughed my way back to my car on that one, and didn't get a call back.

Just today I was thinking that I was running out of ideas where to apply, and I got a call about another job, which I have an Interview for tomorrow @ 9:30am. The pay is about 1.5 x per hour what I was getting paid at my previous job, and is full time rather than part time.  It will cost more in gas, but should be worth it. 

On Sunday I sold Oviedo as a wether to a couple with a pair of doelings, one of which they wanted to sell. I got up early and got everything ready. I wormed, trimmed hooves, copper bolused, banded, and tattooed him. They said they felt a lot better buying from me than the previous breeder, and they liked my pens...Thank you WG4 for giving me the idea:) In talking with them I figured they would try to talk the price down, so I inflated it a little so I would have some room to work with. As it turns out they did not try to negotiate at all.  So I got an extra $25 for him than I was expecting.

I banded Santiago today since he keeps finding ways into the doe pen to nurse his mom. Waiting as long as I did (3 months) was a big enough risk, and hopefully nothing bad happens as a result. It's a darn shame too, as I would have liked to have seen what he could do as a herd sire, being so nice and everything....But there will be others I am sure.  I will just keep him as the herd buddy, and he will go wherever he is needed...once he's too big to fit through the holes in the pens.

I have started drying off my does for breeding in June, and I am hoping for a much better milking season come October , than we had this time around. Its enough for us to drink but I still want to be able to make other dairy products too. Adults have responded well to the copper boluses, the hair looks better, and haven't needed to worm for 3 weeks, still watching the eyelids. I have not started doing my own fecal testes yet, but I have my microscope picked out. It's not expensive as decent microscopes go, but any money is a lot when you are not working, so I haven't made the investment. I did do the math though, and figured that doing a fecal every month for each of my goats at the vet VS buying equipment and doing it myself would indeed save me money. With my current herd size, it looks like I will spend about half to 2/3 less than I would at the vet after only a few months!  Sometimes I wonder why I went into business rather than veterinary science...It fascinates me! This year has been a really big learning experience for me. God willing I will have a job next week.

I'm actually a bit ashamed of this story. 

For a bit of background, my husband and I moved to our farm 3 years ago. We were lucky to find a former cattle ranch that was within our price range because it was slightly farther from the city than most people want to drive, and the people selling it were getting divorced and just wanted it gone. There are several barns/stables/shelters on it as well as the farmhouse.

We got our first goats 2 years ago and have been slowly building our herd. We've been using the stable that is closest to our house as our main goat barn with does and young kids, and have the bucks and weaned kids in a barn a bit farther away. We knew that the buck barn had been a hog barn at one point, and it had a side portion attached to it that was a farrowing (pig mother/baby) area. The farrowing area hasn't been used in over 10 years. I'd peeked into it a couple of times shortly after we moved here, but, although there are windows, the power was off to it and I didn't think much of it. My husband had never been in until this weekend when he was thinking about using it for goat kids. He took a flashlight in and this is what he found:

Seven individual stalls. Each stall is about 6' by 6'. No gates, but that would be easy to fix. At the back of every stall is a heater box to keep little piglets warm. 

The gap at the bottom with the wire hanging out is the opening to the heater box. 

I can't believe we didn't pay attention to this before. I'm slightly horrified that we have spaces that we don't know about.This will make an awesome kidding barn. We'll have to check out the wiring, but even if the heaters don't work and we aren't able to put some in for next spring, the boxes should still be cozy for baby goats. 

I'm really quite excited about this.