What's Dirt Got To Do With Raising Goats?!

I live in the Adirondacks of New York State. It’s way up north; above NYC and even north of Albany (I bet most of you didn’t even know there was anything north of Albany!). The reason location is important when talking about raising goats is because of the soil. All of the good, mineral-rich topsoil in northern NY was scraped off of the Adirondack Mountains and deposited somewhere else by a huge glacier many thousands of years ago. All that was left were mineral poor granite rocks to make new soil. Over the millennia, the ADKs (Adirondack Mountains for short) slowly regained some soil through erosion and natural processes. Unfortunately this new soil is very sandy and acidic. The forests and vegetation that blanket the area have helped to enrich the soil but it is still mineral deficient and not very fertile.  Now why would dirt have anything to do with keeping goats healthy?! Well, I will tell you.

Dirt or soil is the base that plants that your goats will eat grow in. All of the minerals in those plants come directly from the soil they are grown in. Plants can’t magically create minerals that they don’t have in the soil they grow from.  So if your local soil is mineral deficient, the plants growing around you will also be deficient. This is a problem for animals that need a large variety and quantity of certain minerals in order to stay healthy.

Goats are browsers by nature and have evolved over millions of years to have very high mineral demands. In their natural habitat they would range far and wide sampling a large variety of plants in order to satisfy their mineral needs. Each plant has different mineral compositions so if a goat needed a certain mineral for their health, then they could roam a large territory and find the plant which would give them what they want. Goats are not designed to be confined to pastures that contain only grasses. Goats are also not designed to be fed grassy hay as a sole fiber source. They need more minerals than grass can provide.

The intersection between a grass-based diet and poor mineral soil is the dangerous place where the Adirondack Mountains sit. Most of the goats I see around here are severely mineral deficient. They show all of the outward signs of it, like rough hair, faded coloring, and flaky skin. They also show inward signs by being prone to parasite infection and growing slower than their supplemented peers.

Mineral deficiency can be remedied easily and even goats living in the ADKs can manage to be very healthy. The most important thing you can do to keep your goats healthy in a mineral deficient area is to put them on a loose mineral blend designed specifically for goats. Don’t use mineral blocks, salt licks or pre-mixed grain as a sole source of mineral supplementation. None of these things have enough accessible minerals to keep goats healthy. Loose minerals are easily consumed by goats and generally contain a better ratio of minerals than mineral blocks or complete feeds. It is very important to make sure that the loose mineral blend is specifically for goats. “All stock” minerals or those not labeled for goats will not have the proper amount of certain minerals. 

My favorite mineral blend is Sweetlix Meatmaker 16:8. It’s a good quality and affordable blend. It works great for all breeds of goats, not just meat goats. My goats have free access to their minerals all the time. I have hanging mineral tubs in each goat pen. I clean and refill the mineral tubs every couple of days because goats don’t like stale minerals.

The second thing you must do to supplement your goats is give them copper boluses a couple of times a year. Most goats in the ADKs are extremely symptomatic of copper deficiency. Copper deficiency makes a goat have rough, dull hair and causes their hair color to fade. Take a picture of you newborn goat kids and then compare that picture to them when they are 1 year old. If at a year old, they look washed out and faded, then you know that they have severe copper deficiency.

Copper also plays an enormous role in parasite resistance. Goats that are copper deficient also tend to have very high internal parasite loads. Internal parasites rob nutrients and calories from goats and cause them to be more prone to other diseases, have fertility and lactating trouble, can cause fatal diarrhea, cause weight loss and poor growth, and cause anemia. Anyone who raises goats for any period of time learns about the role internal parasites cause. The old joke is that you aren’t goat farming, your parasite farming! It can be extremely difficult to manage internal parasites when a goat is copper deficient. All the dewormers and medicines in the world won’t be able to help until you get the goat on track with mineral supplementation. 

I recommend using Copasure Sheep and Goat copper boluses at least every 6 months. Dose each goat at 1 gram of copper per 22 lbs (or 1 gram per kilogram). Copper boluses are little gel capsules that contain small copper rods. The rods are meant to be ingested by the goat and then slowly absorbed through the rumen wall. When dosing your goats with boluses, it is important to maximize their chances of staying lodged in the rumen for slow absorption. Give the boluses on an empty stomach and don’t feed the goat anything for at least 1 hour after dosing. Use a balling gun to insert the bolus in the back of the goat’s throat so they are forced to swallow it without chewing. Follow the dosing with a slug of selenium/E gel or Probios gel. The gel will stick to the boluses and help them to stay in the rumen. 

The final thing you need to do to supplement goats living in the ADKs is to give them selenium. Goats need selenium to help with muscle contraction and growth. Selenium deficiency is most often seen in newborn baby goats who are born with curled under ankles and can’t get up within 15 minutes of birth. Baby goats can also suffer from “White Muscle Disease” which is severe selenium deficiency to the point where their heart fails a few days to a few weeks after birth. They don’t have enough selenium to stay alive. 

Selenium is a micro-nutrient and is only needed in very small amounts. Selenium overdose is possible and it can be fatal. Luckily there are selenium supplement products available that are easy to use and hard to overdose. I prefer to use Selenium/Vitamin E Gel in my goats. Many people recommend using the prescription supplement called Bo-Se or Mu-Se. Unfortunately another lovely feature of living in the ADKs (besides crappy soil) is that we have no veterinarians who will treat goats. So getting a prescription supplement is out of the question for me. The gel works great so I don’t have a problem using it. I dose all of my goats once a month with the gel. My pregnant goats get extra bi-monthly doses in order to help the kids. 

In conclusion, be sure to evaluate the soil of your area before deciding on what minerals your goats might need more of. If you live in Northern NY, please be sure to supplement your goats with loose minerals, copper boluses, and selenium gel.

Milk and Grain Do Not Make a Fast Growing Kid Goat!

It goes against common sense to say the key to raising fast growing and hefty kid goats is not in what you feed them. I have been raising baby goats for 10 years and have learned repeatedly over the years that kids grow best on limited grain and milk. Overfeeding a kid grain or milk is a sure recipe for disaster. 

Kids fed too much milk at one time tend to get watery scours if they are under 3 weeks old. Watery scours leave a kid prone to dehydration and death, and are best avoided at all costs. If they are over 3 weeks old and consume too much milk, they can bloat and die. Enterotoxemia can also be a common result of feeding too much milk. Enterotoxemia bacteria are naturally found in the soil and all kids carry some in their digestive systems. Normally, this bacteria doesn’t cause a problem because it does not reproduce well in a healthy, aerobic rumen. But if a kid gorges on milk, their rumen can become an anaerobic environment. The enterotoxemia bacteria will proliferate and release large amounts of a cell killing endotoxin that will shut down the kid’s digestive system. The end result is typically very quick death. Thus it is very important to always slowly increase the amount of milk. 

Age at weaning can be a hotly contested issue. I have fed milk to kids from anywhere between 8 weeks to 6 months old. By 8 weeks most kids are freely consuming grain, hay and grass. I have found that most kids continue to gain weight when weaned at 10 weeks old. Milk after that age doesn’t seem to contribute to their weight gain.

Grain is something that is often overfed to kid goats. Grain can cause bloating as well when fed too much at one time. It can also cause enterotoxemia by creating an anaerobic rumen. You have to be careful when feeding grain to kids because they tend to eat it first and then not eat as much hay or pasture. Grain tastes good and most kids enjoy eating it. Unfortunately, kids under 3 months old are not very keen on eating lots of hay or grass like an adult goat. This can cause an imbalance in their calorie intake and make them not as healthy overall. It’s like a picky toddler who only wants to eat mac’n’cheese all day. This is not a well-rounded diet and has consequences! 

It’s important to consider mineral and vitamin supplementation in kid goats as much as it is important to consider in adult goats. Kid goats are growing quickly and need to have the proper ratio of minerals to keep them healthy. Buck and wether kids are very prone to formation of urinary calculi when they have mineral imbalance. This can cause urinary blockage which can result in death. 

If large amounts of grain and milk are not the best way to promote rapid, healthy growth in a kid, what is? The answer is PARASITE MANAGEMENT! Kid goats are extremely susceptible to intestinal damage and nutritional deprivation caused by coccidiosis and tapeworms. My farm is a hotbed for these parasites. I have struggled for 10 years with them. This year I finally got serious and it may be the first year ever that my kids hit the 80 lbs mark by 8 months of age. I have had kids die from coccidiosis in the past. I have also had kids stunted and pot-bellied by tapeworms. 

My kid parasite management program involves preventatively treating for coccidiosis and worms on a monthly schedule until the kids are 6 months old. By 6 months old, most goats are immune to much of the problems these two parasites can cause. 

Coccidiosis prevention: Starting at exactly 21days old, I treat each kid with Corid. I mix 20% Corid powder at 1 gram of powder per 10 mL of water. I then give each kid 1mL of this solution for every 10 lbs of weight. I give it orally before feeding time. I like to wait 30 minutes after dosing before I feed the kids. This allows the Corid solution some time to be absorbed. I dose each kid once a day for 5 days. I repeat this 5 day dosage every 21 days until the kids are 6 months old. 

Tapeworm and other worm prevention: Starting at exactly 28 days old, I give each kid a dose of Safeguard (fenbendazole) dewormer. I follow the dosage recommendations on the bottle. I then give the kids a dose of Cydectin Sheep Drench 10 days after the fenbendazole. I give this at 5 mL per 22 lbs of weight. I continue to rotate these two dewormers every 28 days until the kids are 6 months old. 

So, if you are wondering why your kids are not as big as you think they should be or they are skinny, don’t start throwing milk and grain at them. Instead, it might be time to start a parasite prevention and management system on your farm.

Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Veterinary Care

“Much of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is offered either as an addition to conventional, science-based treatment or in situations in which conventional therapies are unavailable or ineffective. This doesn’t excuse offering treatments that haven’t been properly tested, and it doesn’t mean such therapies can’t do harm. However, such an approach at least avoids the harm that can come from delaying or rejecting effective treatment. 

However, sometimes CAM providers actually believe their practices are an appropriate and effective substitute for conventional medicine, even in the case of serious disease. This attitude is truly inexcusable when, as is usually the case, there is no sound evidence to support the belief and when irrational and inaccurate denigration of conventional treatments is used to scare people away from medicine that could really help their pets.” – from http://skeptvet.com/Blog/2013/06/there-is-no-natural-or-holistic-heartworm-prevention-or-treatment-proven-to-be-safe-and-effective/

The above paragraphs hit a chord with me in regards to goat care. I know of many people who tend to eschew all conventional preventions and treatments for goat problems, in favor of “natural”, “holistic” or “homeopathic” remedies. As goat owners we must always care for the animals with their best interests in mind. We cannot become so indoctrinated by the CAM ideal that we avoid proven conventional treatments or preventions. I know many people who don’t use chemical dewormers, never use antibiotics, or who won’t vaccinate their goats because they are afraid of the “chemicals” or “toxins” that may be in those things.

Be aware that herbs and homeopathic remedies also have chemicals and toxins in them. Wormwood that is found in many herbal deworming blends can be a serious liver toxin (http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5831a3.htm). Belladonna, which is often used as an anti-inflammatory and pain reliever is one of the more extremely toxic plants in the world (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atropa_belladonna). And keep in mind that most “homeopathic” remedies are nothing but water. Homeopathy is the practice of diluting a toxic substance until the substance is no longer toxic and the water “remembers” the substance and is able to “teach” your immune system how to react to it. If you dilute something 30,000 times with water, the end result isn’t magic memory water, it’s just plain water. It’s true that sometimes there could actually be something in your homeopathic remedy other than water, but that’s not usually on purpose and more related to the fact that many homeopathic remedies are manufactured in third world countries using unfiltered and untreated tap water for the dilutions. Your homeopathic remedy probably doesn’t contain any of the original substance it’s supposed to, but it may contain bacteria, toxins, and heavy metals due to the water used (http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2010/11/18/measuring-contaminants-and-concluding-th/).

I understand the tendency to turn to over-the-counter or over-the-internet herbal, holistic, or homemade concoctions to treat a sick goat. When the animal can’t tell you what is wrong, you are desperate to try anything. Also, when a licensed veterinarian is not available or too expensive (like in many of the areas of the North Country), you will turn to cheaper and more accessible alternatives whether proven to work or not. Add to that the fact that many veterinarians are not prepared to deal with goat problems and may not have prescription goat medicines on hand. So even if you do use a vet, they may not be able to help you. Finally, there is the strong myth that “natural”, “holistic” or “homeopathic” remedies are safer that conventional medications. 

When deciding which path to take in order to treat or prevent a goat problem, remember that most CAM therapies and treatments are not scientifically proven. Most of the evidence that they work is purely anecdotal or based solely on individual results. There is very little to no government regulation or oversight for herbal supplements, homeopathic remedies, and holistic concoctions. This means that anyone can mix up a batch of random stuff, call it “Magic Goat Cure”, and start selling it over the internet while claiming it cures everything from mastitis to CAE. To make it a real money maker, all the seller needs is two or three fictional “testimonials” about how some goner goat was magically cured by the stuff. It works even better when the seller makes up a fictional disease and claims that most of the population suffers from it and thus every animal should be on his patented and proprietary magic pills (http://skeptvet.com/Blog/2013/05/plechner-syndrome-and-the-art-of-making-stuff-up/)

On the other hand, conventional therapies and treatments have to go through regulated and reproducible scientific studies. The drug in question has to be statistically proven to treat the problem in a majority of the population. And those findings must be capable of being scientifically reproduced in order for the drug to be approved for sale (http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/ResourcesforYou/AnimalHealthLiteracy/ucm219207.htm). 

Some of the bad names that approved conventional drugs get for containing “chemicals” and “toxins” is because they actually do contain those things. Parasites, bacteria, and viruses are dangerous to goats because they are aggressive in their pursuit to grow, reproduce, and infect fresh victims. The biological forces behind these things are very strong, thus it is important to use a strong chemical or toxin to stop their infection and spread. 

Keep in mind that purposeful decisions to not use the appropriate treatments and therapies in your animals due to your personal beliefs is not always in the animal’s best interest. Choosing not to vaccinate for tetanus or use an antibiotic for coccidiosis prevention does not hurt you, it hurts your goat. It is our responsibility to care for the animals, thus it is our responsibility to consider ALL the tools that are available to us to use to keep them healthy. Ignorance is not an excuse for negligence!

Beware of buying raw milk

Everybody knows that farm fresh, local eggs and meat taste the best and are healthier for you. The same goes for local, fresh milk. Also, everyone knows that cooking eggs and meat is a good idea in order to eliminate harmful pathogens. So then why do people get so worked up about pasteurized milk versus raw milk? Pasteurization isn’t evil. It is simply cooking the milk in order to kill any harmful bacteria or viruses that have set up shop in your milk pail. 

Milk is nature’s perfect media for bacterial and viral growth. The reason we can make cheese out of milk is because it grows bacteria so well. Unfortunately, not only does milk grow cheese bacteria really well, it can grow some nasty bacteria easily too. Raw meat and raw eggs are similar in that they have the nutrients and correct environment to grow some really nasty bugs. This is why we cook these things. Heating up eggs, meat or milk to a certain temperature for a certain period of time works to kill the bacteria and viruses that may be lurking.  

I don’t like the idea of people buying raw milk in order to drink it [insert collective gasp!]. I don’t believe that raw milk is this magical substance that is somehow able to fend off growth of bacteria and viruses. There are claims that it doesn’t spoil and that it never makes people sick. Given that milk is actually used in research as a media for growing cell cultures, I feel that there has to be some ability for raw milk to grow harmful things if handled incorrectly. 

If you buy raw milk from someone else’s farm, you have no guarantee that they handled it properly from udder to bottle. Milk in the udder should technically be sterile, unless the animal has an udder infection, AKA: mastitis. Once milk is expressed from the udder and out into the environment, it can pick up all sorts of harmful pathogens. Unless you have taken a tour of the farm and watched the farmer milk the animal before you bought the raw milk, you will have no clue if their barn is filthy or not, if the animals look healthy or not, if the farmer milks with shit on his hands or not, or if he milks into a clean, sterilized pail or a dirty bucket. Is the milk strained and cooled properly before you get it? Did it sit out in the barn for 3 hours with the barn cats drinking out of the bucket before being chilled? Did the goat step in the bucket during milking and the farmer needed to fill your order so he strained out the poop and hair and bottled it anyway? You have no way of knowing. I highly recommend anyone who is thinking of buying raw milk take a thorough tour of the farm and watch the milking process first hand. 

Another problem that raw milk presents to someone who does not live on the farm where it is grown, is that the off-farm buyers of the milk are not inoculated against the particular bacteria and viruses that are endemic to that farm. The people who live on the farm are exposed daily to the microbes of that location. They have close contact with the animals, thus they are somewhat immune to whatever bacteria and viruses the animals naturally carry around. They are also immune to what the soil of the land carries. This is very important because someone who is not from that farm could be sensitive to something that the farmer is immune to. I have heard of people getting very sick from drinking raw milk when traveling. They had not been exposed to the normal microbial fauna of that region so they became ill when they drank milk which contained normally non-pathogenic stuff. The farmer had never been sick but his guests wound up going to the hospital. 

If you are looking into switching from purchasing store-bought, pasteurized milk to farm bought raw milk, be careful! Raw milk is not a magical panacea for all your ills. In fact it can just flat out make you very ill.

My Big Problem With Miniature Animals

I am not a big fan of miniature animals. While I am afraid of a 1600 lb. cow running towards me, I would hesitate to trade that full-sized cow in for a “lowline” or miniature version. The same goes for any miniaturized animals. Small is cute, I get it. But small isn’t always the best. Miniaturizing full-sized animals comes with major costs. 

One problem I have with miniaturizing animals is that small-size can come with big health problems. Miniature horses are prone to have dwarf foals. Dwarfism in horses is just as detrimental to the animal’s health and longevity as dwarfism in humans. There are also other genetic defects seen in miniatures that aren’t seen in full-sized animals. I am not sure if this is a result of the miniaturization or because many smaller sized animals are bred specifically for the pet market where good production genetics can get thrown out the window. 

 Another health problem seen in miniature animals is the inability to produce viable offspring without huge pregnancy complications. Sometimes the females are so small that they aren’t physiologically capable of having babies. Sure, they can get pregnant, but those babies may not be able to get out of mom. This is especially a problem when the miniature female is bred to a larger or full-sized male. The babies can be too big to be born successfully. Some people know that you should never, ever breed a larger male to a smaller female, but some people do not know this (again, this is a rampant issue in the pet market). 

A big problem I personally have with miniaturizing full-sized livestock is that you tend to trade in production ability for small size. To me, this is not a fair trade-off. Why would I raise and feed a mini-cow for two years and get half of the meat off of it than I would a full-sized one? I don’t see the benefit. Either way, it’s still a cow. Either way, you still have to feed it and care for it as if it were a regular cow. It may eat a little less, but it still shits just as much! 

The worst problem in my mind with miniature livestock is the tendency people have to cross breed them with full-sized animals. They think by crossing a Nigerian Dwarf dairy goat with a Nubian dairy goat they are going to get a smaller goat that produces lots of milk. Actually the opposite usually holds true – they get a large-ish goat that produces a crappy amount of milk. And if you cross a Nubian with a lovely roman nose and long ears to a Nigerian with a straight nose and straight ears, you wind up with a really ugly goat with a big nose and stupid looking ears. I really have no love in my heart for so called “mini-Nubians”, can’t you tell?! The same problem works with mini-cows mixed with full-sized. You don’t get a ¾ sized cow, you just get a big cow with teeny, short legs. Yuck. And don’t give me that BS that it is an “F1 hybrid” and that is why it’s as fugly as a port-o-potty. I am not buying it! 

What I really don’t get is that mini-animals are usually more expensive than their full-sized counterparts. Why would I pay twice as much for half as much animal?? It doesn’t make sense. A correlation to this price swap is that some people sell their stunted animals as “minis”. If a goat is underweight and stunted, it’s not a mini, no matter how small it is. IT’S A RUNT! Unless you actually bred one of its parents to an actual mini, it is never going to be a real mini. Sometimes I even see people sell immature full-sized animals as adult minis. They say that the rabbit is a Netherland Dwarf adult when it is actually a baby Californian. Boy, won’t the new owners be surprised when their “Dwarf” grows up to be 20 lbs! 

I do believe that miniature animals that are an actual breed are okay. If they evolved naturally over millions of years to be smaller in size, that’s fine. Shetland ponies and purebred Nigerian Dwarf goats are okay. They evolved to be that size and no humans purposefully bred them to be small. It’s when humans get their hands in the mix that miniaturization becomes a problem. Some animals are meant to be full-size. Some are meant to be smaller. Let’s just leave them be the size they evolved to be.