Sunday, March 31, 2013

Blondie's Boys

Blondie kidded early this morning to two beautiful kids - they're color is cute, one has blue eyes, their ears are just fabulous like their mother. The only problem is... they are both BOYS! I was sooo hoping for a girl out of her. But, God gave me two healthy, full term boys and for that I will be thankful :).








Suriyah

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Sale List

Due to a big sale falling through, we suddenly have a large group of very nice goats available for sale. We have some adult does, some bottle doelings, and a good chunk of bottle bucklings. If you'd like a complete sale list, shoot me an email or give me a call (918-598-4007).

Here's some info and pictures on some of the bucklings.

All are able to be registered with the ADGA. They all come from fabulous milking lines and would make great herd sires. All their moms run on our milk stand and do great.

All are on the bottle but are almost ready to wean. They are almost 8 wks old, are eating food good and can be weaned off the bottle soon.

3 american Alpine bucklings - $75 each
1 purebred Nubian buckling - $75
1 purebred LaMancha buckling - $75
2 Nubian/Alpine bucklings - $50 each
We may be able to make you a package deal if you buy several!







Suriyah

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Blueberry's Triplets

These are Blueberry's triplets born last Saturday. The first two are the bucks, last one is the girl. They all have blue eyes. The two boys are available as bottle babies for $50 each.








Suriyah

Monday, March 25, 2013

51 Kids

Don't have a lot of new pictures right now as it's been very cold out the past few days. But, just a quick update.

Saturday evening Blueberry, one of our blue eyed MiniNubian does, kidded to triplets - 2 boys and a girl (last year she had 2 girls and a boy). All of them are blue eyed - hooray!

Just this morning Niniel, one of our black Alpine does, kidded to two doelings.

That puts our kid numbers at 51 for the year (so far!). We've only had 1 kid loss. There have been 27 bucklings and 24 doelings - not too bad girls! Praise the Lord for such a successful year so far. It has been fabulous.


See ya!

Suriyah

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Caseus Lymphadenitis (CLA) by Pat Colby

This article is from Pat Colby's book, Natural Goat Care, Copyright 2001. Although some of this information is obviously outdated, it is interesting that the injectable vitamin C worked on the CL. We do not have CL in our herd, but someone asked for this article so I figured I'd post it.

Caseus Lymphadenitis (CLA), Cheesy Gland.

This is quite different from a grass seed abscess, although it may take a vet to tell the difference. The latter has been covered at the beginning of this section. CLA is due to an organism - corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis - which gains entry though a wound, often invisible, or even from a grass seed. The abscesses are located on the lymph system and usually start at the back of the jaw. They then follow the lymph system down via the shoulder and underarm to the stifle from whence they will form inside the animal, usually resulting in debility and death. If the goat's immune system is in good order, one abscess is usually the only result, but should the goat be CAE positive, with no natural immunity, the abscesses will, in my experience, become endemic.

The abscess starts as a flat hardening at the back of the jaw, developing into a boil varying from the size of a dime to that of a tennis ball, depending on the goat's natural immunity. The treatment is the same as described earlier in the section on abscesses, but extra care must be taken in the handling of the pus from the abscess. Rubber gloves must be worn if there is any likelihood of a skin break in the hands and all material from the cleaning must be burnt. A British Veterinary Society meeting in April 1990 classifies CLA as a zoonoses, in other words, an animal disease that can be contracted by man, often in a form more unpleasant than the original.

I had an experience with an outbreak of this disease many years before CAE became a problem. Every goat in the herd, about 15, produced an abscess of some kind (often very small). From then on, even if a new goat came with an abscess, my herd appeared to have been built up a natural immunity that lasted for years. The organism responds to no known antibiotic; exhaustive tests were done at the time of that outbreak by veterinary researchers. They established that it could be sometimes halted if measures were taken before the swelling started - an obvious impossibility.

The only measures I have taken have involved using megadoses of vitamin C when the abscesses are internal. This does not stop them, but it detoxifies the material from the abscess so it does not affect the system - this, of course, only applies to CAE-free animals.

Many years ago a woman rang me about a goat in the last stages of debility. About three boils had burst on the exterior of her doe and then started through the interior lymph system. The vet had diagnosed them as being in the lungs and liver and advised putting her down and I felt the same. The owner believed that while there was life there was hope, so we decided to try vitamin C. The doe was given 10 grams intramuscularly daily for 10 days, with several injections of two cc of B12 and good supportive nursing. I did not hear any more and assumed the doe had succumbed until several months later when I opened a letter and a picture of an absolutely blooming Saanen doe fell out - she had made a full recovery.

In some countries, the United Kingdom included, CLA is a notifiable disease. It most often emanates from sheep, among which it causes havoc because the abscesses cannot be dealt with or seen in the wool. Exporters of goats may have to produce certificates of freedom from the disease.

Several attempts, mostly in South Africa where it has been a scourge to fleece goat breeders, have been made to produce a vaccine. These apparently have not been very successful. It was found that good husbandry, such as avoiding deep litter situations and making sure that the kidding yards were never on the same ground for two years running, were found to be far more effective.

Monday, March 18, 2013

Sunrise & chores

The sun comes up, the does need milked, the kids need bottled, hay needs to be tossed.
Every morning, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. The life of a dairy farmer.







This is Tiny Bit. My little sister rescued her about a week and a half ago from the local sale (she was sold for $7.50!). She is the sweetest little lamb ever. She was born deformed - her front legs are pretty messed up and one side of her face and ear is smaller than the other (you can see in the photo). I think it was caused by her mother having a deficiency of some sorts - probably selenium. But, she is living a spoiled life here like no other lamb :).

Suriyah

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Goodbye, Grandma Goat

Last night I tucked "Grandma" goat in as usual with her coat. Her two buddies, our special crooked-necked "Trauma" and "Gits" a 2 year old girl, slept next to her as usual. This morning we awoke to find that she had passed away during the night :(. She lived a long, spoiled life and was almost 13.

She only moved once in her life - when she was 9 years old her owner had to sell all her goats. She had spoiled Grandma goat incredibly and was so happy when we decided to buy her and her daughter Rosie. So, we moved Grandma, who's name was actually Maggie, and her daughter Rosie here and enjoyed them so much. Quickly "Maggie" got a nickname - Grandma, and it stuck.

She kidded in 2010, 2011 and 2012 to twins each time. I determined that 2012 would be the last time she would kid - she was too old to have babies again. She definitely showed the scars of motherhood with her old saggy udder and her ear that was half way bitten off - she was guarding her kids from a dog one year before we got her and the dog bit her ear halfway off.

For the last year, she has been a permanent resident in the milking barn and front yard, always with her coat on during cold days and nights. She loved to sunbathe and was a treat-eating-monster.

Her sweet old personality will certainly be missed in the barn. ♥


Suriyah

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Preventing Coccidiosis

Coccidiosis. One of the number one problems in goat kids that goes untreated. Failure to thrive, diarrhea, lack of weight gain, and stunted growth are a few of the things that are caused by coccidiosis. Coccidiosis is a "stealth killer" of goats because symptoms are easy to miss and irreversible damage can be done if the illness is not quickly treated. Once a kid has an overload of coccidia in their gut, they need to be treated asap but it will take a long time for them to fully recover. While adult goats can get coccidiosis, young kids with their immature immune system make them more susceptible to this disease. Prevention is key.


Dewormers have no effect on coccidia. Medication required for treating coccidiosis, both preventatively and curatively, is totally different from deworming products. 

To prevent your kids from ever getting coccidiosis, they need to be on a prevention program. There are are many drugs that can be used, but I like the following two as they have been proven to work and are fairly easy to administer. Starting when the kids are 3-4 weeks old, our kids are re-treated once a month until they are approximately 6 months old.

Our first choice now is Baycox (Toltrazuril). It is a very simple 1 dose treatment. Many breeders have been successfully dosing at 1 cc per 5 lbs bodyweight, given orally.

Our second choice is Sulmet (Drinking Water Solution 12.5%). We have used this for years before becoming aware of the Baycox. The downfall to using Sulmet is that it is a 5 day treatment, which can be rather inconvenient. The dosage is 1 cc per 5 lbs bodyweight for day one, and 1 cc per 10 lbs bodyweight for the following four days. 

Suriyah

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Photo Overload

No captions needed. Just lots of happy kids.





















Suriyah