Goats need the abiltiy to get minerals free choice. Even though a fed mix is said to be for goats, it is rare that they eat enough to get all of the minerals they need. Feeding free choice minerals in a block or loose form allows the goats to get the minerals they [...]
Floppy kid syndrome first appeared in 1988 and, although much initial research was done, we still don’t know what causes this to happen. This disease is characterized by a profound metabolic acidosis—what is that? Well, normally your body had a neutral pH. When this disease occurs your blood stream becomes to acidic. Kids affected with [...]
This method uses Counts done before and after deworming to allow you to monitor for drug-resistance. The graduated cylinder was originally made for horses, because the worm burden in goats is so much higher we need to modify the technique for goats. 1) Collect your fecal sample and run the sample soon after collection. [...]
Mastitis is a significant problem in our lactating does. It is present in both the dairy and meat production animals. There are many things that can contribute to mastitis problems including cold wet and muddy environments. Does that are heavily fed to encourage milk production are predisposed to mastitis. Physical factors such as teat fistulas, [...]
Mycoplasma is a unique type of microorganism belonging to the class of Mollicutes. The first strains of mycoplasma were isolated at the Pasteur Institute in 1898 Would you be ready for a mycoplasma outbreak in your herd? You may wonder if it is even likely to be a problem on your herd. [...]
Dr. Kathy Thigpin Also known as pregnancy disease and twinning disease, this disease is caused by the competition for glucose between the doe and her fetuses as they experience rapid growth in the third trimester. It results from a combination of a decrease in the plane of nutrition during the latter third of pregnancy and [...]
Remove them? A topic on the veterinary boards lately has been the ethical or unethical nature of removing extra teats on dairy does. Here are some of the thoughts Extra teats are clearly separate and distinct from the main teats. These teats are usually located behind the main teat and are much smaller. When they [...]
Written in 3/5/2005 Caprine arthritis encephalitis (CAE), Caseous Lymphadenitis (CL), and Paratuberculosis (Johne’s disease) are diseases that cause weight loss, decreased production and various clinical symptoms in your herd. They can result in a significant economic loss to goat producers as well as emotional stress to the pet owner. Furthermore, the risk of human [...]
Written in 2004 Many of you may have heard of Toxoplasmosis and it’s relationship to pregnant women. I know as a small animal practitioner, I get many calls from pregnant women who are wondering if they need to get rid of their cat. Here is the scoop… Toxoplasma is protozoan parasite [...]
Always dose drugs as accurately as possible, weight tapes can be bought that are easy to wrap around your goats but until you get one use a regular tape that you would sew with and use this conversion chart. Weight Chart for the large breed dairy goats taken from http://www.saanendoah.com NOT for meat, hair, Pygmy or Nigerian Dwarf [...]
