Hoof Trimming Job

We trimmed the goats hooves today. Not such a huge job because there are only four goats. Two 2 year olds and two 8 month old goats.

The older goats hooves were in a bit of a state, lots of wet weather and not a lot of rough hard surface to wear their hooves down naturally. I think that they are missing some calcium in their diet because their hooves are delaminating a bit. Dirt and crud is getting in between the white hoof material (sole) and the fibrous horny outer shell of the hoof. This is also because of the wet weather.

We just got some kelp to improve their diet a bit, so that should help somewhat (kelp helps to improve their coat and hooves as well as improving their gut flora.

The kids hooves were much easier, the hooves are a lot smaller and softer. Cutting Darius was a bit of a problem, though. I cut a little too much off a rear toe and he bled a little bit. I immediately cleaned the hoof with methylated spirits and then ran in and got some iodine to apply to the bleed.

The blood vessels that run through the hoof are not very big and it is difficult to transfer any bacteria into the hoof through such a small vessel (particularly because after they are cut, when the goat puts pressure on the sole, the sole flexes and closes the vessels). Nevertheless, better to be safe than sorry, so the iodine helps to clean the wound. The bleed lasted for about 5 minutes and then it was all clean again. Still, I’m keeping the goats in the back yard for a couple of hours before they go back into their field (less chance of faecal material being in contact with the hoof before it is better healed).

I need to research the delamination problem and see what I can do to prevent or reduce it.

This weekends hoof trimming was only a light trim. I will need to do some more trimming and rasping in the coming weeks to get them into better shape.

Getting the hooves into better shape reduces the pressure on the goats pastern and so improves their gait and, longer term, improves the goats back health.

I could not have done the hoof trimming without the help of my lovely wife.

One Last Jab

Today I got another vaccine syringe to vaccinate Daphne after yesterdays debacle. Getting Daphne out of the goat field was no problem, and getting her onto the milk stand was easy and giving her the injection … no problems at all. So what was all of the problem about yesterday, I ask. Goaty troublemaking is all that I can put it down to. After injecting, I found that I had made a little lump under the skin, so the injection probably went into to right place but formed a bubble of vaccine. After rubbing this lightly, the bubble went away and no vaccine came out … jab job done.

After that, I took down the last of the electric fencing from the goat field. It wasn’t energised, so it was just forming a potential tangling danger in the field, so it had to come out. That only took a few moments.

The last job with the goats today was a weigh-in. I don’t have a set of livestock scales, so I need to use a weight estimation method where you measure the goat around the girth behind the front legs. This is a pretty easy and relatively accurate method of estimating the goats weight. I use the weight estimation table provided on-line on the Fias-Co Farm website (by the way, Fias-Co is an excellent resource for dairy goat breeders carrying loads of information on breeding and goat husbandry).

Goat	Girth	est. Weight
Holly	98 cm	71.7 kg
Minnie	81 cm	41.7 kg
Daphne	77 cm	39 kg
Darius	75 cm	36.3 kg

Last time I estimated their weights was in December 2011

Goat	Girth	est. Weight
Holly	91 cm	62.6 kg
Minnie	81 cm	45.3 kg
Daphne	51 cm	13.61 kg
Darius	48 cm	11.79 kg

So, Holly is … as has been said before, our biggest goat. Actually, she has lost a lot of weight since May, so I’m kinda glad that we didn’t weigh her earlier.

Daphne and Darius are still pretty much the same size as each other and Minnie is still a healthy sized goat, with an average weight of 61kg for an adult. She’s still only 2 years old and is still expected to grow somewhat. Holly, on the other hand, is already a big girl. Daphne and Darius have pretty much tripled their body weight in the last 8 months, so I am pretty happy with their growth and diet.

I’ll keep giving them a weigh-in every six months or so, so that I can see how they are progressing. Weight is a very good indicator for health in any animal. If they start shedding weight, and you are still feeding them the same feed … then start looking for the problem. By the same token, if an animal is putting weight on and the feed is the same, other problems may be the cause.

I’m using their weight as an indication of overall health and, for the kids, growth. The weight of Holly and Minnie is pretty consistent for each goat, so I’m not worried about worm burden. I still need to send a poo sample off to get a definitive worm count for the girls, but at the moment, they are looking pretty good. It has been cold and wet lately, so the fact that they are still able to maintain their overall weight is a good indication that their feed supply is up to the task and that their health is good.

Goat Vaccination Time

One of the great things about goat people is the level of collaboration and cooperation that exists between them. One of the people in the goat community is a breeder of Boer goats. She had bought a bottle of Glanvac 6-in-1 (which contains Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis (ovis), Clostridium perfringens type D, Cl. tetani, Cl. novyi type B and Cl. septicum and a purified formol culture of Cl. chauvoei). These come in bottles of 100ml, 250ml and 500ml. These volumes are too large for most of us and we would be throwing a lot of it away. Plus, it seems that Pfizer has stopped selling Glanvac in 100ml bottles. It’s 2.5ml per goat, so I’d need 100 goats to use a bottle and it has a shelf life of 30 days after it has been opened. It makes good sense to use what you need and try to sell the rest to other goaties. The particular breeder measures out the dose into a syringe with the appropriate needle, so $3.00 per syringe makes it very easy.

The last time that I vaccinated the goats, I only had two. Holly and Minnie were both very easy to vaccinate, I had done my goat husbandry course so I was pretty confident that I could get it all done with the least hassle. Holly and Minnie had other ideas. We didn’t have a milking stand then and we did it all in the field. At one point, the needle shot off the syringe and I had to scrabble around to find the needle amongst the grass. We had to wrestle with the goats with one of us holding the goat by the collar, while the other was straddling the goat making skin tents to inject. Once the needle was in, the goats were very accommodating. After the injection, both Holly and Minnie developed subcutaneous lumps from the vaccine, so I was advised to try injecting in the skin behind the front elbow.

This time, four goats and a milking stand. Much easier … right? Well it all went pretty well until the last goat came under the needle.

First was Minnie, straight up onto the milking stand. She knew what was what. Probably, her experience being put into the milking stand for an extra feed while being milked when she had kidded made her very keen to get to the food. Make a little tent from the skin behind the elbow, jab, plunge and rub. No problems and no needle going right through squirting vaccine onto the coat. Minnie didn’t even flinch.

Darius was next. Pretty much the same as Minnie except that he didn’t like the jab.

Holly … what a champion. When the food was in front of her, I think we could have hung hot coals from her earlobes and she wouldn’t have been phased (I am NOT suggesting that this would be good goat husbandry).

Daphne was where it all came unstuck. I had put the full syringe in my jacket pocket so that I could wrangle her because she refused to get up onto the milking stand. No amount of food was getting her into the stanchion. So, I lifted her up and got her to the food bucket then put my hand into my pocket … my pocket was wet … sticky and wet. Argh! The plunger had plunged while the syringe was in my pocket.

Now I need to go back out to my friends goat stud and get another syringe for Daphne. Such fun.

Holly is off to see Aunty Shelley

Well, Holly is off to see Aunty Shelley at her farm and get acquainted with one of the boys.

Last kidding season, Holly managed to avoid the boys and came home without any little kids, but this year we are hoping that she is ready for kidding. Holly is a bit mysterious when it comes to being in oestrus. Does are supposed to be more vocal (she is already very vocal), more buckish (already pretty buckish and queen doe) and her vulva is supposed to dilate, honestly? Maybe? I’m not that familiar with goats yet so it’s hard to judge.

Holly is really sweet, if a little bit pushy, and she is certainly the most outgoing of our goats.

Shelley thinks that Holly was served by Tyson last weekend, but we have to wait another cycle (21 days) to make sure.

Tyson is a handsome boy and Holly is just not that sure that she wants his attentions. So maybe when Holly arrived at the farm, she had just finished cycling. Tyson was interested … anytime a new girl arrives he knows what is going on.

Kidding 23-11-2011

Much later (November 23, 2011) Minnie gives birth to a pair of the most gorgeous little kids you ever saw first there was a buck kid

Darius ... and then his twin sister, a little doe kid, Daphne

Darius started out with some breathing difficulties, but that passed (thankfully) with little intervention.