Testicles?

ldawntaylor · Jul 23, 2016

Hi and welcome,

I'm sorry for the rough start. To answer your question - yes they do shed their coats like dogs and such. Some people even collect the shed hair for spinning yarn and such. A time consuming process to say the least.

As others have said on other threads there is a huge learning curve on caring for livestock. And this is a really good place to ask those questions that come up. To paraphrase a teacher of mine from college the only foolish question is the one that doesn't get asked.

Personally I've had goats for about 9 years and I still have questions sometimes.

Again welcome,

Lisa

Rescuechick76 · Jul 23, 2016

ldawntaylor said:
Hi and welcome,

I'm sorry for the rough start. To answer your question - yes they do shed their coats like dogs and such. Some people even collect the shed hair for spinning yarn and such. A time consuming process to say the least.

As others have said on other threads there is a huge learning curve on caring for livestock. And this is a really good place to ask those questions that come up. To paraphrase a teacher of mine from college the only foolish question is the one that doesn't get asked.

Personally I've had goats for about 9 years and I still have questions sometimes.

Again welcome,

Lisa

Thanks so much! I'm so glad I found this page! It's been frustrating but also so much fun! Excited to learn more, I'm even thinking of adding a third. But not until we get the horns and testicles taken care of on my boy

ldawntaylor · Jul 23, 2016

From another post of yours I've got the notion that you have chickens as well. There are quite a few of us like that. Do you have particular breeds or just barn yard mixes?

Southern by choice · Jul 23, 2016

Yes, a true livestock vet is best especially one that does considerable work with goats.

More often then not many dog/cat/exotics vets really do not have the base of knowledge to do much when a goat is in trouble. To add to that many horse vets and cattle vets are not that great either. Some are but it may take some time to find a vet you are comfortable with.

The dog/cat world of vets are starting to do things on a level of dogs/cats for livestock and that is NOT good for livestock animals in general. They are different areas of specialty. Keep in mind some vets do both cats/dogs and livestock. Much depends on your region.

Yes, cutting is fast and easy and far less trauma. Sedation should be used on older goats, but not on 2-3 month old goats. Goats are very sensitive to sedation and there can be long term issues.

Goats will shed their coats, goat kids will lose their fluff and start to sleek in the summer.
We clip ours in the spring/summer to help them stay cool. 100 degree days here and the goats are HOT! We also put fans up. We let their coats grow in for winter.

The Angora goat is a fiber animal. Most other goats do not have soft enough hair. We do have some Kikos that have a cashmere like coat that they shed out. It is THE softest hair ever.

I agree with @ldawntaylor there aren't dumb or stupid questions. When we don't know something we don't know something... it is as simple as that. Asking questions is how we learn.

As far as cocci... there are many products. All are off label so must be vet recommended. We use Baycox as preventative. Di-Methox is great for treatment. Corid is not great for goats but sometimes that is all one can find and that is what is recommended often by vets that aren't really goat vets. :/

Rescuechick76 · Jul 23, 2016

ldawntaylor said:
From another post of yours I've got the notion that you have chickens as well. There are quite a few of us like that. Do you have particular breeds or just barn yard mixes?

I have a couple different breeds. My oldest are my leghorns and red sex links. And I also have an Easter egger, my roo is a silver laced Wyandotte, and my newest chicks are buff orpingtons and australorps. I only have 10 total. I'm sure most people on here have big huge farms...I'm so envious

How about you?

Rescuechick76 · Jul 23, 2016

Southern by choice said:
Yes, a true livestock vet is best especially one that does considerable work with goats.

More often then not many dog/cat/exotics vets really do not have the base of knowledge to do much when a goat is in trouble. To add to that many horse vets and cattle vets are not that great either. Some are but it may take some time to find a vet you are comfortable with.

The dog/cat world of vets are starting to do things on a level of dogs/cats for livestock and that is NOT good for livestock animals in general. They are different areas of specialty. Keep in mind some vets do both cats/dogs and livestock. Much depends on your region.

Yes, cutting is fast and easy and far less trauma. Sedation should be used on older goats, but not on 2-3 month old goats. Goats are very sensitive to sedation and there can be long term issues.

Goats will shed their coats, goat kids will lose their fluff and start to sleek in the summer.
We clip ours in the spring/summer to help them stay cool. 100 degree days here and the goats are HOT! We also put fans up. We let their coats grow in for winter.

The Angora goat is a fiber animal. Most other goats do not have soft enough hair. We do have some Kikos that have a cashmere like coat that they shed out. It is THE softest hair ever.

I agree with @ldawntaylor there aren't dumb or stupid questions. When we don't know something we don't know something... it is as simple as that. Asking questions is how we learn.

As far as cocci... there are many products. All are off label so must be vet recommended. We use Baycox as preventative. Di-Methox is great for treatment. Corid is not great for goats but sometimes that is all one can find and that is what is recommended often by vets that aren't really goat vets. :/

Yes, I'm starting to notice the lack of goat knowledge around here. Which is really surprising. We live in an area where people still farm. But I guess their livestock is mostly cows and horses. There's even a guy my husband works with who has goats and he tried to tell my him goat don't have four area to their stomach??? And if they bloat you should stick a garden hose up their anus??? Scary :/

ldawntaylor · Jul 23, 2016

I'm on a small place. I have 9 goats and 19 chickens at the moment. I've got a variety of breed as far as chickens go. With the goats I've got Toggenberg purebred and mixes. The herd sire is a purebred.

Rescuechick76 · Jul 23, 2016

ldawntaylor said:
I'm on a small place. I have 9 goats and 19 chickens at the moment. I've got a variety of breed as far as chickens go. With the goats I've got Toggenberg purebred and mixes. The herd sire is a purebred.

Hahaha! If that's small, then I'm miniature

My goats are Nigerian dwarfs. Not sure if I posted that earlier. I've wanted goats for so long but we have a boarding kennel, work other jobs, and have plenty of our own pets (two being handicapped) so hubby said no for a long time. Not sure what made him change his mind but he finally agreed. And after we lost the first female I took it really hard, felt like such a failure, I thought about selling my boy to somebody more knowledgable but he convinced me to keep him and to get another. I think he likes them

ldawntaylor · Jul 23, 2016

Rescuechick76 said:
Hahaha! If that's small, then I'm miniature

Compared to a lot of people here in rural Arkansas my place is small. Less than 10 goats compared to the 50 my original goats were from. Or more in the meat goat operations. And compared to the chicken houses in the area my 19 birds is a tiny number.

I am blessed to have parents that want me to be independent in a rather non-traditional way. They actually own the land I live on. And my coop was a "Christmas present" this past year.

This lifestyle has a lot to do with beginnings and endings and all that is between them.

Rescuechick76 · Jul 23, 2016

Sounds like you have wonderful parents. That's a pretty cool Christmas present! We only have 10 acres where we are. But I am so grateful to have what we do. I could never handle city life. Although I'd like to have more land and such, I love being able to feed my family from my garden and chickens. I'm hoping someday to use my goats for milk, but I've got a lot to learn first.
I love this lifestyle we are in

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