I feel so very behind with my goats.

Carla D

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my husband and his dad have been raising pigs for about 1.5 years. I just love them. But four weeks ago I went and bought 9 newborn bucklings ranging from 12 hours old to 3 days old. Now I know why they were so cheap. They are a lot of work if they are not raised by their nanny. I fell in love with them instantly. They have probably double or tripled in size since I brought them home.i absolutely love bottle feeding them with my four year old daughter. She has even claimed one for herself, Jack aka Jack Frost.all of my babies were alpine except there was one Saanen and one Nubian in the mix. I fell I’m love with the Nubian. But he had struggled from the moment I brought him home. He passed away a week ago. I had no idea the baby goats could be so loving, gentle, and snuggly. Fonzy, would just melt in my lap he would also tuck his head into my neck. I feel so horrible that he didn’t survive. I even slept with him in my arms under my electric blanket for two nights. He was that cold.

I have a few tough diagnoses that take a lot of work to maintain. Primarily major depression, fibromyalgia, and high blood pressure. Every doctor I’ve been to has told me the best way to manage these is to stay very active, get a hobby, and stay busily distracted. I’ve discovered that my baby goat have significantly improved the really high pain levels I have daily and when I’m stressed there is no better fix that holding a baby goat and pet him or feed him a bottle. I’m out at the farm 3-5 times a day just to find some relief. My husband and I have built a special pen/room for the babies. They are housed in an old metal polished. So we have build a 10’x12’ enclosed area for them with solid 6’ walls to help keep the draft out of their area. They have a good size wooden crate that has been sealed up and covered with a heat lamp in the roof. It’s a pretty sweet setup. The only problem was I had initially had the heat lamp inside the taller crate. A few of the babies would get right in front of the heat lamp and they had singed away a few patches of fur. That problem was fixed pretty quickly. Now the can’t touch the build anymore. We got really lucky.

Anyways, as for feeling so far behind with my goats. They have yet to be castrated or dehorned. They are four week old and we can’t quite afford to get them dishorned yet. Disbudding is probably the only act of maintenance that neither of us feel comfortable doing ourselves. I’m about to attempt hoof trimming in a day or two. YouTube and the internet have become lifesavers for me. They also need to have a couple of vaccines really soon. That won’t be a problem for either of us. As I’m a disabled nurse and my husband has 20+ years in the military. He’s not afraid to attempt anything, except disbudding.

We have a philosophy about the animals on our farm. Once they get to our little hobby farm they will be living the good life. They all get a whole lot of love, care, pampering, and treats. Even our 400# boar. He’s a pussycat. Not many of our animals leave the farm. So far the only animals that have left are 17 young 100-200# piglets. They went to someone who is starting their own farm. I’ll be really curious about how long I’ll be able to sit in a lawn chair and hold each goat to feed them, snuggle them, and groom them from my lap. I’m hoping I can be able to do it at least until spring gets here and when it will be warm enough to house and pasture them outsid.

One quick question. Do you think I should be able to trim their hoofs while being held in either my lap or my husbands? I guess I have a second one to ask. How old is tooold to band/castrate these little guys?
 

Baymule

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I have castrated my lambs as old as a month with a knife. I don't use a band, but there are plenty of people here that do, and they can give you a better answer. Welcome to the forum. Enjoy your goats, they really are the best medicine!
 

Southern by choice

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Welcome to BYH! :frow
Goats really do bring so much joy and I believe also help in the healing process of health, both physical and mental. They bring about such a calming effect.
So sorry you lost the Nubian fella.


As far as disbudding, it is too late to disbud, they would be dehorned at this time. Dehorning is pretty major. Disbudding is done anywhere from 3 days to 7 days generally for a standard size goat. The "bud" attaches after that and starts the actual horn.

Having that many horned bucks is really a bad idea. It you can get a vet to take off the horns now the better.
Horns are destructive let alone dangerous. I use to love horns... no more.
Even though they may be sweet as can be accidents happen - a quick jump back or a sudden move can mean your eye.

As far as castration.... we cut we do not band and we do standard bucks at 8 weeks. This gives time for the urethra to grow and less issues with Urinary Calculi.
Getting a lambar and filling with milk to feed that many at once is advantageous.
We bottle feed as well. With 40+ kids this year we used a lambar and it was great.

A few things...
The kids should be on coccidia prevention.
Heatlamps can be helpful and can be hurtful. Goats must adapt to temps. Keeping them too warm sets them up for pneumonia and respiratory issues are deadly in kids. You don't huge temp differences.
If you are going to use a lamp use a safe one that won't burn them or your barn down
https://www.premier1supplies.com/p/prima-heat-lamp

The space you have them in will not be adequate in a month. These boys are going to be 200-250 Lbs each at maturity so think long term. You don't mention what state you are in and that makes a difference as far as shelter. Goats must have airflow, without it ammonia build up will cause respiratory. Once they get a few months old and over 3 sided large shelter is best. Unless you are in a super cold region the 3 sided building that can house 8 250 lb goats is best.

This article is the best for understanding Urinary Calculi- It is very prevalent in wethers. Learn how to prevent it and manage it.
Do not give free choice baking soda as it will render ammonium chloride useless. They need ammonium chloride to help prevent stones. Check your feed to make sure it has this.
At their age they should have free choice hay available and you can give some feed.

http://www.ansc.purdue.edu/SP/MG/Documents/SLIDES/Urinary calculi.pdf

Make sure you look at tags to check the calcium : phosphorus ratio!
 

Carla D

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I have castrated my lambs as old as a month with a knife. I don't use a band, but there are plenty of people here that do, and they can give you a better answer. Welcome to the forum. Enjoy your goats, they really are the best medicine!
They sure are the best medicine. I love bottle feeding them on my lap. Some of them snuggle so closely and really want to be held for a really long time.
 

Latestarter

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Greetings and welcome to BYH Carla, from NE TX! So glad you joined us. Glad to hear you're enjoying your goats and happy to know that having them provides you some relief from the health issues you have to deal with. Won't be much longer and they'll be way to big and heavy to hold in your lap. I band my male goats as opposed to cutting. I do so between 10-12 weeks (Lamanchas). As for trimming hooves, you can probably do so while they're in your lap right now, but you might want to instead, get them used to standing and letting you pick up their hooves for trimming. Get them started/trained young as you don't want to fight with an adult male goat. There's a wealth of info, knowledge and experience shared in the multitude of threads. Browse around and see what interesting stuff you can find. By all means post away when the desire strikes you, especially if you have questions (provide as much detail/info as possible and pictures truly help)... With all the great folks here, generally someone will respond in no time at all. Please make yourself at home!

PLEASE put at least your general location in your profile. It could be very important if/when you ask for or offer help or advice. You know, climate issues and such. I recommend at least your state as most folks won't be able to figure out where if you put anything more specific (county, town, street, etc) by itself. Old folks like me will never remember from this post & look there first. To add it, mouse hover over Account top right and a drop down will appear. Click on Personal Details and scan down. You'll see the spot for Location. Then go to the bottom and save changes. Thanks! Hope you enjoy the site!
 

Carla D

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Welcome to BYH! :frow
Goats really do bring so much joy and I believe also help in the healing process of health, both physical and mental. They bring about such a calming effect.
So sorry you lost the Nubian fella.


As far as disbudding, it is too late to disbud, they would be dehorned at this time. Dehorning is pretty major. Disbudding is done anywhere from 3 days to 7 days generally for a standard size goat. The "bud" attaches after that and starts the actual horn.

Having that many horned bucks is really a bad idea. It you can get a vet to take off the horns now the better.
Horns are destructive let alone dangerous. I use to love horns... no more.
Even though they may be sweet as can be accidents happen - a quick jump back or a sudden move can mean your eye.

As far as castration.... we cut we do not band and we do standard bucks at 8 weeks. This gives time for the urethra to grow and less issues with Urinary Calculi.
Getting a lambar and filling with milk to feed that many at once is advantageous.
We bottle feed as well. With 40+ kids this year we used a lambar and it was great.

A few things...
The kids should be on coccidia prevention.
Heatlamps can be helpful and can be hurtful. Goats must adapt to temps. Keeping them too warm sets them up for pneumonia and respiratory issues are deadly in kids. You don't huge temp differences.
If you are going to use a lamp use a safe one that won't burn them or your barn down
https://www.premier1supplies.com/p/prima-heat-lamp

The space you have them in will not be adequate in a month. These boys are going to be 200-250 Lbs each at maturity so think long term. You don't mention what state you are in and that makes a difference as far as shelter. Goats must have airflow, without it ammonia build up will cause respiratory. Once they get a few months old and over 3 sided large shelter is best. Unless you are in a super cold region the 3 sided building that can house 8 250 lb goats is best.

This article is the best for understanding Urinary Calculi- It is very prevalent in wethers. Learn how to prevent it and manage it.
Do not give free choice baking soda as it will render ammonium chloride useless. They need ammonium chloride to help prevent stones. Check your feed to make sure it has this.
At their age they should have free choice hay available and you can give some feed.

http://www.ansc.purdue.edu/SP/MG/Documents/SLIDES/Urinary calculi.pdf

Make sure you look at tags to check the calcium : phosphorus ratio!
Hi. Thank you so much for your reply. I’ll try to answer all of your comments. Your insight and comments are the sort of information that I really need.

I was really on the fence about disbud/dehorn. I’m a firm believer in doing everything you possibly can to keep our pet: goats, pigs, rabbits, kitties happy, and thriving. It’s our responsibility to see that they live the best life they possibly can. With that being said I read many articles, watched many videos on the pros and cons of having a horned goat. I had a goat fly into my nose and teeth trying to cut in the lunch line. I’ve heard of horror stories about other goat or their human getting hurt. I have a fearless four years old and a few younger nephews that visit quite frequently. I sure wouldn’t want any of them getting hurt. It is a job that we are going to need the vet to do this time and in the future if I ever have more.

I’m going to look into the surgical method of castration. You are the first person that has even mentioned another method. I have always thought that banding was a cruel and super slow method of castration. I also didn’t know about the urinary calculi that wethers tend to develop. So this is a very good reason to hold off a few more weeks. Thank you for that bit of information.

Oh no, we don’t plan on them staying in the barn. This is only a temporary arrangement for them as they were brand new babies when we got them. I kinda got them on spur of the moment. I found a really amazing deal on them from a commercial goat farmer. I paid $5/head. Now I know why they were so cheap. They are very labor intensive at that age. I’m so glad that I got to experience them being so little, cute, and sweet. I would do it again in a heartbeat. We actually used last springs farrowing area. That used to have two farrowing crates and a walkway in it. That’s all we had for two weeks. They were getting pretty close to being able to jump over the three foot walls. So this “goat pen” was created. It’s a room that could be used for many other things down the road. It could house hay/straw, miscellaneous storage, a sick bay, and we could put a roof on it when the goats move out and that would create an additional space for storing things. Right now this pen has a lot of fun things in there for the goats amusement. But, the plan was to only house them in there until spring when it warms up a bit which will also give us time to figure out where to put them and to build there goat shelter and pasture.

The heat lamps are no on a timer. At night it is on for 1.5 hours and off fro 30 min cycles. During the day it is only on for an hour and off for thirty minute cycles. We build a safety fire box to prevent them from singing their fur anymore and to prevent the lamp from becoming a fire hazard. But, it’s been freezing at night now for about the last 10 days or so. While I do have a soft heart, I can’t bare the sight of them all shivering all the time. But, I do know they are supposed to be able to tolerate the cold and this isn’t even very cold yet. It only gets down to the mid 20 degrees overnight. So to keep them from getting to toasty warm we implemented the timer for the heat lamp. I’m also holding by January or early February that the temperatures start warming up a bit and I won’t have to run the lamp anymore. I guess time will tell.

The goats do have free choice of three different types of hay/grass and I also free choice their pellets. I have a mixture of pellets in their feed. 3 parts medicated meat goat feed, 1 part alfalpha pellets, and 1 part calf manna. They do also get a small amount of free choice goat minerals. No baking soda. I have tried giving them a couple of treats the last couple of days which are whole peanuts (unsalted) and cheese balls. They don’t seem to be interested in either of them. Maybe they are too you to appreciate them?

I hope that touches on all of the points you made. While I jumped into this blindly, I know I shouldn’t have, but I couldn’t help myself. I’m now realizing the “goat pen” they are in is quite likely to become a bit tight come spring. We may have to build onto it a little. Possible a small room where I can feed them individually and groom them. They love being pet and brushed. But a stand might be a good idea for trimming their hoofs. Is there a way I can build one now that they can fit in as babies and still use as adults? Is there any adaptations that can be made? Or should I plan on building a small one for now and a full six
Zen one for down the road?


Welcome to BYH! :frow
Goats really do bring so much joy and I believe also help in the healing process of health, both physical and mental. They bring about such a calming effect.
So sorry you lost the Nubian fella.


As far as disbudding, it is too late to disbud, they would be dehorned at this time. Dehorning is pretty major. Disbudding is done anywhere from 3 days to 7 days generally for a standard size goat. The "bud" attaches after that and starts the actual horn.

Having that many horned bucks is really a bad idea. It you can get a vet to take off the horns now the better.
Horns are destructive let alone dangerous. I use to love horns... no more.
Even though they may be sweet as can be accidents happen - a quick jump back or a sudden move can mean your eye.

As far as castration.... we cut we do not band and we do standard bucks at 8 weeks. This gives time for the urethra to grow and less issues with Urinary Calculi.
Getting a lambar and filling with milk to feed that many at once is advantageous.
We bottle feed as well. With 40+ kids this year we used a lambar and it was great.

A few things...
The kids should be on coccidia prevention.
Heatlamps can be helpful and can be hurtful. Goats must adapt to temps. Keeping them too warm sets them up for pneumonia and respiratory issues are deadly in kids. You don't huge temp differences.
If you are going to use a lamp use a safe one that won't burn them or your barn down
https://www.premier1supplies.com/p/prima-heat-lamp

The space you have them in will not be adequate in a month. These boys are going to be 200-250 Lbs each at maturity so think long term. You don't mention what state you are in and that makes a difference as far as shelter. Goats must have airflow, without it ammonia build up will cause respiratory. Once they get a few months old and over 3 sided large shelter is best. Unless you are in a super cold region the 3 sided building that can house 8 250 lb goats is best.

This article is the best for understanding Urinary Calculi- It is very prevalent in wethers. Learn how to prevent it and manage it.
Do not give free choice baking soda as it will render ammonium chloride useless. They need ammonium chloride to help prevent stones. Check your feed to make sure it has this.
At their age they should have free choice hay available and you can give some feed.

http://www.ansc.purdue.edu/SP/MG/Documents/SLIDES/Urinary calculi.pdf

Make sure you look at tags to check the calcium : phosphorus ratio!
 
Last edited:

Southern by choice

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I am glad the info was helpful to you.

I rather have scurs on a goat (easy to deal with) than horns. Most bucklings will end up with scurs anyway even if done right away. They are just harder than does. Their base is huge.

@Baymule also "cuts" instead of banding.
I have castrated my lambs as old as a month with a knife. I don't use a band, but there are plenty of people here that do, and they can give you a better answer. Welcome to the forum. Enjoy your goats, they really are the best medicine!

She may be able to explain the process better. It is a bit misleading- the term cut/surgical that is- basically the very bottom of the scrotum where there is thick skin that is the part cut off- not the testicles.
There is no blood when you take the skin at the bottom of the sac off. Then you pop out the testicle and wrap the "long strings" around your finger and pull till it breaks. then the next. They hop down and are done. The pulling stretches and closes the "tube" off. You never cut the "strings"- think of a hose - if you cut it is open, then you have a problem. They walk funny for a few minutes to a few hours but have never had one that acted like they were in pain, no crying after no freaking out etc.

I do recommend watching your vet and having your vet teach you.

Sounds gross and complex but takes seconds to do and done. No worse for wear and really .Not the agony of a band.
No rotting flesh less issue with tetanus etc.
If you end up having to band, don't worry... lots of people do it and the goats get over it.
 

Carla D

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Here’s my goats most of these were taken this afternoon when I finished feeding them. Some of these are of their new goat pen. Their names are: Rusty Nails, Butch Cassidy, Ringo Star, Junior, Elvis, Jack Frost, Tanner, Billy the Kid (Bill-E-Goat) when he grows up. Then there is also a picture of Fonzy, my Nubian that passed away a week ago. (I guess I haven’t figured out how to post my herd of goats.
 

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Southern by choice

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Love the pics and all the boys are adorable!!!!!!!!!!
You may be able to still have the horns burned but do it quick!
 
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