Keeping the goat house clean

[dhansen]

Have any of you used cat litter to soak up/make smell better areas where your goats pee often? My goats have a huge fiel to graze in, but as soon as I call them in, then run to the feeding area and all pee. It gets nasty, even though I clean the area daily. I was thinking of trying cat littler to soak up some of the yuck and maybe take care of some of the stink. It's also cheap, which I like.

 

[redtailgal]

We tried that in an area where horses were peeing. The cat litter STUNK and the area got slippery (it was NOT clay type litter).

We use compressed sawdust granules now. They are pelletized sawdust and they soak up the wet very good, then fall apart into loose sawdust that will dry quickly. We get it out of the bedding section of the farm store.

 

[ksalvagno]

You can try stuff like Stall Dry or woodstove pellets or pine shavings. I think the cat litter would be too dusty and it might get into their lungs.

 

[dhansen]

I may try it anyway just to see how it works. I think it is made out of clay anyway.

 

[EggsForIHOP]

I had a cat litter spill right outside my feed room door...trust me...DON'T USE KITTY LITTER! It was dry at the time, since it was fresh litter (I busted the bag and went all over) I forgot about it...until it rained!

I ended up with a slip-n-slide that needed to be dug out later because after it dried up it became a giant ROCK FORMATION that would turn slippery again when wet...it took two good cycles of rain/dry/rain/dry before I figured this out and dug that stuff up and outta there (I had hoped it would wash away - nope...no luck)...and it still keeps a slickness to it when it rains in that area even months later.

Try the pelleted pine bedding at TSC - I have a friend raising hogs for 4H and they SWEAR that is the best bedding ever!

Also...what I do in our covered barn area for stinky spots....just plain old baking soda. Can't hurt anything that eats it...doesn't need to be monitored like chemicals...just buy a big giant bag of the stuff and keep it around - when I smell stinky pee goats...I go in, rake out old straw, shake a TON of baking soda...put down new straw. Getting the old stuff out seems to help, and the baking soda seems to work. My girls also prefer to pee in one spot - right where the stand to munch hay! So it makes a nasty little mess there when we have several rainy days in a row and I can't stand that smell either!

 

[dhansen]

Thank you. I will try the baking soda as it is cheap at Costco and comes in a huge bag.

 

[that's*satyrical]

Wet cat litter is nasty unless you get the scoopable kind. I have the litter box in our laundry room & trust me you don't want to clean up nasty wet cat litter.

 

[EggsForIHOP]

And remember - it's one thing to be "clean" and it's another to be OCD with it...sometimes livestock STINKS!! It just can't be helped. Hot days, wet days...they don't help. It took me a year of OVER cleaning things to realize I was too worried and making myself TOO TIRED to enjoy my animals

Seriously...I was going in the pen daily and sweeping away poo and dirt with it with a dust pan on a stick and a broom!....and soon their pen was 6 inches SHORTER inside the fence than the land surrounding it! The neighbors were laughing at me and I had a GIANT pile of "manure" growing....I had a "come to terms with it" moment....

Now I have regular cleaning days and I actually enjoy being outside just sitting with my goats...and sometimes things are dirty...you should see my freaking kitchen at the moment! UGH! (DH just broke a plate as I type too!) But I'm taking more moments to RELAX and enjoy the nice days right now and I think my blood pressure is thanking me for it

Remember - if you're always cleaning, they can't be goats and you can't be happy

 

[dianneS]

You can try stuff like Stall Dry or woodstove pellets or pine shavings. I think the cat litter would be too dusty and it might get into their lungs.

Are woodstove pellets the same thing as the pelleted bedding for horses? Or is there a danger that there may be hardwood sawdust in them that would be harmful to horses? I've always wondered if the wood stove pellets could be a substitute for horse bedding?

 

[ksalvagno]

The difference is that there is nothing in it to deodorize the smell. I used it for rabbit litter so I'm sure you could use it for the horses. The woodstove pellets is what we are talking about.