minerals (copper)

[junkman]

hello, I have six Nigerian dwarf weathers about 5 months old, my vet told me to get shepherd minerals from a local feeds store, after I been using it I noticed there is no copper in the minerals. I told her I was concerned about the minerals not having copper, she told me since my heard is all weathers and not a breeding heard that they would be fine with the shepherd minerals.
should i be concerned ?, should I switch back to manna pro goat minerals?

thank you in advance
Jack

 

[Goat Whisperer]

I’m not a vet but we have fed Manna pro minerals to our wethers. Even if the goat isn’t producing, they still need those minerals for proper health. When we copper bolus the herd we do the wether too.

Manna pro minerals also contain ammonium chloride, which helps prevent UC.

You land & hay may have proper copper levels, but I don’t see why it would hurt to offer the Manna pro. Did your vet say you shouldn’t feed it?

Whatever mineral you feed, you should make sure the calcium/Phosphorus ratio is 2:1.

 

[Southern by choice]

Having adequate copper is not just a general nutritional requirement but also directly affects parasitic infections. Goats that are deficient generally have higher wormloads.
Other minerals interact with the copper so if a goat is lacking then those other minerals may not be utilized or do what they need.

It is very much like those that feed a lot of alfalfa, high in calcium... calcium although it is necessary, too much causes the depletion of zinc.

You may not need additional copper if your land is rich in copper and the goats are foraging heavily.
Below is a link for you to see the data in your area.

https://mrdata.usgs.gov/geochem/doc/averages/countydata.htm

I just looked and the county you are in is very high... unless the land is depleted or they don't get much forage you may not need additional copper.

Well water that is high in iron can bind copper. That is our issue, we are also high in copper but our dairy goats are a little tighter managed and we have high iron. We do give the bolus and our mineral does have copper.

Always good to have discussions with your vet for better understanding.

 

[junkman]

Thank you for the replies

 

[junkman]

this is all new to me so I may have 100 questions, how do you administer the bolus ? is it something that gets put on their grain ? we do have a lot of iron in our water, I have two filter systems on the water to take out the iron, so I don't know if that would help as far as the copper or not.

 

[Alaskan]

this is all new to me so I may have 100 questions, how do you administer the bolus ? is it something that gets put on their grain ? we do have a lot of iron in our water, I have two filter systems on the water to take out the iron, so I don't know if that would help as far as the copper or not.

if your area is naturally high in copper, you shouldn't need to add any.

That must be why your vet told you not to use the mineral with copper..... because your area is high in copper.

 

[jsteph3919]

hello, I have six Nigerian dwarf weathers about 5 months old, my vet told me to get shepherd minerals from a local feeds store, after I been using it I noticed there is no copper in the minerals. I told her I was concerned about the minerals not having copper, she told me since my heard is all weathers and not a breeding heard that they would be fine with the shepherd minerals.
should i be concerned ?, should I switch back to manna pro goat minerals?

thank you in advance
Jack

Everything I have been told is that Goats need copper. You can get mineral blocks or bags specific for Goats.

 

[junkman]

thank you for all the replies...
I have switched back to the manna pro minerals, which has the copper in it.

 

[Latestarter]

I was kinda freaked out about trying to bolus as well before I actually did it. I bought coppasure gelcaps with 4 grams of copper "rods" in each. I tried to give them hidden inside banana chunks (open the capsule and dump the rods in then replace the banana chunk), inside peanut butter sandwich quarters (again, open the capsul and spread the rods around in the peanut butter), and when neither (supposedly foolproof) method worked, broke down and did the bolus with a bolus gun

A little dab of peanut butter on the end of the inner shaft of the bolus gun, stick the bolus to it. Hold the goats mouth by grabbing the top jaw and slide your fingers into the mouth to open it, slide the gun to the back of the tongue an push the rod out. Be careful to not put your fingers too far back though as those rear teeth are very sharp and jaws clamping down will do a number on those fingers. You want them on the gumline between the front teeth and back teeth.

There are you tube videos showing the process as well.

 

[AClark]

Also, make sure you get the gun far enough back they can't spit it out or chew on the bolus - whole point is like stuffing a pill to the back of a dogs throat so they can't spit it out, just this gets it all the way back there without your fingers getting crunched.