Something I Learned About Fish Tail

[Goatherd]

This morning, Eugene my buck, was castrated. This was done at the vet's office. Thanks for asking.

While we were there, I asked her about fish tail in goats as Eugene has pretty much always had this.

I mentioned that the "internet goat folks" attribute this condition to a lack of copper in the diet. She gave me a quizzical look and said she never learned or heard of that. She went and consulted with another goat vet and he came into the room and told me that he never heard of it either and that while a goat who has fish tail MAY be copper deficient, this was not a sign of the deficiency. They both said that a color change in the coat and possible textural change in the hair would be the more appropriate diagnostic tool that might indicate a deficiency.

Take it for what it's worth.

 

[elevan]

Did they say what THEY believe is the cause of fish tail?

 

[Goatherd]

Honestly Elevan, I didn't ask and they didn't say.

Another thing they added is that people tend to over use copper supplementation and said that if it is going to be used, to do so carefully and err on the side of caution.

 

[elevan]

Yep, I get that. There's a line that you can cross and deficiency can look just like toxicity.

I supplement copper only 2x a year as recommended by my vet for our area.

 

[Dreaming Of Goats]

What's fish tail?

 

[Mossy Stone Farm]

I think when you start to play with additives you may throw off more than your trying to fix...

Some times less i better than throwing everything on the shelves into them...

just my thoughts***

 

[elevan]

What's fish tail?

Fish tail is when they lose hair at the end of their tail and the rest of the tail hair splays out and sort of looks like a fish's tail

Looks like this: <

 

[countrykids]

A dose of copper fixed all of my ND's fishtails! I wasn't really looking for that to happen because I had heard that sometimes they don't fill in. Their colors improved - dramatically! Then the tails started filling in.