# Issues with penning sheep and goats together



## Vumani (Jan 18, 2012)

I have a small dairy goat herd consisting of 4 Nubian does and soon to be some kids.  My children want to do a couple of sheep for a 4H project this year.  I have seen goats and sheep penned together and I have run into people who carefully keep them separate.  I am wondering if anyone can fill me in an why or why not sheep and goats should be penned together.  Thanks.


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## 20kidsonhill (Jan 18, 2012)

we have goat herd and we also buy 4H lambs in May for our fair in august.  

First off: your lambs can't eat goat feed or minerals because of copper toxicity. So you can keep them together if you are pulling the lambs out during feeding time and feeding them seperate grain  and they can't be allowed get to your goat minerals, if you are using goat specific minerals. 

Secondly: in my experience lambs carry a fair amount of diseases that can spred to your goat herd, and they should be isolated for atleast 4 to 6 weeks before putting them in with your goats. Soremouth is the first thing that comes to mind, and is quite common in the sheep industry. 

We kept ours together for a couple years, but just ended up seperating them after that. It was just easier in general for us to deal with the lambs in their own space.


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## aggieterpkatie (Jan 18, 2012)

I keep ours together. I'd isolate any animal that was new, regardless if it was a sheep or goat.  I normally separate my goats out at feeding time but if for some reason I'm feeding a mixed group, I'll feed sheep feed and supplement the goats with copper as needed.


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## Vumani (Jan 18, 2012)

20kidsonhill said:
			
		

> in my experience lambs carry a fair amount of diseases that can spred to your goat herd, and they should be isolated for atleast 4 to 6 weeks before putting them in with your goats. Soremouth is the first thing that comes to mind, and is quite common in the sheep industry.


So if I quarantine them for the 4-6 weeks is that enough time to determine of there are diseases I need to be concerned with?


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## 20kidsonhill (Jan 18, 2012)

Vumani said:
			
		

> 20kidsonhill said:
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In my experience soremouth will break in 2 to 3 weeks. Trust me, you do not want sore mouth all over your property if you can avoid it. I am sure there are others, but that is the main one I have dealt with. They also share parasites, such as tapeworms and coccidiosis, so you should worm you lambs well before exposing them to your goats, and sense they are probably terminal, you should worm them well the first couple of months, so you get the best possible weight gain and you can back off on worming as you get closer to the show, so you don't have to worry about withdrawals of the wormers. 

For some reason the sheep we get always seem to have a very heavy tapeworm infestation, so I would recommend worming them with valbazene or another good tapeworm medicine. Your show feed should have plenty of coccidiosis prevention in it. I have not had as much problem with coccidiosis in the lambs as I have the goats. But it can happen.  

Feel free to ask any other questions you would like, we are going on our 10th year of our kids showing lambs, and 5th year of showing goats.


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## Vumani (Jan 18, 2012)

I appreciate the input as I am completely new to sheep.  If I were to keep them separate then it would also hold true that separate equipment should be used to prevent cross-contamination of possible diseases?


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## SheepGirl (Jan 18, 2012)

You won't need separate equipment. Simply washing them with a mild bleach solution would probably be sufficient. But after the quarantine period of bringing your sheep home and they are exposed to your goats and your goats are exposed to them, they will share the same "germs."


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## 20kidsonhill (Jan 18, 2012)

Vumani said:
			
		

> I appreciate the input as I am completely new to sheep.  If I were to keep them separate then it would also hold true that separate equipment should be used to prevent cross-contamination of possible diseases?


what kind of seperate equipment are you referring to?  feeders, hatlers, shears.......??  We use the same shears and shearing stand. And we exercise them together haltered to the back of the tractor, after the first month or so.


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## Vumani (Jan 19, 2012)

SheepGirl said:
			
		

> You won't need separate equipment. Simply washing them with a mild bleach solution would probably be sufficient. But after the quarantine period of bringing your sheep home and they are exposed to your goats and your goats are exposed to them, they will share the same "germs."


Are you talking about washing the equipment or the animals?


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## Vumani (Jan 19, 2012)

20kidsonhill said:
			
		

> Vumani said:
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Yes all of these.  My specific concern was with the feeders and the stand.  My milk stand is also my shearing stand.  I am just nervous that having the lambs for a few months could negatively impact my dairy goats.  That probably sounds silly but as I said I am new to sheep.


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## aggieterpkatie (Jan 19, 2012)

As long as the lambs are healthy, there really shouldn't be any problems.  The one thing I can think of is CL, which is harder to spot in sheep since they mostly get internal abscesses, but you can always test for it if you're really worried.  Talk to the person selling you the sheep, and ask to see the whole flock as well.


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## Vumani (Jan 19, 2012)

aggieterpkatie said:
			
		

> As long as the lambs are healthy, there really shouldn't be any problems.  The one thing I can think of is CL, which is harder to spot in sheep since they mostly get internal abscesses, but you can always test for it if you're really worried.  Talk to the person selling you the sheep, and ask to see the whole flock as well.


The seller is a friend of mine and has actually offered for me to come check out the herd.  What would I be looking for?


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