# Do goats swim?



## TigerLilly (Jul 27, 2010)

At the moment it happened, it scared the crap out of me, but now that everything is ok, it's kind of funny--only kind of...
I was calling the goats from the front part of the property when I heard Buckley (my ND young buck) bleating. He was louder than usual and when I saw him, I figured it was just because he was by himself & he felt lost & lonely.  He was on the other side of the pond (small & maybe 3 ft deep in parts) when I called him. He seemed to be so happy to see me that instead of walking around the pond (like he did to get where he was), HE JUMPED IN! It looked like he was doing the doggy paddle, but it was clear that he was not happy at finding out that the stuff he'd jumped into was WET. I ran down & coaxed him back to the side & he got out fine. He is now dry & happy once again! 
Do goats know how to swim or was this just a sink or swim situation?


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## jodief100 (Jul 27, 2010)

They normally don't swim and avoid the water.  Good thing it is summer or would have had to dry him out to keep him from getting sick.


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## glenolam (Jul 27, 2010)

I agree - that seems like one of those situations that really isn't funny until AFTER everyone is safe and sound....

No idea on if they can/can't swim, but I guess it's plausible.


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## freemotion (Jul 27, 2010)

Most animals will instinctively dog paddle or do a trotting movement in the water.  I imagine a goat would have some gases in their rumens that would also act as a flotation device of sorts.....

Where is the camera when you need it?


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## cmjust0 (Jul 27, 2010)

Deer can swim like nobody's business -- I've seen that time and again.  I mean, they can HAUL in the water...

Looks really weird, though.  

In any case, if a deer can do it, I'd imagine a goat could to..  

Oh, also...I *know* cattle can swim, because they routinely run them through medicated dips at feedlots and places like that.  Not super great at it, but they can do it.


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## aggieterpkatie (Jul 28, 2010)

Most all animals *can* swim, but some dont' like it.  Goats can definitely swim, but I've never seen them voluntarily do it.  

Deer, OTOH, like CM said, they swim very well and will do so voluntarily.


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## Shiloh Acres (Jul 28, 2010)

I used to know only one "goat person" a few years ago. I remember two things that really stuck in my memory from her experiences. The first was that she would sometimes bring baby goats INTO THE HOUSE to raise. Goats in the house, that shocked me at the time. Little did I know ...  LOL! 

The second was much sadder. She had a pond on her property, and kids often drowned in it. She did have a dock and it seems they might often fall from the dock into the water, and maybe it was that they tried to swim back towards the dock rather than the shore. I'm not sure and neither is she, since if she HEARD one fall in, she always rescued it. 

I used to wonder why she didn't fence off the pond, or dock at least. 

I debated even sharing this, but if someone reads this someday, wondering if their pond is a danger to their goats, I wanted to share that. BTW, I don't think any of her adults ever drowned, just kids. And the pond was big enough that she needed a little boat to rescue them. But I wanted to plant that warning, in case it's ever needed. She raised either Pygmies or Nigies, btw.


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## aggieterpkatie (Jul 29, 2010)

I used to live and work on a dairy farm in VT.  One morning we went and brought all the cows in to milk and one of them was missing.  We went out in the pasture to find her (we knew she was due to freshen soon), and we found her laying at the edge of the pasture next to the fence.  On the other side of the fence was a river, with about a 6' steep bank between the river and the fence.  We got the cow up and saw that she'd freshened, but could not find the calf anywhere.  We followed her gaze to the other side of the river and there laying on the other bank was the calf!  Alive!  He was born during the early morning hours and must have fallen down the bank and into the river, which was COLD and 4' deep with a current!  He'd somehow managed to make it to the other side.  We brought him inside and warmed him up with the blow dryer and he was just fine.  We were amazed he survived!


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