not eating

[peachick]

I was trying to see if he looked bloated last night but I didnt see anything off. Today, he looks the same, and I did hear gurgling. Last night a couple time he was moving his mouth funny so I looked in to see if maybe he had a stick or something lodged....... it was too dark to see. LOL But that may still have been the problem.

last night around 8pm I put him in a pen by himself with grain,hay and water. he had a big drink and then started rooting around on the hay... not really eating anything.

This morning the hay is gone and most of the grain was still there.
I let him out and he was quite happy and FRISKY to be out. but still not eating the grain. The other 2 goats and lamb are eating and doing great. (I think they are happy he's not pushing them out of the food!!)

He is acting normal today, except for not being interested in grain..... I'll update again in a few hours. thanks to everyone for your advice. I dont know what it was. But glad he's better today.

 

[Roll farms]

Making funny movements w/ his mouth....was he by any chance grinding his teeth?? That's a sign of pain / discomfort / misery in goats.

It could be something as simple as a belly ache...we all have 'off' days.

I would probably give him a bit of probiotic paste and, if he still isn't interested in his grain by tonight, a shot of B vitamin (appetite stimulant and all around 'make 'em feel better' medicine).

Probably wouldn't hurt to have a fecal ran to check for cocci and worms.

 

[cmjust0]

Making funny movements w/ his mouth....was he by any chance grinding his teeth?? That's a sign of pain / discomfort / misery in goats.

It could be something as simple as a belly ache...we all have 'off' days.

I would probably give him a bit of probiotic paste and, if he still isn't interested in his grain by tonight, a shot of B vitamin (appetite stimulant and all around 'make 'em feel better' medicine).

Probably wouldn't hurt to have a fecal ran to check for cocci and worms.

x2

Glad to hear he's doing better.

 

[peachick]

thanks He might have been grinding his teeth, and what looked like yawning... ?

He is eating better.... had a hand full of grain. Still seems a little quiet, but mostly he's back to his horney lil self... and bodily functions are eliminating properly
He has had valbazen, probiotics, minerals, plenty of water and hay.

This may or may not be a problem, but Im new to goats so ??
My goats share a yard with my sebastopol geese. I give fresh water twice a day when I can, but geese can fowl up water quickly. The goats inevitably end up drinking goose water. 98% of the geese diet is grass, so how bad is a little goose pooh to a goat?

 

[ksalvagno]

You are asking for a constant parasite problem if the goats are drinking water with goose poo in it. If you can separate the geese and the goats, that would probably be best. My chickens and goats do share the same field but the chickens don't poop in the water buckets. Plus goats really don't like to drink messy water so they may be drinking less water than they normally would if it were clean.

Do you have baking soda out for your goat? That would take care of any minor bloat problem.

 

[cmjust0]

thanks He might have been grinding his teeth, and what looked like yawning... ?

He is eating better.... had a hand full of grain. Still seems a little quiet, but mostly he's back to his horney lil self... and bodily functions are eliminating properly
He has had valbazen, probiotics, minerals, plenty of water and hay.

This may or may not be a problem, but Im new to goats so ??
My goats share a yard with my sebastopol geese. I give fresh water twice a day when I can, but geese can fowl up water quickly. The goats inevitably end up drinking goose water. 98% of the geese diet is grass, so how bad is a little goose pooh to a goat?

The first danger of that situation that comes to my mind is Salmonellosis, which is a dangerous bacterial gut infection. He'd likely have scoured if that was the culprit here, but it's liable to be the culprit someday if things stay the way they are.

Something else that comes to mind is the fact that goats are quick to ration themselves on water if it's not *clean* water...rationing oneself on water is very, very, very dangerous for young bucks and wethers, as it tends to make urine more concentrated.. Highly concentrated urine is absolutely, positively a risk-factor for urinary calculi. A big risk factor, actually..

So even if it has nothing to do with what *just* happened, it's something to rectify ASAP.

 

[peachick]

You guys are great. thanks so much for the advice. (im learning a lot)
I will put baking soda out....
and figure out a drinking water solution. I have several pools out for the geese to play in. but also have buckets of drinking water for the goats... the geese cant poo in those, but they do like to make mud in them. Either way the goats have access to all of it.
Knowing the goats wont drink dirty water helps a lot.
I'll work soemthing out.

 

[jodief100]

Perhaps you could create some type of keyhole system for the water. Something where the goats have to stick thier heads through to get the water and the geese couldn't get into it. I was thinking surrounding the buckets with field fence too small for the geese to pass through and cutting out a section goat head high and size.
I don't know if geese woudl be sble to get into a hole above their heads or not.
I don't like to use keyhole feeders with goats but in this case it might be "least bad" choice.

 

[peachick]

Well, he's fine.
eating and everything normally.
This weekends project is to work out better water management.
In the mean time, I raised their water buckets up high and made them a platform to climb on to drink..... geese are too clumsy to climb... and the goats think its fun.

 

[Roll farms]