elevan said:
You are trying to reduce your farm's expenses when it comes to feeding pelleted grain by providing them with produce scraps from your local grocery (?)...and that I can certainly understand. You're also admitting fairly new to goats and their nutrition...please understand everyone here wants to help.
The produce that we humans choose to eat is often "richer" than what your typical goat would be used to. Diet is the cause of bloat...not medicines. So Ivomec wasn't the cause here - Diet was...whether it was the molasses misted alfalfa, the produce trimmings or whatever...but it was food that caused her to bloat.
Minnie was fairly new to your farm, so you didn't know if she had a predisposition to bloat (some goats do). And you believe that she was recently settled...hormonal changes can change the "ballgame" in any species and could have made her more susceptible to bloat even if she wasn't before.
You mentioned that the bulk of this last bit of produce trimmings was corn husks. Corn husks can ferment rather quickly....which is why some farmers use it to create silage. The corn husks could have begun fermenting without your realizing it...especially if they were in with "wet" produce trimmings. You admitted you feed those trimmings over several days - plenty of time to start fermenting. Fermented feeds are not good for goats and WILL cause bloat.
I strongly suggest that you step back and re-evaluate. Seeing posts about deadstock breaks everyone's hearts....we wouldn't be saying this if we weren't trying to help. I know that "knowing" it was the produce is gonna make you feel like "you" killed her. Have a cry and learn from it. We all make mistakes whether we're just starting out or into it a while...it becomes a tragedy when you don't learn from them because failure to learn from your mistakes will result in them being repeated.
I truly believe that some of the people here want to help, however there are others who only wish to add insult to injury.
We may be "new"(owning/raising goats for a year), but it does not mean that we have not done any research. I do not care for the overwhelming air of "I know everything and you are an idiot" that is being thrown in our direction by certain members here.
We have not said that we give produce to reduce the cost of feeding our animals. We offer produce for these reasons: 1) it keeps them from getting pasture bloat come spring, 2) Added nutrition to keep them in prime condition, 3) for the sheer fact that they enjoy it. Yes, it is a bonus that the produce they get is at no cost to us.
I will restate: The last produce minnie had/ate was on Sunday. She had the plain alfalfa hay(dried, cut & shrinkwrapped{not molasses misted} from TSC- new to her diet) on Wednesday. This was a small amount(roughly 2 cups) mixed with their normal hay, and everyone ate it. She didn't show signs of bloat until Thursday(4 days after the produce).
The corn husks are nothing new(in every bag), and go to the goats the same day they are removed from the ears.
To all:
Since no one here thinks that Minnie could have had a bad reaction to the Ivomec 1% Ivermectin injectable for catte given orally, the
only other change to her diet was a small amount of the straight dry, cut & shrinkwrapped alfalfa hay that we puchased at TSC. Everything else she ate was not abnormal food stuffs for any of our goats.
Also, our farm is not the only one on here that gives produce in heaps to their goats without having any issues.
