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[Carla D]

Why is that?

I can’t get all of the urine/ammonia cleaned out of there. The only thing that is preventing my goats from getting really sick is the fact that it’s so cold even our barn floor is frozen, except in the goat stall. That is a few degrees warmer than the rest of the barn.

 

[Baymule]

On my second lambing, I had twin lambs get chilled and unresponsive. I didn't know to warm them up before tube feeding them. I warmed them up afterwards. They died. I received good advice here on BYH, and I acted upon it, but the lambs had been too cold too long, I didn't know to warm them up ASAP. I just didn't know.

Then to compound the grief, their mother, my favorite ewe and big pet went down. Took her to the vet, she had Ruptured Pre-Pubic Tendon, everything was hanging down, her belly looked like a pot belly pig. She was struggling just to breathe. We had to put her down. I didn't know what it was and didn't recognize it before she lambed. Still couldn't have done anything about it, so I guess it was just as well.

https://www.backyardherds.com/threads/baymules-lambs-2nd-lambing.34888/page-8

 

[OneFineAcre]

I can’t get all of the urine/ammonia cleaned out of there. The only thing that is preventing my goats from getting really sick is the fact that it’s so cold even our barn floor is frozen, except in the goat stall. That is a few degrees warmer than the rest of the barn.

That's what I have. Everyone I know has either fine gravel or just plain old dirt. What kind of floor do you think would be better?

Edited to add"
What kind of ventilation do you have?

 

[Daxigait]

I can’t get the gravel clean. The ammonia level is getting pretty tough to handle. A couple of goats are coughing. I’ve raked it multiple times, spread pounds of baking soda on the floor, tried lemon juice as well. The goats went crazy for both of those. They wanted to eat or drink it directly out of the container I was holding. I also spread a huge amount of vinegar on the floor. None of these made a dent in the ammonia issue for more than a few hours. We literally don’t have anywhere to put them right now to clean, level, and cement the floor. We can’t even put posts in the ground so we can have an area setup for them when some of the snow melts. We got them as brand new babies the last week of September. We thawed have until spring before they became 80-90# goofy beasts. They are so big now that three of them can jump over our Dutch door if the top is open.
View attachment 59234 View attachment 59236 View attachment 59238 View attachment 59239 View attachment 59240 This goat isn’t even struggling to stand there. They take treats off of the shelf that is just outside the door and a little lower than the door as well.

If you can put shavings down and change them regularly that'll help some but I'm sure you're doing that. I use pdz in my chicken coop I mix it in sand and put it on the poop board. Of course, you don't want them breathing it so if there's some way you could put that down near the ground level underneath your bedding. I am sure you're working on ventilation.

I get this a tractor supply, but you'd have to get it so they wouldn't be breathing it inI.

Sweet PDZ Stall Refresher, 25 lb.
(86)
$9.99

 

[Daxigait]

That's what I have. Everyone I know has either fine gravel or just plain old dirt. What kind of floor do you think would be better?

Edited to add"
What kind of ventilation do you have?

Mine are compaction rock floors. Just have a lot of ventilation.

 

[Daxigait]

It cost me a 12:30 in the morning vet call to learn that if a doe does not dilate in the cervix and it's starting to get pushing contractions that you can give 30 cc's of calcium paste with minerals or some other form of calcium and if it doesn't work try again in a few hours after that you would have to resort to more drastic measures.
She had me just use a big oral syringe and give her 30 cc's of this paste/gel.

 

[Carla D]

That's what I have. Everyone I know has either fine gravel or just plain old dirt. What kind of floor do you think would be better?

Edited to add"
What kind of ventilation do you have?

Well, we have an old hole ridden pole shed. Leaky as ever. It is honestly as cold in there as it is outside. Especially now after our huge pigs destroyed one of the door coverings to either get in or out after our last huge snowfall. The floor in the shed is the typical large gravel you would likely find in a persons driveway. Some of our gravel floor has had pigs putting their own touches on the design flaw of the floor. That floor will be purely mud when it starts to thaw in the spring.

I’m at a loss right now as what to do for the moment so we can keep them in that area until we get an area set up for them in the spring. I’m wondering if a floor with a few inches of PACKED sand would work if it were topped with pine needles, wood chips, even straw. But whatever gets put down needs to be able to soak up all of the urine a goat releases per day. It’s a lot. Then you need to be able to clean the floor of its bedding or covering. It would also be a huge benefit if you would be able to either hose it off or deep clean and sanitize down the road when needed.

Right now my goats are in an enclosed room which doesn’t have a solid ceiling. The enclosure is about 10’x12’ approximately. I did put a huge tarp over the ceiling to try and keep some heat in their area. If I didn’t do that their water would be frozen in less than an hour. Since we don’t live there we typically go out there twice, possibly three times a day to do our chores and cares. That tarp is going to have to be taken down REALLY soon, even if the temperature doesn’t get above freezing. They are going to need their ceiling open for ventilation. I’m headed to the farm right now. I’ll try to take some pictures of our setup to show you what we have and where our issues are. Maybe you can avoid them for your setup.

Here’s some pictures. This is far from ideal, but we were in a pinch when brought our boys home. The ventilation at the moment is the space between the top of the wall and board that is about 2-3 inches above where I have the tarp attached. Otherwise we will have an open ceiling as ventilation. But we will have to take their house out of there or find a way of preventing them to climb over the walls by standing on their goat house.
.

 

[Daxigait]

Well, we have an old hole ridden pole shed. Leaky as ever. It is honestly as cold in there as it is outside. Especially now after our huge pigs destroyed one of the door coverings to either get in or out after our last huge snowfall. The floor in the shed is the typical large gravel you would likely find in a persons driveway. Some of our gravel floor has had pigs putting their own touches on the design flaw of the floor. That floor will be purely mud when it starts to thaw in the spring.

I’m at a loss right now as what to do for the moment so we can keep them in that area until we get an area set up for them in the spring. I’m wondering if a floor with a few inches of PACKED sand would work if it were topped with pine needles, wood chips, even straw. But whatever gets put down needs to be able to soak up all of the urine a goat releases per day. It’s a lot. Then you need to be able to clean the floor of its bedding or covering. It would also be a huge benefit if you would be able to either hose it off or deep clean and sanitize down the road when needed.

Right now my goats are in an enclosed room which doesn’t have a solid ceiling. The enclosure is about 10’x12’ approximately. I did put a huge tarp over the ceiling to try and keep some heat in their area. If I didn’t do that their water would be frozen in less than an hour. Since we don’t live there we typically go out there twice, possibly three times a day to do our chores and cares. That tarp is going to have to be taken down REALLY soon, even if the temperature doesn’t get above freezing. They are going to need their ceiling open for ventilation. I’m headed to the farm right now. I’ll try to take some pictures of our setup to show you what we have and where our issues are. Maybe you can avoid them for your setup.

Here’s some pictures. This is far from ideal, but we were in a pinch when brought our boys home. The ventilation at the moment is the space between the top of the wall and board that is about 2-3 inches above where I have the tarp attached. Otherwise we will have an open ceiling as ventilation. But we will have to take their house out of there or find a way of preventing them to climb over the walls by standing on their goat house.
.View attachment 59244View attachment 59245View attachment 59246View attachment 59247

I would be more worried about poor quality air than the cold. As long as they are blocked from straight wind and wet because wet is the biggest enemy.. if you are worried about the cold you could build a heated Barrel or heated liquid tote. you just cut about at 9 or 12:00 in square opening to Panama size of your goats and put metal box at the top with the ceramic fixture and 125 watt he lamp bulb and I taking a extension cord that the end off and hardwired in just put a little hole saw the top that you can use to extend the wire on in then it can't come and contact with any bedding and it can't say anything on fire and you can choose the length of the cord you need. If I'm doing a barrel I get one with the removable lid so it's easier to put just the lid up in the summer.

 

[Baymule]

I know the snow is deep right now, when it melts enough to put up some sort of a fence for them, use cow panels. They will go up fast with T-posts and will give you a temporary pen so they can go outside for fresh air.

 

[Carla D]

I know the snow is deep right now, when it melts enough to put up some sort of a fence for them, use cow panels. They will go up fast with T-posts and will give you a temporary pen so they can go outside for fresh air.

Most definitely.

I would be more worried about poor quality air than the cold. As long as they are blocked from straight wind and wet because wet is the biggest enemy.. if you are worried about the cold you could build a heated Barrel or heated liquid tote. you just cut about at 9 or 12:00 in square opening to Panama size of your goats and put metal box at the top with the ceramic fixture and 125 watt he lamp bulb and I taking a extension cord that the end off and hardwired in just put a little hole saw the top that you can use to extend the wire on in then it can't come and contact with any bedding and it can't say anything on fire and you can choose the length of the cord you need. If I'm doing a barrel I get one with the removable lid so it's easier to put just the lid up in the summer.

i know they can handle the cold. They have nice thick winter coats now. I am most concerned about them going without water for for 10-12 hours at a time. I don’t have the luxury of being able to go out there every couple of hours to bust the ice off so they can get a drink. They are nearly six months old. They do not need a heat source anymore. Plus they are so big now that we don’t have anyway to keep their water patent for at least a few hours. But now that they are big enough to jump on their house and look over their 8+’ walls we worry they will get out if we take the tarp off.