Worming?

[LilyD]

I know that the buck was being seen by a vet so I am pretty sure that he was given the treatment since he came originally from a dairy farm to a back yard breeder.

The doe I got though I am really not sure of her history and when I picked her up the lady was in a hurry and really didn't take the time to give me much of a back ground on her.

Should I treat her for it now at 9 months?

Lily

 

[glenolam]

I am not sure they were both being raised in back yards and I know the buck was wormed the doe was bought at 8wks and she let her grandchildren raise them but she did not mention getting them any shots. I am fairly new to raising goats so I was not sure what I needed to get them.

How do you treat for coccidia

ETA - got rid of the doeling age question...didn't realize you just posted it above At 9 mos I wouldn't treat for coccidia unless she needed it - and signs of needed it might include weight loss, diarreah, being lethargic...

Generally, goats need to be given a shot of CD&T either every 6 or 12 months depending on your use of the goats. If they're just pets or backyard farm animals, you can probably get away with giving the CD&T once a year.

Coccidia is given to kids usually starting at 3 weeks of age. If your goats are older now and don't seem to have any health problems there's nothing really to worry about and, depending on their age, it's too late to give them the usual coccidia treatment.

How is their health now? Are they pooping/peeing/acting normal?

Are they housed together?

 

[LilyD]

The doe is very healthy glossy coat and a typical nubian she talks all the time is pooping and eating anything her roommates don't eat and is very energetic.

The buck we have only had since Friday but the lady I purchased him from said he has never been sick any time her vet had seen him. She did not mention coccidia specifically as something he had been treated for but he is healthy thus far. It's hard to tell with him though cause he's still in the stage where he's looking for his friends rather than sticking with the other animals so he's not moving around as much as the others but at her farm he was very energetic so I think it's just the new environment.

They are housed together in a large field and have a 12 by 12 stall to sleep in at night. There is also two sheep that sleep with them as well. So far they all seem to be getting along really well.

Lily

 

[glenolam]

Is it just the two goats with the sheep? Sheep and goats (while they can be housed together) have different mineral needs - sheep can't have copper while goats must have it. Sorry if that's something you already know, but figured I'd say it anyway.

Are you trying to breed your doeling? If she's living with the buck she's going to get bred eventually so you'll definitely want to get him out of there by the time she kids so he doesn't try to breed any new doelings.

If she looks as healthy as she sounds I'm sure you don't need to worry about worming her. I would contact the prior owner and ask about the CD&T vaccination, though. If you can't get anywhere by contacting them just give her the shot anyway. It's not going to hurt to ensure she's covered.

 

[LilyD]

What is CD&T sorry but this is new to me is that for the coccidia or is it for something else?

They are housed together but fed different foods the sheep have their own grain and are fed that twice a day and the goats have goat feed they also have free choice hay all day long and the occasional piece of bread for a treat or veggies from the garden.

We tried to keep their feed separate because we weren't sure if they could eat all the same thing.

Lily

 

[glenolam]

CD&T stands for Clostridium perfringins types C and D (overeating disease) and tetanus.

Here's a link to an article about it:

http://www.sheepandgoat.com/articles/flockvaccinations.html

The goats should have loose minerals free choice as well, which is why it's hard to keep sheep and goats together. The sheep cannot have the same minerals that goats have - if you have a place the goats can get to that the sheep cannot (which isn't very easy to do) you can keep the minerals in that place so the goats can eat them as they need to. You're correct in keeping their feed separate, but it's more the mineral thing you need to think/worry about.

I know there's a few people on here who may have tried to house their sheep and goats together, hopefully they'll chime in with what worked/didn't work. It may be best to separate the goats from the sheep, but I'm not sure since I only have goats.

So...any plans on wethering that buck or did you get him to breed your girl?

 

[LilyD]

We bought them to breed together in the future and we were going to try meat goats but we are also really getting interested in the idea of milking our own goats and making cheese and yogurt. Right now we just have the two and two sheep. They share a large pasture that is about 5 to 6 acres of grassland but there are three stalls attached to it as well so there is definitely the possibility that we could separate minerals for goats and sheep by placing them in different stalls at night. We are planning on separating the kids from the adults once they are weaned. The vet told us we could wean them around 12 weeks of age. I am hoping that this is early enough that the boys will not try to breed with them, but if not we can always place the boys in the smaller paddock we made for the babies . We just started this fall actually buying our animals and originally we had said two sheep and two goats but now we are actually talking about maybe more. Who knows we'll have to see how it goes for the first year or so.

Lily

 

[20kidsonhill]

All our goats are given 2cc CD& T injected at birth and again 21 days later or after being purchased and brought to the farm. Then 1x a year, most of them are vaccinated that one time a year 30 days prior to their due date.

The entire herd is on free-choice loose goat mineral salts all the time.

As far as worming we only worm as needed all wormer is given orally. We individually check each animal every month or two for pale gums and eye lids and worm with one of the following wormers only if needed.

cydectin cattle pour-on given orally at the rate of 1cc per 20lbs, great for many worms and mites and lice, but will not kill tapeworms. Very safe for pregnant animals.

Valbazen(only non-pregnant) at rate of 1ml per 10pounds given orally. will cause abortions. (tapeworm segments) but does not kill heads

Equimax paste for horses at triple the dose recommended for horses. (for tapeworms) this will kill the heads and segments, because it contains prazaquintal.

I have also used safegaurd but can't remember the dose.

We weight our animals for accurate dosage.

We follow a 30 day withdrawal for all the wormers, even if there isn't one.

We don't milk, we raise Boer and boer/cross.

 

[20kidsonhill]

I just saw that you have sheep with the goats. Sheep have a cooper sensitivity and you can't feed goat feed or goat minerals to sheep. You can however feed sheep feed and minerals to goats, but your goats would need some sort of copper given to them, this I am not familiar with we feed our animals seperate.

 

[glenolam]

It's probably best to only put the buck in with the doe when you want her bred. he'll try to breed her every chance he can and she'll end up pregnant more or less a month after she's given birth which isn't good. If she has boys, they can start breeding as early as 3 weeks, but that's pretty rare. Most people either wether the boys around 8-12 weeks or separate them from the girls at that age.

I'd say you should separate the sheep from the goats, separate the buck from the doe and get 2 more goats, a wether as a companion for the buck, and either another wether or another doe as a companion for the doe. This way everyone has a friend (they are very social animals as I'm sure you know!) and you don't run the risk of having goat babies running around 24/7 and babies having babies...JMO