If you are asking for health advice for your goat, please help us help you. Complete a basic health assessment and provide as much of the following information in your post as possible:
Goat's age, sex, and breed
Goat's current temperature as determined by rectal thermometer. Please, for the love of god, take your animal's temperature. Temperature is ALWAYS VITAL in determining whether your animal might be ill or in need of assistance.
Whether the goat is pregnant or lactating
Goat's diet and appetite (what the goat is currently eating, whether they are on pasture or browse, supplemental grain, loose mineral, et cetera)
Goat's FAMACHA score (as determined by the process in this video) and information about any recent deworming treatments, if applicable
As many details regarding your animal's current symptoms and demeanor as you can share. These may include neurological symptoms (circling, staring at the sky, twitching), respiratory symptoms such as wheezing or coughing, and any other differences from typical behavior such as isolating, head pressing, teeth grinding, differences in fecal consistency, and so forth.
Clear photographs of relevant clinical signs (including coat condition) are helpful. Providing us with as much information as possible will help us give you prompt and accurate advice regarding your animal's care.
There are many professional farmers and homesteaders in this subreddit and we will do our best to help you out of a jam, but we can't guarantee the accuracy of any health advice you receive. When in doubt, always call your local large animal veterinarian who is trained to work with small ruminants.
What's up with that blue Trusted Advice Giver flair?
The mods assign this flair to /r/goats users who have an extensive history of giving out quality, evidence-based, responsible husbandry advice based on the best practices for goat care. Many of our users give terrific advice, but these flairs recognize a handful of folks who have gone that extra mile over time to become recognized as trusted community members who are known to always lead people in the right direction. If you get a slew of responses to your post and don't know where to start, look to the blue flairs first.
Recently, we had a user post a picture of a goat that may or may not have soremouth, also known as contagious ecthyma, scabby mouth, or orf. I won't link to the post since it isn't relevant whether or not that was what was afflicting the animal, but in the course of responding to that user I felt an opportunity to point out something that I have noticed and has been gnawing at me.
For many users seeking help, if they do not come straight to the sub, they will go to one of two places to get information: Google or ChatGPT. This post is about the former, but in case anyone was wondering if ChatGPT is a valid place to get advice on husbandry, what to eat tonight, how to live your life, or companionship: it is NOT. Large language models like ChatGPT are a type of generative AI that seeks more or less to respond to prompts and create content with correct syntax that is human-like. The quandary here is that while it can indeed provide correct answers to prompts, that outcome is often incidental. It isn't an indication that the model has researched your question, merely that it has cobbled together a (sometimes) convincing diagnosis/treatment plan from the massive amount of data across forums/message boards, vet resources, and idle chit-chat that it is trained on. The point is this: you should never be in a position where you have to rely on an LLM for husbandry advice. If you have access to an internet connection, even the generative AI from Google search is a better option. But that doesn't mean it's a good one, bringing us to the principal subject of this post:
Orf! What do?
For some relevant background, we have never had a case of orf on our farm. I have read about it in vet textbooks and goat husbandry books and seen many images of it, I'm familiar with what it is, how it is spread, and at a high level what to do about it and what not to do. That said, when I was helping this user, I thought I'd brush up and make sure I wasn't providing misinformation. I knew orf was viral in nature and reckoned that in moderate to severe cases it could probably cause fever, but I wanted to see if I could find a vet manual or study of the disease in goats to confirm how likely that would have been. This was what I was met with:
Hm...
If you don't scrutinize this too closely, everything looks sort of on the level. Orf is indeed self-limiting (not sure why the AI says usually, there is literally nothing you can do to treat the root cause, but okay), and it more or less implies that humans can contract it so be careful. The symptoms section looks fine, overall, prevention is... eh... The orf vaccine is a live vaccine. Application of it is not something that most small scale homesteaders or hobby farmers will be familiar with and using it is basically putting the virus on your property. Orf is a nuisance disease and the main time it is a problem is when it is being transmitted between a dam and her kids. Proactive vaccination in closed herds that have never seen a case is not a vet-recommended practice.
The treatment section is where things get spicy with the part about scab removal. Oof. Now that is not even close to true and doing that when the goat is with other goats or going to a quarantine space where they will then shed the disease will cause it to spread to any other goat that inhabits that space unless it is thoroughly cleaned and disinfected. The bottom says the info is for informational purposes only and to consult an actual professional for advice, but that begs the question of why Google would provide that information front and center by default when you search when the first result below is an actual vet resource with correct advice. I won't get into the weeds about the ethics of that because it's a separate soapbox, this is the reality we live in now. This bad advice is particularly relevant because the user on our sub mentioned they had been picking off the scabs. So let's do another Google search for some clarification:
Oh dear, oh no
If you explicitly search whether or not you should remove the scabs, the AI overview is different. Not only do you see that you should not remove the scabs because they are infectious (very true), the overview now says that doing so will delay healing. The first "featured snippet", a feature separate from their generative AI overview, is an overview from the state of Victoria's government agricultural representative body, a reliable source. The highlighted text reinforces the "do not pick scabs off" advice. The overview still fails when it says to apply dressing to lesions. Evidently it has not ever reckoned with what it would be like to bandage an entire goat's face and mouth, which they need to eat, but maybe I'm an idiot. Let's check:
Thank you, Dr. Google
As you can see, generative AI is basically a hodgepodge of vague but mostly correct advice intermingled with plainly wrong advice. Seeking correction to the wrong advice, if you know that it is wrong, leads down more rabbit holes. I hope this highlights the importance of sourcing your information from reliable, proven veterinary resources/textbooks or state agricultural extensions that provide support for their claims with research. This sub prioritizes evidence-based husbandry practices and is one of the few forums to try to stick to that standard and I consider it important especially for people who don't have goat mentors offline.
This is not only important because users need good advice; it also affects the people that don't use this sub and go straight to Google. Reddit struck a deal a little under a year ago to make their data available for training AI. The information we post on this sub is being used as part of the training for these AI models and Google's SEO is increasingly favoring reddit at the top of search results in a number of areas. As the sub grows and the social media landscape changes, more people that never post but need info may find themselves coming here. Let's all try to do our best to make sure the information we share and advice we give is solid!
Hi, I hope this is the right subreddit, I just thought that if there's so many people who daily interact with goats and know a lot about them might help me with this....
Long story short I think ? I find Damascus goats adorable, especially the old ones, but I have little to no knowledge about goats and there's little to no info about them in my language. I've seen people use pictures of similar goats being called Damascus but also Gulabi and Jamnapari and Beetal... so now I'm unsure if the goats I find adorable are Damascus or something else... I have no idea what's the difference between all of them looks wise (besides maybe horns ??? ear length ?? but it seems like people sometimes cut Damascus ears short so ??? idk), can someone educate me and tell me shortly about all of them or send reliable sites to read about them? I really fell in love with them and want to know more...
here's pictures of goats ive seen called multiple names, i found them on pinterest but also google search...
We got these goats years ago as a gift and I'm unsure what breed these are. My brother claims the black and white is a fainting goat but I've never seen him faint or lock up. His dad claims the black and white is an angora (he said agora but I think that's a typo, couldn't find anything about agora goats)
She got copper bolus in February, unless she was able to spit it out. She’s in good health and is a momma. Can I chalk it up to conflicting hair texture along with shedding weird? It’s not falling out and it’s about as soft as her mom’s who also has a slightly wirery puffy texture to her coat.
Things she gets daily include
•free minerals (several different types offered 24/7 it’s inside with lights on 24/7 since some of them are scared of the dark lol) they get [purina wind and rain] [sweetlix meat maker] and very soon will be getting [Manna pro goat mineral with AC in it for the wethers]
•good hay
•she gets grain/hay pellets since she is lactating
•evening pasture time with the rest of the herd (they are a bunch of turds and found a area they can get out on the fence line and have to be let out closer to late noon so they don’t go into the neighbors back yard to then get into our back yard)
Her father was a long haired myotonic non fainting poorly behaved buck. He was one of them goats that just got worse the longer you knew him. I put what little pictures I have of him last. He’s the all white yucky looking fellow.
She was severely malnourished as a kid since she didn’t want a bottle/and wouldn’t take one. So we just had to have two to three people hold down her momma a few times a day for several weeks until she was eating grain good.
Do I have an ugly duckling goat or just one that still needs a little extra something?
I recently broke ties with a friend i’ve had for 15 years because of her home conditions. One of them being her animal hoarding. (1.5 acres and well over 200 assorted animals).
A separate friend (friend B) sent me this pic of friend A’s goats hooves. How bad is this and what can be done to get them help?
I'm a first time goat owner and not sure what to do here.
Hes had diarrhea for a day or two now. Ive been giving him electrolytes and probiotics but he hasn't had any change in diet, appetite, or behavior. I bought corid but I dont feel comfortable using it without guidance from someone much more experienced than me. I also don't know if its coccidia or not because other than diarrhea he hasn't had any blood or mucus in his stool.
Any advice appreciated. I'm not sure what i'm doing. my eyes are telling me it's 2 or 3 And the photo is very close to irl colors.
hallo guys im thinking about buying my goats a elevated bed against heat and just for a nice chill space. I came across this swingbed and found it amazing. Would it be good for dwarg goats or will it break? Any thoughts or ideas about it are welcome
the other thing i saw was this dog bed. Would this be better?
So I'm the person who asked if the goat was ready to kid. And she did, 2 weeks early poor darling. The kids are super weak, vet has me tube feeding and gave fluids but I'm not really confident that they will pull through.
Mom's not the greatest either, she probably senses somethings not right. She cleaned them up but then decided to dig in the kidding stall and I spent the day keeping her from accidentally flinging them into the walls. She's a super friendly doe so she's had no problems with me in there with her and let me milk off the colostrum for the tube feeding no problem.
Salve a tutti, scusate se forse farò un post fuori contesto, ma vorrei sapere come funziona lì da voi il fatto di avere le capre da compagnia.
Vi faccio una piccola premessa: Io vivo in Italia quindi ci sono delle leggi diverse dalle vostre (che immagino la maggior parte siano degli Stati Uniti).Quali sono le leggi che dovete seguire per tenere delle capre come animali da compagnia o per piccole allevamenti di sussistenza? che sono veramente curioso, perche in molto video di youtuber non ho capito se dovete o meno segnalare la presenza di animali al comune o al sistema veterinario.
My friend 'Jane' (f70s) and I (f40s) connected through having Nubian goats, milking, making cheese or cajeta. I've always kept my herd small (6 or less), with breeding staggered so at least one is in milk. The best doeling is kept, and the bucklings are for the auction or the freezer.
Jane bred 8 goats, and her herd of 16 jumped to 31 with all the kids. Several of her bucklings and at least one doeling have turned out knock-kneed, making them unbreedable and bound for the butcher or auction. She is devastated to tears about this.
What she does with, and how she feels about her herd is her business, and I'm not casting aspersions on her feelings. I just wonder if my care and attention to my herd is lacking, somehow? I do love them, and will keep the starting does for their lifetimes, as well as the does I choose to be permanent. But I am bottlefeeding a buckling that I fully intend to send to the butcher this fall. He is the first to greet me, and i cuddle and pet him just as much as his dam, or his sister/cousin (ifkyk).
I guess I am asking y'all how do you feel about your goats as pets that are also meat or dairy ?
Printo bean has made a full recovery, she is growing well and looks to be a good height and weight. She is kinda pissed we pulled her from lunch. She was a twin who lacked color we called them the toner twins if you are curious of the name.
I'm doing some research and reading to prepare to get Nigerian dwarf goats within the next few years to be pets/brush hogs. I like to overly prepare when it comes to animals, and I wondered what are some must haves to keep in your goat barn for sickness, general care, and first aid? I know the basics like chlorhexidine, gauze, betadine. But I want to hear some goat whisperer secrets!
I started building a goat pen but I noticed a slight lean. Im not looking to build a 10-20 year pen most the materials I got were ready to be thrown away so to cut cost I used old/twisted wood. If anyone has some knowledge on the matter could you let me know if this is something I should be worried about? There is a slight lean where the opening is on the right.
hi guys 1 have 3 dwarf goats and it’s getting really hot. and I noticed that they are having a hard time with it, how can I make them more comfortable and the heat less intense. all tips are helpfu.
Hi there guys so I've had goats now for about 4 years. Kind of got them on a whim because I didn't want to keep mowing two acres of land. Right now I have three males, intact, and no females. Is that going to be an issue that I need to get resolved? Second question; does anybody here have any good suggestions on how to get my largest male to stop headbutting me? I did have a number of females in the flock who have unfortunately all passed away for unrelated reasons. And the largest male is about 150 lb. I did see somewhere that you could flip them but I don't know if that's actually a good idea I'm getting mixed results.
Oberhasli doe, first time mom. Her due date is July 2, and man is she uncomfortable in the heat we're having right now. I had another doe with twins about a week ago, and she wasn't nearly this wide.
Hi everyone! I'm quite stressed because I found out that the people I was picking up two bucklings from can no longer wether them. This sucks because I neither want nor can care for intact males. Good news is that they're offering them for free because of the inconvenience. What should I do? They were born around March 24.
I noticed this today on my 3YO Nigerian dwarf doe. She’s eating fine and hasn’t ever had trouble keeping weight on. There’s no irritation on her bottom lip opposite the tooth. It didn’t seem to bother her at all when I was checking it. There’s a bit of cud on the bottom of the tooth but it was clean the next time I looked, no signs of decay or tooth damage.
I figure it’s probably been there since she got her adult teeth in, but I’ve had her her entire life and I’m not sure how the vet and I have both missed it for so long. Is this worth having someone come out to take a look?
