Vet Visit
Our first vet visit! Normally I wouldn't be excited about a visit with the vet, but it went very well. First, I have never had a vet come to my house before. By far, the best thing ever. It is easy to load up a dog or a cat in the car and take them to the vet, but 3 goats? Not my idea of a good time. Second, it was probably the cheapest vet bill I've ever had for any animal. I got to pick his brain about my set up, and I learned a great deal in the 30 minutes he was here (more on that later.) Most importantly, I got some good news. First, I found out that the bump I found on Winnie (see pic) is NOT CL-she probably ate something pointy, and it caused an abscess. Easily taken care of with some iodine. Yay! And while the vet was here, I asked if he could tell if she is pregnant. He poked around for about 10 seconds and confirmed that she is indeed! He showed me where to feel, but I couldn't tell what I was feeling. I still have so much to learn.
While he was here, I asked dozens of questions. I found out that:
-CL is a lymph node disease, so the abscesses will be on the lymph nodes. If you have a goat with a lump somewhere else, it isn't CL.
-I've been over-feeding the boys. They should only get enough grain to keep them coming to me. So now instead of getting a scoop of food in a bowl, they get to nibble some out of my hand as a treat. Winnie still gets the full amount, since she's eating for two.
-Hay that's been bleached by the sun or just sat out for a few days is totally fine to use as bedding. I was doing this as a cost saving measure, but was worried that it was a no-no. Dr. Simpson said it is fine as long as the goats have access to fresh hay to eat.
-You can tell a goat's worm load by looking at the inside of their eyelids. Bright pink is what you want. Light pink (which is what Winnie had when the vet was here) means she's got a heavy worm load and needs to be wormed ASAP. White means they are at death's door. After talking with the vet, I did some more research and found this slide show with pictures, a color chart, and other factors to look at when determining how and when to deworm goats: http://www.slideshare.net/schoenian/worm-diagnostics
-The wormer I got at TSC is harmless, but also pretty useless. I got a pellet dewormer because I wanted something that was not stressful to the goats and easy for me. The vet said I should use Ivomec sub-cutaneously instead. It is safe for pregnant does.
-Lice are a part of having goats, but the kind of lice they have will determine how much and what kind of treatment to give. Bloodsucking lice can make goats anemic and sick very quickly. If they are biting lice, they are mostly a nuisance. This is what my goats had. I treated them with a mixture I already had handy-Sevin dust and diatomaceous earth (DE). I used the mixture several months ago to fill holes left by last year's wood bees on our front porch (it worked extremely well for that, btw) and had some left over from that. The night before the vet came to check Winnie's abscess, I saw that she was crawling with lice and sprinkled her with the Sevin/DE mixture, making sure it all got down to her skin. When the vet came the next day, he couldn't find any lice on her. Not one. He had to go check our wether Checkers, who I hadn't treated yet, for a sample. Something else I might do to help out is shave them. From what I've read, lice don't do well with the extra sun and air flow.
I also asked Dr. Simpson about some advice I received. A meat goat producer who sold me my first batch of hay said I'd save money by getting a big round bale and leaving it out all winter (rather than buying the more expensive square bales). He said the goats will eat the outside of it, so if the top and inside go bad, it is no big deal. He said it would be less waste. I asked the vet about this, and he said the opposite. The hay on the outside of the bale will get bleached by the sun. (From what I've seen, this only takes a couple days.) The goats will go for the stuff in the middle. He said that I can get a round bale, but there will be a lot of waste and there will be a dead spot in my grass where it sits. I'm going with the vet on this. If I had tons of pasture, I wouldn't mind setting out round bales and creating dead spots. But I have very little grassy area as it is, and getting new grass to grow in our clay is next to impossible. Also, I am not as worried about money spent on hay now that I've been feeding it for 6 weeks. I've gone through 3 bales, and what I set out daily is still green because it is covered in our shed. I think a round bale would lose its color and nutrition pretty quickly out in the elements.
***I have to plug my new vet, Dr. Simpson in Walton, Ky. I don't know of any other vets in my area that will do home visits, let alone see farm animals. I have used him for domestic animals as well, and have always been pleased. His number is (859) 485-6555 if you need his services.***
