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The Goat Page
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The Goat Page
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| We come across goats that are kept as companions for other
animals and small herds that are milked for commercial purposes, kept for
showing or for the fiber that they produce. Although they share some of
the diseases that are common in sheep they are completely different in
their grazing habits and are more likely to harm themselves by eating
things that are poisonous.
No matter how many goats you keep you need to have a management routine throughout the year to keep the herd healthy. Pregnant goats should have a forty five to sixty day dry period. She needs this time to regain her condition after the last lactation and for the udder to repair itself for the next session of milk production. Goats share many of the bacteria that cause chronic mastitis in cows. Herds that are selling milk for human consumption will be having somatic cell counts monitored so that they know the level of infection they are facing. It is important to use a dry cow tubes in each gland as this is the only time that you will be able to have any significant effect on sub clinical mastitis infections. Some of the internal parasites increase their activity towards the end of the pregnancy. Some how they are able to respond to hormonal changes in the blood stream to increase the number of worm eggs they produce to infect the new born kids. Worming in late pregnancy not only helps the goat to boost her condition, it will delay the intake of worms by her offspring for a time as well. There are only two products licensed to worm goats in the United Kingdom at the moment, although several are commonly used. Oramec has a 28 day milk with hold period if used in the dry period, so you do need to plan the treatments if you intend to use the milk once she comes into production once more. Goats even when they are kept in relative isolation in small numbers can still manage to pick up the clostridial infections that sheep suffer from. These are bacterial diseases that can survive for prolonged periods in the soil, each of them produces a powerful toxin for which now there is no effective antiserum. The only treatment is to vaccinate the herd. Two injections should be given one month apart initially, with an annual booster in the spring. Late pregnancy is a good time to give this boosting dose as it will give temporary protection for the kids as well. Goats that share accommodation with horses are particularly prone to developing tetanus and must be protected against this disease as. We have never been able to save a goat suffering with tetanus. The antiserum is able to postpone the symptoms for a while but it will only be a temporary remission. The clostridial vaccines are in fact only licensed for sheep, but they are regularly used on goats. It can be very wasteful if you follow the instructions to the letter as the drugs are in vials that do not contain a preservative and the recommendation is to discard the container at the end of a day's use. Sometimes this may mean using only one or two doses from a twenty five dose pack as this is the minimal quantity available. If you are careful and use a small gauge needle in the bottle and a different one to do the injecting you should not have any contamination problems. This is we find generally safer than borrowing the vaccine from a friendly sheep farmer, if abscesses develop they can be costly to treat. Sometimes it will not be easy to get a goat to go dry especially if there is a lot of grass about in the spring. You may need to shut her in with just straw for bedding. When you have used the dry cow tubes there is no danger of infection in the udder, pressure may build up in the gland but it will soon subside as the milk is resorbed. If the animal in over fat you may need to keep her confined for several weeks as her milk production in the coming lactation will suffer. The ideal is for you to be increasing her ration at the time that the kids are born, you cannot do this if she is already fat so use the dry period to get her body condition right. When the kids are born you will have to decide how to manage them. It is always difficult with male goats only the very best will have breeding potential and there is a limited market for animals that have been castrated to rear them for meat. Sometimes we have to inject male kids to quietly put them to sleep, this is always a difficult decision, but it may save heart ache later on. Female kids are luckier, they are normally reared as replacements for your milkers or to be sold to other goat owners as there is a healthy demand for milking goats at the moment. Goats have horns that grow very quickly and it is much more difficult to remove them completely and not get any re growth than it is to disbud calves. The best time to do this is at four days of age. We use a general anesthetic and have a tool with a sharp head on it that removes all of the horn bud without damaging the surrounding tissues. New born kids are prone to infections that affect their gastro intestinal system. It is important that all of the kids are encouraged to suck when they are first born so that they get an adequate intake of colostrum. Also take care to ensure that you use plenty of straw when they are young and that everywhere is as dry as possible. Goat kids are relatively small and it is important they are treated promptly if there are signs of enteritis as they will become dehydrated very quickly. Remember that goats share most of the diseases that sheep get and take particular care not to let them have contact with growing lambs that are suffering from orf. This condition is caused by the paravaccina virus and will cause scabs to form on the lips and around the nose. Orf can be transmitted to us and can be difficult to cope with as kids pass the infection onto the teats of their mothers making them difficult to milk. There is a vaccine available but it should only be used in herds that are known to have the infection. Both sucking and biting lice are becoming more common on sheep as treatment practices change. There is a danger that goats that have contact with sheep develop problems with these parasites in the winter months. Affected animals tend to rub against any solid objects and will have bald areas on their skin. The lice that cause these problems are fairly large and can be seen in good light moving across the surface of the skin. If you spot the problem at an early stage you might have to treat only a few animals. Again there are no products licensed to treat external parasites on goats but drugs intended for use on horses or small animals are very effective. Like sheep and cattle goats walk on the tips of their third and fourth toes, the others are vestigial and do not contact the ground. The hoof consists of the wall that is produced by the coronary band and the sole which is softer and protects the underside of the foot. In native conditions goats will browse over large areas often on hard and stony ground. When domesticated we tend to feed a rich diet and the animals will not use their feet very much so there will be a tendency for the feet to grow too long and get out of shape. Because of this goats feet should be trimmed at least four times each year. To do this you will need a pair of foot shears and a sharp hoof knife. It is usually better to have the head of the goat tied and lift the feet one at a time, you will then be cutting away from yourself and your goat which is safer. Clean any debris from the foot with a brush and cold water first then trim away any excessive growth from the wall with the foot shears. The knife should be used to remove any areas where the sole is overgrown, but take care not to go too deep or you will cut into the sensitive parts. If the feet are badly overgrown when you first start you may need to have several sessions to get them into a respectable shape. Your aim should be to get the coronary band almost parallel to the ground as you gradually shorten the toe and alter the balance of the foot. Have some antibiotic spray handy to use on any infected places and try to move the animals onto drier grazing if their feet are getting very soft. Goats can be a bit odd in the way they sometimes seem to be pregnant, even to the extent of developing a distended uterus, when they have not been mated. The condition occurs when a group of cells called the corpus luteum persists in the ovary instead of giving way to a further hormonal cycle. Some individuals are particularly prone to this condition and can retain a huge amount of fluid in their uterus. There is a milk test to diagnose this condition and a hormonal injection to dissolve the corpus luteum on the ovary and allow the uterus to empty. At the Malthouse we have found that some goats that persistently have a pseudopregnancy are also suffering from low copper levels in their blood stream, but this might just be a coincidental finding After a cloud burst goats will have an increase in the amount of milk that they are producing but the total yield will not be the same as a real pregnancy. Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis This was first recognized as a nervous condition of goats in America in 1974 and eight years later in the United Kingdom. This disease is caused by a virus that is related to but not the same as the maedi visna virus of sheep. There are two distinct ways in which this virus will cause disease in goats. Young animals one to four months of age show signs of progressive weakness of the hind limbs and eventual paralysis. Often the disease starts as a slight weakness of one hind limb and the symptoms progress only slowly. Goat kids with CAE remain bright and continue to suckle and grow. The other manifestation of this disease starts in animals one to two years of age. It appears as a progressive lameness, usually affecting only one leg at first sometimes progressing to a goat with hot and swollen joints. The problem may progress only slowly and never completely debilitate some of the animals that go down with the disease. Not all cases of arthritis in goats are caused by this virus, but it should be investigated. CAE is a relatively rare disease. It is thought that around five goats in a thousand are affected by it in the United Kingdom so many people who keep goats will never see the problem. There is a blood test available to confirm the diagnosis. If it does turn up there is no treatment and it would be wise to test the rest of your herd as it is passed on to new born kids when they suckle their mothers, so it will tend to run in families. It may be difficult to decide the future of animals that are positive especially if you only keep a small herd. When the symptoms are mild or not apparent the animals can be kept until there is any progression of the disease. It is not fair to keep them once symptoms of arthritis develop and they should not in any case be used for breeding. Goats are subject to the same rules and regulations as sheep when it comes to ear tags. All goats born after the first of February 2003 must have an ear tag that contains your flock mark and an individual number for that animal. From the 11th January 2008 the tagging requirements changed. Animals intended for slaughter in the UK before 12 months of age can be single tagged as at present. Animals that are not intended for slaughter within the UK before 12 months of age are required to be double tagged with two tags bearing the same UK identification number. If you have a single tagged animal that has reached 12 months of age you must double tag it. Movement tags ( S Tags ) are no longer needed, you can discard these now. Lost tags can be replaced with a match up tag bearing the same number, if you can work out what the lost tag was. If the animal is still on the holding it was born on it can be replaced with another UK tag, or if on a different holding a red replacement tag can be used. You must take great care to store single tags and double tags separately. If they get mixed up it will be difficult to ensure that the right tag has be inserted in the ear of the right type of animal. The new rules apply only to animals born after the 11th January 2008. You do not have to double tag older breeding animals that are already on your farm. I am sorry that this is so confusing. If you need help contact the Rural Payments Agency Livestock Helpline on 0845 050 9876 It is proposed that there will be further changes to the way that sheep and goats are identified. From the 30th December 2009 all sheep and goats will need to be identified with a microchip. Even if you just have one sheep or one goat you will still need to register as a holding. You can do this readily by phoning the Animal Health Office in Worcester on 01905 767111. There are more details about ear tags for sheep on the following link to the DEFRA web site.
Because of the way goats like to browse and nibble any thing that comes into the range of their mouths they are more likely to poison themselves than any other grazing animal. Fortunately most of the poisonous plants have an unpleasant taste and are only eaten if cut and wilted, of if the animals have nothing else available to eat. Some plants are only mildly toxic, they can be eaten and tolerated by young and healthy goats but may cause problems if too much is consumed at any one time or if eaten by animals that are in a poor condition. Cyanogenic plants contain hydro cyanic acid which interferes with the way the blood is able to carry oxygen. Wild Cherries, Plums and other stone fruiting plants fall into this group. The leaves are bitter when fresh and are only normally taken if cut and wilted. Cherry Laurel and Crab Apples contain cyanogenic glycosides that are very toxic if goats gain access to their leaves. Hemlock is a perennial plant that grows to four foot in height and has leaves that resemble parsley. It contains an alkaloid and is most dangerous in the spring when the young foliage starts to grow. The nightshades and Hellebores also contain alkaloids, but are seldom eaten except when animals are very short of grazing. All parts of the Yew tree are toxic, even when dried, just a few leaves can cause collapse and death within minutes. Hedge clippings and branches that have fallen from trees cause the most problems so look out for these. Ragwort contains a number of alkaloids that are toxic to the liver. The standing plant is bitter so will not normally be touched, it is most troublesome when brought in with a hay crop. Look out for this in the fodder and reject any bales that seem to have ragwort in them. There is no effective treatment for this type of poisoning. St John's wort and the ornamental hypericums both have yellow flowers and sensitize white goats to the effects of sunlight. Sometimes this is only mild but the goats will be uncomfortable unless they are housed during the day if they have had access to these plants. Buttercups tend to grow on poor soils and contain an alkaloid that will blister the skin of the lips and tongue if the fields are heavily stocked and animals are forced to eat it. Do not let goats wander about in your garden! Delphiniums. Larkspur, lily of the valley, foxgloves, lobelia, box and privet hedges and Laburnum are all toxic plants that attract the tongues of inquisitive goats. Goats can sometimes live in harmony with rhododendron plants for years and will often only taste them after there has been a fall of snow in the spring. Symptoms are dramatic with vomiting and colic once the plant has been eaten.
Still looking? There is further information to be found about goat keeping on the following website.
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