× Looking for minerals and goat supplies? Head over to our shop at GoatCare.com! In early spring when things are just starting to green up, watch out for water hemlock. It is a horrendous and unforgettable way to lose a goat. I read a fascinating university publication a couple of years ago after we buried our 2nd goat and started to put the pieces together. It was from 1920 and they tested various feeding methods of water hemlock to sheep to learn about toxicity. If you’re interested in this topic enough to read 23 pages or so, I highly recommend The Poison Parsnip Or Water Hemlock, available for free on Google Books. In earliest spring, water hemlock is one of the first plants to grow. Read More
Tag: health
So You’ve Gone in and Assisted a Birth. What Next?
× Looking for minerals and goat supplies? Head over to our shop at GoatCare.com! I am reminded today why raising goats isn’t for the faint of heart. Things are great when they’re great, but it sure can be intense when they’re not so great. I heard Silkie making noise and went out to find her already pushing, not progressing well with a backward breech who came out easily enough, but after low intensity contractions and no progress pushing on the second, I went in to find a mess. This isn’t my first mess, but I felt like sharing this glimpse of goat life for those of you thinking you might want to someday find yourself elbow deep in a screaming doe. 😀 The second kid, Read More
Sometimes Goat Kids Die
× Looking for minerals and goat supplies? Head over to our shop at GoatCare.com! This is a sort of melodramatic title for an issue that I feel needs to be addressed. When you deal with live animals, particularly with buying young live animals, there are an inherent set of risks that can cause injury, illness or death, even if the animal was well cared for prior to leaving the farm of origin. New buyers, with the help of comments on social media like, “A reputable breeder would have…” or “I would never sell an animal like that…” are often led to believe that anything less than a perfectly healthy animal for the first month has got to be the fault of the breeder they bought from. Read More
Natural Treatment for Lice in Goats
× Looking for minerals and goat supplies? Head over to our shop at GoatCare.com! Year after year, despite various changes in management, we would encounter lice in late winter and early spring in our goats. I found dealing with it incredibly frustrating since none of the effective methods were compatible with our goal of natural care. So each year I would resignedly use one of the powdered concoctions on them, hoping maybe next season I’d come up with a solution. All that changed last year, in 2018, when I re-read Pat Coleby’s book Natural Goat Care (aff), one of the few goat books I have that I recommend to people. It finally clicked. In NGC, Pat talks about how important sulfur is: “…animals receiving the correct Read More