Okay I am not sure what to do if there is anything I can do... I have a doe who is around 3 years old, she's a very large boer doe, has kidded once, and is a bit over weight. She doesn't graze much, and has a slight copper def. so we're getting ready to give her copper <THANK YOU DENISE!>. My girl has a bit of hoof rot that I finally dug up yesterday so she is lame but had to open it up. But today when I was treating her foot, I saw some blood on her belly. For a while now on the bottom of her belly just behind her front legs she has had a big bald spot like what they get on their knees <she lays down a lot>, and it looks like callus' or something of that sort, now and then she gets scabs , and when she scratches she callus looking things, it causes sores. There is no puss, or anything of that sort, it's all flat. Otherwise her body is clean, and looks good, it's just that particular spot and I've been dealing with this all summer. Anyone else dealt with this? Any ideas on what I can do to help keep it from getting worse? She's such a sweetie, a very very quiet doe who likes to keep to herself, and she has the sweetest face/eyes. She's not miserable, I think I am more miserable with concern...LOL
I wiped the area off with a cloth like paper towel, wasn't dirty just had some blood on it that had clotted. And I used a topical iodine that my husband had brought home for injuries. Otherwise I haven't got a clue what else to do. Tomorrow I'll get a picture of it. She's the only one I've noticed with this, but she is also the only goat who is overweight, the other goats all have good weight. She has a lot of loose skin on her chest area, and I read somewhere that is a sign of excess weight, is that right?
For the hoof rot, get a syringe of LA200 and put it in the fridge to let it thicken. Clean hoof and squirt the LA200 between her toe. Someone her told me to try it. Works great. One dose and no more limping the next day. Waaayy better than all the stuff we bought and tried. :greengrin: Gina
Great tip Gina hope I remember if I ever need that! The way to tell if your Boer doe is overweight is if her tail is squishy, or if you have a hard time finding ribs. There shouldnt be much padding. (fat) If brisket shakes like jello when she walks.
Thanks so much for the help! I do have a syringe of LA200 left so I'll have to try that! I just found the issue on Sunday when I finally found the problem after checking her feet daily/trimming, to get it opened up. It's pretty clean now, no 'goop' in it, and it's getting air now. Thankfully the ground is dry except for morning dew. I never knew about checking the tail, but I did recall the part on checking the brisket, and I am pretty sure she has a lot of loose skin/fat there. The goats just got turned out in the front to graze for a while, so when I bring her back into the pen and check her over, I'll try and get some pics of her and the sore area on her belly.
I still wasn't able to get any pictures of her belly - but the sore is healing up nicely. She lays around more than the other goats - always has, but she only has half of a horn and when she is out it's during the cooler parts of the day - morning and evening and she acts just fine. If she thinks I have treats or food during the day when I come out, she is right there LOL She is definitely overweight. She has a lot of loose flesh around her brisket. What would be a good way of getting her weight under control? She doesn't really graze or browse too much, not sure about how much hay she eats, but she gets very very litle grain, I give a cup and a half to her and 3 others right now to share daily. Should I cut out all the grain for a while? But I worry about nutrients/minerals in the grain. I do offer loose mineral, but not sure if she eats much of it or not. I'll start walking her on a leash soon, but still not sure that would be enough. If she did get pregnant and kids at the end of Dec, should I just make sure she doesn't gain more weight, and leave her at what I am doing, do you think after she kids nursing will help get some of the excess off of her? We wouldn't know for about another month if she got pregnant or not... BTW, I've never had experience with an overweight animal! Any animal I've ever dealt with having weight issues was underweight. I just want to make sure I take the right approach so she is healthy, and if she is pregnant to make sure the kids are healthy too. Thanks for any help
Here's a pic I took of her in the past couple of weeks. She's not 'huge' but she's big. The area where the sore is at on her belly is right behind her front legs on the bottom of her belly, right in front of that 'dip' where her belly drops. You can kind of see that area in this next pic - see the 'white' on her belly behind her legs, it's in that area. A big section with no hair, the skin is tough and feels rough like a dry foot can feel. She scratches it a lot, so I'm sure that's why a lot of the hair has come off. Just puzzled what this could be. I'll try to get pics of that area this evening when my daughter can hold her down for me. BTW, she's wet in the 2nd pic - my husband washed everyone down with some stuff to help keep the bugs from bothering them so bad....
She has that callous in an area thats a common pressure point, her laying around more than she's moving is the cause of the breakdown of her skin....it's similar to a "bed sore" on a person who is bedridden. You can cut the grain, leave the minerals out freechoice and even though you don't see her at them now, she will know what to do with them when she feels she needs them. Also, if you can place the hay feeder away from her favorite lounging spot it will get her up and moving. To treat the broken skin, you can use Blu kote on it and then pad it well with thick gauze and vet wrapped around her chest to keep it in place....or if no gauze, a thick generic brand maxi pad will work great too. I know it sounds wierd but the absorbancy and thickness of it works just as well as a roll of gauze.
Thanks so much Liz, I'll try that! It was very difficult to keep her out of the feed because of where it was, but yesterday I was able to finally move it into the run in shelter my husband built next to the mini barn. Now it will be much easier to keep her out when I feed the others. We feed the moms and babies in a stall together, so no worries there either. We have a huge pile of hay <from round bales that they ate down and started falling apart>, boxed in the corner of the back stall, and that's where she likes to sleep. So... I'm just going to lock them out of that stall during the day. I do keep a hay rack in the front stall for them, but that's not her favorite spot. She was up and grazing/browsing a little more yesterday, and she's walking much better since I got the hoof rot part of her foot opened up <took a few days to dig down and find it>. So I'll start walking her around on a leash probably Sun or Mon, wish me luck with that LOL!!! She's pretty good though, very quiet, sweet girl.
