Question! What does everyone clean with, your animal dishes, stalls, and how often do you wash all of it? Donna Brewer
I use bleach. I do not use much at all. I put water in them, little bleach and I use a brush to clean them then I rinse them well and I leave them in the sun to dry. I do it well depending on how ofter they are used. I use them a lot more in the winter so I do them about every couple weeks, or when needed.
I use one part bleach to 10 parts water to clean. Buckets and bowls that get used everyday I try to clean once a week or so. I put the same solution in a squirt bottle periodically (whenever I do a full bedding change) and spray down walls, hayracks, benches, etc.
The rubber water tubs get scrubbed out weekly with a stiff brush. Every few weeks or so a splash of bleach, scrub, rinse well. Rubber feed pans get done the same way on an as needed basis...usually once a every few weeks, more often if kids have walked through them! When kidding season is done it's strong vinegar water on the wood floor & walls, then air dried. I also throw vinegar water on the milk stand after each milking. The plastic feed pans get thrown in the dishwasher. :wink:
Bleach a couple times a month and about once a week we scrub the water bucket with a brush.... I did notice that when we put about a pint of apple cider vineger in the 30 gal water dish the algae did not grow, and the animals drank more water
Bleach....cheap and does the job. Feed pans 2x a month or when really needed, water buckets 1x a week...they just tend to get slimy feeling
Thank you for all the post- I use bleach also- but I was reading how proxide works just as well and is safer but I still have stuck in my head bleach is best... I fill a rubber maid box full of warm water and put dish soap and bleach in it and wash all the dishes then rinse in a bucket and then let set in another bucket with a little more bleach then air dry... I try to do it once a month,, I need to spray down the hay feeder and stall with water and then bleach- that part slipped my mind... I read some where that bleach is strong enough to kill the HIV virus so would that make it strong enought to kill anything goats could pass along like CL, sore mouth amoung a few... Donna
I love cleaning with baking soda! It is wonderful stuff I use it on my stove and it clean with little scrubing (make sure to wipe off residue). I clean water buckets with baking soda once a week. The nice thing about baking soda is that if it is not rinsed well the residue won't hurt them. Once a month I clean buckets with diluted bleach. In my stalls I scoop out the straw in the places they like to pee. We have concrete I put baking soda on those spots (it helps absorb the mosture) then sweep it up and put fresh hay down. Suellen
Now in case you dont know, Suellen probably is talking about Bicarbonate Soda from the feed store in 50lb bags. Much cheaper than getting the little boxes from the grocery store!
Probably once a week I give the water troughs a quick scrub, with a stiff brush and just some water. Feed troughs I only clean out if it has rained and so they are a bit grotty - I get a handful of hay and wipe them out. My pens I use a deep litter system, and only clean out every 6 months, and when I do I sprinkle lime. My quarrantine yard is a touch different, I clean the water and feed troughs when the animals leave quarrantine, and clean out the pens also. For the pens I use the lime. For the troughs I use Aseptol http://upshygiene.com/web/products/other/aseptol.htm Not sure if you guys get it there but it is FANTASTIC! I also use it for scrubbing out my truck and trailer after carting livestock. I also use it for kidding when I need to assist - have a bucket of diluted aseptol, I put the kidding/lambing ropes or calving chains plus the head snare all into the bucket so they are nice and clean, I also wash my hands in it, and splash it onto the doe's rear end before I put my hand in. And also, you can use it to disinfect wounds - I dont tend to, I just use pink spray (Cetrigen), but in a pinch I have also used aseptol. Its also good to soak your boots in if you have been to another herd and want to disinfect before or after.
