Looking into bolusing for the first time..... how many of you boluse and how hard is it? Thanks, Denise
I bolus The biggest pain in my opinion is splitting up the capsules into smaller ones for the goats :slapfloor: - the actual bolusing the goat itself isnt really hard to do at all
I have read and heard from good breeders that the bolus will eventually rub and wear down the stomach wall or fillae( sp?). So they can't properly absorb nutrients.
What? I have never heard of that- could you send me the link to where you've read that before How could the bolus rub down the lining in their stomach? Its in a gelatin capsule that dissolves, just leaving the teeny copper rods that the body absorbs over time
I am new to goats, so take my words with a grain of salt... but after a bunch of research, I decided to do this: http://www.u-sayranch.com/goats/coppersulfate.html My goats are kid Nigis, who have been showing the bleached hair look for a few weeks now (reddish on the black goats, lightening up to an orangish on what used to be a nice dark buckskin doe), so I halved the dose. I just gave the first one this morning and it was nice and easy. I have one goat who thinks that anything coming out of the drencher is candy, and she just laps it up. It's hilarious.
I open the bolus and sprinkle the teensy copper rods on some molasses-y (sticky) grain or in a marshmallow or whatever and let the goats eat it. I figure if they can eat every thorny shrub in my yard, the copper rods aren't gonna hurt 'em.
I don't bolus either.. but I know some who have great success with it. Instead I use a feed grade Copper Sulfate/Dolomite lime mixture that gets sprinkled on their food daily.. I have had excellent success with this. Jennah
Since I don't grain my bucks except in winter, they do show some color fading/bronzing on black coats and a bit of hair loss around the muzzle. I now copper bolus them and the difference is definitely apparent. I tried the gun and it wasn't always successful for me. So now I dip the capsule in a softening banana and apply the slippery bolus like I do other animals - place the capsule at the back of the tongue, close the mouth and hold it shut and rub the throat. It has worked very well. Nearly everyone I've talked with who boluses is impressed with the improvement. It's supposed to help resist wormloads too.
