Hi there. I'm new to the site and not super goat-experienced. I've had them for years but only a couple at a time and it's hard to learn a lot from such a small goat population! I currently have one old lady goat (Oberhasli) that I've had for ten years. She's always been pretty healthy, but this year she is exceptionally thin and it's tough for me to get her to drink any water. I give her water with molasses but the vet told me not to that for too long. She'll drink water with just plain white sugar, but I'm concerned I'll upset something in her rumen. Any suggestions or comments? Note: My outside animals are pets only ... I have a couple of horses that keep her company and decided not to replace her Nubian mate when he died last year because she didn't seem lonely (truth is, she really didn't like him very much!). Can tell I'm new to the site - left this message in the kidding corral!
Hi, Welcome to the goat spot. Sorry to hear that your girl isn't feeling well. I'm not very experienced with goat here but can suggest a couple of things. Have you tried wroming her? Or another thing we like to do here is to mix vitamins and electrolytes in with their water once a week or more when they are stressed. Tractor Supply carries one form Durvet that works well. The breakdown is 1 tsp. per gallon of water. Another one that is very good is from Jeffers.com that also has probiotics in it. Our goats and even our chickens get fussy about drinking if there is any kind of smell in their water buckets. We have to disinfect the buckets about once a week or they don't drink enough. They are so spoiled. Hope your girl is feeling better soon. Gina
First I have a few questions, What do you feed this goat each day? Do you have out minerals for her? When was the last worming and fecal check? Have you checked to see that her eye lids and gums are a nice dark pink? What is her temp rectally? Do you see her chewing cud?
First of all, Welcome the the Goat Spot. Teresa,I was going to ask the same things. She might need a little mineral, plus you have to remember as cold as it is here they might not drink as much water as they do in the warmer months. Are you graining her at all? I would also try water with gatorade. Most of them really like it. If it is really cold where yu are, have you tried warm water? I bucket it ou and they drink it like crazy.
