Raising Goats Naturally

by Deborah Niemann

  If a goat has a full-blown case of mastitis, she will have a hard udder that is very warm to touch. The milk will often taste salty. If nothing comes out when you start to milk her, examine the teat. There might be a plug of milk in the tip of the teat, and a long string of milk may come out when you pull on the plug. Although it may be difficult to get milk out of an inflamed udder, it is important to do it. All instructions for treating mastitis start with milking. Holding hot compresses on the udder while milking is helpful, but of course, you don’t have three hands, so it’s easier to do when another person can hold the compresses while you milk. Milking the doe four times a day will help. Although there are over-the-counter antibiotics that are put directly into the teat of the affected half, it is a good idea to call your vet and have the milk cultured so that you use the correct antibiotic. You should see improvement in two to three days if you’re using an appropriate antibiotic. Unfortunately, antibiotic-resistant mastitis is becoming more common, which is why it is important to avoid using antibiotics as much as possible. Unresolved mastitis can result in a ruptured udder or in gangrene in the affected half of the udder. In severe cases, the doe can die.

  If a doe gets mastitis when nursing kids, it won’t hurt the kids. However, if the doe’s udder is very inflamed, she may not be willing to let the kids nurse. Since most does don’t mind you milking them when they have mastitis, I’m assuming it’s the kid hitting the udder with its head that the doe actually objects to. If you’ve ever watched kids nurse, however, it seems to be impossible for them to nurse without first hitting the udder. If you use an intra-mammary infusion, then the kids need to be taken away because they’d just be sucking out the medication, which needs to stay in the udder to actually be effective.

  Nutritional Deficiencies

  If goats don’t get enough of any vitamin or mineral, deficiencies will obviously occur. However, some deficiencies are more common than others and will cause more severe problems. It is important to understand that nutritional deficiencies will vary tremendously from one farm to another. You should never decide to add a supplement simply because someone else uses it with their herd. There are specific symptoms associated with deficiencies, and unless your goats are exhibiting them, you can assume that your current mineral supplementation program is working.

  Cobalt

  Severe cobalt deficiency over many months results in a wasting disease where animals lose weight, become anemic, have fertility problems, are unproductive, and ultimately die. Some goat owners have said that they gave their goats cobalt because the goat had unpalatable milk or blood in the milk, which they attributed to a cobalt deficiency. After starting to supplement with cobalt, they said the milk tasted better or the blood disappeared, although I have been unable to find any research that correlates those symptoms with cobalt deficiency.

  Research has shown that most goats on pasture consume enough cobalt unless they are in sandy soils or geographic regions where the soil is cobalt deficient. However, most mineral mixes include adequate cobalt, so cobalt deficiency is almost unheard of. The main reason I’m including cobalt in the revised edition of this book is not because this is a widespread deficiency problem. It’s because many people are buying a “cobalt block” without reading the labels. Those blocks are usually 98 percent salt with an amount of cobalt in them that is less than what is in many mineral mixes. So, while cobalt is important for goats to have, it is important for owners to read the labels to be sure that they are giving their goats a product that has enough of that mineral in it, rather than one that simply has the word “cobalt” in the name of the product.

  “I tried a large cobalt block for my herd just because I had heard of other farms using these, but then noticed that my goats were decreasing their consumption of loose minerals and choosing to lick the block,” said Julie Jarvis of Animal Cracker Farm in Maple Valley, Washington. “They started having signs of other deficiencies fairly quickly. I had the cobalt blocks out for about two months. As soon as I removed the blocks, they rapidly consumed the loose minerals again and their other deficiency signs improved.”

  If your goats or sheep don’t have symptoms of cobalt or B12 deficiency, then they are probably getting enough cobalt. Even though the symptoms of deficiency and toxicity are similar, it’s not that hard to know whether an animal is more or less likely to be deficient. If they are consuming a forage-based diet, then toxicity can be ruled out, and they’re probably deficient. On the other hand, if you’re supplementing with added cobalt, and you have an animal that’s anemic and wasting, they’re probably consuming too much. Cobalt deficiency is actually pretty rare because animals need so little of it. If you are worried, you can have blood tested for cobalt or B12 levels, and you can also have the liver of a dead goat tested for mineral levels.

  Copper

  Copper deficiency is probably the most common nutritional deficiency in goats in the US. The most common symptom of copper deficiency in my herd is a faded coat because copper is responsible for pigmentation of hair. My gold goats turn cream, cream goats turn white, and black goats turn rusty red. They also lose hair on their faces. A fishtail or bald tail tip is another common symptom. Severe orthopedic problems, such as bent legs, swaybacks, or spinal injuries, can be caused by copper deficiency. I have not seen deformed legs or swaybacks in my herd, even though I’ve had several goats die from confirmed copper deficiency, so don’t assume that your goats have enough copper simply because they all have straight legs and spines. If a goat is anemic but does not have a heavy load of barber pole worm, then it may be copper deficient.

  Copper is also very important in reproduction, so deficient goats may not come into heat or may have difficulty staying pregnant. Kids may be born prematurely or stillborn. In my experience, bucks seem to have more problems with copper deficiency than does, probably because my does are getting a commercial goat ration that is fortified with 40 ppm copper. My bucks are consuming only pasture and hay, which have much lower amounts of copper, so they need to consume enough of the goat minerals as a supplement to get an adequate amount of copper. Also, my does live closer to the barn so drink a lot of rain water from the gutters, whereas my bucks drink nothing but well water, which contains copper antagonists. These are just two examples of how copper needs can vary among goats on the same farm, which is why you can’t copy someone else’s supplementation program and expect the same results.

  Copper deficiency can be primary or secondary. Primary copper deficiency means that the goats are not consuming enough copper. In secondary copper deficiency, the goats are consuming plenty of copper, but antagonists in the diet, such as high molybdenum, sulfur, or iron, interfere with the goat’s ability to absorb and use the copper. For example, alfalfa can have levels of molybdenum that are so high as to induce copper deficiency in goats. Unfortunately, the level of molybdenum varies tremendously from one location to another, making it impossible to say whether or not it is causing a problem in a particular herd unless you have your hay tested. Well water that is high in sulfur or iron can also cause copper deficiency. Excessive iron in the water generally turns white sinks orange, and excessive sulfur makes the water stink like a dirty dishrag or rotten eggs. Several years ago we had an intern who called it “fart water.”

  Copper deficiency is a challenge to diagnose because hair and blood tests are not very accurate. The most accurate test for copper is a liver biopsy, which is not practical in a live goat. I have learned always to ask for a copper level on a goat’s liver when a necropsy is done. Mineral levels on livers are not performed routinely when doing a necropsy unless something jumps out at as a potential problem when the vet is discussing your feeding practices. I have removed a liver myself and sent it to a lab for copper testing when I suspected the dead goat had been copper deficient based on a faded coat and other symptoms.

  Primary copper toxicity, which means toxicity caused by diet alone, is almost completely unheard of in the US. The only cases I’ve read about were not cau
sed by too much copper, but instead were caused by a deficiency of an antagonist like sulfur or molybdenum. Although too much sulfur and molybdenum can cause copper deficiency, if they don’t have enough sulfur and molybdenum in the diet, goats can get copper toxicity. Goats need sulfur and molybdenum — just not too much! That’s why it’s important that your goats have a good-quality, loose mineral that is specifically labeled for goats only. (Minerals labeled for “sheep and goats” usually have zero copper in them because sheep cannot tolerate much copper.)

  Almost every case of copper toxicity in the scientific literature was caused by a copper supplement. Copper sulfate is very well absorbed, and it’s usually the form of copper that you find in mixed minerals. Years ago when I was trying to figure out what to do with our goats, I could find only one case study where goats died from copper toxicity. The goats had a cattle mineral available that had 3,000 ppm copper sulfate. This is twice as much as what you find in most goat minerals. There are people online who swear by minerals with that much copper for their goats, but I would not recommend that level of copper sulfate for the vast majority of farms.

  I know two people who’ve accidentally killed multiple goats with injectable minerals. They died from liver and kidney failure from both copper and selenium toxicity, which was confirmed by lab reports. This is why I don’t recommend injectable copper, and this is why I say you should never try to copy someone else’s management. In both of those cases, the individuals did not have goats showing signs of deficiency. Conditions are different on every farm, and you need to treat your goats based upon their symptoms.

  Copper oxide wire particles (COWP) can be used safely for copper supplementation of goats. More than 15 studies have used COWP for control of barber pole worm in sheep and goats, and there have been zero deaths from copper toxicity, even in the sheep, which have a much lower tolerance for copper. Copper levels were always normal when they tested the livers of the animals in those studies. I also created an online survey that garnered responses from 570 goat owners. Of the 377 who said they supplement with COWP, none of them had any fatalities caused by it.

  If you have high sulfur or iron in your well water, you may want to invest in a water treatment system that removes those minerals. A water softener may reduce iron, but it will do nothing for sulfur. Reverse osmosis or a chlorine or hydrogen peroxide system should remove sulfur, but depending on how many goats you have and how much water you use, some of these options may not be cost effective.

  Like copper, selenium is an important mineral for the health of the reproductive system of does, and an inability to get pregnant and stay pregnant is sometimes caused by a deficiency of this mineral. A doe with selenium deficiency may have trouble giving birth, is more likely to have a retained placenta, and will have lower milk production than a doe with adequate selenium in her diet. A buck may be less likely to get does pregnant. Kids born to selenium-deficient does are more likely to be stillborn or weak and may suffer from white muscle disease in the first few weeks of life, which can result in death. It is important to understand that the occasional weak kid is probably not selenium deficient. A herd with a selenium deficiency problem will likely see many of these problems in a number of goats.

  Soils in North America vary from deficient to toxic in their levels of selenium. Because there is so much selenium in the soil in some parts of the United States, the government limits the amount of selenium that can be put into minerals that are sold nationally to protect animals in those areas from selenium toxicity. Unfortunately that means that goats that live in areas where the soil is deficient in selenium won’t get enough to avoid deficiency and will need more than what is available in commercial goat feeds and mineral mixes. Although injectable selenium is available by prescription from a vet, some goats have died from toxicity as a result of the injection. It is important that you have evidence of selenium deficiency before using injectable minerals.

  When goats die on my farm, I have their livers tested for selenium (as well as other minerals). Years ago they tested at the very low end of the normal range for selenium. Knowing this, I gave injectable selenium to my goats prior to breeding season for several years. However, I have switched to a free-choice selenium supplement for a couple of reasons. First, many grass-based cattle producers insist that “cafeteria-style minerals” are the best way to provide minerals for animals. Each individual mineral is available to the animals, and they can take as little or as much as they want. If you provide a mixed mineral that uses salt as a carrier, then you should be sure that none of your other minerals use salt as a carrier. The selenium supplement I provide uses wheat middlings as the carrier.

  What I Learned from Muse

  We’d had Nigerians for three years when I purchased Muse, my first LaMancha, a yearling in milk. At six months fresh, she dried up, which was disappointing, but I was eagerly looking forward to her kidding the next spring. We never saw her come into heat until December, even though we had two wethers with our does to help detect heat cycles. Because I didn’t own a LaMancha buck at the time, I drove her to another farm 75 minutes away for a driveway breeding. In spite of the buck successfully covering her twice, she came back into heat three weeks later. Not being in a position to drive to the other farm again, I decided to breed her to my Nigerian buck. She never got pregnant that year, but she wasn’t the only goat having fertility issues. We had about a dozen Nigerian does at that time, and several were not coming into heat or getting pregnant. My daughter Margaret did some reading and said she thought our goats were copper deficient, but over the months, four different vets said that was impossible.

  A year after we bought Muse, I bought a LaMancha buck, and the following spring Muse kidded with twin does. By June, however, she still had not shed her winter coat when we clipped her for a show. A couple of weeks later, she died unexpectedly. Having no idea what was wrong with her, I took her body to a vet for a necropsy, and I said I wanted to have her liver checked for copper. The necropsy came back listing Tyzzer’s disease as the cause of death, and her copper level was 4.8 on a scale where normal is 25–150 ppm.

  Tyzzer’s is a rodent disease, and in searching scientific journals, I was not able to find a single recorded case in a goat, although there have been a few cases in horses. Like any barn, ours has mice, and Muse probably ingested mouse poop at some point. But why would she get a disease that is unheard of in goats? My assumption is simply that her immune system was not functioning at an optimum level, leaving her vulnerable to a disease that a healthy goat would never have contracted. The vet insisted the whole thing was just a fluke and said that there was nothing I could have done to prevent her death, and he refused to give me prescription copper for my other goats.

  I started doing a lot of reading, however, and realized we had the worst possible scenario for creating copper deficiency. Our well water had iron and sulfur in it, which are copper antagonists and reduce absorption of available copper in the diet. On top of that, we had been feeding a commercial goat ration with only 10–15 ppm copper. I contacted an animal scientist who had published articles on goat nutrition, and he advised finding a feed with 35–40 ppm copper. We also began giving the goats COWP.

  After changing our goat feed and giving COWP to the goats, we immediately saw faded, wiry-haired goats shedding their coats and replacing them with much softer and darker hair. That fall, all of the does came into heat, were bred, and stayed pregnant until term.

  The body absorbs minerals consumed orally better than those injected. When supplements are injected, research has shown that much of the supplement leaves the body in the urine over the subsequent 24 hours, suggesting that injection of a routine supplement is not useful in a situation where chronic deficiency is a real problem.

  Vitamin B12

  Routine supplementation of vitamin B12 is not supported by research because ruminants produce their own B12 in their rumen. However, it is possible for goats to become deficient in B12 if their rumen is not functio
ning properly, so temporarily supplementing with B12 may be helpful to individual goats on rare occasion. Colostrum is a great source of B12, so newborns do not need supplementation with this vitamin. Cobalt is needed for goats to be able to produce their own B12 in their rumen, so the section on cobalt has related information.

  Vitamin E

  Vitamin E is found in green leaves and seeds, so deficiency is unlikely when goats are browsing on fresh plants. However, vitamin E in hay decreases during storage, so you may see deficiency symptoms towards the end of winter. Because it is abundant in fresh plants, there is often very little added in commercial goat feeds. Colostrum is rich in vitamin E.

  Selenium and vitamin E work synergistically, and some symptoms of deficiency are the same — profound muscle weakness and inability to suckle in kids, poor immune system, reproductive problems, and kidding challenges. Since most people are aware of the importance of sufficient selenium, if a goat is having these symptoms, it could be vitamin E deficient. Most people incorrectly assume that selenium supplements have adequate vitamin E added to them. While one injectable selenium supplement has zero added vitamin E, another has less than the equivalent of what a goat needs in a single day, which is obviously not a therapeutic dose.

  When butchered lambs are deficient in vitamin E, research has shown that their meat will spoil noticeably faster than lambs that were not deficient in vitamin E. Another odd symptom of vitamin E deficiency is bad-tasting milk from does. Because E is important for fertility, goats that fail to get pregnant or repeatedly have single kids may be deficient. This is something to keep in mind especially for those who keeps their goats on a dry lot or in confinement where they don’t get a lot of fresh greens in their diet.