Good Goat Maintenance

By Annette Codding

    I still think it's funny that people look at goats and think that they are such durable and hardy creatures. A farm animal that can live solely off of poor grass and tin cans, spitting out babies every year like clockwork. At least monthly, I hear about someone wanting to get a goat to “keep the grass mowed” or “clear some land.” Most likely these people really still think that these goats are maintenance-free, weed-eating machines. And they are…most of the time.
   But just like running your truck hard and never rotating your tires or changing your oil, time will catch up with you. There are a few things that should be done to ensure you have a healthy animal for more than a few months.
   Let’s clear up one myth…goats love grass. Goats actually love to browse weeds and brushy stuff. They will eat grass if given no other choice, but if offered a scrubby lot or a mowed lawn, they will pick the brush every time. And that would truly be better for them assuming there were no noxious weeds in there. If it was a large enough piece of land and there were not too many goats, then they could survive there quite well if offered additional hay and minerals.
   Why minerals? Aren’t there vitamins and minerals in the trees, weeds, and ground? Well yes, there are. But not enough of some things and that fence around the property will keep those goats from seeking out new ground for what they need. Selenium is an essential mineral that goats need and Florida soils are often lacking it. A good quality, free choice mineral is essential for good goat health.
   Copper is another mineral that we can give our goats to help them be healthy. But this one is administered different and works a totally different way. A copper bolus should be given to goats every six months to help deter intestinal parasites. The small copper particles sit in the rumen and are slowly dissolved. An excess of worms can bring down the health of a goat fast and Florida weather is a great place to grow worms most of the year.
   Here’s just a really basic and quick explanation of the worm life cycle. Worms start out in the intestines where they lay eggs and those eggs are deposited on the pasture in the goat poo. When the temperatures are good, and they are almost always good here, the eggs hatch. That teeny tiny larva crawls up the grass blade and waits for the next host to come by and eat it along with the grass. This is the reason that an over-grazed and over-stocked pasture is so bad for a goat’s health. The goats are much more likely to ingest a lot of worm larva when the grass is short.
   So how can you tell if your goat has a high worm load? There is a cool thing about goats, dogs, and people. You can somewhat judge the health of them by their eyes. That's super general and probably shouldn't be used on your 95-year-old granny, but the eye membrane can tell you a little about the blood. (Oh, and I'm not a doctor or a veterinarian. Please find good ones of both…before you need them.)
   Worms feed on blood and a goat with a high worm load will have very pale eye tissue. There is a test known as FAMACHA which you can easily do to help you judge how your goats are doing in respect to the worm load. This should be done regularly, followed by a fecal test if you are concerned that the worm load is high. A fecal test will determine which worms are present and how many there are. Then you can come up with a good plan for each individual goat to help lower the worm load.
   And because our land is lacking the dry, rocky ground that goats are made for, we must trim their hooves. Monthly or even bi-monthly hoof trimming will help keep your goat comfortable and happy. Untrimmed hooves will eventually curl under and can become tender and sore. It’s a good amount of work to get bad hooves back into good shape, but it’s relatively easy to keep good ones good. Get a set of clippers and keep them in a handy spot so that you will remember this chore.
   People that go to shows with goats, or buy and sell goats will want to do yearly blood testing. Caprine arthritis encephalitis (CAE), Johne’s disease, and Caseous lymphadenitis (CL) are the most common diseases to test for. CAE is a contagious viral disease, Johne’s disease is a serious and contagious wasting disease, and CL is a chronic, contagious bacterial disease that mostly shows up as abscesses in lymph nodes. It’s a pretty simple and cheap blood test that you can send off to a lab yourself. Goats are pretty easy to draw blood from and they don’t bleed much at all. There are videos online on how to draw blood as well as trimming hooves and just about anything else you can think of.
   Goats are fun…as long as they are healthy. And it’s not too hard to give them what they need to live a long, healthy life. Until next time, enjoy your animals, and do your best to take good care of them.