It has been an interesting month, to say the least. I've felt frustrated, stimulated, amped up, worn out, lonely, inspired, grossed out, and free. All these conflicting emotions are nearly as exhausting as mucking the barn! Its been a month of early mornings and early bedtimes. I've worked hard physically, though not as hard as I'd expected. There are days when I am surprised how much I've learned- and more days where I feel my education has been stymied by the lack of communication and organization. In spite of the chaos, however, I have picked up some pretty cool information- especially about caring for livestock. For example...
Foundering.
Founder is a disease of hoof animals, (theoretically) resulting from too rich of a diet. I don't know how it works with horses and cows, who also frequently suffer from founder, but in goats the progression is pretty sad. The leg begins to sink down onto the coffin bone, misshaping and deforming the hoof. This causes pain and further deformation. First, the back of the foot (coffin) sinks, then the hooves begin to spread apart and the nails to grow in maladaptive ways, and finally, the bone follows, deforming the foot. As it progresses, the goat may begin to kneel rather than walk on the now painful foot. Though there is no cure for founder, it can be managed throughout the animal's life. We are managing it by completely restricting the diet of the foundering goats. We provide them only with hay, no grain, and whatever they can forage. We dosed them with Epsom salts when we first noticed the problem, then followed it up with daily doses of nutrients like boron, combined with some pain killing herbs. Its sad to see them in pain, but it seems they are showing slight improvement.
Copper and Selenium doses
Copper is an important nutrient for the goats. It makes their coats shinier, and helps prevent/fight worms, which are common in herds that don't have tons of space or plants to graze on. The selenium also has multiple benefits, including encouraging easy births and passing of afterbirth in mama goats. The copper is in little chips, almost like broken up pencil lead. This allows it lodge in the digestive system walls and slowly release. We give it to the goats by sticking the copper to a spoonful of molasses, prying their mouth open and scraping it all onto their teeth,tongue, and lips- and then holding their mouth closed for a minute so they won't spit it out. Its pretty funny to watch them licking the molasses off their lips afterwards. To dose the goats with selenium, we have to give shots. Thats a little more intimidating. But basically, all you do is suck up the stuff in a syringe, pinch some skin near the front shoulder of the goat, and jam it in there and empty the syringe. Piece of cake. Unless they are skittish, or know whats coming, or pull away during the shot, or your needle breaks in their tough skin, or...
De-Worming, Naturally
Its fun to give them goats their wormer. I like it because it is an all natural mix, not a chemical dewormer, and because it smells really nice. That is important, as I frequently end up wearing a good amount of it by the end of the day! The wormer is a blend of cloves and wormwood.
Lactation Herbs
We give goats who are not making enough milk for their babies a blend of herbs that encourage lactation. It includes Fenugreek and Goat's Rue. It seems to have really worked for one of the mama goats, though I think time also played a part.
Anyway, those are just some of the things I have learned about livestock health and naturopathy. Pretty fun stuff. The herbal medicine cabinet here is pretty awesome, and I'm excited to pick Marcia's brain a lot more about both preventative and medicinal uses of herbs. Her number one tip so far: get plenty of calcium and vitamin D!
Oh, yeah, AND....
I got to deliver two baby goats yesterday. That was awesome. Marcia was gone and only the brand new intern was there to help. We totally did it. Well, ok, the mama goat did most of it, but we sure helped. Luckily, it was an easy delivery over all, and both babies are healthy! Yay!
Well, humans get gout, ingrown toenails,ulcers, and other weird things, probably many which are the result of poor diets and lack of exercise. Speaking as someone who knows absolutely nothing about goats or other animals with hooves - here is my theory:goats need things to climb on, like rocky outcroppings. That would keep their hooves in good shape. You are learning a lot! it is pretty interesting, and enlightening. Love your blog.
ReplyDeleteIt is really cool that you are learning about natural remedies. Did you know that human mamas also use fenugreek for lactation? Keep posting your adventures, I love checking to see what's new!
ReplyDeleteLove Colleen