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I had an off the farm photography job to do yesterday so of course I had to come home to a baby goat absolutely covered in blood. Taffy somehow managed to yank the whole cap off of the base of the horn just leaving all those nerves and blood vessels and bone exposed. I brought her in to my bathroom (my poor, poor bathroom) to clean her up since I don't have running water in the barn and after several hours it was still spraying blood so I called the livestock vet afterhours number and was able to bring her in. The vet was impressed with how much she had utterly destroyed that horn. He knocked her out and shaved down the area and decided it really needed to be cauterized so he went to town with a disbudding iron. He said there's a good chance the horn will grow back and she should be just fine. Taff got some fancy aluminum powder wound spray, a shot of long acting antibiotics and then got sent home to sleep off her ketamine. She was pretty stoned out of her gourd even after the reversal shot and the 45 minute car ride back home.  Shiny horn. She spent the night in one of Major's crates in my living room. She was feeling better enough to go back outside today and when I checked on her she was having snuggle time with Tootsie and Truffle   It's going to take me all day to return this bathroom to a usable state. This picture doesn't even show the giant blood smears all over the wall, the blood coating the bottom of the tub, blood spatters on all my dirty laundry in my hamper, and even blood coating the inside of the toilet somehow. We will not even discuss what the back of my car looks like currently. Thankfully my mom is coming out to help. 
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Jul 18, 2014 15:39
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Oh man what a nightmare! Poor thing 
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Jul 18, 2014 15:44
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Oh, poor Taffy!
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Jul 18, 2014 15:44
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JEEZ Instant Jellyfish, glad you were able to get her fixed! Will she be treated different by the other goats? Do the other goats notice this kind of stuff? Sorry, I have these weird questions all the time.
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Jul 18, 2014 16:43
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piscesbobbie posted:JEEZ Instant Jellyfish, glad you were able to get her fixed! Will she be treated different by the other goats? Do the other goats notice this kind of stuff? Sorry, I have these weird questions all the time. I thought they might freak out because she's still sort of bloody and now strangely metallic but they seem to be fine with her. She finds her shiny head to be weird though and doesn't want to stay outside in the sunshine and is skittering around the fields weirdly trying to get away from her own face, but I think she'll get over it. The vet said I should keep applying the alushield spray every other day for a week to 10 days to help the wound heal so she had better get over it.
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Jul 18, 2014 17:17
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Instant Jellyfish posted:I thought they might freak out because she's still sort of bloody and now strangely metallic but they seem to be fine with her. She finds her shiny head to be weird though and doesn't want to stay outside in the sunshine and is skittering around the fields weirdly trying to get away from her own face, but I think she'll get over it. The vet said I should keep applying the alushield spray every other day for a week to 10 days to help the wound heal so she had better get over it. Goats and their awesome peripheral vision, but not in this case. Seeing shiny something and not being able to get at it is probably so frustrating for her! awwwww
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Jul 19, 2014 02:08
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Ms Taffeta is doing much better. She had some stomach issues for a while due to the stress but they seem to be under control now. She looks silly with her aluminum horn and her naked turkey neck and she still has some crusty blood I need to clean off when she's all healed but she's feeling good and that's all that matters.
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Jul 21, 2014 15:08
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Ohh Taffy, you're still adorable.
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Jul 24, 2014 12:57
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I went to the Royal Welsh Agricultural Show this week and saw a lot of sheep (and chickens, pigeons and goats etc) of many different varieties. I can do an image dump if people are interested in seeing what breeds we have. Really interesting to see the big commercial side of farming too, with graphs explaining why one sheep hybrid was better than others, or adverts for a product to fatten lambs up. I also saw a wool-handling competition, which I didn't know was a thing. Most of the lambs were a bit older but this one was so sweet  None of that awful complete docking on these show sheep - in the UK the tail has to cover "the vulva in the case of female sheep and the anus in the case of male sheep".
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Jul 24, 2014 14:42
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Yes please do! Shepherds in the UK are really smart about doing high production crosses with mules (usually a leicester crossed with a more hardy breed) and beefy meat sheep like a texel or suffolk. Its a good system and I don't understand why more people in the US in the commercial meat industry don't do it. I think their more commercialized jacobs look fat and silly though    Technically there are rules in the US about tail length too but its allowed to be much shorter and even then people don't follow them at all and the ones with surgically docked tails still win shows. It's a lovely system. I just sheared for a lady who was told by all the good old boy shepherds in the area that she needed to have her sheep docked and they were shetland crosses with teeny short little tails! She was happy to learn that none of her sheep would be dropping dead from having a tail any time soon.
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Jul 24, 2014 15:07
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I have a question Instant Jellyfish, of course! The Jacob sheep in the photo above, have they been crossed with a different breed? Their coats look to be tight and of a shorter length, or is that all in the grooming for "show time?" Also it looks like the horns have been treated or painted/enhanced?
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Jul 24, 2014 17:39
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I don't think they have been crossed (but maybe) its just that jacobs have gone different directions in America and the UK. In America they are mostly still seen as novelty sheep or ones for niche markets so they remain or even become more deer-like and primitive. In the UK they have been bred to be more commercially viable and productive so they get beefier and more like the common production breeds. The sheep in those pictures have been thoroughly coiffed and styled and trimmed for show but their fleece is more coarse and less open than your average America jacob fleece. It looks like they use something like shoe polish to shine and darken the horns for show also. For fun here are some pictures of last year's Jacob Sheep Breeders Association annual general meeting in MO. You can see how much smaller and more variable the American jacobs are. Not really what you want if you're looking for a commercial meat sheep.  There was a costume contest too   I'm hoping next time the AGM is in my region I'll get to go. The jacob folks look like they know how to have a good time.
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Jul 24, 2014 23:27
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Will you show us the progress of your costume?
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Jul 25, 2014 13:00
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Not all Jacobs are like that in the UK though, I remember posting photos here a couple of years ago of Jacobs at a country fair and they were smaller than yours, not as handsome either
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Jul 27, 2014 00:36
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Gosh, so many babies. I've been missing the farm life since I moved for school, but we just got permission from our landlord to get chickens, so there might be chick pics incoming.
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Jul 28, 2014 03:17
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Hello, I am suffering from withdrawal and only cute sheep pictures can save me!
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Aug 20, 2014 05:36
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my cat is norris posted:Hello, I am suffering from withdrawal and only cute sheep pictures can save me! Oh no  Baby ships are almost 5 months old, big little goats are almost 4 months, little little goats are almost 3 months. It stormed all night so they're a little soggy still. Panzer and the jacob boy just got weaned and are still a little sad about it. Big rams don't need their mommies and none of us need Oedipus sheep happening.   Taffeta's horn is starting to grow back and she's just as big of a baby as ever. She's still getting bottles because I'm a huge softy.   She likes hugs and just resting her head on my shoulder while staring at me adoringly  Truffle is turning into a clone of her daddy complete with getting her head stuck in the fence on a regular basis.  I'm terrible and still haven't named the little littles. Maybe Chiffon and Chantilly? Usually they are just the littles. Pink beeb   White beeb  Olive is giant.  Almost as big as her mommy!  Minerva is also giant but that's to be expected for the romeldales.  Orchid, who I think has a mild case of whatever weebles had. She has a weird stance sometimes, is way smaller than her sister and her horns are stunted.  And finally Thistle's ewe lamb who is big and curious. 
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Aug 20, 2014 17:13
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Those goats are adorably chubby. 
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Aug 20, 2014 18:01
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 I'm saved from a gruesome end! Thank you, Jellyfish! It's good to hear Taffeta's doing well, and that her horn is coming back. Speaking of horns, though -- yeah, wow, Orchid looks a bit weird.
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Aug 20, 2014 19:54
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my cat is norris posted:
It's like she has twigs stuck to her head instead of horns.
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Aug 20, 2014 22:06
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Thank you Instant Jellyfish for the photos! Made my day! Taffy does need extra TLC! Did you get your bathroom and vehicle all cleaned up pretty well after the incident! I can't imagine how long and how difficult that was to clean! Those Angora Goats are just so adorable. Your sheep are so adorable too. They ALL are so adorable! Thank you for sharing! The micron testing information was so interesting! Your critters put out good fibers!
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Aug 21, 2014 00:30
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Truffle has a hilarious amount of junk in the trunk. Is that her build or is she going through a growth spurt?
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Aug 21, 2014 13:33
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InstantJellyfish.... today I came across and watched a show on NAT GEO WILD about Moose. I must say, Prism does have a strong resemblance! Hope you and all your wonderful critters are doing well 
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Sep 1, 2014 00:44
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piscesbobbie posted:InstantJellyfish.... today I came across and watched a show on NAT GEO WILD about Moose. I must say, Prism does have a strong resemblance! We don't call her moose for nothing! She's practically the size of one too. We were supposed to get hay this weekend but at the last minute the hauler who was supposed to bring the hay from Erie to the farm said he was out of town and didn't know when he was going to be back. Our hay guy is awesome and will hold on to our hay as long as we need him to but it was super frustrating. At least we know we will have hay whenever we find someone to move it for us. We also built a shelter.  And we decided on this year's breeding plan. We're cutting back a lot and bringing Dennis and Jazz back in for the season as well as doing some medical stuff so I will hopefully not have to deal with a bunch of dead lambs again next year. Breeding will start first week of November for early April babies. I'm going to use marking harnesses again so I should have exact dates. Dennis will get Jazz and Juniper Windsor will get Aster and Johnnie Bialy the cormo will get Maddie, Eclair, Page, and maybe Minnie the romeldale Rex will get Ginger and Angela and Dido if she doesn't pop out a kid on Sept 24th Heath will get Pearl and Opal for the chance of babbies with white splashes and finally I decided I don't really want to sell Goliath (unless someone comes pounding down my door desperate for him) so I'm going to breed him to Flirt and then just give him hugs forever and ever because he's such a big sweet boy That means 14-20 babies next April if everything goes well!
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Sep 1, 2014 15:08
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I've been wanting nubians for milk for years now (and finally bought a couple of acres on which to have them, yay!), but after reading this thread, I want angoras now too. And I always said I didn't want sheep but, IJ, your Jacobs are just the cutest and most awesome and now I want them too. Argh! Too many choices! IJ, I know you keep your flocks separate, but is there any reason dairy goats, hair goats and hair sheep couldn't live in a single flock? I have no interest whatsoever in keeping intact males--I'm going to either find a stud or do artificial insemination when it comes time--so would there be any problems with me keeping a mixed herd of does/ewes? Or are there reasons to keep the three separate?
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Sep 1, 2014 18:57
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Nope, its totally fine to mix and match. Right now most of the does are out with all my sheep and they're doing fine. They're just a bit more sensitive and sometimes I need to keep them some place I can bring them in at night even when the sheep are fine being outside 100% of the time or else they end up with hoof problems from the dewy grass and wet soil. One issue you need to consider is that goats have different mineral needs than sheep. Goats can have and often need much more copper than sheep. Sheep store copper in their livers and can have serious, "oops they're dead", sort of issues when they get too much. I combat that by supplementing the goats with copper in the form of boluses and mineral pastes that only they get and having sheep appropriate minerals out free choice. Hair sheep and primitive breed sheep can also handle copper better than many of the commercial breeds so some people risk leaving goat or cattle minerals out for all their animals and just get liver samples tested for copper levels whenever they butcher one to make sure they're ok. The only issues some people have is that most dairy goats are polled or disbudded and angoras are traditionally left with horns and that worries some folks. Personally I have polled and horned animals all together and it doesn't seem to bother anyone but there is a risk there you should be aware of. You had better post pictures when you get goats! I love those flappy nub ears
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Sep 1, 2014 19:27
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Instant Jellyfish posted:Nope, its totally fine to mix and match. Right now most of the does are out with all my sheep and they're doing fine. They're just a bit more sensitive and sometimes I need to keep them some place I can bring them in at night even when the sheep are fine being outside 100% of the time or else they end up with hoof problems from the dewy grass and wet soil. I figured I'd have to give them separate feed anyway, because of their dietary requirements. Easy to add supplements to the nubians' feed buckets in the morning as I milk them. As for the rest, I guess I can always harness them all and tie them in a line with their feed buckets in the morning, and just turn them loose in the paddock once they're done. I'd have to do something like that with pellet feed anyway, to make sure everyone got their ration and no more/less. Greedy little monsters. I'm worried in general about the horned animals getting stuck in fencing, and the adventures of Heath don't help that worry, but I know I can't disbud the angoras so I'll just have to deal. Not really worried about the horned ones hurting the hornless ones any more than the horned ones hurting each other. Just have to find pure nubians somewhere--most of the goats around here are saanan or boer, and the "nubians" are usually crossed with one of those. I'm hoping to get kids in the spring, but I'm kidding myself in November, so we'll see how having a baby affects my plans. I was mostly worried about diseases or particularly aggressive/protective mothers. Thanks for the info!
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Sep 1, 2014 21:25
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For what it's worth, you can disbud any goat if you get them young enough (like, a week or less). It's just that with Nubians you have to do it otherwise they'll grow nasty spiky horns.
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Sep 2, 2014 00:08
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Sheep and goats can pass CAE (OPP in sheep) and CL to each other. I would be very surprised if you found a sheep or angora breeder who tested for either of them but a good nubian breeder should and know the G6S status of any animals they are selling. I would at very least ask about abscesses in any herd you want to buy from, as personally I feel like CL is a lot bigger risk than CAE in animals you aren't planning on breeding. It's not hard to learn to draw blood and send it off for testing while you have an animal in quarantine or before you buy it too. WADDL does CL and Biotracking will do CAE/OPP and pregnancy testing. vvv I've heard that too, but I've never seen any actual research behind it and some people do have disbudded angoras that do just fine I guess. The process of disbudding is not something I ever want to do though so I haven't looked in to much. vvv Instant Jellyfish fucked around with this message at 02:07 on Sep 2, 2014 |
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Sep 2, 2014 00:22
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Haystack posted:For what it's worth, you can disbud any goat if you get them young enough (like, a week or less). It's just that with Nubians you have to do it otherwise they'll grow nasty spiky horns. I was told by an Angoran farmer that you should leave the horns on them because it helps with heat regulation--it's how they cool down under that hair because they can't sweat or pant. Of course, I don't know if this is a real thing or if this is one of those "old farmer's tales". Anyone want to confirm/refute?
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Sep 2, 2014 00:24
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snakecharmer posted:I was told by an Angoran farmer that you should leave the horns on them because it helps with heat regulation--it's how they cool down under that hair because they can't sweat or pant. Of course, I don't know if this is a real thing or if this is one of those "old farmer's tales". Anyone want to confirm/refute? Goat horns have a really good blood supply, so I can see how having a good bit of horn outside a thick coat could help with cooling.
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Sep 2, 2014 04:45
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Haystack posted:For what it's worth, you can disbud any goat if you get them young enough (like, a week or less). It's just that with Nubians you have to do it otherwise they'll grow nasty spiky horns. Nubian horns are supremely elegant and do a lot to balance out their otherwise completely dumb long faces. Without the horns it looks like a donkey and a rabbit got frisky on 3 Mile Island.
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Sep 2, 2014 05:53
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Suspect Bucket posted:Without the horns it looks like a donkey and a rabbit got frisky on 3 Mile Island. 
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Sep 2, 2014 18:30
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Instant Jellyfish posted:We don't call her moose for nothing! She's practically the size of one too. Have any of the critters, should I ask, have any of the goats tried to jump on top of the new shelter?! 
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Sep 3, 2014 00:42
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RabbitMage posted:Gosh, so many babies. I've been missing the farm life since I moved for school, but we just got permission from our landlord to get chickens, so there might be chick pics incoming. Update: He has the chickams, but apparently hasn't posted pics here yet. I'm going to poke him.
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Sep 17, 2014 00:59
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Quick update, all my goats are falling apart this week. Some more literally than others. First Rex lost a horn last night. Perhaps he is jewish and wanted to donate a shofar for rosh hashanah? Or he just got in a fight with Goliath and it got taken off. Either way he is now a unicorn.   Gross head wound hereAlso Electra has decided she no longer wants to eat. I can convince her to perhaps try a single leaf but that's about it. She has dropped weight rapidly and is very weak. I had the vet out today and took care of all of them. Rex has a hole in his skull that leads down into his sinuses so that needed to be flushed out and filled with antibiotics and I get to wrestle him twice a week for 3 more weeks to flush and fill it again. Electra is really not looking good but she's got antibiotics and we're testing her for Johne's disease. Tootsie wandered in while we were messing with Electra so we're testing her for Johne's too and it turns out she has pneumonia. I would have had no idea because she is acting totally normal and hasn't had a cough or a sneeze or a sniffle at all. So draxxin all around and we'll hope for the best. Thistle and her lamb, now Beth, were sold to one of my shearing clients who is a wonderful person and pays me to come out and take care of all her worming and shearing and hoof trimming so I'll be seeing them all the time and their sale paid for my broken goats. The new owner wants Thistle bred before she goes so they will be sticking around for a while
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Sep 25, 2014 23:51
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Coul you actually turn that hoen into a shofar? Or has Major had hus wicked way with it?
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Sep 26, 2014 02:45
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AcetylCoA! posted:Coul you actually turn that hoen into a shofar? Or has Major had hus wicked way with it? Major was just practicing the hold for a retrieve, the horn is still intact. It's full of gross bits of bone and tissue but theoretically someone could turn it in to a shofar I guess. It stinks pretty badly of buck goat though, ugh.
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Sep 26, 2014 02:57
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Instant Jellyfish posted:Major was just practicing the hold for a retrieve, the horn is still intact. It's full of gross bits of bone and tissue but theoretically someone could turn it in to a shofar I guess. It stinks pretty badly of buck goat though, ugh. What are you going to do with it?
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Sep 26, 2014 04:16
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Instant Jellyfish posted:Major was just practicing the hold for a retrieve, the horn is still intact. It's full of gross bits of bone and tissue but theoretically someone could turn it in to a shofar I guess. It stinks pretty badly of buck goat though, ugh. Shofars always seem to have some residual smell. Anyway, do eeet. Then blow it at your goats when they bleat at you, and post the results.
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Sep 26, 2014 05:24
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