How serious is a goat that is sneezing?

Linebacker, I have run my goats for 17 years using regular field fence. The cost is no more than it would be to put that fence up for cows. If you put a calculator to it, the cost for brand new field fencing (posts and all) is about the same as for a 5-strand barbed wire fence.

The difference in costs comes when you factor in that a cow will stay in a 3 strand barbed wire fence, while a goat won't. Thats what holds up a lot of farmers from getting into goats. They don't want the investment in upgrading fences.

On the "joke or not" theory, I have been a cattleman (cow/calf) and a goat man. There are plenty of old wives tales about both types of animals. They typically start from an unwillingness to actually observe the animals, then are perpetuated by repetition. I am so glad I came originally to cattle as a "city boy," so I was open to what was actually going on and could adopt many new practices that others thought were crazy because they were tied down mentally by "what daddy always done" or "what paw-paw said to do."

Kathy, just like humans, an occasional cough is no biggie, clears the throat, etc. If the coughs are noticeable by their frequency, I grow concerned. If accompanied by a nasal discharge during coughing, my concern is heightened. Normal throat clearing is NOT accompanied by nasal discharge. A cough can be dust, worms, internal CL abcesses, or a bacterial infection right on up to pneumonia. Any cough beyong the occasional throat-clearing that appears to me to be affecting more than a single goat is cause for concern. Herd coughing is a definitive marker for a contagious agent.

I've used LA200 to get rid of infections on individual goats, but the best thing I ever tried to finally rid the entire herd of cough was to put Sulmet/aureomycin powder (labeled for swine and poultry) in the drinking water and make that their only source of water. Clears it in 10 days.

In my experience, goats that are well-kept, have plenty of space to browse, and are discouraged from loafing in barns together and gathering together too tightly at watering holes or shady spots will cough rarely if at all. Ideally, any herd will have at least 2-3 feet of space between each goat when browsing, loafing or sleeping. That's about the distance they'd keep in nature.

__________________
Jim Steele
Sweetpea Farms
"To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing." -- Robert Gates

Jim,

What concentration of Sulmet did you use in the water supply?

__________________
"Do you believe in the devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of man?" Hobbs
"I'm not sure that man needs the help." Calvin

I couldn't agree more about the benefits of learning goats from a "city boy" or in my case "city girl" perspective. My husband grew up on a farm and his dad is definitely stuck in his ways and knows "everything" about anything farm. He always teased me because everything farm related that I said started with "I read..." and never believed anything I said. Once I started ignoring his "good advice" and started doing as I researched my goats got healthier and my chickens started laying more. My husband now asks MY advice for anything homestead and tells me that whatever my father-in-law says...don't do that! B

By the way, my father-in-law occasionally asks my opinion too.

Heather

__________________
Hazell

Some pursue happiness--Others create it ~Unknown~

I just went by the labeled swine dose, which is 4 ounces per 102 gallons of water. My tank is 50 gallons, so I halved the dose. It was not just Sulmet, but Sulmet/aureomycin both. I'd leave it in the tank for 5 days, topping off as needed, then clean and put in a fresh batch for aother 5 days. Then you ought to be done.

You MUST restrict their water to just the medicated tank, cuz they would rather drink anything else but that, if given the option.

You can also make a stronger solution and treat individuals, but it is so easy to treat the whole herd and be done that I went that way. Other folks will say that's antibiotics abuse (cuz they already have here), so do what you think is best. I was getting desperate to eradicate the bug, as individual LA200 treatments were not doing the job. This got the whole herd straight.

Straight Sulmet is cheaper than the combo drugs, and I have no reason to believe it would not work. In fact, I just used straight Sulmet to correct cough in a new-bought buck. It was gone in the first 3 days, and we are just working through the required 10-day period now.

Unlike shots, this seems to have had no effect on the rumen. The young goats actually grew faster with it in the water, which is partly why they medicate all commercial chicken house water as a matter of course. Not saying that's right, just that it is done.

__________________
Jim Steele
Sweetpea Farms
"To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing." -- Robert Gates

I find that the route to getting longtime farmers to ask my opinion is by having healthy, robust, shiny and productive animals. They really get interested if you show them you did it cheap. Cheap is not necessarily bad; it has been really good for my goats, once I left behind the conventional wisdom about what they "had to have."

Over the years I have gotten a lot of compliments on my stock. I wish I had the acreage to go bigtime, because I know I can run a combo cow-calf/goat operation cheap and yet have them nice. To me, that's the challenge of farming: Nice stock as cheap as you can do it. Others have other goals, but those are mine.

__________________
Jim Steele
Sweetpea Farms
"To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing." -- Robert Gates