does she need copper?

Cattle mineral WITH copper bolus here, too.

I am still waiting to find this rampant copper toxicity that keeps getting brought up...

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The problem is the quality of the mineral. If it is a goat mineral of high quality, it WILL have enough copper for any goat.

I haven't seen any posts of "rampant" copper toxicity. But, if you do the research you will see that too much copper is just as bad as not enough.

Copper sulfate (as in loose mineral) is NOT the same as Copper-oxide (as in copper wire particles). Copper sulfate is the culprit in toxicity.

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We use Purina Goat mineral (1,750.00 ppm its the highest we can find here) and I still have to copper about every 6 months.

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A good quality mineral, whether cattle or goat will use copper-oxide NOT copper-sulfate.

Copper-oxide AND copper sulfate can both cause toxicity.

I know I sound like I am completely against copper supplementing. I"M NOT. It is needed at times. But every time I read a posting about it, the majority of people will write "I heard, "I read", "Someone said".... They don't konw for sure. They are grasping at straws to save money.

My point is this: If you have an animal that has a problem and you don't know what it is, you should always find out BEFORE you try to treat the problem. If you suspect copper deficiency have your animals tested. Then you'll know for certain. Just because an area has a deficiencies in the soil, does NOT always translate to a deficiency in the animal. If you are graining and giving a GOOD quality mineral labeled for your animal, the problem will usually be mute.

The problem I have is when people start making assumptions and dosing for things not verified, it is just as irresponsible as letting the animal starve. If you can't afford to have the tests done, learn to do them. If you not, then you can't afford to keep that animal and have no business trying to.

Learning to do fecals is very simple and once you've bought the microscope, it costs nothing to do your fecals.

I would like to see more people actually test their animals before they start dosing for things they haven't researched but do because someone "said...."

Get responsible and do the right thing by your animal.

The majority of problems I've seen people address on here as copper related look and sound more like parasitic problems than anything else.

Some interesting points. I have been researching and am aware that it could either be parasite OR copper related. I've also read some old posts on HT from respectable/experienced people that copper bolus can also help with worming out the barber pole worms. Either way, her coat is fading in spots, she has a pale circle in her coat around her eyes and her coat looking like it needs to shed but hasn't is also a symptom of copper deficiency according to yet another reputable goat raising site.

As for her mineral, it is min 1350ppm and she has only been on it for a couple of weeks and I'm not sure if she was given any mineral before we bought her. Her inner eye looks a bit light pink to me, so I am going to go ahead and worm her. In my opinion, I am getting responsible and doing the right thing by my animal. I'm recognizing a potential issue and taking steps to help her within the means of my resources. I'm educating myself through reputable sites and experienced goat owners here. At the end of the day, I'd like to think we're all doing the best we can.