Lost two goats yesterday!!!Advice needed!

[landmoswalt]

We have lost two of out newest baby goats. yesterday we cleaned the pasture, trimmed trees and brush so no predetors could get our animals. When we finished around 2:00 we went to the yard and planted more of our garden still outside close to the goats. Well at 5:00 when we were getting ready for milking and feeding the animals we discoved that the new nubian doeling about a month old and our new 1 week old boer/pygmy cross buck was gone. Totally gone!! We have two GP puppies that are 6 months old and they have kept the foxes out of the chicken house but what could have happened to my goats??? Lucy our female LGD keeps right with the goats at all times. She actually walks with the younger goats when they head to the pasture. Bruce the male stays back further watching from afar. What could have happened?? Lori

[Alice In TX/MO]

I bet they are nested down somewhere.

[fishhead]

I would think they wandered off and try searching for them. It helps to bawl like a goat and listen for them to answer. One of my little ones climbed over the fence. I walked down the road and bawled. He was standing in the brush not too far from my house and answered me quietly.

[fishhead]

I would think they wandered off and try searching for them. It helps to bawl like a goat and listen for them to answer. One of my little ones climbed over the fence. I walked down the road and bawled. He was standing in the brush not too far from my house and answered me quietly.

It would also help to take a dog with if you can.

The've got to be getting hungry by now.

[A'sta at Hofstead]

Oh no! I would be frantic, go look!

[cjb]

Bring the Mama or another vocal goat on a leash and go look for them. Their instinct will be to lie down quietly so the bawling of another goat will get them to answer.

[boermommy]

After a two day search, two years ago, I found one bedded down in the middle of the biggest pile of thorn bushes in my pasture.

I would bet money they are somewhere asleep. There is a pretty good chance that mom knows where the baby is....follow her around.

[homebirtha]

Ours will hide sometimes and scare the crap out of me. Usually, they find some little hidey-hole and fall asleep in there. Are they still on their moms or are they bottle-fed? If they're on mom, see if you can get her to "call" them.

I would think if a predator had gotten them, there would be signs.

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

There was a massive search for a pregnant yearling saanen a couple of years ago that was snatched off her property, just dissappeared, she was tattooed and we knew she would show up somewhere, everyone on the west coast looked at local auctions and on any ads running in their local papers for saanens for sale. Nothing was found....until the spring thaw, the barn was cleaned and under a round bale that had tipped over was the body of the doe.

Only humans and large predators can take a kid with no signs, local dogs or your dogs, there would be signs, I would also go out and look for the kids under your new brush piles. Vicki

[LittleRedHen]

I once thought I lost a month old buckling.. i searched for hours and found him behind a tree, where i walked past it a good 2 dozen times but it stayed quiet and it never made a sound til mama was ready to find him

[Filas are Prima]

Did you ask the dog where the kids went?
Does the dog keep going over where and checking?
Is the dog's behavior the same now, as before the kids vanished?
Ask the dog what happened.

[ladybug]

How scary I hope that they turn up safe and sound soon!

[DocM]

I think I lost 4 or 5 kids today alone. They just hunker down in places you'd never consider and sleep for hours. Your kids will show up.

[Jillis]

Did you find your babies?

[Kazahleenah]

Originally Posted by Jillis

Did you find your babies?

inquiring minds want to know......

[cmharris6002]

I'm sure she'll update as soon as she has time. I talked to her last night. The little Boer cross was found on the highway behind their place by a neighbor and put back in the fence. They went over the fence very well and could not find an escape hole.

So someone could have taken him and he might have squirmed out of their arms. Or, if he and the Nubian doe got out somewhere perhaps there is still a chance she'll be found along the fence line. I hope...

[landmoswalt]

My son got home from school yesterday and the boer cross was with his mother nursing. After asking around the neighbor behind us across the highway saw him laying in the tall grass behind the fence. Well another neighbor had seen a pack of cyotes and shot at them and they think they dropped him there and maybe ran off with the nubian. So now my goats will not be able to go to the back pasture for awhile since there is a pack roaming around. Just have to love the country life it gets harder every time something like this happens. Foxes kept getting my chickens so I did get the LGD and they have done well with them. I did notice last night the dogs both slept with the goats so they knew something wrong happened. They both stay really close to the baby also.

[Jim S.]

I have seen a redtail hawk swoop down on my neighbor's pasture and carry off a young kid. There wasn't a thing we could do about it but watch it fly off. "There goes some of your cash," I said as we watched.

The same neighbor had kids come up just missing. We finally found the place in the back fence where something was pulling them through. There was hair pulled off and hanging in that fence box. We believe it was a bobcat that killed them inside the pasture, then pulled them through the fence. But your LGD should be preventing that. He didn't have one at the time.

Could be a hole in the fence, too. Once kids get out, they can have a hard time getting back in. They are very vulnerable to predation then, and outside the protection of the LGD.

I also like fishhead and Filas replies.

By now, the does have had plenty of time to yell for the kids. If they haven't rounded them up, you need to start checking fences for holes and/or hair where they could have been pulled through.

UNDER EDIT: I was writing as you posted. Good to know one is back. You need to check your fences and make repairs. I doubt the coyote dropped him. He probably just had the good sense to hide in the tall grass while the Nube probably ran, and they went after the motion. Good luck.

[lgslgs]

It's horrible to lose a kid. There's not much you can do about the sick to your stomach feeling that sets in when that happens.

I'm glad you've got one of them back home and sure hope you can find the one missing one.

Lynda

[HHR]

I am so sorry you still lost one. Glad to hear the pups are helping a little.