I am getting ready to give up on my adult doe!

[deafgoatlady]

Let me try my best to explain. I have tried everything and spend a lot of money on her and call the vet a lot.

She WONT gain weight! I dont get it. After she had her babies I didnt milk her and I dried her up so she can gain weight. It didnt work either! The vet came and took blood work and others test for Johnne's. It is NEGATIVE. He took the fresh stool. He said NO worms and it is clean.

For about 3 years I have use beet pulps (not sure if it is spelled right) added. It dont help. I have use BOSS for YEARS. Dont help. She have free choice of loose mineral (sweetlix).. She is in the pasture eating the grass. We have so much grass and weeds up there (dont know if it will help her). I feed her grain once a day.


I am starting to wondering if she needs copper or zinc?? I cant figure out. I cannot afford the vet becuz I still owe him 400 dollars becuz of her. Way over my limited.

What else should I try or let her go?? I gave up. I tried and tried. She is thin or skinny. (UGH). Please help me with this and put thing into and try figure out..

[Minelson]

How skinny is she? Is she sickly, weak? Maybe she is just like some people I know...eat like a horse and not gain a pound. Fast metabolism.

[deafgoatlady]

She dont act like sick. She is like running around and eating like CRAZY. I mean eat and eat and eat. I am just embarrsed what she looks like to people. It bothers me a lot.I want her to be thicken up. That is why I am soo frustrated.

[GoldenWood Farm]

She MIGHT be copper deficiant (sp). I can't spell well today as you can tell. Is there anything she could be missing in her diet? Maybe not helping her absorb her food correct? What are you feeding her exactly and how much of each?

My mom has a VERY hard to keep doe also and she takes some TLC to keep even a margin of weight on her skinny body. Is your doe sickly or dull eyed? Or is she skinny but bright eyed with a healthy shiny coat?

Justine

[GoldenWood Farm]

Ps: Some does just don't keep weight on. I have a LM doe who just no matter WHAT I do she stays skinny. Not horrible but she doesn't carry any extra padding anywhere I can tell you that. She too eats and eats but is a very active doe. She is just a lean mean machine (well not mean but lean) LOL. That is just the way she is and it doesn't bother me much anymore like it used to.

Justine

[deafgoatlady]

Well. She is like alert. Not like sick like not moving very well. Becuz I know her very very well. I had her for 6 years. If she is sick and she wont move and she will stand in the corner. That is her. But she is like running and stuff. Her coat is not that great. some hair fall off. I dont know why. It never happen to me before. The vet said that there is nothing in there just looks like her hair just rub off no lice and mange. I dont get it..

[susanne]

she might had coccidiosis as a kid and the lining of her intestine is damaged. goats with a history with cocci, are not able to utilize nutrition. they always will be smaller, thinner and looking scruffy.
on a side note, a negative blood test on johne's doesn't mean very much. fecal sample send in at the same time, needs to be cultured for two or even three month to get an accurate result. internal cl abscess also can lead to malnourished animals.

[jBlaze]

I would think either copper edfiency or previous cocci damage. Try the copper bolusing and see. Even if you only give her a low dose, you may see an improvement. (I say low, as some folks areafraid of giving copper for fear of over-dosing, so give at least partial??) I have not done the copper, I hav ordered andrecieved it, but not had time yet. Let us know how it goes. Hope she fattens up!

[deafgoatlady]

She is not small doe. She is avg size doe. I got her when she was a year old. The vet did colllect the stool and the bloodwork for johness and for worms too. It is all negative. Yes we are going to test her again in couple months after i finished pay the debt to the vet. I have no idea if she did have coccidia before I brought her from the lady 6 years ago.

I notice that everytime she gets pregnant and she gains so well then after she kids and she LOOKS BBBAADD! But she always full alert and running around and eating like a horse and happy and didnt get sick.

I was thinking about try to give her some copper. Have been wondering about that. I guess it wont hurt to do it. I will try that and see how it goes..

About her coat. It is shiny actually but it is flaky really badly and some area dont have hair. It is weird. The vet said he dont see anything in there that caused her have flaky. I did give her some aloe vera and it dont help that much. SO I am going to try that copper issues... I remember someone told me that zinc might help also. Dont know..

[Alice In TX/MO]

I am going to be in your area in a couple of weeks. If you want me to bring a copper bolus and the drench gun to give it to her, we could try that.

Let me know if you want to try that. I'll let you know when we get the VA appointment set and will be coming that way.

[Naturaldane]

I have old horses and rice bran keeps them in weight better than beet pulp

[Sweet Goats]

Well I was thinking the same as a few others. If you got her when she was a year old, I would bet she had a bad case off Cocci and it has damaged her intestines and she just can not absorb all the nutrients that she really needs.

I also was thinking Johnies (sp) Yes they can have it for 5 years before they ever show signs or test positive. I have a good friend that had two goats die and they did Necropsy on them and they tested positive for it. They have been put on lock down and no goat can leave their property unless they are going to the butcher. They have been on lock down and they tested all the goats. No others were positive. Great so they thought. Then almost a year later another one dropped dead. He tested Positive then, but Negative a year before.

My opinion (and that is all it is), I would get that girl have at least a year to try to recoup her weight before you breed her again. Maybe giving her a little time for herself will help.

I hope you get to the bottom of this. You sure have had a rough time this last year.

[deafgoatlady]

Well She is not going to be bred NO MORE. I am done with her having babies. Becuz it just she always have trouble having babies. And She makes LARGE babies every year. So No more for her. And she is happy in the BIG pasture and eating all those grass and weeds..