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12/21/08, 09:47 AM
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: South Dakota
Posts: 24,108
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Should I?... or shouldn't I
Ok..enough of this weather  We were staying ahead of the game until this morning. I don't know how cold it got last night...maybe 7 below. We have been in a "blizzard warning" for the last 48 hours. This morning when I went out Gretta was shivering. The temp was at 0 degrees in the barn. She and Frankie & Flossie were in their hut, which is insulated and full of discarded hay. They came out to eat some alfalfa pellets that I gave to them and that's when I noticed Gretta looked stressed and was shivering. So I immediately did what I do best (freak out) and had my dh start up this big old heat blower. This heater is really mostly a waste in a big, uninsulated metal barn with an open door for the horses to come in and out. We got everything settled with hay/water/cleaning and the goats went back in their hut. I gave them some alfalfa hay to munch on in there and they have access to all the grass hay they want. We shut the horses in. The temp in the barn got up to 10. We shut the heater off. Gretta looked better and stopped shivering.
But I'm scared for tonight...they are forecasting 17 below...which around here means more like 20-25 below. That is without the windchill..but everyone is out of the wind. I do have a shed that is heated and insulated that I could move the goats to...that's where they were last winter because the babies were just born. I keep the temp in there at 30-33 degrees for the cats. I don't know if I should do that or not...I don't want them in there for the rest of the winter and know it's unhealthy to jag them around with temperature...any thoughts/opinions would be appreciated 
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12/21/08, 09:54 AM
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More dharma, less drama.
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Texas Coastal Bend/S. Missouri
Posts: 30,482
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I'm in South Texas, where it was 80 yesterday and will be freezing tomorrow. I know nothing about your incredible winters, BUT...... I'd move them. Seventeen below is amazing. How can ANYTHING live?
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Alice
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12/21/08, 10:23 AM
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Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: WI
Posts: 4,277
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With weather that cold, I'd put them in the warmer shed.
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Marvelous Madame
Be kind to others. You do not know what burdens they are carrying.
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12/21/08, 10:58 AM
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Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: near the ND/SD border
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We have also been dealing with the same bitterly cold weather. It got down to -26 a couple of nights ago. What I do when it is this cold is to make sure that you that everyone is bedded heavy with straw. I mean like at least 18 inches. That way - the goats can kind of burrow in and make a warm spot for themselves. Even if you have an opening to the shelter for the horses - is there anyway you could put up a tarp to cover part of it so you could block some of the wind coming in? I have also put insulated coats on my does when it is so cold. I don't know if that helps - but it makes me feel better. The goats are usually okay even in really cold temps as long as they can get out of the wind and are dry. I am really hoping for everyone's sake that it warms up soon. (it is -14 without the wind chill here right now!)
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12/21/08, 11:13 AM
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: South Dakota
Posts: 24,108
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Quote:
Originally Posted by northprairiegir
We have also been dealing with the same bitterly cold weather. It got down to -26 a couple of nights ago. What I do when it is this cold is to make sure that you that everyone is bedded heavy with straw. I mean like at least 18 inches. That way - the goats can kind of burrow in and make a warm spot for themselves. Even if you have an opening to the shelter for the horses - is there anyway you could put up a tarp to cover part of it so you could block some of the wind coming in? I have also put insulated coats on my does when it is so cold. I don't know if that helps - but it makes me feel better. The goats are usually okay even in really cold temps as long as they can get out of the wind and are dry. I am really hoping for everyone's sake that it warms up soon. (it is -14 without the wind chill here right now!)
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They have about a foot of bedding...I'll add more. The opening to the barn has those plastic strip "curtains" to help block the wind...it's the size of a regular door. It's "supposed" to start getting a little warmer tomorrow...I'm just really worried about tonight. One minute I'm thinking just move them into the heated shed...the next minute I'm thinking...they'll be fine. UGH! I know I'm going to move them...I might as well get it over with and be done with it. 
eta...right now I have the little door to the barn completely closed with the horses locked inside...
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12/21/08, 11:25 AM
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Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Oklahoma
Posts: 672
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Hay for bedding has almost no heat value. Straw is far more insulating. Use it instead and they will do fine.
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12/21/08, 11:29 AM
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: South Dakota
Posts: 24,108
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ack!!! I don't have any straw. And I'm trapped. I didn't know that! 
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12/21/08, 11:30 AM
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: South Dakota
Posts: 24,108
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How about if I add shavings to the hay then....I have a ton of that
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12/21/08, 11:52 AM
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ocala, FL
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When all else fails, CLOTHES! I had to put a sweat shirt on my Coffee last winter with a vest on over it to stop her shivering. Poke holes around the "waist", and thread a length of baling twine through as a "belt" and tie with a bow on her back.
It got her through the night!
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12/21/08, 11:53 AM
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ocala, FL
Posts: 3,540
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oh, also, you could hang a brooder lamp over their area for "basking" if you have electric to the shed.....
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...'o shame on the mothers of mortals, who have not stopped to teach; of the sorrow that lies in dear, dumb eyes; the sorrow that has no speech... from -'Voice of the Voicless', Ella Wheeler Wilcox
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12/21/08, 12:53 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: South Dakota
Posts: 24,108
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jordan
Your goats are acclimated and if you start moving them in and out of heated (or warmer) buildings, you could actually cause problems. Give them extra hay, bring out some hot water and close their building up.
We're at sub-zero's too (about -15 when I went out this morning) and my goats were shivering a little but stopped after eating their breakfast. I'm going to lay some straw down on top of their pallets in their shed this afternoon and lock the doors tonight.
I hang rugs over their doors and it blocks more of the wind than strips will.
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I don't want to mess up their acclimation...that's why I'm trying to use restraint. I got the other shed set up for them and that caused a "tif" between me and dh...I don't have any straw. Just hay and shavings...
How bad is it if a goat is shivering. She is totally fine now. But that shiver this morning upset me.
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12/21/08, 12:58 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: South Dakota
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But really...is it messing with their acclimation if I keep the temp in the shed at 30 degrees...that is still below freezing.
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12/21/08, 01:29 PM
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I agree with Jordan. Sometimes my buck shivers. I worry about him a little bit because he has no-one to share body heat with. But he is always fine. I take warm water out 1x a day to warm them up and get them hydrated. Just give them extra hay to eat, it ferments in their gut and creates heat. If you have more than one goat they will snuggle up together and keep warm. Only ones I worry about are babies. They haven't built up the tolerance (or wooly coats) yet.
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12/21/08, 01:46 PM
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 599
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Minelson
But really...is it messing with their acclimation if I keep the temp in the shed at 30 degrees...that is still below freezing.
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Keep in mind that the 30 degree shed is 45 degrees + warmer than outside! So yes, that will mess them up! If your goat has stopped shivering, stop worrying. Lay down whatever you have available and call it good. The old hay and shavings will work fine.
Keep the hay and hot water coming, close their door during the night and they should be just fine.
Lois
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12/21/08, 02:01 PM
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Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Montana
Posts: 2,133
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It got down to -25 last night and my goats got through it just fine. They cuddle up with each other to share body warmth. I make sure they have plenty of hay and feed extra alfalfa pellets to keep their rumens full. I never have put healthy adult goats in a heated area in winter. I also do not close their sleeping quarters off too much. If they don't get enough air circulation, ammonia can build up and cause pneumonia faster than the cold can.
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12/21/08, 03:17 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 4,377
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Its wicked out here. Everyone is out in a three sided shelter with a car canopy butted up to it.
So long as they are dry they should be ok. A layer of hay over the shavings will be fine too.
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Laughing Stock Boer Goats
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and the meat goes on....
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12/21/08, 03:39 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Alaska
Posts: 3,606
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Most healthy goats can do fine if they are dry and out of the wind. When the weather drops to subzero temps., lots of hay, lots of lofty bedding like straw, a warm buddy to cuddle, and even a warm drink of water helps supplement. Sometimes a caged heat lamp is in order, sometimes a goat coat. I prefer not to bring a goat in unless it's ill, just for the concerns you mentioned.
All this said, if Gretta is shivering, she is telling you she is already having trouble. Keep an eye on her and if she starts to shiver again or looks stressed or loses weight or shows any other negative change, I'd move her. Yes, even moving to a 30F-degree room can mess with her, so go easy when you move her back outside.
Is there a way you can make a smaller area within their hut that might build and trap heat better (like a large "Dogloo")? Or is their hut already really small (with a low ceiling)?
We've been below zero for most of the last couple of weeks. This AM it has fluctuated between 0.5F (above) to -7F (below). The goats are all toasty, though, even without straw, at about 20F above the outdoor ambient temperature. The barn is uninsulated but the main walls are 2" x 6" so it's a bit better than just plywood. It's weird going in there and just feeling their body heat!
Last edited by hoofinitnorth; 12/21/08 at 03:41 PM.
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12/21/08, 04:44 PM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 5,662
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You've already got good advice on adding more bedding, keeping hay and hot water in front of them, and possibly putting coats on at least the one who was shivering. If it's any comfort. the only goats I've ever lost to the cold, even in Alaska at seventy below with wind chill making it closer to one hundred below, were a buck in rut (peeing on himself -- wet and extreme cold are not a good combination) and newborn kids that we put back out in the barn too soon. Should have kept them in until the extreme cold weather broke. (Probably would have had them in the house for a couple of months, though!)
Kathleen
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12/21/08, 06:37 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 4,377
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Minelson that last one got me to giggling too much.
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Laughing Stock Boer Goats
"Seriously Great Bloodlines"
and the meat goes on....
Near Seattle
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