First copper bolus experience

[Nancy_in_GA]

After reading many many articles and testimonials, I decided to try copper bolusing *some* of our goats yesterday.

We have 6 Saanens from two different farms, one is black and brown (either a sable or a black goat slipped in somewhere among her ancestors). Rough coats, hair falling out too easily, and the black one's hair is curling and turning brown on her thighs. This just started this year, and I'm guessing it's because they've eaten most of the deep rooted browse down and are mostly on shallow root stuff now. In addition we have very high iron content in our water, so I decided to take the plunge.

OTOH our nubians look great, our black one is sleek and shiny, no discoloration at all. This is the only reason I'm skeptical. If it's copper, then could the breed make that much of a difference? So I only did the Saanen's yesterday. If it doesn't kill them after a month or so, I'll consider doing the others.

All I did was open a 12.5g Copasure capsule, dump out about 1/3 of the rods, put them back together, and stick them in the bolus gun with some peanut butter. The gun ($1.29 plastic one from Jeffers) was so long I couldn't reach to the end of it and control it and hold the goat's head at the same time. So I positioned the end of the gun and had a trigger-puller/post-op cookie-giver helper (my mother). Some of them are probably going to have sore throats today because I just meant that they weren't going to spit them up.

They are still alive this morning. I guess the old hair will have to fall out and new hair grow back to replace it before you'd see any differences, if that's the problem, right?

Since this seems to be a hot topic, I just thought I'd add my experience.

[LomahAcres]

YAY! It gets easier with practice.

Hair loss generally takes 4 weeks to show a difference. You could also try supplementing with BOSS if they aren't getting it already? The oils do wonders for skin and hair conditions.

[Nancy_in_GA]

Originally Posted by LomahAcres

YAY! It gets easier with practice.

Thanks LomahAcres! I needed that. Still a bit scared about doing this with no guarantees that that's what's really wrong.

[Cannon_Farms]

the 00 capsules are the best in my opinion, I fill two of them on average for the large goats and they fit nicely into a horse wormier tube and i can give them everything at once.

[Cannon_Farms]

Im still waiting on the paper that says there was a study done that you cant overdose goats with copper, it was a study done by vet students dunno how true or how long the test where run

[Levonsa]

We bolused most of our Nigerians for the first time about 7 or 8 weeks ago. I am amazed at the change in their coat and color. I am a believer now.

[CaliannG]

I did all of mine a week ago. I saw almost an immediate increase in production in my one freshened doe.

However, another big thing I have notice is a HUGE increase in skin flakes when I am brushing them. This alarmed me at first, until I dug into their coats and saw old, dry, kinda of thick stuff flaking off, with healthy, nice looking skin underneath where I had brushed the flakes out.

I've been feeding BOSS for quite a while now, but there is a HUGE difference in their skin and coats since bolusing that the BOSS cannot account for.

[Oat Bucket Farm]

We bolus and it makes a huge difference. One of our does was in pretty bad shape when we got her. She started gaining weight quickly but was a very washed out dirty cream color. We bolused her and after about three weeks started seeing a difference in her coat. Her fish tail is almost gone and she has become a kind of reddish tan color and surprise surprise she has a large white spot on side which you could kind of see before but its much more visable now and the other side has a narrow white spot that we didn't know was there at all.

When she arrived



Five weeks later



Its been a couple of weeks since the last photo and she is darker.

Here,I found a newer pic of her. Not the best pic but it does show her darker color

[Nancy_in_GA]

Originally Posted by CaliannG

...However, another big thing I have notice is a HUGE increase in skin flakes when I am brushing them. This alarmed me at first, until I dug into their coats and saw old, dry, kinda of thick stuff flaking off, with healthy, nice looking skin underneath where I had brushed the flakes out.

Thanks for the tip Caliann and the info Levonsa. I'll look at their skin. Sure would like a quicker sign than hair, I guess. (worry wart here)

Just remembered two more things: (1) Our black nubian is still primarily a tree browser. He is tall and always stands up on his hind legs to get tree leaves. Our worst looking nubian (although not bad) is primarily a grass eater. (2) Last winter we used 100% locally grown hay. The previous year we had to supplement with some shipped in from the midwest. (Good stuff)

[Nancy_in_GA]

Thanks for those pictures, Oak Bucket. We were posting at the same time and so I never saw them until now. That's amazing.

I see now why folks claim the copper bolus shows overnight results. My worst looking goat, 3 days after treatment: Brushed him looking for dandruff and tons of old wiry hair and flakes started falling out. What was left was only the decent looking (but old) hair. So maybe it tweaks the hair follicles which makes the damaged hair fall out quickly?

I just wish I had brushed him last week to be absolutely sure. But, here's the kicker. None of the other goats are reacting the same way, although they didn't look so bad to begin with. Wondering if copper deficiency could be an idividual goat problem, as well as breed?

[KareninPA]

I dosed my doe for the first time a couple of weeks before she kidded. She was scruffy and the hair color on her rear was definitely turning reddish, from black. About a week after kidding, her hair was thinning so much I could see skin all over. I was almost panicking until one day I noticed her becoming sleek, black and shiny. She was just replacing her old coat with a beautiful new one! She's gorgeous now! I am sure it's the copper.