So sad....

[ozark_jewels]

Look at this poor girl.

I was on craigslist posting an ad for Eric(I need to make room for new blood, and can't keep everyone!). When I got finished, I was browsing the site looking at goats for sale. Some ads are nice, healthy animals. Most look at least passable. This one makes me want to cry.

http://semo.craigslist.org/grd/2419668175.html

[LoneStrChic23]

They want $125??

Poor girl needs some groceries & a couple rounds of deworming.

[ozark_jewels]

That look is long-term starvation diet, thats what that is. I've seen the look before and brought goats out of it. But letting an animal get that way is inexcusable!

[Oat Bucket Farm]

That poor goat. I hope she goes to someone who will provide her with what she needs.

[Creamers]

I agree! How sad, and you know what REALLY BURNS ME UP - They write the ad like nothing is wrong.

[ozark_jewels]

I swear, there are some people that are just that blind. Not an excuse mind you.

These are some goats I went all the way to Memphis to get years ago, based on photos I was sent and their pedigrees. Turned out the photos had been taken a long time before......







Mind you, this is when I knew very little about goats, but I knew enough about livestock to know they were starving. The following pics were taken a few short months later after just feeding them good hay and a grain ration daily. I didn't even know to worm them at the time. I am NOT posting these pics to get a pat on the back, rather to show that when I knew next to nothing about goats, just feeding them, got them to looking 100% better. Many times the animal is not sick, just underfed. Thats what angers me, its just lack of basic care that usually leads to these suffering animals.





So....its not as if its that hard. Just feeding an animal adequate amounts isn't rocket science. I wonder why some people just can't see that something is not right?

[NataliaTwoDoes]

could it be johnes disease?

[southerngurl]

I have had a couple of my does look real skinny despite real good care. So not every goat that's thin is underfed or needs wormed. Toggy, her first freshening just milked off her fat very fast. She is a bit too lean right now in her third freshening despite having a big ole rumen full all the time and getting very high quality oats and BOSS. She just puts it in her udder. Not as bad as above though mind you. But she's just a small goat that milks a lot. Last year Penny got real thin too from Liver flukes while trying to milk over a gallon a day (also a small doe, 120 lbs soaking wet). Once they get thin, it takes time to get it back on especially if they are in milk! In some cases they need to be dried up.

[thaiblue12]

There are two more in the back right side of the second picture that look just like her, so I bet Emily is right and this is long term starvation/mistreatment.
That is just sad.

[ozark_jewels]

I agree thin goats happen. Some milk it all off, others are wormy. There is no shame in having a thin goat that you are working on building up.
But this isn't just thin. That sucked in look around every bone? That is long term starvation. And yes, the goats behind her in the one pic are very thin too.
And I do apologize, I probably shouldn't have posted someone elses ad and critiqued their goat. It was late, I was mad. I do apologize.

[wolffeathers]

I think it's unfortunate because we see it all the time around here. The majority of the time, people believe that since people buy "scrub" or "brush" goats all the time, that any ol' goat can live off of any ol' green. For many people feeding their goat grain or acual goat feed or even alfalfa hay is a foreign concept.

After all, don't ya know that goats eat anything and stay fat on tin cans?

[Backfourty,MI.]

That's so sad! She looks just pitiful& I can't beleive they don't think anything is wrong!
Wish I were closer, I'd probly take her just so they didn't have her. Sure hope a nice family buys her & takes good care of her.

[julieq]

That's so sad. We see goats around her on tethers eating weeds, usually with a water bucket nearby that's been turned over. People seem to feed their cattle well, but the poor goats are on their own.

[oldmcdonaldsfarm]

I saw that on Craigslist too and had the same reaction. It doesn't help when the local "goat" vet tells everyone that dairy goats just need grass and a little hay in the winter and that CAE is just a regional thing!!

[madness]

Yeah, our Shelli is a "super model". When she is milking she is THIN. But you can never see her ribs like that.

[Lada]

The ribs is what would bother me too. I swear, sometimes I go down to milk my Nubian and I look at her and I KNOW she's eating 4 pounds of good dairy pellet a day, free choice alfalfa pellets, grass hay AND loads of browse and she looks like heck. But usually it's the back end that I notice, around the hip bones. You can't see her ribs.

[LoneStrChic23]

I have one of those simply underfed babies...

Bleuberry- 14 months old, never bred. This is her 3 days after I brought her home:




Can't really see it on the pics but her spine was sticking up like a mountain range

Less than ONE MONTH later, with nothing more than regular feeding... Breeder gave her a heavy dose of Ivermectin paste when I went out there so I didn't even worm her.





I'm forgiving of a thin milking girl, but lack of feed is not forgivable. I understand many don't have good goat vets... I don't! But in this age of free info online & libraries, a lack of good goat vets isn't an excuse....Anyone can find proper care info if they are motivated to do so.

[BethW]

You know, things like this make me so angry and upset that I can't even click that link.

Our idiot neighbors went out and bought a goat for their DH for Christmas (I imagine after seeing our goaties across the road). That poor baby is chained to a doghouse at the edge of their woods, alone. The neighbor next to them has had to go over several times when the goat has gotten wrapped around a tree, unable to get to water on a hot day.

I can't see the goat from our place, but the whole thing makes me boiling mad. They would've been welcome to come over and visit ours.

I keep trying to catch them when they're outside. Offer my help and services since they're goat newbies and all. I doubt they'll take me up on it.

[mygoat]

The doe pictured in the ad is shameful. How can they look at that doe every day and not think anything is wrong?

As for Blueberry, she doesn't look bad right after you bought her. She just looks like a dairy type doe whose belly is empty probably because she's so new she isn't eating yet. Some of my goats look like that when it's too hot or too rainy to go out to the hay feeders for long.

[LoneStrChic23]

Originally Posted by mygoat

The doe pictured in the ad is shameful. How can they look at that doe every day and not think anything is wrong?

As for Blueberry, she doesn't look bad right after you bought her. She just looks like a dairy type doe whose belly is empty probably because she's so new she isn't eating yet. Some of my goats look like that when it's too hot or too rainy to go out to the hay feeders for long.

No...Bleu was in bad shape, the pics just don't show how bad. I could feel every knob on her spine, my kids asked why her "butt bones" were so pointy....she was skeletal....there was not a bone that wasn't sharply protruding.

Those pics were 3 days after almost nonstop eating at the alfalfa pellet feeder & hay rack....she was even gobbling hay at night when the others were resting. The entire ride home she was chowing down on coastal hay......Her first day she looked way worse, but looked better by day 2 after water & hay.

In Bleu's case, the owner said she was low on the totem pole so didn't get much to eat (she's low man here to, but I separate her for a bit of grain & keep two alfalfa pellet & hay feeders out so everyone gets enough...Doesn't seem like much effort).... top it off she had an untreated eye injury & the kid who came home with her needed emergency vet care, was malnurished, severely dehydrated & had puemonia...So, in Bleu's case it was senseless neglect & lack of food, and sadly she wasn't the only one... If she hadn't walked up to me & wrapped her head around my neck, I would have left her, but she pulled the ultimate guilt trip & I couldn't leave her there.