Copper bolusing kid goats

Strange Bear · #1 02/01/12, 10:43 AM

What age is recommended for copper bolusing kid goats?

prairiedog · #2 02/01/12, 10:56 AM

You need to wait till they have a good rumen. I personally wouldn't bolus till they were around 4 to 5 months at the earliest. I would make sure they had access to a good loose mineral though from the beginning.

madness · #3 02/01/12, 11:44 AM

We did our kids for the first time last year - it was at 6 months. And yes, be sure to have loose mineral from the start.

Strange Bear · #4 02/01/12, 02:34 PM

Thanks

LoneStrChic23 · #5 02/01/12, 05:42 PM

We got a malnurished lil buck last year at 8 weeks old. He had the burnt hair tips, fish tail & everything. Sad looking kid. For 2 weeks before we picked him up he was off milk (unless he was quick to steal some from a random doe-he was an orphan) & eating grain, hay & chewing his cud.

After 2 weeks of intense work (had to pull him back from coccidia overload, teach him the bottle & clear up a bout of puemonia) we decided to try bolusing him at 10 weeks old.

2 weeks later, he was already showing improvement in his coat.

I went ahead & bolused the other bottle kids between 12-14 weeks old (I don't wean until 16 weeks) and liked the results so I will do the same with the next kid crop too. Like mentioned before, they have to be ruminating well before the bolus can be of any use.

southerngurl · #6 02/01/12, 05:51 PM

I do mine at 3 months.

KimM · #7 02/02/12, 09:44 PM

I usually copper my kids at 8 weeks - a pinch in some probios paste. They get a partial small bolus at 16 weeks. I have had to copper a baby at 2 or 3 weeks old, she had clear signs of deficiency and did bloom afterwards. They don't need to be ruminating to reap the benefits of copper as the particals will be absorbed as they slowly dissolve.