[QoTL]

I apologize in advance if this thread offends anyone, but I really feel that having knowledge before using it is WAY better than being ill-prepared in a bad situation.


Very recently I had to put down an animal myself. Not a goat.. something else. It had to be done, there was no time to wait for dh to get home. I have never had to do it before, and I was at a loss. I won't go into the details.. but needless to say, it was horribly hard on me (the animal was already comatose, and doubtful it felt anything). I have spent several days feeling awful about it, although I don't regret my decision.. only the necessity of it. It was not as quick as I would have wished.


So.. when it comes to my goats, in an emergency situation, what are my options? We do not keep a gun, although I suppose if my father was home I could have him come over. What is the fastest, most pain-free method available?

If this is a taboo subject here, I apologize, and I'm certainly not asking for any very detailed answers (spare me, please). I just want to know my options should this become necessary with my herd.

Meghan

 

[CookingPam777]

Well gun is always the best way. Besides that I am unsure. We have only had to shoot our cat because we thought it may have rabies then we found out it didn't and was just injured. It was wild and we tamed to a friendly kitten. I was heart broke after how hard I worked with it to get it friendly. Hope someone can be more helpful than I was.

 

[Alice In TX/MO]

No, not taboo. All of us face this issue if we have farm animals, or for that matter, pets.

First, huggs. I know it was hard.

As Pam said, a shot to the forehead or back of head is the best. Quick and painless. See Emily's sticky at the top of this forum on butchering. It has a description and a photo of how to do it.

If you have a comatose animal and no gun, I'd get the sharpest knife I had and slit the animals throat, just under the jaw. This is NOT easy. Skin and those tissues are TOUGH.

Third option is calling the vet.

None of them are emotionally without trauma.

 

[jill.costello]

I actually just had this talk with the gentleman who hunts the land we lease. I explained the exact scenario you were just describing, and asked him if I could count on him to shoot one of my goats if that was my only option some day. He said he'd be honored to save me the heartache, and to call anytime, day or night. Good neighbor!!

 

[Gailann Schrader]

I usually shoot them, but had to slit a throat when it was too dark and in too tight of quarters (would have spooked the other goats).

I wish I could get something I could give in a shot for them instead, but I know it's probably not available without a prescription...

 

[susanne]

i would use a very sharp knife as i'm not familiar with guns.
anybody, cut yourself with a very sharp instrument? you might remember that you did not feel the cut but saw you were injured because of the heavy bleeding. so, if the cut is done right, the animal will be unconscious in a couple of seconds because of the blood loss.

 

[beccachow]

I had a horror story with injectible euth and think I might be using the gun shot method in the future.

 

[steff bugielski]

I have strangled an unconscious goat. She was injured and down and to call the vet would have been expensive and taken too much time. I put a piece of rope around her neck high up to her jaw. I looped it on itself, put one foot on her neck, said I am sorry and started to pull. I could not have done this if she were conscious but she was not.

 

[fishhead]

Someone posted that they worked in a slaughter house and the goats neck was slit. He said they just got drowsy and laid down and drifted off with no thrashing. Like Susanne said a sharp knife doesn't hurt that much. The important thing would be to hit the artery and avoid unnecessary cutting.

 

[copperpennykids]

.22 pistol is very effective. They are not expensive, and you really ought to have one on the farm for just this purpose. When a goat is suffering, they really suffer. So quick and humane is the best way to go. I would hate to have to use a knife.

A .22 rifle is also just as effective and is a good tool to have on hand for coyotes or stray dogs.

 

[Otter]

If your knife is really sharp it is easy, if your knife isn't razor sharp, it is harder. You can get a surgical blade pretty cheap and it's a good idea to have one around
http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?PGGUID=30e0795e-7b6a-11d5-a192-00b0d0204ae5
If you can't make a cut, use the largest needle you can and begin as if you were drawing blood from the jugular, pull the plunger all the way out of the syringe so it's in two pieces and the blood can flow. The smell of blood might upset them, so you may want to put some vanilla on their noses. If you have an understanding vet, they can help you get special bags to bleed them into.

But in an emergency most of us have a needle and syringe in the barn.

 

[momagoat61]

First off I don't post very often but I read every post daily and have for at least a year and half and have learned so must from this forum that I apply something I have read almost daily in my managment of my 12 pets goats. I have had goats now for almost 15 years and my oldest is named Bubba and he's a wether and will be 15 May 6th of this coming year and Meghan when I read your post I just had to make a reply. I love everyone of my goats AKA my kids and yes over the years I have had to make some hard decisions as to when and how to end their suffering and let them go over the rainbow bridge where there's no sickness, pain and suffuring. I have called my vet several times to put down a couple of my goats when they were sick and had been sick for sometime but those were not comatose and were very aware of their surroundings and very awear of me. Then there have been a couple that were comatose and not aware of their surroundings what so ever, those are the one's I'm referring to while making this reply. Take a heavy duty trash bag and place it over their head, as your placing it over their head try to get as much of the air out of the bag as possible and take duct tape and wrap it three or four times around their neck making sure to draw the tape very tight and wrapping the duct tape over and over it's self. I then being in the barn and have hay bales I just lay a bale of hay over their head and they are gone in just seconds. Again I have done this only on my animals after they were unconscious and comatose and only showing very shallow breathing and making no movements what so ever. This is being offered as only an options in an emergency situation and its one's own decision as to weather to apply this method. Sandy

 

[Jotun]

I do not wish to start a pro/anti gun arguement here. That being said it is my opinion that if you keep livestock, as part of your chosen responsibility to keep your stock safe, you should have a gun and a lgd if at all possible. Coyotes arn't scared of people. They are scared of big dogs. Yes you have coyotes where you live.
On the issue of putting animals down a gun is a wonderful instrament but you really should know how to use it. If you shoot wrong you are very quickly going to realize that this is not the movies and they don't just drop and lay still all nice and clean like. Not every scenario will the animal be unconsious. An injured and scared animal will very likely not present itself nicely for the shot. Add to this that you will be worked up yourself and if you are not familier with your gun you may have a mess. I keep a very sharp knife for the sole purpose of sliting throats. I don't use it for anything else. If you shoot the animal and they go down it's still not a bad idea to slit it's throat. If you've ever seen an animal get back up after being shot you know why. They never get back up when you slit them. I strangled my pet once, it wasn't easy and I don't recommend it.
My condolences to anyone who has had to make this decision about someone they love.
Jotun

 

[sammyd]

I'd have to say a good sharp knife is great if you do not have or want to keep a gun around.
I would invest in a nice little .22 pistol though. Very handy for a lot of other problems as mentioned.

 

[Jotun]

Ok I just reread that and it's misleading. If you shoot an animal they will thrash. This doesn't mean you did it wrong. It doesn't mean the animal is conscious. This is a good time to slit their throat. I shot a deer reciently. After the shot I thaught I'd missed caus I didn't hear anything. When I checked the deer was laying flat out, stone still. I didn't trust this. I looked at him and didn't see any breathing or even a twitch of life and still didn't trust it. I shot again in the neck and the deer started kicking. I knew then that it was dead and went to get the truck. The first shot was in the jaw and knocked the deer unconscious and it may well have come too and got up. After the second shot he started kicking and I knew he was in his death throws.

 

[alidansma]

Just recently we had our first goat dinner. The goat was not a wild, meat goat. It was a young, friendly dairy wether.

No matter how much care you provide, there will come a day when you have to put an animal down. The vet can't always be there right away, and it ain't cheap to have them come by.

I have a gun, but I am just not comfortable enough with it.

I used a sharp butcher knife (read that right a butcher knife is not a chef's knife - it is pointy and sharp). I held the goats chin up with my left hand
Know where the goats jugular vein is, get the knife behind it with the blade facing forward high up on the throat, push straight across to the other side and pull it forward. If your knife is sharp this is very quick, and quiet. You will go through all the veins in the neck and the windpipe. The goat lost conciousness in seconds and only had a brief stiffening of the legs, no wild thrashing. I have processed a bunch of chickens and the goat was far easier. But there is a lot of blood. I would only be concerned if the goat was down because of disease, then you probably wouldn't want tainted blood on your property, I took care of this goat on a large piece of cardboard I guess you could use a tarp also.

I think my hands would be too shaky under extreme circumstances to get a needle right.
Hope that helps someone.

 

[Caprice Acres]

Someone said a shot to the forehead or back of the head is effective...

HOWEVER

Do NOT shoot a goat in the forehead. Always shoot them in the medulla (back of skull). A shot to the back of the head puts them down quick with reflexive movements... but a destroyed medulla means no bodily functions and no 'thinking' reactions. From them on out it's all spinal. Though it may be unsettling for people, they REALLY don't feel anything. I would do most livestock this way. Horses need to be shot a certain way, I'd have a vet tell you how that could be done or have someone who KNOWS horses teach you. I hear horror stories about people attempting to put down their horse and only wounding it...

 

[ShyAnne]

We have had to put critters down and always used a gun.
Sorry for your heartache.
Its never an easy thing to do even when necessary.

 

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

My hand gun if I have choice, like she isn't dieing in the barn with her friends which they always are. I don't waste meat here, so if a doe is dieing (we don't have alot of death here that isn't me choosing to put a doe down because she is older) than she is simply butchered. Obvioulsy not if she is being put down because of disease. I put down a doe this year where I didn't choose to use the meat because of an undiagonsed skin condition, but she was mobile and I could walk her out to the woods and as she bent her head down to eat the grain I threw down onto the ground I shot her with my handgun...and it's correct what was said above, you want to shoot them from the back of the head forward, not from the forehead back.

All livestock catalogs and your vet have disposable scalpels. Cutting the jugular quickly, not slitting the throat...of a goat down in the barn with her friends, will slowly make her loose consciousness and die, without her really knowing what was done, sitting with her and petting her they really do just go to sleep and die and it doesn't upset the rest of the herd.

Bucks are killed with a rifle shot through the head, I have had a very bad experience with a buck and a hand gun,.and like does, most bucks are butchered even into old age.

I slit the throat of kids now that they are used for dogfood, or if my husband is here he simply machete's off their head.

There is no wrong or right way, death is death. I do agree it's our responsiblity.

All women who own livestock and all women period should spend some of their kid sales money this spring, go to a shooting range, shoot a wide variety of hand guns, find one you love, an then go purchase it for yourself. Vicki

 

[beccachow]

I had stumbled across this website while searching for information about treating a sick goat. This site gives methods, pros and cons to each method, aesthetics of the method involved, skill levels required and even gives a precise placement for shooting sheep, horned sheep, goats, and so on. It also tells which methods are "unacceptable" (air embolism etc) in terms of fairness to the animal. Very useful resource for this topic.

http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/vetext/INF-AN/INF-AN_EMERGEUTH-SHEEPGOAT.HTML