Lessons Learned
I intend to post short articles here to share the experience I have gained raising Angora goats. I read a lot of books and websites with advice, but rarely do I find information that applies to my own herd. I don't know if my animals are particularly eccentric, or if all of the advice I have found is too general, but I will provide tidbits of information that I would really have appreciated when starting this enterprise. My first bit of advice is to relax. All of the books seem to emphasize all of the diseases and problems that could possibly occur, and this can make you very nervous about taking care of these marvelous animals. Actually, my experience is that they are very strong, self-sufficient and intelligent. I have had a lot tougher times keeping chickens healthy than goats.
Lesson #2. Medications
All goats need medications for internal and external parasites. They are born with them, and must pick more up from the environment, no matter how isolated they are. Initially, I tried to dose them organically, but it just didn't work for me. My goats would get external biting lice that never went away with herbal treatments. Ivermectin pour-on is approved for cattle and pigs, but I was advised to use it for goats, too. It really worked for the biting lice. However, unbeknownst to me, they were building up great levels of intestinal parasites. When one of them became sick and weak, I took him to the best goat vets I know--those at Caine Veterinary Teaching Hospital in Caldwell, Idaho. Lo and behold, he was just full of worms. The vet told me that the pour-on Ivermectin is specifically formulated for the hair follicle of cattle, not that of goats. I needed to use twice the amount on the label for it to work on goats. Also, he was very dubious about the pour-on working for intestinal parasites at all.
Now, what I use is an injectible Ivermectin, given orally, for intestinal parasites. That also needs to be used at double the indicated dosage. I use a syringe to pull up the correct dosage, then take the needle off of the syringe, poke the syringe into the goat's jaw at the hinge of his jaw, and shoot it down his throat. That works great for me, but I alternate it some years with Cydectin so they don't build up a tolerance.
I still use Ivermectin pour-on for external biting lice and that works great. I treat my goats four times a year, because that is about how often they need their hooves trimmed. I trim hooves, trim urine-stained hair away so their skin doesn't get chapped, and treat them all with both pour-on Ivermectin, and the injectible form given orally.
I learned the hard way, because it is so hard to realize you weren't taking good care of your animals. Do you know just one intestinal parasite can suck out 5 milliliters of blood per day? No wonder they get weak and sickly. And it is just gross to imagine. And, no, neither lice nor intestinal parasites can infest humans from goats--not the same species.
Now, what I use is an injectible Ivermectin, given orally, for intestinal parasites. That also needs to be used at double the indicated dosage. I use a syringe to pull up the correct dosage, then take the needle off of the syringe, poke the syringe into the goat's jaw at the hinge of his jaw, and shoot it down his throat. That works great for me, but I alternate it some years with Cydectin so they don't build up a tolerance.
I still use Ivermectin pour-on for external biting lice and that works great. I treat my goats four times a year, because that is about how often they need their hooves trimmed. I trim hooves, trim urine-stained hair away so their skin doesn't get chapped, and treat them all with both pour-on Ivermectin, and the injectible form given orally.
I learned the hard way, because it is so hard to realize you weren't taking good care of your animals. Do you know just one intestinal parasite can suck out 5 milliliters of blood per day? No wonder they get weak and sickly. And it is just gross to imagine. And, no, neither lice nor intestinal parasites can infest humans from goats--not the same species.
Lesson #1. Fences for Angora Goats
I grew up in the small town of Emmett, Idaho, but I did not have any farming experience or background when I started keeping Angora Goats over eleven years ago in the Spring of 2000. I have often wished that I knew the information other country folks seem to possess by the sheer osmosis of hanging around other country folks. The biggest item of wisdom is that other farm owners already know what kind of fence to install for the type of animal they are keeping. But I had No Idea how hard goats were to keep fenced. No matter how clean, tempting and comfortable I kept their pasture and barn, they still try to get out constantly for no reason. The first couple of years I kept them, the goats kept embarrassing me in front of my neighbors: "Darcy, your goats are out again. There are five of them running east down Idaho Boulevard. I wouldn't want them to get hit and cause an accident. Someone could get hurt. . ." Oh, man, not again!
I finally learned that Angoras like to crawl under the fence. Most of the farming advice I read was to build high fences because goats like to jump, but I discovered that it was mostly the dairy goat breeds that do that. My little sweeties find the slackest part of the fence and work, and work, and work until they can wedge themselves underneath it, escaping to sweet, sweet freedom. They don't really seem to want or need to be out of the pasture, getting out is just a puzzle they need to solve--a challenge to be met. As a reault of learning their character, I now install the fence wire tightly to the ground with at least an extra six inches on the bottom bending in toward the pasture. That has been working for me.
Another lesson I had to learn the hard way is to get woven wire instead of welded. And I had to learn the vocabulary of my local supplier. What one reference might call field fence, another might call no-climb fencing or range wire. What I need for my goats is the five-foot-tall woven wire with mesh that is two inches wide by four inches tall, so you have to find out what your supplier calls that. The range panel with four-inch-square mesh is slightly dangerous for my animals, because although they can get their heads through the squares to get to the grass that is greener on the other side of the fence, some of them can't pull their heads back through to their own side because their horns get caught. The older ones are more clever about working their horns back and forth, but the younger ones give up in despair. I have never had one hurt getting its head stuck, but a friend's little Angora buck died before she found him trapped in the fence. So I always buy the two-inch by four-inch mesh.
The woven versus welded wire issue has been an important one for me. Not knowing any better, I bought the cheapest welded wire to divide the pasture. Well, when I have goats on both sides of the fence, they love to butt heads through the fence. When they broke big holes in the fence in the first year, I thought it was because of the Made-In-China-Crap quality of wire that was the only thing available to buy at that time. When I looked closer, the welds where each wire crossed were terribly weak and I could easily pull the wires apart with my bare hands. So, even though I thought my big investment of fencing was over, I had to go back and buy woven wire and replace it all as it broke apart under the goat onslaught. It totally makes sense now that I look at it logically. Weaving over each wire junction not only makes the joins more flexible, but also much stronger.
If I had only known. . .but that seems to be the kind of experience I never read about in goat literature or research. So now you know--good luck!
I finally learned that Angoras like to crawl under the fence. Most of the farming advice I read was to build high fences because goats like to jump, but I discovered that it was mostly the dairy goat breeds that do that. My little sweeties find the slackest part of the fence and work, and work, and work until they can wedge themselves underneath it, escaping to sweet, sweet freedom. They don't really seem to want or need to be out of the pasture, getting out is just a puzzle they need to solve--a challenge to be met. As a reault of learning their character, I now install the fence wire tightly to the ground with at least an extra six inches on the bottom bending in toward the pasture. That has been working for me.
Another lesson I had to learn the hard way is to get woven wire instead of welded. And I had to learn the vocabulary of my local supplier. What one reference might call field fence, another might call no-climb fencing or range wire. What I need for my goats is the five-foot-tall woven wire with mesh that is two inches wide by four inches tall, so you have to find out what your supplier calls that. The range panel with four-inch-square mesh is slightly dangerous for my animals, because although they can get their heads through the squares to get to the grass that is greener on the other side of the fence, some of them can't pull their heads back through to their own side because their horns get caught. The older ones are more clever about working their horns back and forth, but the younger ones give up in despair. I have never had one hurt getting its head stuck, but a friend's little Angora buck died before she found him trapped in the fence. So I always buy the two-inch by four-inch mesh.
The woven versus welded wire issue has been an important one for me. Not knowing any better, I bought the cheapest welded wire to divide the pasture. Well, when I have goats on both sides of the fence, they love to butt heads through the fence. When they broke big holes in the fence in the first year, I thought it was because of the Made-In-China-Crap quality of wire that was the only thing available to buy at that time. When I looked closer, the welds where each wire crossed were terribly weak and I could easily pull the wires apart with my bare hands. So, even though I thought my big investment of fencing was over, I had to go back and buy woven wire and replace it all as it broke apart under the goat onslaught. It totally makes sense now that I look at it logically. Weaving over each wire junction not only makes the joins more flexible, but also much stronger.
If I had only known. . .but that seems to be the kind of experience I never read about in goat literature or research. So now you know--good luck!