mbernard2424

I agree with your vet's suggestion. Feeding kibble in conjunction with raw food scares me. The grain in the kibble makes the dog's system more alkaline. It needs to be acidic to properly (and safely) digest meat and bone. Kibble sits around in a dog's system for quite a while so even if you feed kibble in the AM, it's still in the system when you feed the evening meat meal.

That's good to know given I did worm one pregnant ewe with cydectin.

My sheep and goats are moved very frequently because I use ElectroNet. I went through my current crop of lambs and goat kids using FAMACHA and found at least six of them who did not need to be wormed so I didn't. Of course it's the last few that needed to be caught who didn't need to be wormed. I did have two with bottle jaw who did not respond to Ivermectin and the goats came to me in pretty tough shape so they all were wormed earlier with Ivermectin. On Saturday, we went through the adult ewes and we only had to worm four or five of them (out of about 25 animals). From my reading on the subject, 20% of the flock carry 80% of the worms. My partner and I will cull anything that ends up susceptible to worms or anything else. I'd rather not use chemicals if I can avoid it and I have plenty of space in my freezer and carnivorous mouths to feed the meat to.

The original post was for ewes that were just going in with a ram so they wouldn't be pregnant yet. The Cydectin label states that it hasn't been tested on pregnant animals so except for one ewe that I knew Invermectin wasn't working on (and if she gets bottle jaw again after the dose of Cydectin, she'll be culled), I chose to use Ivermectin on those that needed worming instead of Cydectin. My understanding about keeping worms from becoming resistent is to not worm all the sheep, just the ones that need it, so that's what I plan to continue to do. I still have sheep from my first crop of lambs over two years ago who have never been wormed so I guess things are okay for me. Then again, I have hair sheep who are a bit hardier than woolies.

Bill, I was reading various posts on the sheep production forum regarding use of Cydectin in pregnant ewes and where ever I saw it mentioned, you said that you'd keep Cydectin "as the ace up my sleeve" a last resort wormer and instead go with another one such as levamasole. Granted these posts were pretty old, but I couldn't find anything newer. Just to make sure I understand, Cydectin shouldn't be used in pregnant animals, correct? Thanks,

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Ah ... how about real meat? I feed my LGDs raw meat. It's pretty funny to see the sheep and goats come running thinking they are going to get food only to discover it's meat. Now if the darned sheep and goats start eating the meat, I might be in trouble.

Tee hee, you are going to teach a sheep to jump up on a milking stand.

I've had my goats out free-grazing among rhododendrums and other waxy-leaved plants and they eat around them ... I didn't think of that problem with children and electric fence. ElectroNet looks very harmless ... until you touch it. Good point. Another thing I like about working goats is they hold up longer in the heat than sheep.

ElectroNet works wonderfully as long as you keep it properly charged. My animals have never escaped from ElectroNet when it was properly charged. That said, the charger goes for $200, the battery around $40 and a 164' roll of fence is around $100. That would keep dogs, coyotes and other predators out. In general, I think goats are too smart to eat poisonous plants. One think you do need to watch out for is that they don't eat any particular plant in excess as it can cause bloating and death. Finally, while the county said "I don't see any serious problems or violations provided you keep the manure removed or flies and odor could become a serious problem." Your definition of keeping the manure removed" and that of your neighbors may be different. Doesn't your subdivision have rules and regulations? Most do. They would be recorded in the register of deeds for the county you live in.

I agree Diane. I think goats teach a dog a lot, as do sheep, ducks and cattle. I like that my dogs are well-versed enough so that they can work all different types of stock. I think it makes them more well-rounded.

Shelter Logic makes a lot of different shelters, some with plenty of ventilation. I just put a deposit on an Alpine dairy goat who is in with a buck now. Hopefully by February or March I'll be milkiing!

Would you be willing to share that list information as I think I might be more interested in a dairy sheep than a goat at this point. Thanks!

If money is an issue, which I think it is in this case, I doubt dairy sheep would be an option. If a good dairy goat costs around $200, imagine what a dairy sheep would cost, if you could even find such a creature. Maybe it's because the goats I've had were not bottle fed, but I've never had a problem with a male goat rubbing on me ... hmmm Robin, maybe you were wearing goat attracting perfume.

You don't want to work your dog on Pygmy goats, they are goats with Napoleon syndrome, they'll fight like heck and they have those nasty, spikey horns which could cause damage if used on your dogs. The woman in the mountains I spoke of has a few goats she wants to place as pets if that would be something you are interested in. The people close to you may have the same availability. These are goats that are retired from milking that they want in good homes. One thought on keeping goats under your deck, you may want to check your local zoning and health codes. Keeping livestock so close to your house may be against regulations. For an inexpensive shelter so you can keep your animals away from your house, look for Shelter Logic shelters. They have a 6 x 8 shelter (I think that's the dimensions) that is relatively inexpensive. Michelle