Chicken Scraps Blog

I am certainly not an expert when it comes to hoof trimming, but I have learned how to do a basic trim, and my goats don't have foot problems.  Here is a video tutorial of how I do it. Remember, when you are trimming their feet, pay attention to their condition.  Foot rot can be a problem if your goats are copper deficient.  If you have foot rot, this recipe cures it in one or two treatments. 1/4 lb. copper sulphate, 4 cups water 1/4 cup vinegar. Dissolve copper in the vinegar and water, and soak affected foot for 10 minutes once per day until the foot rot is gone.  (For a more extensive article, please visit:   Natural cure (and prevention) of foot rot in goats, sheep and cows Here is the video: The goat in the video is Honeysuckle, the daughter of Mabel.  (She is currently for sale.) I hope it is helpful!

This video gives a look at the daily feeding and care of kids.  Feeding time is an excellent opportunity to check your kids' health, and help them bond with humans so that they are friendlier.  Be prepared after a few days of feeding for them to climb all over you, even when they are not hungry! An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, so catching a problem or sickness at the very beginning is extremely important for your goat's health, and your own peace of mind.  A couple 1,000 mgs. of vitamin C at the beginning of a cold is worth far more than a long round of antibiotics during a bout of pneumonia. The sweaters these kids are wearing are the original ones that I made.  I now sell them (and dog sweaters) in my farm shop .  Please stop by!

As any goat-keeper who has disbudded kids knows, disbudding is one of the most disagreeable parts of raising goats.  It is a traumatic experience for everyone involved.  But the benefits outweigh the trauma and pain, at least, in my opinion.  

Wednesday, May 28th, 2014 Around 5 PM, I went out to check on Mabel.  Her due date was May 31st, but her udder had been filling all day, and was now tight and hard.  Now her ligaments were significantly looser, almost "gone".  (For signs of early labor, see this blog post:  Another Day with the Goats Pt. 2: Early Signs of Labor... ) I quietly concluded that we would have kids on the ground in the next day or two, and hurried back into the house. That night, I checked on her at 10:00, 12:30, 2:00, and 3:30.  The last time, I decided to stay out there with her.  (I soon regretted this decision, since the goats were intensely interested by my curling up in a chair in the corner of the stall, and Freda, not being as preoccupied as Mabel,wanted to climb into the chair with me.)  But, believing in all my wisdom that Mabel was very close to kidding, I stuck to my decision, and stayed in the chair. Fast forward to 10:45, when the video begins....

Have you ever seen a kid with legs so bent that it is walking on it's knuckles?  This is usually a condition known as contracted tendons.  Bent legs in newborns are not uncommon, and are not such a very bad thing.  Usually, this condition caused either by improper nutrition (deficiency in vitamins A & D, or selenium) or by crowding in utero , sometimes by both.  This buckling is one of Nelly's triplets .  He and one of his sisters had badly bent legs, the other one also had slightly bent legs.  Good news:  the legs straightened out in just a few days (3 if I remember correctly).  In the video below, I show the kids legs and the treatment.  I hope this helps someone!

     A newborn kid's first needs are fairly simple, if it is healthy and strong.  It basically just needs to be dried off, kept warm, and receive milk as soon as possible.  If it is born on a hot/ warm day, then you probably don't need to worry about warming it up, and the mother usually does a great job cleaning it off.  Getting in there and handling it right away can be helpful though, so that it learns to accept human interaction more easily.  This also helps the doe learn to accept you messing with her baby.  (Hopefully, she will already be tame and not mind, but you never can tell until you've been through a kidding or two with her.)     Quick checklist: Warm and dry kids Bottle-feed, or make sure they get hold of a teat and are nursing Dip umbilical cords in povidone iodine, and/or goldenseal Check for obvious defects (extra teats, bad mouths, etc.) Give doe 1 quart or more of warm molasses water Below ...

When a doe is due to kid soon, it's a good idea to start locking her up at night in the kidding stall so she becomes used to it and comfortable there.  When she gets within a few days of her kidding date, start checking on her multiple times a day, and at least once in the night, if possible.  Since labor usually takes several hours, you have a good chance of catching her at some point in labor if you check frequently.  This video shows Nelly in early labor, and the surprise I got when I assumed that all would go as it did last year, when she didn't kid until about 24 hours after her udder filled and the ligaments "disappeared".  To see my video describing the signs of early labor, see Part 1 of this little series. Enjoy!

So I'm going to try to do a little video series, titled "Another Day With The Goats", showing the day-to-day goat care here at our farm.  I'm beginning with Nelly, as she had kids just a few days ago, and I have documented everything I could.  Unfortunately, I missed the birth as her labor was much quicker than I anticipated.  Below is the first video, in which I show LilyAnn and William the signs of impending labor, and we go through my kidding kit. There are several signs of labor that most , not all, goats display shortly before kidding. 1.  Ligaments near the tail head loosen and eventually "disappear". To find the ligaments (please forgive me, in the video I accidentally called them tendons), place your thumb and forefinger on either side of the goat's spine and slide them down toward the tail head, pressing firmly.  You should feel two hard things, like pencils, just above the tail head (where the tail joins the spine).  These are usually h...