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| Bella coming over for some love |
A few weeks ago I took my goats to the vet. Turns out they had never had any “preventative” care so it was time we took care of that. We were fortunate to find a vet that raises goats herself – Dr. Claudia Sonder at the Napa Valley Veterinary Hospital. She had the most adorable Nubian kids there that she was bottle feeding. Soooooo freaking adorable! She was incredibly knowledgeable and answered all of the questions I had about them. Plus I got some additional information that was really useful. She also contacted UC Davis right before I came in to get all the most up to date, shiny new info regarding blood tests, vaccinations, and general goat health.
First off she told us that we had “the fittest pygmy goats” she had ever seen and that whatever we’re doing to keep doing it. Most pygmy goats she sees are very overweight. Well that makes us feel better because we were thinking they were underweight compared to the goats a lot of pygmy breeders show on their websites.
She also told us that mineral blocks with copper and selenium are better than loose minerals because some goats can overdose on selenium with the loose minerals. They can develop a habit and just keep eating the loose minerals. The blocks are more difficult to overdose on. Also, the place we get our hay, Wilson’s Feed in Napa, is not selenium deficient so there is no need to give them additional selenium unless they are pregnant or just born as a safety precaution. With the mineral block there is also no need to give them a copper bolus.
When I was contacting breeders some of them had asked for the CL status along with the CAE and Johnes status of my goats. So when Dr. Sonder was taking blood for the other two tests I asked her about the CL test. She explained that to test for CL you have to run a titer and all it shows is if the goats have been exposed to CL, not that they actually had it. There is no test to determine if they have it and if a breeder is asking for that info then they aren’t up to date on the latest medical information. She said CL presents itself seasonally but from her exam she didn’t feel any abscesses.
The goats are negative for both CAE and Johnes, so that was fantastic news! They are healthy and happy.
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When do you think you will start to have milk?
We'll hopefully be breeding them this month or next, so we'll probably start milking them around January or February.