I bought two pygmy ND goats both twins, my son was playing with them and he pointed out that the one without horns seems to be growing some is that even possible or something I might have to look out for?

First off: I’ve never had goats so this would be a first goat for me. But I have done a lot of research and I’ve wanted goats my whole life so I’m ready and willing to put in the work.

I know someone who has a female goat that is right at a year. She had her sibling and her mom for about 6 or so months then they got sold and she’s been a solo goat living with poultry for the last 6 months or so. She has not been out grazing or really socialized since. I went to check her out and she is very skittish. Shakes like a leaf if you get near her. Jumps around and freaks out on a lead. Owner can check teeth, hooves, all over easily but the goat even reacts to them in a fearful way because she’s not been socialized very well.

I want to have several goats and was planning on getting her another female goat shortly after we got her for a companion. But after meeting the goat I’m now worried that they will get a herd mentality and they all will be skittish around humans if I can’t work to get this goat to trust me.

Any suggestions? Has anyone dealt with this? Would it be better to get two goats, get them settled, then add her in to help with the skittish behavior?

This is my first time with goats and I am ridiculously excited. We currently have 20 Nigerian Dwarf Goats and we've got 8 different does that are currently pregnant. The smallest of which, Francesca, is due on 2/10 and her ligaments are already loosening up! We discovered last night into this morning that one of the other does, Freyja, coincidentally the only one that unfortunately lost a kid last year and suffered a seizure, is also due on 2/10!! Our sweet Freyja did birth two additional kids, Fred and Frito, who are still with us but are not the strongest of bucklings.

Our remaining 6 pregnant does are due the 2nd week of March... So overall we are expecting 16-20 kids by the end of next month. 😳 Thankfully, the two that we are the most anxious over will be delivering their kids first and at most we will have 2 mommas laboring simultaneously which we are slightly prepared for 😅 here's hoping that they are considerate and decide to take turns so that each precious kid get his or her beautiful moment in the sun. We're so very blessed to get to experience the beauty of nature and creation. We've been working on an idea list for names, and I will be sure to share with you any updates!

I'm so pissed right now. And I'm sorry if this post sounds like a vent about my issue. This happens at least once everytime my goats kid. I just had two kids (twins) disappear in the middle of the day. I left at 12:30 and typically come back at 3:00 to check on the mom's and kids again but I had a terrible migraine, and my goats pasture is on the opposite end of the road of my house so I have to drive to get to them and didn't want to try driving while the room was spinning. So I come at 2 hours later than usual at 5:00 to a mother goat screaming her lungs out and her twins missing. No sign of anything, no struggle, no bodies, nothing. This happens EVERY year and I'm so tired of it happening, they have a five foot electric fence surrounding the pasture but obviously that isn't stopping something from getting in. The giant carport/overhang thing that the herd sleeps under and the kids stay in 24/7 at this age, is right beside two RVs that some people beside the entrance of the pasture live in yet some predator still has the balls to show up in the middle of the day with humans living nearby. I also searched for tracks around the area and could find nothing.

The main question I have here is what predator will come and grab a few kids in the daytime with humans frequently nearby? And also leave no trance each time? And how should I catch or combat this predator?

I don't have a barn I can lock the goats up in or stalls, so I feel kinda helpless about being able to just physically put them somewhere safe from something breaking in. They just have a large carport like structure they take shelter in, there's also three cattle hutches with no door and one goat igloo. I'm going to put all the remaining kids (14) in a few of the large cattle hutches and build some kind of makeshift door onto it to keep them secure, and only letting the kids out when I'm there to supervise because I really don't know what else to do to stop something from getting to them. I'm down there most of the day usually (and a few hours at night), because I worry about making sure all of the young kids are safe. All that I feel I can do is sit on guard most of the day, and lock the kids up when I'm not there.

UPDATE: The twins were found at the back of the pasture squeezed in between some old rusted giant metal poles and are alive! Thanks for everyone's advice!

My little herd just unexpectedly lost our first member. He was a Pygmy male, same litter as this one, right under a year old. He was fine and energetic one day, and dead the next.

I’m paranoid now. I don’t want to lose another goat, especially with my wife and kids having such a hard time with the first loss.

Does this guy look okay? Is he bloated? Are the eyes (albeit funny) an issue?

Hi everybody!

Recently, we had a user post a picture of a goat that may or may not have soremouth, also known as contagious ecthyma, scabby mouth, or orf. I won't link to the post since it isn't relevant whether or not that was what was afflicting the animal, but in the course of responding to that user I felt an opportunity to point out something that I have noticed and has been gnawing at me.

For many users seeking help, if they do not come straight to the sub, they will go to one of two places to get information: Google or ChatGPT. This post is about the former, but in case anyone was wondering if ChatGPT is a valid place to get advice on husbandry, what to eat tonight, how to live your life, or companionship: it is NOT. Large language models like ChatGPT are a type of generative AI that seeks more or less to respond to prompts and create content with correct syntax that is human-like. The quandary here is that while it can indeed provide correct answers to prompts, that outcome is often incidental. It isn't an indication that the model has researched your question, merely that it has cobbled together a (sometimes) convincing diagnosis/treatment plan from the massive amount of data across forums/message boards, vet resources, and idle chit-chat that it is trained on. The point is this: you should never be in a position where you have to rely on an LLM for husbandry advice. If you have access to an internet connection, even the generative AI from Google search is a better option. But that doesn't mean it's a good one, bringing us to the principal subject of this post:

Orf! What do?

For some relevant background, we have never had a case of orf on our farm. I have read about it in vet textbooks and goat husbandry books and seen many images of it, I'm familiar with what it is, how it is spread, and at a high level what to do about it and what not to do. That said, when I was helping this user, I thought I'd brush up and make sure I wasn't providing misinformation. I knew orf was viral in nature and reckoned that in moderate to severe cases it could probably cause fever, but I wanted to see if I could find a vet manual or study of the disease in goats to confirm how likely that would have been. This was what I was met with:

Hm...

If you don't scrutinize this too closely, everything looks sort of on the level. Orf is indeed self-limiting (not sure why the AI says usually, there is literally nothing you can do to treat the root cause, but okay), and it more or less implies that humans can contract it so be careful. The symptoms section looks fine, overall, prevention is... eh... The orf vaccine is a live vaccine. Application of it is not something that most small scale homesteaders or hobby farmers will be familiar with and using it is basically putting the virus on your property. Orf is a nuisance disease and the main time it is a problem is when it is being transmitted between a dam and her kids. Proactive vaccination in closed herds that have never seen a case is not a vet-recommended practice.

The treatment section is where things get spicy with the part about scab removal. Oof. Now that is not even close to true and doing that when the goat is with other goats or going to a quarantine space where they will then shed the disease will cause it to spread to any other goat that inhabits that space unless it is thoroughly cleaned and disinfected. The bottom says the info is for informational purposes only and to consult an actual professional for advice, but that begs the question of why Google would provide that information front and center by default when you search when the first result below is an actual vet resource with correct advice. I won't get into the weeds about the ethics of that because it's a separate soapbox, this is the reality we live in now. This bad advice is particularly relevant because the user on our sub mentioned they had been picking off the scabs. So let's do another Google search for some clarification:

Oh dear, oh no

If you explicitly search whether or not you should remove the scabs, the AI overview is different. Not only do you see that you should not remove the scabs because they are infectious (very true), the overview now says that doing so will delay healing. The first "featured snippet", a feature separate from their generative AI overview, is an overview from the state of Victoria's government agricultural representative body, a reliable source. The highlighted text reinforces the "do not pick scabs off" advice. The overview still fails when it says to apply dressing to lesions. Evidently it has not ever reckoned with what it would be like to bandage an entire goat's face and mouth, which they need to eat, but maybe I'm an idiot. Let's check:

Thank you, Dr. Google

As you can see, generative AI is basically a hodgepodge of vague but mostly correct advice intermingled with plainly wrong advice. Seeking correction to the wrong advice, if you know that it is wrong, leads down more rabbit holes. I hope this highlights the importance of sourcing your information from reliable, proven veterinary resources/textbooks or state agricultural extensions that provide support for their claims with research. This sub prioritizes evidence-based husbandry practices and is one of the few forums to try to stick to that standard and I consider it important especially for people who don't have goat mentors offline.

This is not only important because users need good advice; it also affects the people that don't use this sub and go straight to Google. Reddit struck a deal a little under a year ago to make their data available for training AI. The information we post on this sub is being used as part of the training for these AI models and Google's SEO is increasingly favoring reddit at the top of search results in a number of areas. As the sub grows and the social media landscape changes, more people that never post but need info may find themselves coming here. Let's all try to do our best to make sure the information we share and advice we give is solid!

I have a very loud 4 month old doe (living in a residential area) and was wondering if a dog bark collar would work, like a shock collar or a spray one??

We have 20 Nigerian Dwarf Goats with 8 does expecting 16-20 kids on the ground by the end of March. I am so excited. 7 of the 8 were bred to Ace:

First time poster !! My 3 day old baby goat broke its leg (very bad break) it couldn’t move out in the goat shelter outside. I brought her inside and let her stay in a cage to insure her safety. I have been bottle feeding her which is a hassle on its on. But when and how should i reintroduce her back to the herd. She’s only a week old and all the goats are afraid of her. I’m a rookie when it comes to this so any help would be greatly appreciated. I’ve been losing sleep over this

TLDR: my injured one week old goat has been living in my house and crated. How do I reintroduce her to herd

She had a doeling & a buckling around 630. I have dried them off numerous times and she keeps getting them soaking wet by continually licking them. It's about 38° currently. They are in a barn with plenty of straw. I think I'm just being paranoid . Should I keep drying them or just leave them be? I'm thinking that she keeps licking because I keep dying and wiping her scent off them? I know 38° isn't terribly cold but it is when your a wet baby.

Hey y'all! My family is new to our property and about 80ish% of it is kudzu/ivy. We are strongly considering goatscaping. With that, we have found some local goatscaping companies. But having our own goats has come up!

That being said, advice would be great. Our property is not fenced in so we would have to figure out the logistics of enclosing the land. I've seen things about electric fencing. Resources on how to set that up would be so appreciated.

I have also seen people mention the land needs to be broken up in parts as far as how the goats are allowed to graze. So any info on how to do that would be awesome too!

I'm planning on using 4 strands of high conductivity poly wire with paddocks about 150m x 50m, plus a ring around the 10 acre property. So this will be around 3-5 km total of electric fence run.

What are some energizers that will handle this whilst delivering enough kick to deter goats and hair sheep? And be able to still perform with some loss due to grounding on grass. What kind of things am I looking for? What specs/brands should I keep an eye out for? Thanks!

Too cute not to share.