Intact male goats smell particularly bad during rut; wethers altered later in life tend to smell also as they continue their bucky behavior.

Does & wethers (wethered young) barely have any odor. If you have pasture you won't notice them at all. If they are stalled you will get a urine smell but cleaning the pen frequently will take care of that.

How much is a fair amount of pasture? Sounds bigger than a dog run. My point being 2 goats in a dog run may start to smell, but on a decent sized pasture there shouldn't be much of an odor at all. The biggest mess will be where you feed the hay...keep it cleaned & no smell.
Brendasue

Brendasue,
thanks for the response. I have about 1/2 acre for pasture and a 10x12 barn for shelter. I have been reading and think that I will have to pen them for a bit before letting them in the pasture which is fine since it is winter and the forage has died back considerably. Right now I have a draft horse in that area..the horse is getting a new pasture that is much bigger....hence the interest in getting goats...can't just let the area sit empty! lol

Brendasue is totaly correct, furthermore 2 pygmies equal 1 full size goat, and they will not even make a dent in a half acre pasture, I have 6 full sized dairy x boer goats in an acre and they barely keep it mowed, thats during summer and winter, during flush growth of spring and fall I have to run the cattle through
josh

Hi. I may just have a solution if you are a New Yorker. I have Angus, a three year old neutered male (wether) and Cloe, his half sibling up for adoption. They are wonderful little folks having been hand raised and spent time in a petting zoo environment. They have collars and walk on leash.

I love them to pieces and would keep them but they are confined to a 10-20 foot pen except when I let them out to roam my back yard. They really deserve more room to
exercise. I think they would be a great addition to your farm. Let me know what you think.
Diane

I have two pygmy goats, a doe and wether. They have a stall of their own but prefer to be in with the donkeys (they each have one) and have free run with the horses and donkeys. I have never had any odor from urine and/or feces. And even wet they do not smell at all. A buck definitely has an odor however.

Diane, what type of goat are yours??

Angus and Chloe are pygmy goats. He is grey agouti and she is black with a bit of white. They very much enjoy being around people. As a matter of fact I have had to discourage Angus from jumping up on the other side of the two person swing, now that he is a grown up fella. As a little guy he would join me on the swing and stay as much as 5 minutes, just being companionable. I live in a newly suburbanized area (dang that housing bubble) that used to be quite rural. I have a half acre with the back 2/3 fenced and a 10 x20 pen for them. Behind their little pen is a 50 X100 foot wooded area so that when I am home they get to roam and browse, but not as much or as often as I would like during the short days of winter.

I have 2 4week old little billies. They got very hypoglycemic on me & very lethargic. I ended up having to tube feed them. Well now they are doing better all except for 1. I can't get rid of his diarrhea. I followed the feeding instructions that is on goat-link.com bout feeding them the gatorade & whole milk. That's when things went bad. I started getting the canned goats milk now but he still has diarrhea. The other doesn't. My little Oliver runs, plays, & eats grass tho. I have been putting molasses in their bottles & probably have been putting more than I should in there since their episodes. Should I stop putting the molasses in there? He is only eating 1-1 1/2oz every 5-6hrs. Oscar is his brother & he has not had diarrhea. Got hypoglycemic & lethargis, quit eating & all but no diarrhea. I tube fed him & now he is eating 5-6oz every 5-6hrs. I wish I could get these guys straightened out. I have tried Pepto every feeding & med from the vet for skours. It helped for a day or 2 but has went back to runny. Please HELP!!!!

Hi Pun62000,

Stop the molasses and any other additions to their milk. Offer free choice hay for them to nibble on. No grain until diarhea stops. At 4 weeks they are not eating a lot anyways.

The molasses was probably suggested to give them instant energy while they were weak/down and should have been discontinued as soon as they were no longer weak. We might use a smidge of molasses after a doe kids a hard kidding, if a kid is weak at birth, or any goat that is down. The molasses can cause acidiosis and new issues depending on the amount given.

Pepto can be given to stop the scours or at least control them, but it does not address the root- cause of the diahrea.

IMO scours are brought on from improper mixing of milk replacer. Check your directions, some breeders have no luck whatsoever with purchased milk replacer. In other words mileage varies greatly.

If these were my kids, I would slowly switch to store-bought whole milk, or raw milk purchased from a dairy. I've raised a few kids on this with no issues whatsoever.

Have these kids been treated for coccidiosis? Coccidiosis is labeled as the #1 reason for diahrea in young kids. Di-Methox (40% for treatment, 12.5% for prevention) is my preference, there are other brands. Cocci oocysts (the parasite that causes coccidiosis) is found naturally in the gut of all animals. When the level of oocysts overcome the natural immune system of a young kid, they become sick and it can be life threatening. Treat them per the directions on the bottle for 5 days. NOTE: There are doses for treatement and prevention. Use the treatment dose this time, prevention dose when they are 8 weeks old.

I would give them Probios, or plain live culture yogurt orally to try to balance/re-establish the good bacteria in their gut. I would also give Thiamine (vet script) or B-complex via either needle or tablet bought at a people store. B vitamins are water-soluable, won't hurt them, so give double the recommended dose on the B-complex. It will help with the rumen & increase appetite.

I would also discontinue the gatorade, only giving it if their temperature falls below normal, or if they are dehydrated. This could be messing up their rumens also.

Worm with Safeguard at double the dose when the diahrea clears. A vet can check by fecal for both wormload and cocci oocysts to determine if either of them are the culprit.

You must straighten out the diahrea issue. Pepto to control it but get to the bottom of the diahrea or they will become dehydrated and die.

Brendasue