I've got about 30 in my doe herd. Not all have been infected, but about 10 have it now. If you could keep the infected one separate from the others they may not get it. Mine all have mild cases, just small sores on the mouth. I tried to keep them separate but then I would discover new "victims" in the main herd. It was getting difficult to keep them separate ("sick pen" was getting full!) so we have them all together again and are just letting it run it's course. My original suspect "carrier" was a little bottle baby billy that we purchased. He was the first one to have it. We noticed several sores on his body at first. Just felt like a bunch of small scabs all over him. At first we thought he had gotten into a pile of fire ants - but then we figured out what it really was. He is doing just fine now and is completely healed. We just let it run its course with him. We think of it as "chicken pox" for goats!

Your pygmy does not look like which? The babies or the mother? Well the mother is definately a pygmy. The babies look pygmy in the face but the ears throw you off. But she said the father is Boer. One kid has a little white around the eyes and muzzle, white on the forehead, darker dorsal and darker boots. Their hair is kinda Pygmy type. From what I see they have all the characteristics of the Pygmy except the ears. It is kind of weird to me but they are cute. I am wondering what the mix looks like grown. Just a mutt probably. I do have the food grade DE and it was very hard to find. I tried mixing a half teaspoon in their food and it made them sneeze and ther refused to eat it. Finally after 2 days they lightly ate some but they definately do not like it. I spread some on the ground under the hay and I think I noticed no flies. I did just clean the pen so I guess I will wait to see what happens after a few days.

I have Dorper sheep and I love them ; -) I actually have Dorper/St. Coix crosses, but they are high% Dorper. Dorpers are as you probably know, a hair sheep. While they do have a little wool, its not of any real value, and they usually shed out in the summer. They are primarily a meat sheep (and they are quite tasty) I don't eat mine LOL but I have eaten some from a friend, and boy is it some good meat. As a breed they are pretty hardy, and low maint. They seem to stay fat on air LOL I only feed mine when there isn't much grass to graze. If I do feed them, they get the same thing as my horses, a little grain, maybe some coastal hay, or a flake of alfalfa. They don't need much. Although they are pretty parasite hardy, you do need to worm them periodlically, sheep seem to be particularly sensiitve to a parasite load (much more so than my horses I;ve noticed) Dorpers are very friendly and easy going sheep, even the rams seem to be very sensible (at least the ones I've been around. I have 9 head, 8 ewes (that I hope are bred) and a wether. I use my sheep for training for my dogs. I have Border Collies and we compete in sheepdog trials. We're in Texas, so the hair sheep work really well with the intense heat and drought conditions that we have (Dorpers are native to South Africa) Here is my lamb that was born around the first of May, she was HUGE and I think very pretty, typical Dorper, black head, white body. Another ewe, she's a cutie too My Liz, with mom and new baby My Stella, with what we call a 'dog broke' wether. His name is Curly ; -) and he's trained a lot of sheepdogs LOL Good luck with your new sheep! I'm sure you'll love them ; -) now you just need a dog LOL, then you'll be in BIG trouble, talk about addictive! WHoa!

LOL Deb, that is exactly what i do, only its when hubs goes to work, when we went to visit my dad and susie (my dad's wife) we were catching up on things, and everytime i was telling them about something, like how i fixed the dryer i wasn't supposed to touch, or the washer i wasn't supposed to touch, or something else, it all started with the words "when hubs went to work" LOL **big smile** ya mean, ya haven't started an ot in a while?? LOL Geeze, LOL John, i forget, what's RB? ~Medo