Tag: raising goats

Lost Cud Emergency

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date April 3, 2026

High Reaches Valerie had been sick with a case of worms. I dewormed her. The next morning, I went into the barn to hear her giving that plaintive cry saying she was dying. I had a lost cud emergency.

It only takes a couple of days for a goat that isn’t eating to look like a skeleton. Nubian doe High Reaches Valerie is normally thin, but now she was weak and I could count her ribs.

What Happened?

Dewormers, more commonly called wormers, are poisons. The label lists the kinds of worms the poison kills.

Poison does not read labels. It kills whatever it can. Poor Valerie’s rumen bacteria were killed. A lost cud means a dead rumen and kills a goat.

Pictures taken in a dark barn are difficult. Of course, Nubian doe Lydia was in the darkest corner happily chewing her cud and waiting for breakfast. Little did she know I was in search of a cud.

Rumen Bacteria

A very young kid will eat dirt along with chewing on everything it finds. It is not teething. These things have bacteria on them and this goes down into the developing rumen.

A rumen is the first compartment of the four part stomach of a ruminant. All the hastily chomped leaves, grass etc. goes into this big place. Only bacteria can break down the cellulose of plant walls to release the nutrition.

Once the plant matter is mixed with the bacteria, a goat regurgitates a mouthful and chews it thoroughly before swallowing it into the next stomach compartment for digestion. This mouthful is called a cud. Relaxing goats lie around or stand around chewing their cuds.

Lost Cud Emergency

When the bacteria in the rumen die out in an adult goat, dirt is not on the menu. If no bacteria remain, the goat does not eat and starves to death. Even if the goat does eat, the food does not digest.

Valerie’s only hope was if I could get bacteria back into her rumen. Time was running out for her.

Rumen Bacteria Sources

There are commercial remedies. As this rarely happens, I don’t have them here at home as they would sit on the shelves for years. On a weekend, I can’t go into town to get them because the feed stores are closed.

My first remedy is yoghurt. Wormer does cause a bit of a problem this way in some of my goats, even if dosages are carefully followed. Usually a dose of yoghurt solves the problem.

I mix about two tablespoons of yoghurt with enough milk to liquify it. A big dosing syringe works well for drenching the goat.

Valerie improved slightly. Yoghurt wasn’t enough. My next remedy is challenging. I steal a cud from a healthy goat hoping my fingers don’t get crunched by molars.

The stolen cud is mixed with water. The water is given as a drench. I let the cud sit in water in a warm place for a second dose.

Valerie is now on the road to recovery.

Tags helping sick goats, raising goats

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What Milk?

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date March 6, 2026

I raise Nubian dairy goats. Note the word dairy. That means they are milk goats. So, what milk? My does are all going dry.

My Nubian doe Drucilla loves her kids. She produces plenty of milk for them and is very patient as they learn how to nurse.

Kids Are Necessary

All mammals produce milk to feed their offspring. Man decided he liked milk too and bred various mammals to give more milk. We often think of cows and goats, but camels, sheep and horses are milked too.

Since my bucks died last year, none of my does got bred. A couple milked through so I have had milk up until now.

My Nubian doe Spring is devoted to her kids. She likes to teach them to be very wary of anything new.

Importance of Dry Time

Producing milk takes a lot of energy, minerals and food. Producing kids takes a lot of energy, minerals and food too. A doe trying to do both, doesn’t do well.

My does are now bred. Their due dates are hazy, but several are starting to show.

Those does I have been milking are now deciding to shut down. What milk? No milk.

The does will spend their time building up reserves of protein and minerals so they can produce milk after their kids are born.

My Nubian doe Opal has grown up and has her first kid, a little doe. Even as a new mother, Opal takes care to stay with her kid.

Milking After Kids

Commercial dairies sell milk so they usually take the offspring away right after they are born. I am not a commercial dairy and leave the kids with their mothers.

Does think their kids come first. When the kids are small, I get the leftovers. As the kids get older, less and less milk is leftover.

By the time kids are six weeks old, they are eating well. I lock them away overnight and milk in the morning. Then we are both happy.

While writing “For Love of Goats”, I wrote a series of ten short pieces about growing up as a goat kid from the point of view of a kid. They were fun to write.

Waiting

So now I am waiting. First, I am waiting until the kids are born. That could be any time from late April to end of July.

Then I will wait until the kids are old enough to lock away at night. I’m hoping for early kids.

Tags goat milk, raising goat kids, raising goats

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Goat Retirement Home

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date February 6, 2026

My barn is now a goat retirement home filled with old goats suffering through the cold winter weather. I get to sneak back into the house to warm up. My old goats stand out shivering even with sweatshirts on.

There was a time when the old barn was full of goats, young goats keeping each other warm and busy as they debated which goats got the best spots. That is now a decade in the past.

It’s hard being young surrounded by older goats. High Reaches Kingpin wants to play and they don’t.

Nine Goats Remain

Once the goat herd numbered over forty. Now there are nine. The big goats range from four to thirteen years old. Kingpin is bored with all the old goats.

At seven months old, Kingpin loves to play. The does don’t. They get mad and whomp him. Pest is his playmate.

There was a time when Pest was very small. He is now over 200 pounds and trying to be dignified as befits his age of seven. However, Kingpin is persuasive and they have head butts every morning.

Nubian wether Pest or Big Lug was such a small kid. He is now middle aged and 200 pounds.

Late January Thaw

The cold weather is supposed to take a break this week. My goats are already feeling better as their itchy sweatshirts are off.

Snow is disappearing from the pastures. Smashed grass is reappearing. The herd is abandoning the boring troughs of hay for the taste of grass.

Goat kids grow up into adult goats. These get older and need special care.

Looking Forward

My goat retirement home should get lively in several months. My old goats are not too old to have kids.

Kids are so cute. They are also temptations. Surely I can keep one or two.

It will be so nice to have lots of milk again. The prospect of buying milk is so disappointing after fifty years of my own fresh from the barn.

Goat kids are so lively. They race ahead of the old does who lag further and further behind the herd.

Being Practical

My barn will remain a home for old goats including me. My goat retirement home will have no new members.

Time marches on and my goats and I must deal with it, like it or not.

Tags Nubian goats, raising goats

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Snowy Week

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date January 28, 2026

This is a snowy week in the Ozarks. We left this behind us in the UP (Upper Peninsula of Michigan) over thirty years ago. It has come to visit.

Snow is pretty to look at. Those flakes drift down dampening sound, making a silent world. When the sun shines again, the snow sparkles and errant bits in the air shine like diamonds.

My garden tubs have snow mounds on top. There was some wind so they each have a hollow around them. The moisture from the snow will get the tubs ready for spring planting.

Reality

The Ozarks is not prepared for a snowy week. They are so rare, the road department has no real snow removal equipment. Drivers don’t know how to cope with snow and ice on the roads.

My barn was never built for the cold. Now over a hundred years old, it is drafty and too tinder dry to put any kind of heat lamp in.

Slogging through eight or so inches of heavy snow is hard work. Unlike city people, I can’t sit it out looking out the windows. Chickens and goats need attention.

Wildlife suffers too. The squirrels curl up in their nests and sleep. Birds must find food to keep themselves warm.

The birds are lining up on the feeder at first light. They mob the place all day. Other food is under the snow and they need food to keep warm.

Double Edged Sword

We feed the birds and have ever since we moved here. This morning a flock of cardinals was waiting for breakfast to arrive. They were trying to move into the tray even as it was being set out. These birds depend on the feeder’s bounty.

If the feeder were to suddenly disappear, these birds would be in trouble. There are many more living around us than the place can actually support. They would have to fly off for miles to find another good food source which is hard to do in the snow.

Snowy Week with Cold

Often the snow disappears in a day or two in the Ozarks. This time the cold is staying for over a week so the snow will too.

It isn’t all a problem. The garlic and winter onions have a snowy blanket. They will be warmer for this snowy week.

“Exploring the Ozark Hills” has a section on winter.

Tags Ozark gardening, Ozark winter, raising goats, Snow Storm

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Raising Goats

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date January 2, 2026

I never intended to be a goat keeper. Raising goats never made my wish list growing up. When cold weather settles in, it is not on my list of favorite things at all.

One day, the temperature hit 76 degrees. At three in the afternoon, the cold began moving in. By five, when I went out to the barn, it was only 36 degrees. Winter was back.

The grass may be dormant, but my Nubian dairy goats prefer it to hay. Besides, the sun is warm.

Cold Goats

In the morning, the goats were shivering in twelve degrees. They wanted their sweat shirts back on. I considered this and decided to wait.

The sun was shining. One thing about goats standing in the sunshine is how fast they warm up. It is tempting to snuggle into their warm fur, so much warmer than any jacket.

When water gets poured into the dish, chickens race over to get a drink. Most of the rush is over in this picture.

Cold Water

When the temperature is only twenty, water freezes quickly. Ice water may be nice on hot summer days, but not on cold winter ones.

One of the raising goats rules of such cold days is: No water is left standing at the barn. Instead, water is carried out in the morning, at noon and at night. Everyone who wants one gets a drink. Any water left over gets dumped out.

For some reason chickens love to drink out of the water buckets. Even when the water level is half way down, they strain to reach it.

Cold Chickens

My chickens don’t like such winter cold either. They do have nice feather coats to fluff up. So, the chickens race around looking for bugs that have disappeared for the winter.

Chickens are funny about ice. They love to peck it and eat it. But the ice makes them cold too.

The same rule applies: No water is left outside during the day. This is not popular at all.

When I take water out to the chicken yard, all the chickens come running over to mob the pan. I make sure there are several pans as the chickens argue about which one is first.

Nubian doe High Reaches Opal is not fond of cameras. They may be some kind of monster. Everyone else is too busy clipping green grass encouraged to grow by warm temperatures to notice.

Raising Goats and Chickens

Books about livestock don’t mention water in winter cold. It’s one of the things you learn the hard way that first winter. The water freezes solid and must be chipped out of the pails so everyone can get a drink.

It’s easier to go out to check on everyone and give them a drink two or three times a day.

Tags goats in winter, raising goats

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Sweat Shirt Time for Goats

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date December 5, 2025

Ozark winters have gotten erratic and mostly warmer. However, the cold decided to visit for Thanksgiving. Shivering goats made it sweat shirt time.

Animals do put on extra winter undercoats. Nubians don’t do so as much as they are descended from tropic goats. When it gets cold and stays cold, they huddle together and shiver.

Being Cold

Some people don’t seem to mind winter cold. I am not one of them. When it gets cold, I huddle near the fire and/or wrap up in a blanket. Triple layers help when I go to the barn.

My Nubian goats can’t enjoy a hot wood stove. If they are cold, I get less milk. When they stay cold, they can get sick and have a harder time recovering.

Up North

In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan winter brings temperatures below zero and deep snow. People wear wool to keep warm.

We bought old wool blankets at the thrift store, cut them in half and tied them on our goats. They weren’t thrilled, but they were warm locked in their barn. The blankets stayed on.

Sweat shirts may not be Nubian doe Lydia’s favorite wear, but it does keep her a little warmer during winter cold spells.

In the Ozarks

The temperature has plunged below zero here for a night or two. One winter brought foot deep snow. But these are not the usual winter weather routine.

We tried tying blankets on the goats to warm them up. They decided the blankets were itchy. The baling twine was too tight. The blankets landed in heaps on the floor and trampled.

Sweat Shirt Time

The goats still got cold. People wear sweat shirts to get warm. Why couldn’t the goats?

So now, when winter cold moves in and the goats begin shivering, it’s sweat shirt time. My herd sports a variety of colors, stops shivering and finds them comfortable enough to keep on until the weather warms up again.

Learn about goats while solving puzzles in “Goat Games“.

Tags goats in winter, raising goats

GKP Writing News

My Reading Goal

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date December 5, 2025

Bleak December, the last month of the year has arrived. With all the hustle and bustle, there are so many things to wrap up. My reading goal is one.

This year started looking like a normal year. I set a goal of 72 books. Then disaster arrived.

My Goats

My ten-year-old buck, High Reaches Silk’s Augustus, got sick. It was terminal and I had to say good-bye. His pen looked so forlorn.

Dairy goats must have kids to continue to give milk. Terrill Creek Huckleberry came home. He was a love, just a wonderful buck. Somewhere he found and ate something poisonous and died.

Then my beloved Agate got sick. No matter what I did, she kept getting worse. When she finally collapsed, unable to stand, I had to say good-bye to her too.

Nubian doe High Reaches Pixie’s Agate was a good friend. If I called the goats out in pasture, she led them in. She stopped on the way out for neck and ear scratches. I miss her.

My Family

My goats are my family. They have been my companions through several moves and over fifty years. All of them are special. Three have been extra special: Jennifer, my first goat; Bridget, my traveling companion; and Agate, my bottle baby.

Reading and writing almost ceased for months. That leaves me now, in December, seventeen books away from my set goal.

Making the Goal

I do read fairly fast, especially light fiction. But not that fast. At present I have just finished “First Ladies: An Intimate Group Portrait of White House Wives” by Margaret Truman. This is a wonderful look at the job of being First Lady and how many different approaches by women of so many different backgrounds did this job.

Three books are ongoing. “Five Little Peppers and How They Grew” is one I read as a child. It is very much a portrait of growing up poor around 1900, although it is fiction. “Arsene Lupin Gentleman Thief” was mentioned in “The Cat Who Saved the Library” along with “Moby Dick” (read the abridged version!) and “The Three Musketeers”.

Third is “Of Time and Turtles”. This is a fascinating look at turtle rescue and turtles. These creatures have existed for 350 million years, yet modern humans may destroy these special, unique animals by greed, carelessness and ignorance.

If all else fails, I suppose I can count picture books. I read and review (on my Goodreads blog) about six a week. I do hate to not make my reading goal.

When I finish reading a book, I do a review on Goodreads. The picture books are reviewed on my Goodreads blog.

Tags raising goats, reading

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Persimmons Are Falling

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date October 10, 2025

Fall may still rule here in the Ozarks, but its grip is weakening. The black walnuts are carpeting the ground making walking a challenge. And the persimmons are falling to the delight of the goats.

Persimmons must be ripe to taste good. Then they are delicious. The marks of a ripe persimmon are a nice orange color, wrinkled skin and soft feel.

Lazy Summer

Horseflies kept the goats lazing about in the barn most of the day all summer. These biting demons like it hot and sunny. They don’t come into a dark barn.

Around here these insects come in several varieties from the housefly lookalike stable flies to deer flies to half inch horseflies to inch long terrors. Being bitten by one of these is like being stabbed with a hot needle.

My small Nubian herd dozed the day away. I put out hay so they could get up and snack. Getting water meant risking the horseflies.

It’s not safe to put buckets of water in the barn. By the time it’s half empty, one goat or two will knock it over. Then the chickens fill it with straw and manure.

My Nubian goats amble out the pasture gate and shift down to the end of the barn lot. Violet is usually first to start off with Spring right behind her to take over the lead in a mad dash across the pasture to the first persimmon tree.

Fall Arrives

Cool weather meant the horseflies and their ilk subsided. The goats kept up their lazy ways. They waited until I led them out sometime in the afternoon.

Then the goats discovered the persimmons are falling. These are delicious goat candy. The first goat under the tree gets the most.

Now I go out to the barn after lunch (Mornings are writing time.) and find only the chickens are in residence. Cleaning out the barn is much easier. Making the rounds of the hay troughs looking for eggs is easier.

First to arrive under the persimmon trees is first to find the fruit. Nubian goats love persimmons, will eat them until they get upset stomachs.

Goat Treats

The persimmons are falling in the yard too. Walking to the barn now entails searching under the yard tree and collecting persimmons. They become dessert placed on the grain at milking time.

All of the goats, even Kingpin, eat dessert first.

Goats are fun to write about. For a wild romp of a tale, check out “Capri Capers”.

Tags raising goats

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Please Wait, Pamela

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date July 29, 2025

Normally I am impatient for one of my goats to have her kids. Not this time. My Nubian doe High Reaches Pamela is due anytime. Please wait, Pamela!

Cold, Wet Winter

I know I should keep taking the dirty, loose bedding out of the barn all winter. That way it doesn’t mat up into an icky mess many inches deep by spring.

It was too cold. It was too wet. I was busy. So many excuses.

Wet Spring

The barn needs to be cleaned out by the end of June when fly season goes into high gear. It kept raining on days I was home or the mud was too deep. The bridge washed out and need patching. So many excuses.

Nubian doe High Reaches Pamela looks very close to kidding. The barn is almost cleaned out. It’s a race.

And July Arrived

Pamela will have Terrill Creek Huckleberry’s first kids here at High Reaches. Her due date is about August 1.

The barn had over a foot of wet, matted mess on the floor. This is definitely not good for kids, the herd either.

So the race is on. It is hot, too hot for me to clean barn by noon. I can get two loads out before then, loads dug out with a pitchfork and piled on the tractor platform. This clears about two feet of barn floor.

It will take another three days to finish cleaning out the barn. The goats are complaining as they have no bedding, only cement to lie on.

Tough. New bedding must be taken out before I start to clean. The cement – a big headache for barn floor – must dry out.

Please wait, Pamela

Only one corner is still piled high. I hope three days will get the last of it out. Manure is deceiving. Taking a load out should make the pile look smaller. It doesn’t.

But I do want that barn floor covered with fresh bedding before those new kids arrive. Hang on, Pamela. I’m working on it.

Tags raising goats

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Lazy Days Tempting

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date April 25, 2025

The trees have a blush of green, but the pastures are lush with new green grass. Warm sun invites my goats to spend lazy days basking. They aren’t the only ones wanting to enjoy the weather.

Sycamore trees have male and female flowers on the same tree. This is a male flower that will produce pollen. The female flowers are little green balls that become the seed balls of late fall into spring.

Blooming Trees

Many trees, like oaks, hickories, elms, ashes, walnuts, willows and more, don’t bother with insects. They use the wind to carry pollen and fertilize their flowers. They produce clouds of the yellow stuff that coats everything around on these warm lazy days.

The floods toppled a sycamore so it lies across the creek. It’s still rooted so it wants to leaf out. I took note as sycamores bloom up, far up above my head and I wanted pictures of the flowers. This tree is producing its flowers at eye level.

Good-Bye Winter

The air is warm much of the time. Temperatures are in the springtime range. My tomato seedlings are eager to get out into the garden.

Milking time is done with impatient goats. No sooner am I done, than the herd is ready to barge out the gate for the day. Then the goats stand looking around. Should they go north into the pasture? Maybe across the creek and south has better grass. Then again, across the creek and up the hill is nice.

One thing is sure, the herd is back down near the creek around noon. That’s when they enjoy the lazy days lying around in the sun until they are too hot, then the shade to cool off. All the time they are chewing their cuds filled with spring’s bounty.

When I had the time, I would go out with my herd for part of the day. At first these goats go racing off. They tear off mouthfuls of greens along the way, but they are on the move. After a time the goats settle down and graze or browse, still slowly moving. In a couple of hours the herd arrives at a favorite or inviting spot and they lie down to chew cuds and sleep. Warm weather seems to make these times more numerous and longer.

No Lazy Days Here

Insects are buzzing from flower to flower. Now is their time of plenty.

Lone star ticks are out and eager for a meal. For the next several months these things will make life miserable for the goats and me.

And spring chores are on a long list. I may feel like enjoying these lazy days, but I won’t. Well, maybe for a little while.

Tags Ozark wildflowers, raising goats