A healthy goat herd is essential for any successful goat operation. Ensuring the health of your herd can be achieved by implementing a few important practices on your farm and a little support from your veterinarian.
To ensure the health of your goat herd, Dr Vinoliah Makuwa, consultant veterinarian at C4Africa, highlights three key elements farmers need to apply: a strong vaccination programme, good record keeping, and good farm management practices.
“It’s important to have these elements in place to maintain the health and well-being of the herd. Herd health is also important for the overall financial success of the farm,” she explains.
Know what you’re buying
It is the responsibility of the farmer to ensure their herd health starts at the point of sale when they buy the goat. Before buying goats, you should know the history of that goat, their age, genetics, and overall quality.
This helps you to understand any threat in your herd and how to deal with it.
“You need to make sure that you buy your goats from a well-established [operation] with good health records. This is crucial to ensure that you do not introduce diseased animals into your farm,” Makuwa says.
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How to recognise a sick goat
As a farmer, knowing how to identify disease symptoms in your goat is vital. The aim is not to play the role of a vet, however, having knowledge about your animals will help you pick up on changes in its health, whether positive or negative.
Knowing how to recognise a sick animal could save you time and money.
“Farmers need the ability to recognise disease symptoms from the animals. They need to keep a healthy herd and make sure they have good record keeping, including efficient management skills and a deworming protocol,” Makuwa says.
Signs something is wrong with your goat:
- Loss of appetite or won’t drink water;
- Bloated body, swelling or lumps;
- Attitude: kicking or biting their stomach, depression or weakness;
- Green or cloudy nasal discharge;
- Hair loss or discolouration;
- Bellowing or screaming.
Day-to-day farm practices
Providing your goats with a safe environment, access to quality feed and clean water are also practices you can adopt to reduce the chances of your goat getting a serious illness.
“You need to ensure that your goats always have access to good quality feed and water. Importantly, isolate goats that are sick from the rest of the herd, so that you don’t put the whole herd at risk of getting diseases,” Makuwa advises.
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Working with medication and vaccines
Goats are accident-prone which is why having a goat medicine cupboard is vital.
Makuwa advises that farmers follow medicine or vaccination instructions carefully. “Know how to administer correctly, at the correct time and do it properly, “she says.
Administer medicine or vaccines in line with your veterinarian programme. Makuwa says vets are important to animal health and the success of a farmer’s business. “They can help you not only with disease management but also with management on the farm.”
She recommends that farmers avoid consulting a vet until there is a problem on the farm.
Common goat diseases
Animals are sensitive and goats are no exception to the rule. Common goat diseases include;
- Pulpy kidney: Caused by a bacterium and can lead to chronic diarrhoea;
- Bloat: Managed by making sure that concentrates are introduced into the diet;
- Goats aborting infectious causes such as chlamydia or even starvation;
- Bluetongue: A viral disease that can be controlled by vaccination;
- Heartwater disease: Caused by ticks and treatable with antibiotics.
Makuwa says it is important that farmers build knowledge around their goat herd and the diseases that they are susceptible to.
“At the end of the day, it is about making sure that the goats are protected against bad weather via internal and external management for the herd.”
Makuwa adds that location also matters. “Familiarise yourself with the diseases that are prevalent in the area that you are in. Make sure you apply prevention methods. Work closely with your vet to develop the correct protocol for your herd, prevention is better than cure.”
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