It took eight years for my diagnosis of copper deficiency. I’ve been giving the goats copper for five years. I am still struggling with copper issues.
In good news, Daisy is doing much better. She’s still thin, but the diarrhea is gone and she has more energy. She is picking up weight, and I expect she will fully recover.
Her girls are also doing well. They just come running and gobble down the sweet feed.
They chew their cuds and are doing well.
Friday while I was doing chores, Cutie came running to the milk room door. I immediately saw that she has a horrible case of bottle jaw.
That’s what happened last year and why she was supposed to retire. Except for the whole Benji jumping out and breeding her. Interestingly, Cutie and Daisy were born the same year.
Anyhow, I weaned BJ and put Cutie up north with Daisy.
They should both be fine. And, dang it, Cutie is darn well retiring! I already have several kids looking like they are getting low on copper, so I’ll need to divide some capsules in half and give to those kids.
I already gave copper to Sidney’s kids. Their noses were bare. About two days after I started hemming and hawing because they didn’t weigh enough to give them a copper capsule, Jay went lame. His front legs were just wonky–like rubber. That’s when I immediately gave both boys half of a capsule.
I ended up calling the vet to put him down because, even though he started growing new hair on his nose about a day after getting copper, he was still just struggling to walk.
Then, when I got home from work and caught him for the vet, I couldn’t believe my eyes. He had one leg pretty straight and mostly standing. So we decided to wait.
He’s about the same. I will give him the other half of his capsule pretty soon, and hopefully that will finish his recovery.