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I'm on my way to the trailhead and pulled over to check on the boys and one is grunting or moaning quietly and grinding his teeth a little.
They have been strictly eating grass hay with some apples and pears for treats. But today before I loaded the boys I gave them some alfalfa to give them some good energy before the hike. Could he just have a belly ache with the wuick change of diet.
I gave each a 1/3 to a 1/2 of a leaf of alfalfa
Any ideas or suggestions?
Thanks
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09-25-2020, 05:20 AM
(This post was last modified: 09-25-2020, 05:21 AM by Charlie Horse.)
I had one grinding his teeth when he had a nasty abscess in an upper molar. For sure I'd be wondering whats causing pain though. Be sure to see if he's peeing... You dont want a urinary blockage. Then again perhaps he just got stung by something. Do goats get car sick?
I don't drink beer, but if I did, I'd prefer Dos Equis. Stay thirsty my friends!
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It could be the change of diet or it could be the start of urinary stones (that's the worst case scenario so make sure he's peeing a good stream!). If it's bellyache from a change in diet, a shot of Vitamin B complex and some banamine will probably help him over it pretty quickly. Hope he's ok!
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Well we decided to camp at the trailhead. Dipper was eating, drinking and peeing just fine. His grinding of his teeth quickly subsided and his groaning was getting more infrequent. By the morning he was ready to go. He was a little slow on the trail but by the next day he was doing great.
For the last few packgoat trips I noticed my boys seemed to have very little energy. I attributed it to the hot California weather, but after some thought perhaps it was the grass hay diet they are on. So I decided to give them some alfalfa to give them more energy. I'm guessing the alfalfa was a little too much at once. Next time I'll give him half as much.
The area we hiked through had a fair amount of azaleas that one of my boys took a liking to and he got a little sick. I noticed he was eating burnt wood afterwards. I'm assuming he was self medicating because he quickly snapped out of it and was back to his normal self. He must've learned his lesson because the next day he never touched the azalea.