Items we carry for our goats

Surprisingly a question I get often from people who are just starting their goat adventure is: what do I actually need to keep on hand for my goats? I can't answer that because frankly there are too many factors to take into account. For example, the type of goat you keep, and the area you live in. Let’s face it, you don’t need a milk machine if you’re raising meat goats, lol. The varity of supplies also depends on the individual handler, so while I can’t give you an easy black and white list of items, I can talk about what we carry.

Dairy equipment

Since I mentioned milk machine, I’ll start there. We have both dairy and meat goats, so yes, we have a milk machine with two different sized buckets and stainless steel milk pails. Milk stanchions or stands are very handy for both dairy and meat goats.

If you’re handy, I highly suggest building your own instead of buying, most commercially built stands tend to be short, built for smaller goats without horns. If you are short and have dehorned mini breeds of goats, then this is great for you. Building your own stand means building at a height and size that fits both you and your goats. You can even make them to fit goats with wider horn sets.

Other items we keep specifically for the dairy portion of things is a dedicated bucket for soapy water, Fight Bac teat spray, and milk stone remover for helping to remove the stubborn scum that can build up in the lines of the machine.

Milk machine Milk pails

Bucket Milk stand

Fight bac teat spray Milk stone remover

Handling equipment

Even for the tamest goats you'll need some handling equipment. For meat goats, a grooming/fitting stand, especially if you're planning to hit big auctions, or show at any level including 4H/FFA. If you're going to build over buying a commercially built one, make sure you keep it light weight enough to be mobile. There are quite a few other products with the grooming stand head piece for truck hitches and fences that are smaller and mobile however for us we just have the stand.

Let's say you've got a large herd, you might want to look into a chute much like sheep or cattle herdsmen use with a head gate. There are some great ones with scales and turn tables. We’ve actually cut our herd down to a smaller number and our animals are easily caught, so while we’ve drooled over them in the past, they’re not needed for our farm.

Transportation, at some point you’ll have to transport a goat whether it be to a big show or the vet’s office and you don’t want said goat leaving a surprise in your passenger seat. We personally keep dog kennels for small goats, a truck bed cage for one to two goats, and a horse trailer for traveling with large or many goats.

Dog kennels

Truck bed cage

Livestock trailer

Grooming

The need to groom goats is inevitable, some more often than others. For general management, goats need their feet trimmed every few weeks to every few months depending on the terrain. Goats on rough terrain obviously need less trimming than say soft pasture. We personally use small pruning clippers over the goat/sheep specific hoof trimmers. You’ll occasionally have a goat for whatever reason will need a bath, use your basic livestock shampoo and conditioner. We have a little who does 4H with goats, let me tell you there are a lot of grooming products out there, unless you’re showing, you don’t need the fancy stuff.

Hoof trimmers

Shampoo/conditioner

Clippers/clipper guards

Kidding

That first kidding season is intimidating for many, especially if you haven't been raised around livestock. There have got to be a million articles on all the equipment you need for kidding goats out and several livestock companies even make a kidding kit you can pick up. I can tell you from experience, you won't use half of it. Most of the time, does kid with very little help, if any, not a big deal. There may however, on a rare occasion, be a kid that will need to be turned or untangled from it's sibling. There isn't an instruction book for when that happens, it's just one of things where you got to glove up, and get the job done. After you assist a few times, it's not nearly as intimidating. There have been a few times I've had to make an emergency call to our vet for kids I couldn't get untangled. Keep that number in your phone just in case.

First thing on my list is gloves, usually I can get away with just regular nitrile gloves, but we do keep a box of the OB gloves too. Gloves are more for your protection than the goats however it does help the lube do it's job. Lube is a must, its far nicer on you and the doe if you have to assist, it also helps kids with large heads. Lamb/Kid puller is an extra hand when pulling a kid, especially for kids presented upside down or that have died. All those old, ripped and stained towels you don't know what to do with, keep them for drying those new kids off. Once you've got your kid/kids dried off, you'll want to spray that umbilical with an iodine spray to help ward off infection and dry it up. Every so often you'll get an umbilical that keeps bleeding, you can use umbilical clips or fishing line to tie it off, you'll want to do this too for umbilical's that are a little too long. You should really keep nipples for bottle feeding on hand too even if you are leaving kids on the dam, you never know when a situation arises where you'll need to bottle feed a kid. Last thing I carry for kidding is a lamb/kid tube feeding set, I really don't suggest bothering with this one unless you've been trained to use it, it's very easy to place the feeding tube in the wrong place and kill a kid. If you run into a situation where you need to tube feed a kid, have your vet do it or teach you how.

Towels Lamb/kid feeding tube Ob gloves

Iodine spray Nipples Umbilical clips/Fishing line

Lamb/kid puller Lube

Health

This section I really debated on actually putting in here, please note, I'm not a veterinarian, I'm in no way telling you how to treat any of your animals, this is just a list and short explanation of items we keep on hand. I do however encourage you to do some of your own research especially on wormers and wormer classes. You'll notice I don't have wormers, antibiotics or RX medications on this list or very detailed, it's intentional.

Vitamin B complex, AD&E, injectable Iron: These are for sick or support for parasite riddled goats who are already undergoing treatment.

Dark beer & Molasses: Great to keep on hand for treat, good source of B vitamins, helps with recovery and dark beer often helps with a bloated goat. Sprite or ginger ale can also help a goat belch, and they enjoy the taste.

Copper bolus & bolus gun: many areas are copper deficient and often goat minerals don't' have enough copper to make up for that gap. We bolus our goats when we vaccinate in the spring. Peanut butter helps keep the bolus capsule from falling out of the gun before you want it to.

Calcium gluconate: we used to have a doe who got milk fever every time she freshened, most people don't have to carry it, highly suggest getting instructions from a vet before using this product as you can stop an animal's heart with it.

Thermometers, Drenching syringe, Reusable and Disposable syringes, Disposable needles, Gloves: Most of these items are pretty obvious, I get cheap thermometers from the dollar store, be sure to label them for animal use. I like reusable syringes however there are some injections you want disposable for; I personally don't like reusable needles as the tend to dull and frankly a pain to disinfect all the time.

First aid

Goat first aid is extremely similar to first aid for yourself or your dog. If it needs stitches, call the vet! If the leg is broke, call the vet! If it's got a scape from rubbing up against a trailer, blue-cote, or the purple spray as we call it, is your best friend! We keep blood stop on hand for the cuts that aren't deep enough for stitches, but just won't stop bleeding, cornstarch is a good alternative. Super glue! The old rumor where super glue was developed for the military during Vietnam, I don't know if it's true or not but, hey, we've used it with success! Summertime owwies tend to draw the flies who love to lay eggs which hatch into magots and makes for a disgusting discovery. We use SWAT fly repellent ointment, the pink goo, to prevent that mess. Just like for yourself, gauze, bandages, vet wrap, tweezers, Q-Tip's, etc. are things to keep on hand. We keep blood collection tubes on hand for the once or twice every few years they come in handy for blood tests. Common sense goes a long way, if it feels like too much, CALL YOUR VET!

Blood stop/Corn starch Blood collection tubes

Wound spray Super glue

Swat fly repellent ointment Bandages and gauze

Everything else

This is literally a section for all the other items we carry that didn't really fall into the above categories. Most are pretty straight forward, so I only have notes on a few. Dehorning iron is for more than just dehorning, it can also be used to cauterize. Livestock scale isn't needed, we personally like having a scale over using weigh tapes. Coats we carry for the goat who is aged, or too thin going into winter or for some reason or another doesn't have an adequate winter coat of its own. Generally speaking, if you have proper housing and healthy animals you shouldn't need them at all. In all honesty, I think we have used a buck harness all of two times in all the years we've had goats, it's pretty unnecessary if you're out with your animals daily. Tattoo kits are for registered animals. Cable saw is for the removal of scurs that grow into a goat's head, sometimes those bleed, this is where the dehorning iron is great. Ultrasound machine is a luxury product, most goat producers don't keep one, blood tests are far cheaper.

Buckets, scoops, trash cans Leads, collars, halters Feeders

Shovels Livestock marking paint Dehorning iron

Tattoo kit Ear tag applicator Livestock scale

Cable saw Buck marking harness Bander and bands

Ultrasound machine/gel Shepherd’s hook Coats