@Rockhead,
just watch their copper intake. Sheep can get copper anemia by feeding them Omaline or some other cattle feed. SO stick with a ration thats specific for the animal and dont mkix em up EVEN IF THEY ARE GIVING IT AWAY.
Id send a PM to cowdoc and ask whether copper affects goats like it does sheep(I dont wanna "steer" you wrong).
Also, dont change their feed ration quickly (Like going directly from pasture to sweet feeds all at once , theyll get sick )
Have they gotten enterotoxemia antitoxin shots? They get sick
(We keep shots of emergency antitoxin in the fridege , in case we see a sheep or a cow getting diarrhea or getting off theior feed)
We keep an eye on ours about 2 or 3 times a day when we do "sheep patrol". Ill take dogs ut to the fields and watch the animals and see that, if theyre lying down they get up or are alert if you clap or whistle. I also look to see that , when they are sitting still, that they are chewing their cuds and dont look like theyre staring dullly. ACtivity and clear eyes are a good indicator, as is occasional bleating. Otherwise they are , or are getting sick.
Also, about every two weeks or more (depending on how quickly you learn about their health at a glance) -Check the tissue beneath their eyelids (not the eye itself, but the skin on the other side of the eyelid) You should learn to do this as soon as you can . The under- eyelid skin color should be a nice pink or even rose color, that indicates that the animal isnt anemic (Worms and some foods and some illnesses start out with anemia as a primary symptom). That means they are sick
Im sure youre gonna have fun with em
OH yeh, dont let em graze too heavily on mustards or brassicas, this can cause a severe bloat (which, again, is asickness) that , once when we had it occur to us because about 10 sheep got out and headed for my garden where they ate up ALL the kale plants I had going. We lost 2 sheep and had to trochant ( IN THIS TRICK< YOU HAVE TO SHOVE A large HOLLOW NEEDLE INTO THEIR GUT PERIPHERY TO RELIEVE THE GAS PRESSURE WHICH COULD KILL EM). We also gave em pure dishwasher detergent shot right down their throats. We saved 8 out of the 10 but the ones that recovered looked like they had rabies for several days (foaming at the mouth from the suds coming up)
DONT worry, youll do fine. We hadda learn all this stuff because there were no sheep people around us (We bought our first big time ewes and a ram from Mo and Ohio. We did later learn to hunt down someone who raised sheep within 50 miles and we became students . WE also have one of the US biggest vet schools for large animals down in Chester County so we called their help lines a lot at first (now their vet students call us) Id suggest you stick with teh guy from whom you bought these girls . SOunds like hes got experience and can give you many more tips than I can (Im a sheep herder so Im sure there are some differences )
PS get a pair of good shears to keep their hoofies trimmed so they dont get foot rot with all the rain youve had. Try to keep their feets dry.
Make sure you take a look at their poop everyso often to see theyre not loose or wormy. I would like you to get in the habit of moving them about the pasture areas so they dont poop and eat the grass and spread worms among em.
Are they polled
DONT WORRY< YOULL DO FINE. Ya just have to keep your eyes on em (dont be obsessive just be attentive) Sorta like a good waiter. If you shadow them, they get wise and dont poop or wont chew their cud cause theyre always on the look out
