# Traveling with goats, need advice



## TNP (Sep 26, 2009)

We're probably going to be moving cross country soon. I'd like to take our 2 pygmy goats with us, but I have never traveled with goats and have no idea what I'm doing. I don't have a truck, only a small car, but I would think I could find a small trailer that can be pulled by a car.

We'll be passing through several states. Can you bring goats from state-to-state or is there some sort of livestock importation law I need to know about? 

We don't have a home where we're going yet, and probably won't find one until we get there. Are there places to board goats while you're searching for a home like there are for horses?

The goats have never traveled before. Am I putting them at risk by traveling so far with them? Will the stress of a 5-day trip and then boarding for who knows how long make them sick? Much as I want to keep them, I also want to do what's best for them, even if that means finding another home for them here.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

You would want to get a health certificate. The vet will need to know what state you are going to. Then whatever tests that state requires is what you would have to do. Then just have the papers in the car with you. It should be done less than 30 days before you leave. Most states want to see the health papers done within 30 days.

I think you would have to find and contact goat farms in the area you are moving to. There aren't boarding places for goats like there are for horses but maybe a local goat farm would be willing to board them for you. You would need to find them ahead of time and then you can put that farm down on the health papers for the address that they are going to.

I would think the goats should be fine travelling. Just make sure to take them out and walk them everyday and that the trailer has ventilation. It probably won't be easy to do but certainly is worth trying if you want to take them with you.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

> You would want to get a health certificate. The vet will need to know what state you are going to. Then whatever tests that state requires is what you would have to do. Then just have the papers in the car with you. It should be done less than 30 days before you leave. Most states want to see the health papers done within 30 days.
> 
> I think you would have to find and contact goat farms in the area you are moving to. There aren't boarding places for goats like there are for horses but maybe a local goat farm would be willing to board them for you. You would need to find them ahead of time and then you can put that farm down on the health papers for the address that they are going to.
> 
> I would think the goats should be fine travelling. Just make sure to take them out and walk them everyday and that the trailer has ventilation. It probably won't be easy to do but certainly is worth trying if you want to take them with you.


 Yep...I agree.... :thumb: :hi5:


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## TNP (Sep 26, 2009)

Thanks!


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## xymenah (Jul 1, 2011)

I would like to add some of my experiences in case this is any help. I have traveled with my goats for two days on two different occasions and three days once. The three days trip was pretty stressful for them but any trip is so just try and keep them happy. We were in a motor home and I made a box for them to stay in. Because the box was so tall they only got out once a day but if you can let them out every time you stop so they can stretch their legs even if its just a few laps around the car. They didn't eat much and they refused water. So to keep them hydrated I took a water bottle with a squirt cap and made them drink some as it was also hot because we had no AC so they were really in danger of dehydrating. Once the trip was over they went right back to their old selves.

The two day trips were pretty easy. We had them set up in the truck bed and they were much more comfortable back there. They didn't drink as much water as normal but they did fine and kept eating. With two pygmies a small trailer will suffice. Most of their time is going to be spent laying down so they don't need much room. What we did for the back of the truck was have the side facing the rear of the truck a box so they could hide away in there and the back half open other than the top so when ever we stopped they could get up and move around a bit. It even rained a bit one time and everyone was nice and dry. So if you wanted to you could use a small single axle utility trailer and use fencing if you have any to make the sides and use plywood for the top and box. That way it would also be light for your car.

The three day trip box.

















The two day trip in the back of the truck.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

> Thanks!


 :hi5: :thumb:


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## TNP (Sep 26, 2009)

Thanks. I found out the maximum I'm going to be able to pull with the car loaded down with me, a dog, and stuff we'll need on the road, is a trailer like the attached picture, due to my car's towing limit. I don't have a truck, only a small car. I'm going to have to make a floor and build cages, but a friend told me such a light trailer will cause too much bouncing for the goats. I'm going to keep an eye out for a cheap used motor home, but no guarantee I'll find one I can afford.


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## TNP (Sep 26, 2009)

xymenah said:


> We were in a motor home and I made a box for them to stay in.


I love the goat boxes for the motor home! What did you use on the bottom to keep pee from soaking through to the motor home?


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## xymenah (Jul 1, 2011)

We had the entire thing wrapped in a thick plastic. They chewed on it a bit but it held up.


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## LuvmyGoaties (Mar 9, 2010)

Ok, well here is a different suggestion. Do you have a place where you could board them where you are now- like maybe with a friend? That way, you could go ahead of them, find a place and then make arrangments with a livestock hauling company to bring them once you find a place to keep them. Where are you moving from and to?


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## TNP (Sep 26, 2009)

Thanks for that suggestion. I'll look into a livestock hauling company. I'm (hopefully) moving from Tennessee to Arizona. I don't even know if I'll be able to find a place that allows goats, in my price range. Home sales are really wacky there right now.


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## keren (Oct 26, 2008)

When I moved across the country, I leased out my goats (thats a whole nuther option in itself). 

But, I was living in the city and I found a horse agistment place that let me agist two goats there. It was just a matter of going to enough of them and arguing my case. Also I offered to fence the paddock myself as it was a horse fence unsuitable for goats.


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## xymenah (Jul 1, 2011)

Where in Arizona are you moving to? I might be able to ask around and help find them a place to stay. If your moving near me I wouldn't mind looking after them for a while.


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## TNP (Sep 26, 2009)

xymenah said:


> Where in Arizona are you moving to? I might be able to ask around and help find them a place to stay. If your moving near me I wouldn't mind looking after them for a while.


Thanks so much for the offer!  I'm not sure yet where I'm moving to. I'm still waiting on an insurance settlement from my house that burned down in December. If it's enough to move, I'll head west, but I won't know where I'm going to land until I'm there and find a place in my budget. It could be anywhere from Sierra Vista to Kingman and all points in between and possibly even Nevada if I don't find anything in Arizona. :greengrin:

My preference is around the Tucson area, but homes in my price range are really hard to get right now. I'm getting listings every day from a realtor, and within hours of the homes being listed, they already go pending with multiple offers. Investors are snatching up homes under $100K as fast as they're listed. One realtor I know isn't even accepting clients in my price range anymore, because it's too difficult to find them homes. There's a serious shortage in that range right now.

I'm also a little picky about where I end up, as this will probably be the last move in my lifetime. I want rural that allows goats, but would like a neighborhood with some rules, so that I don't end up with another auto paint and body shop right next door to me, ruining the peace and quiet, like what happened here in TN a month after I bought my "perfect" place. Or people racing 4-wheelers and dirt bikes right outside my bedroom windows like what happened here. I don't know if such a place exists, a place with an HOA that allows goats. Or if I could find a place with some acreage to insulate me from neighbor noise, that would be great. But most of those places are on shared wells or water haul. A private well is ok, but I've heard too many stories about shared wells and bad neighbors. Until I can get out there and see what's available, I don't have a clue where I'm going to end up.


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## phydough (Jun 3, 2011)

Would you be interested in some mls websites for AZ? Here are a few below that will help you check out property in your price range. The top one is my favorite but it doesn't do a good search of Kingman unfortunately. I've heard there are deals to be found there in the area of Golden Valley but never checked it out myself. I used to live just north of Sierra Vista and that's a beautiful area and a nice military town. The middle link will search property in the Sierra Vista area and Tucson and surrounding areas. There was a bad fire south of town (Sierra vista) last year. You might be able to find a good deal right now in that area and in a year or 2 the land will be looking beautiful and less charred. Good luck!

http://www.northernarizonamls.com/
http://www.tarmls.com/
http://phoenixmultiplelistingservice.com/


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## TNP (Sep 26, 2009)

Thanks for the links! I check homes daily and I get daily updates from a realtor, letting me know what comes on the market as soon as it's listed, but it's really hard to buy a home without being there to see it. Some homes look great in pictures, but end up being in a bad neighborhood, or having major things wrong with them that you don't see in pics. But at least it lets me keep an eye on what's out there and how fast they're selling (good ones are getting contracts within hours of listing) and the rising prices. I had one that I was especially keeping my eye on, that would have been perfect for the goats, but it just got a contract a couple of days ago. I wish I could have moved a year or two ago, during the housing bust. There were so many great homes at about half the price that they are now. 

Sierra Vista is mostly out of my price range. I'm still watching it, but haven't found anything suitable in my price range lately. I was there a few years ago and loved it. I also visited Kingman and Golden Valley a few years ago, and have been watching Golden Valley for several years, to see what kind of growth would happen. When I was there, Golden Valley was nothing but mobile homes, but they have built some regular subdivisions since then. It was a junky looking area when I was there, but I hear it has improved a bit, although they have a bit of a meth problem out there.

My mom said she's going to come up to TN for a week to stay with my dog, so that I can fly to AZ and check out what's available and put a contract on a house. That will make this much easier. Been doing a lot of thinking the past couple of days, and I've decided that I'm only going to take the goats if I already have a home lined up. I'm not going to put them through all that stress of moving if I don't even know whether I'm going to be able to keep them when we get there if I can't find a suitable place to keep goats. In that case, they'd be better off staying in TN.


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## xymenah (Jul 1, 2011)

I understand we just bought a house a year and a half ago here. By the way unless your comfortable waiting three months to a year to find a house STAY AWAY from short sales. Even worse with the way the banks are working you may make an offer on one and they will come back with a higher price than the one listed. We were searching everywhere and where having a heck of a time because we needed a place for our goats too. We moved here and rented a place for our motor home and a field for our goats. I don't know where your looking but around here house prices are dropping allot since last year. Our house went down in value 79,000 this year. Another thing that seems might be a good option for you would be auctions. With as many newly built houses are just sitting there you can really get a steal on them.


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## TNP (Sep 26, 2009)

xymenah said:


> I understand we just bought a house a year and a half ago here. By the way unless your comfortable waiting three months to a year to find a house STAY AWAY from short sales. Even worse with the way the banks are working you may make an offer on one and they will come back with a higher price than the one listed. We were searching everywhere and where having a heck of a time because we needed a place for our goats too. We moved here and rented a place for our motor home and a field for our goats. I don't know where your looking but around here house prices are dropping allot since last year. Our house went down in value 79,000 this year. Another thing that seems might be a good option for you would be auctions. With as many newly built houses are just sitting there you can really get a steal on them.


Thanks so much for sharing your experiences. It's great to hear from someone who lives there and has experience with the same kind of things (like moving with goats LOL). That's odd that your house dropped in value so much. I'm finding the opposite is true for sales where I'm looking. In 2010 and even the beginning of 2011, there were oodles of homes listed at $50,000 and under. Mostly short sales and repos, but some regular sales too. Now I'm seeing those same homes, after being rehabbed by investors, selling for nearly double. When I was remodeling my house here to get it ready to sell, I had planned on buying one of those under $50,000 homes. Now the're almost impossible to find anymore. I've also seen prices on non-short sale homes rising. I regret that I wasted the past two years remodeling, since it burned down anyway so all that time and money I invested was for nothing. I should have just sold it as it was and made my move then, when there was still plenty to be found in my price range.

According to the realtor I've been getting daily updates from, short sales are getting multiple offers the day they're listed, and some offers are way above list price. There's a lot of competition, and an investor with cash usually wins out over a regular buyer with a loan, so most of us regular folks don't stand much of a chance of getting one. Almost everything on the mls searches that shows "active" is actually "active with contingency", meaning there's already an offer on it and they're only accepting backup offers while they're waiting on bank approval to sell at that price, which, like you mentioned, doesn't always happen. So when you do a home search, it looks like there's a huge inventory of homes when there really isn't. I really don't want to have to wait up to a year to get into a home either. Rent has increased a lot this past year, and I don't think I can afford to rent there for very long.


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## xymenah (Jul 1, 2011)

We were in nearly the same situation but moving from Mississippi and the only reason we had to get out of dodge was the people buying our house wanted us out and gone in less than thirty days. That's so weird about the prices you talking though. Maybe its just our area but I see a crapton of houses for under 100,000 some around 40,000 here. I'm talking one to five acres and three to four bedroom houses with no offers on them that I know of. Some of them have been siting on the market for a year. Are you looking in the town areas or out farther?


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## TNP (Sep 26, 2009)

I'm looking everywhere, but it needs to have at least one decent vet and emergency vet not too far, as I have an elderly dog who has health issues. What area are you finding the cheaper homes? I'm checking small towns as well as large, and rural areas too, but there's not much suitable coming up. For example, in Wittmann only 4 are coming up under $100,000 that aren't mobile homes. Out of those 4, one is mostly unfinished, one is way too tiny, one is old and the listing only has one picture so I can't see the inside and a house that old would cost a fortune to cool anyway, and one looks pretty nice but it's on a shared well, which I've been told to avoid as they can be problems if you're sharing with a bad neighbor. I found a house for sale real cheap recently because the neighbor withdrew the well water rights, so the house has no source of water now. I've heard all kinds of horror stories about shared wells. I'm not too thrilled with homes where you have to haul your own water either, which a lot of the rural homes are. I know, I'm probably being picky, but this will probably be the last move in my lifetime, so I want it to be a place where I'll be happy for the rest of my life and need a house that won't fall apart too soon. :greengrin:


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## LuvmyGoaties (Mar 9, 2010)

You said you might look in NV. Are you thinking about southern NV or northern (Reno area)? There are quite a few homes for under $100,000 in the Reno area. Check this listing - http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/15405-Frontier-Rd_Reno_NV_89508_M19518-42185

It's right near me, on 10 acres and it is in a Home Owners association. It is about 25 miles from town but we have 2 excellent large animal vets that are minutes away (both treat goats) and a good small animal vet that is only 30 minutes away.


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## TNP (Sep 26, 2009)

LuvmyGoaties said:


> Check this listing - http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/15405-Frontier-Rd_Reno_NV_89508_M19518-42185


Thanks for the link. I'm trying to stay away from mobile homes, but that one does look like a really nice one. But it's already gone "pending" so it's not available anymore.

Nevada is kind of a back-up plan if I can't find anything suitable in Arizona. I'll consider anywhere in Nevada that doesn't get a lot of snow. I'm also looking at parts of New Mexico and California, although California is almost impossible to find something decent in my price range.

I found another one in Arizona that would work for the goats that isn't a mobile home and isn't too old of a house. It's only 2 acres, but the goats live on an acre and a half right now, so it would work. It's only dirt with no vegetation though, so they'll have to get used to eating only hay and grain. Now I just gotta hope it's still available once I get out there to look at it in person.


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## phydough (Jun 3, 2011)

Years ago, my husband and I moved from southern Az to northern. If you've ever checked the prices in the parts of Az with ponderosa pine trees, they are pretty high. We wanted to get the most out of our money and find a place we could be at a long time, maybe forever. I never dreamed we would ever live in the ponderosa pines ever. We started taking rural back roads off the beaten path and found an old home on 5 acres, water 30 feet down, thickly treed with ponderosas right smack dab in the forest. We are up against 2 sides national forest and its beautiful. It a paradise to us. All we did was follow our hearts one day and it brought is here I'll never leave.

Yes, Golden Valley does have a part that is poo hole. And I agree with xymenah - stay away from short sales. I like Wittmann. I was a young police officer back in the day covering a large area that included Wittmann. I have good memories of my time there. Sierra Vista is where I worked my first meth lab explosion in a upper scale residential area. That was 15 years ago. It boggles the mind to picture what the unseen meth problem is now. That's not to say that Sierra vista is a bad place. Meth is everywhere like spiders and silverfish. Its even where I live. I live in the land of the rich but I slipped in under the cracks on a Golden Valley/Coolidge sort of budget.


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## TNP (Sep 26, 2009)

That's great that you found your paradise. That area is so pretty. I went through some of those back roads a few years ago. 

I like Wittmann too. My favorite town is Sedona, but it's far out of my price range.


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