# Old gal, too old?



## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

I picked up a Boer doe that was friends with the Nubian I wanted. They said the Boer is probably 10-11 (teeth look good, none missing, not excessively worn down). I'm about half-way home and the guy calls me and says it just dawned on him that the older Boer girl was exposed to a Saanen buck that wouldn't stay in back in November, and that she had kidded last summer as well.

Obviously, not much I can do about it now, she's in good weight, eats well, gets around well too - is she too old for babies? She was just a throw in since I bought her Nubian friend anyway, but I'm a bit concerned over her age, though she doesn't look or act old.

TIA


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

Ask him how if she kept her condition with the kids. I have a 12 year old that I retired because of her udder and honestly I would have kept breeding her if it wasn’t because of that. If you are seriously concerned or do not want kids would find out when she was exposed and talk to your vet about termination. If it was me though I would leave her be and be prepared to baby her and give extras once the kids come


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

It really isn't age as much as condition. Then the next thing is how well they can feed kids. Unless there is some obvious problem with her, I wouldn't be worried about her having kids.


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## goat girls (Dec 13, 2017)

Could you post a picture of her teeth?


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

goat girls said:


> Could you post a picture of her teeth?


I can do that tomorrow, kids have 4H meeting tonight and I have to leave soon.

If she has trouble feeding, it's not a biggie, I have dairy does due around the same time and can bottle feed.

This is her, I dewormed her already. She's a sweet ole gal.


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## goat girls (Dec 13, 2017)

Oh she looks very sweet!


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

She looks good.


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## Goat_Scout (Mar 23, 2017)

She looks to be in good condition. Pretty girl!


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

She looks perfect to me! And her kidding puts her at April so you won’t have to worry about both the cold and kids pulling her down (hopefully) I would go for it!


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

Best I can do for mouthing pics with just me and the "selfie" reverse camera on an iphone...her teeth aren't bad though.
Also noticed she has 4 teats, though only 2 look functional - kind of weird when you have dairy goats to see that but read its normal in Boers.
She was sort of a pity case to go with it. Her feet were pretty bad, she walked on her knees, and DH picked her up and carried her into the trailer - he said she's super heavy, lol. They're still not great, but a lot better than they were.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Here is a good sample of aging a goat.

She looks young to me about 3 or 4 by her teeth. They are not warn much.

http://www.infovets.com/books/smrm/C/C015.htm

You did a good job with trimming her.

She is lucky to have you.


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

Wow, you think she's that young? They told me she was ancient, I might need to go look at the Nubian better now, as her teeth looked good to me and she's supposed to be 8. They were well meaning older folks, the guy said he was afraid of doing those hooves and she'd been like that since they got her - which I'm guessing was 6+ months since he said she kidded there with a surprise baby. I literally got that Nubian for my kids to show since she's super gentle, even my 6 year old can lead her, and they want to get into showing. My other nubian does are handle-able but not for any of the kids except my teenager.

I can hack on some hooves. I struggled even with a set of GE Forge horse nippers, they were as hard as rocks. She's a bit tender, but I expected that with as much as I took off. At least she walks on her feet now. I learned a lot doing hers, that horse nippers are too big, a horse rasp is unwieldy, and sitting on the ground with a goat that is laying down is a PITA. The rest of mine I keep trimmed up regularly so I've never had to bust out the "big girl" tools for them, good learning experience.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Her teeth are not showing she is ancient.

Just trim a little bit of hoof at a time until you get her to where she needs to be. every 2 weeks or every month.

Thee hoof trimmers are good ones to get.
https://www.jefferspet.com/products...C8CLHuYwra103mgiZ1OnvkCPTjPvBJmsaAv0zEALw_wcB


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

Those are what I use on everyone else. I tried to start with those but they felt like they were going to break and weren't getting through it, even clamping with both hands. I chopped with the horse nippers until I got down to live hoof then followed up with the orange ones to get a better shape (and horse nippers are rough to handle 1 handed) and rasped it. I definitely need a trail rasp. I was surprised I didn't find any hoof rot in there, just a lot of curled dead hoof.
I kind of figured I'd leave her be after I hacked the big stuff then rasp them down once a week. Oddly enough, I didn't even get to pink on the front but figured they were upright enough if still a little long and I'd give it time for the blood vessels to recede. She was pretty patient with the whole thing. Better than my husbands horse by a long shot!

I'm not great at mouthing goats. A horse, sure I can get you pretty accurate, but they have better indicators with the galvaynes groove. Best I can say about a goat mouth is the wear and whether or not any are missing. I only assessed their teeth to make sure they could eat without sogging food up since they were supposed to be quite older. 

Thanks so much for the age correction, guess this not-so-old gal has plenty of life left!


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## Kath G. (Jul 13, 2017)

I've dealt with supernaturally hard, extremely overgrown hooves before. I believe part of it was the overgrowth; the other part, something nutritionally going on from their former care. Didn't look the exact same as what you've got going on, but on the same order. They did come around in time, and when they finally did grow out on my feed and minerals, they finally had normal hoof texture. And the goats didn't mind trims nearly so much. And neither did my hands, ouch that hurts!!! 

One more thing, if you can trim the day or day after it rains or thaws, so you're working with a soft hoof that's been exposed to moisture, that makes a difference, even though the core will still be the iron-forged-hard material. She'll get there! And she's lucky to have you, willing to trim away at her!


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

Funny you say that about the rain, we finally got some rain last night. We've gotten .02" since November.
She wasn't intentionally mistreated, her buddy's feet were in need of a trim but not seriously overgrown. I do believe the older gentleman that they got her feet like that, she didn't grow those monsters over night. I was a bit apprehensive on chopping on them too but figured that even if I quicked her, it'll be more comfortable than skis.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Yeah, rain helps. 

I have in the past used horse trimmers as you did on one of my bucks. Then finished with the orange trimmers. 
It seems once you make the first few snips, it get a bit easier after that with most cases. 

That doe has never been trimmed, so her hooves are petrified. LOL. No, not really, HeHe. 
She will have to learn how to re-walk on them. So she may seem awkward with the way she walks for a while.

With bad cases, I usually trim until I see pink, then stop and go out a month or a bit sooner and do it again, until I get the hooves to where they need to be.

Her teeth, I do see a slight wearing, but, she is not super old.


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

Yeah those feet were bad, the doe that came with her had long feet but nothing like this. I had to chop in sections with the hoof nippers, as they weren't large enough to get around the entire thing, and once it was down, use them on the sole too since the wall had wrapped completely under. These nippers are big 15" nippers too, so I was pretty surprised I couldn't get around them. Once that was gone they weren't very hard though. Ruby moves around great now, and her knees are sloughing. I'm debating putting some bag balm or something on them since they are super dry and flaking from being feet.

I haven't done anything with them again yet, the weather sucks and had it not been such a charity case I wouldn't have cut on them the day I did because I froze. It's supposed to warm up this upcoming weekend so I'll give another go at it and see if I can bring them down a bit more. I'm sure she'll be happy when I'm not harassing her feet all the time, but she has to feel better.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Yes, just keep at the hooves.

Putting something on the kness's may help.


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

Her feet are still taller than I'd like, but they are angled well now. Baby steps on the trimming, actually just trimmed her again last week. Her knees really sloughed off quite a bit and they also look better. 
Pics are just because I really love this one, she looks content.


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## Goat_Scout (Mar 23, 2017)

You’ve done a great job with her!


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## lottsagoats1 (Apr 12, 2014)

I love the big smile on her face! It looks like she is smiling at whatever the other doe was saying. That is a great picture, would be awesome on a calendar.


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## New-goat-mom (May 21, 2017)

She has such a sweet, pretty face!


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Good work.


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