Bridger's GORGEOUS full brother...$200 (Hornless LaMancha in Northern Utah)

[TOU]

So glad you got this little guy! I think Vincent VanGoat is a great name! I love his little white booties.

Amen! I am so glad you got him, that he is going to be a packer & that he stayed here in Utah. I may yet steal him from you at Rendy!

[michael]

Love his black color and white socks. I don't believe he will appreciate the name dragon, dragons traditionally eat goats and sheep, might make the other goats afraid of him.

[Charlie Horse]

Well, Vincent VanGoat is doing quite well. He's growing and now is eating a lot of alfalfa and grass along with his bottle feedings. He's fitting in with the herd perfectly, but due to shelter-shortage in the goat mansion I'm keeping him in the kennel at night. Spring is here and its good to be a goat. He's got a great personality and he'll be going camping before you know it.

One problem with him. His La Mancha ears were full of crud and one seemed infected. A week ago I bought an ear-cleaning syringe that sprays sideways in 3 streams with a rubber cap. I flushed an amazing amount of crud out of his ears, and it was a grody white crumbly stuff. He's much better now but I get a little white-watery liquid out of one ear still. Why? Because the dang ears are so wadded up that at least one of them doesn't really 'breathe'. La Mancha breeders, WTF were you thinking? I don't think this is working out for the goats. I'm reading that its kinda common with the breed and people just make light of it and deal with it. But sheesh. I'm going to squirt some hydrogen peroxide in there tomorrow, as per some people saying it works on the Goat Spot. Anyone got a good ear-infection cure? This might be chronic for a while unless he grows into those ears, and I'm not wanting to take it up with the local, not-so-great-with-goats vets if I can help it.

[Dave-Trinity-Farms]

He is sure a handsome boy alright. And I wouldnt over due the cleaning of his ears. He will produce that waxy oil his entire life. A Q tip dipped in a watered down iodine solution would be good. But it is in fact a very normal thing for the breed. Dont use hydrogen peroxide. If you wanna use something, use an iodine wash. Something along the lines of what they use for teat dip. Iodine isnt costic like peroxide is. Thats the stuff they use to eat the meat off of skulls when cleaning them. They are kinda prone to infections from time to time. So if there is one, the iodine wash to clean it and then just a few drops of penicillin directly into the ear a few times a day till its cleared up is great.

[michael]

Thanks Dave I learned something right there. He's a great looking boy that's for sure!!!

[Nanno]

Hmm... my friend always has at least 20 LaManchas and I've never noticed anything wrong with their ears. I should ask her about that issue. I wonder if some are more prone to problems than others?

He sure is pretty, by the way!!

[Dave-Trinity-Farms]

Ya Nanno. 99% of the time you wont even notice the crusty. But if you look in the ears of any lamancha, you will see it.

[Taffy]

Bourbon's ears are normally clean with minimal crusting. Banjo has a lot of discharge and even when I clean them I see some creamy white liquid ooze out. I wonder if he has an ear infection I never considered that before. I just assumed it was "him."

[Charlie Horse]

I'm second guessing the ear infection. I think that stuff is just a LaMancha thing. There's no bad smell. The liquid doesn't quite fit the profile. I think I'm going to switch to rinsing the ears twice a week and call it good.

[Charlie Horse]

Vincent VanGoat is growing nicely. I'll post a picture when I get my webserver back up (all of my hike pictures are down temporarily too). I really like him.

But...

The nuts have to go. He's 4 months old I think, and I like to wait till 5 months, but he's getting pretty "bucky" and too embarrassing to take out in public. I caught a whiff of goat stink on him the other day, and he's harrassing the other goats and I wont even tell you what happened when I bent down to unlatch the horse gate.

He may still be too sore for hiking when I take on Mt Timpanogos for the first time this year in a couple weeks. My gosh, the goats have grown-- I cant fit them all in the Suburban anymore and the girls may have to stay home to keep him company anyhow. Perhaps I can fold the middle seats down and figure out how to make more room.